SEP's

Today started a little slower, but it picked up for the afternoon and evening. I had a hard time getting moving this morning. Getting to bed really late and and starting days early for the last little bit have worn me out.

This afternoon I got to work at the School Book Fair for a couple of hours. I have done a lot around the school over the years, but the book fair isn't something I have ever done. It was fun to see the families come through the book fair and visit with the parents and children. What was worse was that I loved seeing all of the fun books that the book fair had. I have a MAJOR weakness for books! We probably have over 2000 books in our home.

After the book fair Rick and I went to visit with each of the children's teachers for SEP's (Parent Teacher Conferences). The good news is that all of our children are very smart and doing well in school. Our children tested really well with the different evaluations that they have had done and tests they have taken. I am glad that having so many books in our home has paid off.

The most exciting part was that Mrs. Abney had all of the students fill out a form on how they thought they were doing in school. Michael has struggled for years with self-esteem and being bullied / teased at school. On the form it asked how he felt about school and he marked happy, friends and other positive words. Grades matter to me, but what matters to me more is that my children feel happy, confident and positive about life. That was very exciting to me!

SEP's also motivate me to be a better mom and be more committed to helping my children do better with their homework and helping them at home. That seems to be where we slack in our home. We do things, but are definately not as committed as we should be. I remember my mom always trying to figure out the best way to help all of her children do their homework. I feel overwhelmed with 4, let alone 9 children in school. WOW!

In keeping with my mom's sanity with the topic of school I strive to find balance with each of my children. I know that education is VERY important, but I am a FIRM believer that there is balance with education and living life. We tie education into our daily lives and strive to make it fun. As we are driving on a vacation we will throw out multiplication facts, addition or subtraction facts or say the alphabet with words along the way that start with the different letters. I have had my children count to see how long it takes to get from point A to point B. We will be sitting on the couch relaxing and make up a fun story problem that pertains to what we are doing right then. Then I let my children challenge Rick and I with fun questions or problems that they make up.

It may not always tie into the specific things they are doing in class, but it is educating my children with basics that they will need in their lives.

We read books to each other. My children will read to Rick and I, we read to them and they read to each other. I will encourage my children to share with me things they have learned in school and have them teach me (I probably wouldn't do very well on "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" since that was so many years ago).

I ended up doing pretty well through Elementary, Junior High and High School and furthered my education in College and got good grades, but we still did MANY fun things in our family and education was more a part of our lives than just consuming our lives and always worrying about only grades.