The past couple of days have carried some unexpected surprises!
It was NO surprise that our friends came to visit on Thursday. We had a great time with our "waterpark party" in the backyard. Jones and Freddie - but particularly Freddie - did a great job letting their friends go first and, at lunch, pick the movie. I was really proud of how kindly they treated their guests. The Slip and Slide was a ROUSING success, which was also not a surprise.
I was surprised, however, at swimming lessons that afternoon. Jones jumped off the diving block in the deep end - without a jacket on - and was able to resurface on his own and swim to the side by himself - without help ... OR, and this is the best part of it all, complaining. This GIGANTIC leap forward was a SHOCKING development and one that made me so very proud.
The bigger surprise of the day came first thing that morning, though. When I went out front to get the hose pipe for the backyard, I saw three tiny little baby beaks peeking out of one of the two nest on the wreath Aunt Belva made me earlier this Spring. Since then, the boys and I have named them (Rocky, Pinwheel, and Charlie), claimed them, and watched them grow. If Pressley Prep were in session, this would make one HECK of a science class.
The easiest way to describe the whole spectacular situation is via InstaStory, which is quickly becoming my favorite medium for preserving the boys' histories.
I have a PhD and spent five years teaching college-level theatre classes.
Still, the thought of teaching my boys their numbers, shapes, and ABCs has me totally terrified. In fact, 95% of the people I've talked to about the necessity of preschool have told me not to even bother with it. That - plus the expense plus geographical limitations - is what convinced me to forego formal school for at least a few more years (and possibly longer).
But something in me still feels like their little minds are such sponges right now that I don't want to miss a window where they can soak up all kinds of learning, so ready or not; here we go.
Pressley Prep is officially in session.
Well, "officially" may be too strong a word. I've turned one wall of the playroom into what kinda looks like a classroom. There's a calendar and Christian and American flags (which the boys have marched all over the house carrying on more than one occasion). There is a bulletin board-shaped rectangle bordered by cartoon-y fish, Office Depot's royalty-free Nemo knock-off, and there's a table with three chairs around it where my boys and I will sit while I (attempt) to teach them the foundations of learning.
From where I sit, brain surgery may be an easier endeavor.
The boys have been super excited to see the playroom transition in to a classroom over the last week. Yesterday, they were so thrilled after I hung the flags in there (learning the pledges to both flags and the Bible is on my list of goals for the year) that I decided to let them try out their chairs and play around in some of the wipe clean books I bought off a friend's Usborne Book party. To see how quickly they took to it totally affirmed my intuition that the time to start is now - I've got to strike while the irons of their little minds are blazing hot with a burning desire to learn.
But still, I have NO idea what I'm doing. Or why I'm not leaving this to the experts with actual education degrees.
To help give me vision, Pressley Prep has a very simple two-part mission statement: "To Teach & to Train." The "to teach" part is ripped from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which says:
"Hear, o Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I combed you today shall be on your heart. You shall TEACH them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as fronts between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
"To train" comes from Proverbs 22:6:
"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Amazingly, Freddie immediately
knew how to hold his pen.
So while I definitely want to educate them in their ABCs and 123s, it's exponentially more important to me that they learn to love the Lord their God with all of their hearts and souls. While it's a priority to train them to be good citizens of this earthly realm, it is my primary goal that they be readied for their role as soldiers in God's army.
"To Teach & to Train," then, encapsulates both endeavors of Pressley Prep - raising earthly children to serve a Heavenly purpose (my beloved friend Brooke is working on an official logo, because, OF COURSE, I have to have monogrammed pullovers for whatever fields trips we may take. Also, the yearbook will need to look official).
So ready or not. Here we go.
Somehow, the stakes seem so much lower when I'm bluffing my way through a lecture on a particular part of theatre history about which I know so little. If I mess up when laying the groundwork for my boys' education, though, woe be unto me.
My goals for this year are simple - I want the boys to learn to recognize their numbers, letters, shapes, and colors. I also want them to learn the pledges of allegiance to the American and Christian flags and to the Bible. If we can accomplish this by this time next year, then I will consider Pressley Prep a success.
If not, Asheville Christian is already on speed dial.
1) Last week, I told the boys that Camden had gotten a job at Chick-fil-A. That was that. We didn't talk about it again.
Well, on Monday of this week, we pulled into an Asheville Chick-fil-A, and Freddie immediately said, "We see DooDoo!" I was astounded at his memory!
Though we didn't SEE DooDoo, we DID get to TALK to DooDoo, who'd just come in from his very first shift when I called to tell Sissy the story.
As he did the time before we went to this drive-through CFA, Jones requested that we park and sit at the picnic tables. No problem at all. When it was time to leave, Jones matter-of-factly said, "Mama, we can come back tomorrow," and I laughed, knowing we mostly would.
2) "Pressley Prep" is not yet in session. We really aren't doing anything formal for awhile, but I AM planning to at least TRY to teach the boys their letters and numbers (and to teach Freddie the colors / shapes that Jones already knows), so after leaving Chick-fil-A on Monday, we went to Office Depot to buy some school supplies and a few decorations to make the playroom look slightly like a classroom.
This morning, I asked the boys if they were excited to start "school" soon, and Freddie said, "We ride a school bus?" I TOLD you he loves those things. Jones responded, "We could use our OWN school bus - your caaaaaaaarrrrrrr!"
3) Finally, this morning, Jones very obviously had to potty, so I sent him to do it. I sat on the stool opposite him on the toilet, and he said, tauntingly, "I'm gonna SPRAAAAAAAAYYYYY you!" Then, after he'd gone, he started to take his aim my way. Luckily, there was no more water in the hose. But still, WHERE DID HE GET THAT IDEA?!?!
(This is another potty comment that I hate but that I know the boys will love, and so I write it down through decorous grimaces).
It was NO surprise that our friends came to visit on Thursday. We had a great time with our "waterpark party" in the backyard. Jones and Freddie - but particularly Freddie - did a great job letting their friends go first and, at lunch, pick the movie. I was really proud of how kindly they treated their guests. The Slip and Slide was a ROUSING success, which was also not a surprise. 
The bigger surprise of the day came first thing that morning, though. When I went out front to get the hose pipe for the backyard, I saw three tiny little baby beaks peeking out of one of the two nest on the wreath Aunt Belva made me earlier this Spring. Since then, the boys and I have named them (Rocky, Pinwheel, and Charlie), claimed them, and watched them grow. If Pressley Prep were in session, this would make one HECK of a science class. 
