Another Mystery

I was going to ask the other moms who stayed for the church service at All Praise Our Blessed Little Lambs Preschool what happened and whether Hummus actually spoke, but Miss Sherrilyn said they had both decided that the tuition was too high and had withdrawn their children.  That is too bad, but maybe they now have room for a little boy from the gym whose mom I like.  She lives right nearby and could probably drive Hummus back and forth to school for me too.  Like a carpool, except with her driving.

I was cleaning out Merlin’s pockets today and I found a letter to Santa.  Good news!  He doesn’t want anything real!

Honestly, his handwriting is atrocious. Hopefully his substitute teacher can do something about that!

Special Fun for the Little Ones

At All Praise Our Blessed Little Lambs Preschool they take their Christmas stuff very seriously.  They don’t do any of the fun stuff we do at home, with the trees and Santa and presents.  It is mostly long church services.  Today they told me that Hummus would be doing a reading and I should really come to watch him.  It is hard to believe since Hummus doesn’t speak and he certainly doesn’t read.  Also, the service was scheduled to last eight hours, and there is no way I have time for that nonsense.

He looked so cute in his lil’ tie.

Miss Sherrilyn said he needed to be dressed plain, whatever that means, and she put him in some kind of white robe when he got there.  Whatever.  The other children were dressed similarly, and a couple of the moms were staying so I guess I can ask them at drop-off tomorrow what it was all about.

For Crying Out Loud

I don’t know what is going on with schools nowadays.  All of a sudden they are so sensitive and picky about what the kids are wearing.  Starling’s outfit is too skimpy, Merlin can’t wear a swing top and today I got called in to Hummus’s sweet lil’ nursery school because his outfit was deemed inappropriate.

One of the reasons I send him to a wholesome Christian preschool is so he can celebrate Christian holidays at school. I see nothing wrong with this outfit.

Miss Sherrilyn said that they don’t celebrate the secular Christmas traditions and for some reason Santa is too “worldly” for their school.  She reminded me that Christmas is a Christian holiday, did I know that?  Of course I know that!  I get my children all spruced up and drag them to church every single Christmas and Easter, although I may just go on Christmas Eve this year so we can skip dinner with Röbert’s mother.  Anywho, I had grabbed some clothes from the lost and found at the gym so I could change him quickly and get back in time for Aerobic Boxing, I really didn’t have time to stick around for a lecture TYVM.

Speaking of Christmas, I can’t wait to see what Röbert has bought for me this year.  With Cari’s help I am sure it is something amazing!

I finally asked the ladies in the office at Starling’s school where Ty has been.  It seems that he is the teacher who is taking a leave of absence!  I wonder what is wrong.  I drove by his little house a few times and it looks like he hasn’t even been staying there.  Poor Ty.  Maybe I should stop by his parent’s home tomorrow and drop off some cookies or something so I can ask him a few questions.

A Thanksgiving Performance

Today was the last day of preschool before the holiday and they had a lil’ performance for us.  I am annoyed that the school isn’t open until Wednesday, like the big kids’ school, but the show was so cute, I almost forgive them.  I will have to be up early to make sure Hummus is the first one at childcare at the gym tomorrow!

Hummus’s part in the play was one off the savages.  He was wonderful in the part!

He looked adorable and the spear he carried was very sharp. The older boys made them and helped the younger ones to spear squirrels with them last week.  I love hands on learning even if the blood was a little upsetting to Hummus.

Each child colored their own program for their parents.  I think Hummus shows a lot of growth in coloring this year!

Some of the other moms were showing off with their perfectly colored programs, but if you have 11 kids odds are one of them will be a coloring prodigy. Honestly.

He looked like he was exhausted afterward, so I dropped him with the cleaning ladies I hired to spruce things up a bit before Thursday and ran off to do some pre-Black Friday browsing at the jewelry store.  i wonder what Cari and Röb found for me?  The cleaning crew seemed upset when I got home but it was hard to understand what they were going on about.  Honestly, Thanksgiving is such a lot of work!  I think I have a my grain.

My Academic Superstar

Hummus has just loved going to his school this year.  Sure, he screams like a banshee and clings to me when I drop him off every day and he seems to be hiding under a play structure from his teachers when I come to pick him up, but all children do that.  And, as Miss Sherrilynn says, children need a bit of switchin’ from time to time to beat the devil out of them.

There isn’t much time for play at his school as they all have chores to do, such as fetching well water for the compound, minding the babies, caring for the goats, etc.  I had no idea goats were so feisty.  Hummus comes home with goat bites all over his body several times a week.  But he just loves it there.

The boys all spend a lot of time with their academics while the little girls spend their time “keeping house”.  The tradition in this church is that the children only have a few years of schooling before the girls leave to get married and the boys start raising money for the church through “Godly work” whatever that means.  Hummus is doing really well.  He doesn’t speak yet, but you can see how hard he tries on his little worksheets.

He traced each number and colored in the mommy faces. Adorable!

Water Play

One of the things that Hummus likes best about his new school is the river that runs behind the playground.  He always asks to play in it, but of course  I never thought they would let him.  This afternoon when I arrived a couple of minutes early for pick-up, they had all of the children who don’t belong to their church playing in the water.  I wasn’t concerned because there were a lot of adults down there watching and supervising (and for some reason, praying)  Hummus was wearing some clothes that belong to the school (he must have run through all of the changes of clothing I left with him…this potty training is hard!) and was watching while the teachers appeared to be teaching the “worldly” children to swim. The children of the church members were up on the playground, also praying.

I am not sure about who is who at this particular church, because I have heard that the Reverend Wattle is married to Hummus’s teacher, but then I have heard his name mentioned as the husband of several women.  Maybe Miss Sherrilynn is just his daughter.  Anywho, he was down there and taking each child and shouting “I cast you out, Satan!  Satan, I cast you out!” and dunking the child in the water to learn to swim.  I was delighted, because Hummus won’t ever let his face get wet, even in the tub, but Reverend Wattle just dunked him right under.

My lil’ fundie!  He looked considerably less delighted after his swim lesson.

I wonder why they decided to teach them to swim on such a chilly day?  I would have asked, but I had to get Hummus over to the babysitter before book club.

Preschool is Essential

My lil’ Hummus is already learning so many interesting things in preschool.  Many of his classmates have two or three Mommies (in one case 12!) and just one Daddy, so it is a very diverse population. He is learning some interesting ideas about a coming apocalypse and just exactly who will be saved (no foreigners, buh-bye Renata!).  He has some new hymns that we have never heard before and he is starting to object to Starling and I eating before all the boys have finished their meals. He is like a sponge picking up all of these new ideas and explaining them to me in his adorable grunts and hand signals.  The problem we were having with him sleeping too much is also cured, because he is so terrified of the plague of locusts and the horsemen they talk about all day that he can’t sleep at all!

His teacher, Sherrilynn Wattle, has a book she wants me to read called “Why Wordly Things is Wrong”. Maybe I can suggest it for book club this month.

All of the other moms at the gym were so jealous when they heard that I had found an all-day preschool program for Hummus that they all want their little ones to enroll too.  Unfortunately the families in the church tend to have many children, so there were just a couple of spots left.  They now have a long waiting list and Hummus is suddenly in the most exclusive preschool in town!