My So-Called Homeschool

We’ve really pared down Christmas — we’ve had to over the past couple of years — and I have been pretty adamant about -one- gift from Mom and Dad per child, and about insisting relatives please only get them one gift each as well. I might as well be talking to a wall when it comes to my mother- and father-in-law, they just love spoiling the kids! I came across this poem at Dy’s blog today, though, which justifies in my mind some of the little goodies that call out to me with my children’s voices:

Something they want

Something they need

Something to wear

Something to read

We’re getting the girls each a Gameboy Advance (purchased from a friend whose children have progressed to Nintendo DS’s). That was going to be their only gift. But now I’m going to think a little and discuss with Squid, what do they need? And something to wear — they have dressers full to exploding of hand-me-downs, but there is nothing like something picked out just for you. Something to read is so easy it’s hard — anything American Girls, anything Only Hearts Club, anything classic. Oh, boy, just keeping it down to one book apiece could take some willpower! As for the boy, we’re down to either a Lego Star Wars set or a Lego Batman set for his ‘want’. Again, I’ll have to pow-wow with Squid about the need one. I don’t know if we’ll do the ‘to wear’, he has 3 different hand-me-down donors at church whose mamas know how to shop the outlets! This boy is all about Gap, Hilfigger, Polo, Nautilus, and Oshkosh. Of course, he could care less — he just wants to be nakee! For his book, I’m going to try to find the Star Wars Ultimate Visual Guide from DK. Jasmine got it from the library a couple of weeks ago, and he hardly let her look at it! He has a crush on Pwincess Leia, and is quite impressed with Darth Bader and C-Fweepio. So there’s our simple gift-giving guide for this year. Now, to see if I can stick to it . . .