Henry and school

One of the reasons we chose not to homeschool Liliana last year was because of Henry.

 

At the time, he was little, needy and loved to be held. Since he required the bulk of my attention, there wasn't much left of me to devote to carving out an education for his big sister.

Over the past year, though, Henry has grown into a sophisticated toddler, and can now self-entertain for longer stretches of time.

 

This new skill of his gives the rest of us time to plow through our morning lessons with fewer interruptions than, say a 9-month-old would present.

 

What this really means is that Henry is allowed to keep himself busy by almost any means necessary so that we can get our work done.

 

And my payment for all of his helpful self-entertainment? Cleaning up the carnage, which closely resembles the wreckage left behind by an onslaught of mini tornadoes.

 

The disasters result from a host of creative endeavors such as the following:

*Dumping out all of the Legos, then using Tinker-Toy sticks to whack the pieces around the room golfer style.

*Dumping the contents of the pencil-shavings box onto the carpet.

*Removing every last book from the shelves, then getting up and marching away.

*Uncapping all of the markers and covering an entire sheet of butcher paper and himself with pen marks

*Requiring that I open all 15 tiny tubs of playdough so he can take them one at a time to the coffee table and line them up.

*Having free reign over the snacks.

 

I like to tell myself that Henry is learning something from all of this mess-making -- that this is the work of toddlerhood. I'm not sure.

But really, this is how I cope with the string of messes: Henry is adorable. And if he shows me that just one time every day in the form of a head-cocked-to-one-side smile or a whispered: "Kank-cue, Mommy," I'm willing to deal with the monster clean-up job that goes with him.