Is it too early to teach him, "The dog ate my homework"?

It started in sixth grade. And lasted until . . . um, when I quit teaching the year before last.

I'm terrible about doing my homework. Even in subjects I like. Even when my homework was simply grading my students' work (though I had no problem getting the grading done while I was physically at school). Even if it'll take me only five minutes.

This should no longer be a problem for me, but karma has a sense of humor.

Lovebug and I have homework for his speech therapy.

I have to make him do weird things involving his tongue and Cheerios. I have try to close his jaw while he holds it open. I have to try to make him drink out of a big boy cup.

I knew, of course, that the day would come when my children would have homework. But checking their work or reading with them isn't the same as this. In fact, I think this might be worse than the pages of long division my mean old fourth grade teacher, Mrs.Limbacher, assigned us. Because Lovebug is a passionate child. A child who has definite ideas about what he does (and does not) like. A child whose speech problem comes mainly from his strong attachment to sippy cups (according to the speech therapist, sippy cups are VERY BAD for kids learning to talk. Oddly, they didn't affect Ironflower in the least, but whatever) and his lack of interest in articulating correctly. A child who doesn't really like his speech homework.

Hot Guy's argument is that he is only two, we can generally understand him and that all of this is kind of ridiculous. Nonetheless, he will probably be better about Lovebug's homework than I will. I understand his point and I know that all the speech therapists I used to work with would never recommend a two year old who's only a few months behind in articulation (and ahead in comprehension) for therapy. But, to use the classic saying, we're not in Kansas (City) anymore. Around here, lots of toddlers and preschoolers get speech therapy. And I bet THEIR mothers do the homework in a timely and conscientious fashion.

So excuse me, I'm going to go teach my son how to pick up Cheerios with his tongue.

"I-ah-wa Boo" Is Not Gibberish

Ironflower did a FANTASTIC job getting picked up from school this week. Today she even went to the place where they line the kids up BEFORE the teacher called them to line up. When she ran up and hugged me I was so happy. But I was almost as happy when she ran into the classroom this morning, calling "Bye Mommy and Lovebug!" and going to her place for circle time. The bottom line is that she is back to being her independent, sunny self.

I still think her teacher could be a lot friendlier.

Lovebug, is still struggling. He throws tantrums over everything that doesn't go his way. The kind of tantrums that make it sound like I am beating him with a bat or a golf club. The kind of tantrums that make people stare at us. I was starting to get concerned that there was something really wrong with him, when today I realized a few things. One is that he can talk. Not clearly, not well enough so I can understand most of it. But it's there. "Ks" means thanks and he is upset if no one says "you're welcome". "I-ah-wa" means I want. Two is that he knows at least three colors so it's no wonder he gets ticked off when I ask Ironflower what color she wants and not him. I always tell him to point and apparently he's offended. Three is that he needs a LONG hug before being strapped into his car seat.

Recording all the things that I missed in Lovebug makes me feel like a crap mother. But he's only 19 months old, surely he won't remember, as long as I manage to step it up now, right?