When we are at home I have a certain expectation for how my children will behave and how the day will proceed. A typical day rarely fails to meet my expectations, and there is a great deal of comfort in knowing that, especially for this homeschooling mom of 7. I’m not saying that unexpected things don’t happen. They do, ALL the time. It’s just that I know how the children will respond to whatever kind of something happens, and I have a game plan in place to handle whatever that something is. When we venture out into the great big world, I have a very different set of behavior expectations and ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what will happen. For example, I can expect that little Miss Lauren WILL become over-stimulated by noise and crowds. It is a just a given; but I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what that over-stimulation will look like outside of our home. It’s like the new environment requires new expression somehow. Things can go from good to ugly REALLY fast.
Knowing and accepting this to be true, I refuse to be intimidated and hole myself up in the house with the children all day, every day. So, when my friend Michelle says to me, “Are you going to the capitol on Tuesday?”, I thought to myself, “Homeschool Day at the Capitol! That sounds fun!” Yes, we would have to be up and dressed, all 8 of us, by 6:30 in order to get in the car on time. Sure, it would require a 2 hour drive to Atlanta during rush hour traffic. Forget that my big van isn’t going to fit in any of the parking decks downtown and it’s almost certain that Blake is going to have every reason to post publicly on my Facebook wall “I told you so”. We’re the family-on-the-go, not scared of anything. “Sure we’ll go, Michelle!”
Homeschool Day at the Capitol was pretty exciting, if I say so myself. (Check Blake’s Facebook status for the counter-perspective.) We had our picture made with Governor Deal and a bazillion other homeschooled children from Georgia. We located our legislators’ offices and introduced ourselves. (By the way, I’m quite certain that George Hooks will NEVER forget my children since he welcomed them into his office. Hopefully no crime will ever happen there since my kiddos fingerprints are EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING.) We walked through the natural history exhibits and oo-ed and aw-ed at all that was there. I was even able to give a free demonstration of the extremely useful skills I learned during CPI training to a good portion of the Georgia Capitol cafeteria. It was no big deal really when Lauren came unglued during lunch; being certified in Crisis Prevention/Intervention, I am always looking for opportunities to share my expertise with others. And even though my kids jumped into line and treated themselves to some ice cream at the Ice Cream Social set up by Publix lobbyists for the legislators, I was cool, calm and collected…right up to the point where Riley lost his pants!
GHEA had arranged for the children to have a Q&A session with Senators Loudermilk and Skelter in one of the senate committee rooms on the 3rd floor. Riley wasn’t in the mood for that political mumbo jumbo so I sat right outside the door with him, while the other children attended the Q&A. It was perfect really; the senate committee room had a glass window on the door so I could try to read the senators’ lips while keeping an eye on the other children. Riley was sleepy, so I let him roll around on the floor at my feet. I wasn’t really watching him, but I could see him out of my peripheral, and I could feel him, of course, banging into my legs constantly. All was going well until I took my eyes off the committee room and looked down at Riley, who no longer had on ANY PANTS! They weren’t just off. They were gone; nowhere to be seen. Right about that time a lobbyist comes trotting down the stairs from the 4th floor. He saw the look on my face and the bare-bottomed Riley and said, “I just saw some pants fly over the balcony a minute ago.” You have GOT to be kidding me! I ran over to the balcony and sure enough, there they were, smack dab in the middle of the rotunda floor, 3 stories below. I certainly didn’t expect that. Riley’s defense: A cold, marble floor feels so, so good to a hot little boy!
Knowing and accepting this to be true, I refuse to be intimidated and hole myself up in the house with the children all day, every day. So, when my friend Michelle says to me, “Are you going to the capitol on Tuesday?”, I thought to myself, “Homeschool Day at the Capitol! That sounds fun!” Yes, we would have to be up and dressed, all 8 of us, by 6:30 in order to get in the car on time. Sure, it would require a 2 hour drive to Atlanta during rush hour traffic. Forget that my big van isn’t going to fit in any of the parking decks downtown and it’s almost certain that Blake is going to have every reason to post publicly on my Facebook wall “I told you so”. We’re the family-on-the-go, not scared of anything. “Sure we’ll go, Michelle!”
Homeschool Day at the Capitol was pretty exciting, if I say so myself. (Check Blake’s Facebook status for the counter-perspective.) We had our picture made with Governor Deal and a bazillion other homeschooled children from Georgia. We located our legislators’ offices and introduced ourselves. (By the way, I’m quite certain that George Hooks will NEVER forget my children since he welcomed them into his office. Hopefully no crime will ever happen there since my kiddos fingerprints are EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING.) We walked through the natural history exhibits and oo-ed and aw-ed at all that was there. I was even able to give a free demonstration of the extremely useful skills I learned during CPI training to a good portion of the Georgia Capitol cafeteria. It was no big deal really when Lauren came unglued during lunch; being certified in Crisis Prevention/Intervention, I am always looking for opportunities to share my expertise with others. And even though my kids jumped into line and treated themselves to some ice cream at the Ice Cream Social set up by Publix lobbyists for the legislators, I was cool, calm and collected…right up to the point where Riley lost his pants!
GHEA had arranged for the children to have a Q&A session with Senators Loudermilk and Skelter in one of the senate committee rooms on the 3rd floor. Riley wasn’t in the mood for that political mumbo jumbo so I sat right outside the door with him, while the other children attended the Q&A. It was perfect really; the senate committee room had a glass window on the door so I could try to read the senators’ lips while keeping an eye on the other children. Riley was sleepy, so I let him roll around on the floor at my feet. I wasn’t really watching him, but I could see him out of my peripheral, and I could feel him, of course, banging into my legs constantly. All was going well until I took my eyes off the committee room and looked down at Riley, who no longer had on ANY PANTS! They weren’t just off. They were gone; nowhere to be seen. Right about that time a lobbyist comes trotting down the stairs from the 4th floor. He saw the look on my face and the bare-bottomed Riley and said, “I just saw some pants fly over the balcony a minute ago.” You have GOT to be kidding me! I ran over to the balcony and sure enough, there they were, smack dab in the middle of the rotunda floor, 3 stories below. I certainly didn’t expect that. Riley’s defense: A cold, marble floor feels so, so good to a hot little boy!
While I was able to wrestle the little guy back into his cute little corduroy slacks, I was unable to convince him that it is politically incorrect to walk around the state capitol barefooted. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to just let it go. Besides, I think it is far less offensive to ditch your cowboy/rain boot combo than to lose your pants, anyway. All in all we had a great day. Even the barefooted (and bare-bottomed) youth of Talbot County have a voice at the Georgia Capitol, and for that I am truly thankful.
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