The Life of a Teenager

Wow.  Who knew life was so hard as a teenager.  I tell ya.  Being thrown into the role of the mom of a teenager isn't a piece of cake either.  I don't know that it's a lot better when it comes on gradually or not, but it's not easy when it's just thrust upon you.  Okay, so I thrust it upon myself.  Still....

The new school year is almost upon us.  We actually started 2 weeks ago to work into things.  Ira wants to do homeschooling part time so I've got her signed up for 2 classes first thing in the morning.  General music and PE.  In an effort to have bedtime established by the time school starts, I started out waking them up at 9, and then increasing that 15 min/day.  It worked pretty well the first week.  I gave them 45 minutes to be ready for the day and in the family room to start with the devotional.  We've been doing quite well.  Little One picked up from where she left off before, and Ira I had start with Little One's Phonics K book.  She's got enough English down now that I thought that would work well, and it's been going great.  Since it's moving so slow, I've got her doing 8 lessons a day.  She's getting the vowel sounds mixed up a lot, but other than that, is doing great.  That's just due to Russian.  I have the opposite problem when I try Russian.  She wants to move through it faster, but I think the 8 lessons/day is plenty.  Especially now that she's got more vowels to mess up.  She's having a really hard time hearing the difference between a short "u" and a short "o."

She's doing great with math.  I've got her in a 5th grade book right now, but she's going through it quite fast.  There were some holes that needed filling so we're flying through the stuff she knows and working on the things she doesn't as much.  Part of it is learning the English words for things she already knows.  Like parallel and perpendicular. LOL  Other things are learning a whole new metric system.  Still other things are just things she's kinda missed along the way.  For a girl that hated math, she's admittedly really liking it now.  I hope she keeps that. :)

We've had a couple of not so fun days this last week.  Lots more of the, "I want Ukraine!"  See, everything between her and Little One has to be in her favor, or equal.  If Little One gets something that she doesn't then there are lots of tears and complaints about how things aren't fair or that I love Little One and not her, etc....  Yet, when she gets to go swimming for a YW activity and Little One is too little to go, there are no complaints. *sigh*  Life isn't fair and it only gets harder.

I had to really chew her out about a week ago.  She was being really nasty to Little One.  When she gets mad at me she takes it out on her and is really good about being quiet while she's doing it.  Not good enough though. :)  I'd hear her say something really mean to Little One and then come in to me with a sweet voice and pretend everything is fine.  Little One wants the relationship bad enough she doesn't come and tell me when Ira's being really mean to her.  Anyway, I pulled her aside and very firmly told her that was not acceptable.  Little One is my daughter and she is NOT to treat her that way.  SHE is also my daughter and Little One is not to treat her that way either.  She, of course, started crying and the whole, "reprove with sharpness when moved upon by the Spirit and then afterward show forth an increase of love" thing worked great.  I went and sat by her and we talked about how it's hard to have a little sibling.  My brother is 6 years younger than I am too so I know.  He didn't copy me (which is one of Ira's complaints) but it was still hard at times.  Now though, he is one of my best friends and I LOVE being around him.  We don't agree on a lot of things, but that's okay.  We both love each other, respect each other, and are VERY protective of each other.  We ended with her smiling and actually making an effort to be nicer for awhile.  She still slips into the other way at times, but I can tell she's making progress.

For example, our bedtime songs.  I've always sung to Little One at bedtime.  Always.  Now that they share a room Ira is always there for the song as well.  She's never wanted me to sing to her before, but in the last few weeks she's wanted her own song in addition to Little One's. :)  The other night I heard them in there singing to each other.  Upon farther inspection they took turns going over to the other's bed and rubbing her back while they sang, just like I do.  Super cute!  Unfortunately, that next morning was one of Ira's worst ones, but it was sweet while it lasted.  They did it again last night too though, so hopefully it will be more frequent.

Another nice thing was that Ira told Mom the other day that she wanted to be an American forever.  Again, it will probably only last until she's mad at me again, but it was nice, nonetheless.