A break through

This morning I packed the kids up and headed for my MOMS Club monthly meeting. Being the only homeschooler in the group is sometimes tricky. Obviously the kids who are there are much younger than Kiddo. But it is still social time for Kutey, and for me. And this morning they had a professional organizer come to speak. I am not so very organized, so I wanted to go and listen. But what to do with Kiddo...

I have been thinking about this for a few days. Sometimes I have another homeschooling friend who will watch the kids while I go to an event. But she has been VERY stressed lately and I did not want to add to her burden. Hubby couldn't stay home for the morning. What to do?

Then an amazing thing happened. Kiddo started reading. To himself. BY himself. Don't get me wrong. He is a good reader, he just has had very little interest in reading to himself. Or by himself. He wants me there to help, he wants to read to me. I love that, but it also means he doesn't read as much as he could. But we came home from the library on Tuesday, he had a new book, he was tired, and he just sat down and read. He finished the book that night. Yesterday he picked up another one.

I had my solution. I brought Kiddo, and his books. I also printed off some "Kidoku" from KrazyDad (LOVE his site!), which Kiddo enjoys. I had a few KenKen left from my last KenKen classroom email for him to do, and I printed a few worksheets from Math Fact Cafe.

He sat quietly in the back of the room...so quietly in fact that some of the moms didn't know he was there. He finished his book, started the next, and worked through 8 kidoku. He was happy, I was happy, Kutey was happy. It was only 45 minutes, but it was a good 45 minutes.

Did I learn anything new from the speaker? Nothing new. I had heard most of what she said before. Just a restating of what I already know. It will take a mental shift for me to be able to get through my clutter, just telling me how to organize things doesn't really help. I am glad I went. The presenter is a homeschooler in my area and I have been curious about her business for a while. I won't be hiring her anytime soon, but it was nice to get to hear her speak.

But even better? I know now that I can go to these things, that Kiddo will be content with his books and puzzles while we are there. And that is a gift.