Making Plans (and homeschooling)

I wasn't even out of bed yet. It's easy to be depressed waking up alone on New Year's Day, for the 6th year in a row. But J. had a plan about how to enjoy my rudimentary schedule of get dressed / go feed friends' cats / go to the cat shelter for an hour to feed THEM / then get Pop-eye's and go home. He remembered there's a Wendy's by the shelter.

So he brought this page to me -- off his SchoolWork area in the kitchen. He drew a french fry (the square thingy) and beside it, the number 12. He explained that means we should buy 12 french fries. Beside it is a chicken nugget and he drew a number 4, saying we should buy 4 nuggets. Then he made a line between the nugget and the 4. "I'm making my fraction.

He asked if I knew how to get to Wendy's and I said yes. Then he said the cow was our house and Wendy's was at the bottom, and he drew the "map" to show me. Just in case.

Words can't share how happy this makes me. He's catching up academically, and in the best way possible -- through meaningful experiences and then repeted opportunities to practice those skills.

It's enough to make a mama actually smile and get out of bed. Ready to stare a New Year dead in the eye, and say, "Bring it on!"