The Back-to-School-and-Soccer Blur

It happens every year--the back-to-school blur of scheduling.  It's like putting a puzzle together.  How can I fit all the pieces together?  And my other driver just left for college!  What if Papa Rooster is traveling with his job?

At least B16 is taking his road test in about 4 weeks.  That introduces a whole new set of variables--and costs!  (Car insurance on a teenage male?  Astronomical!!)  But at least we'll have more options for fitting it all together.

I guess scheduling is on my mind because I just got a new planner.  Here's my life.

Mondays:

B16 and 12 have one virtual classroom session each.  I will plan to go to yoga this morning.

We need to have everything ready to leave for B12's and C9's piano lessons, then B12's soccer practice--the minute B6 and C9 get off the bus.  I may end up having to pick them up at school on Mondays, and B12 will probably be late to soccer every week.  But it was the one, best chance at squeezing in piano lessons!  Don't know what C9 and I will do after we drop off B12; we'll either return home for an hour, or do errands until we pick him up.

Tuesdays:

Guitar lesson first thing.  Three virtual lectures for the boys.  Late afternoon, I teach my Drama 1 class; then, for the next three weeks, Papa Rooster, B16 and I are going to choir practice!  We were invited to join a choral arts group for one performance of this incredible gospel mass.

Meanwhile C9 has soccer practice.  If the other soccer family can't bring her home, she'll have to miss it.  At least her team has two scheduled practices a week.

Meanwhile, B16 also has soccer practice.  If Papa Rooster is out of town, I don't know how we'll get him either to practice or to choir rehearsal.  But PR probably will avoid scheduling travel on Tuesdays.  He won't want to miss a rehearsal--that first tenor part is challenging!--and it's a lot of music left to learn in just three more weeks.

Wednesdays:

Three virtual sessions for the Bantams, and then B16's voice lesson mid-afternoon.  Then two soccer practices, staggered, fortunately, so I can drop off one, then the other, pick up one, then the other.  I'll save my errands to kill time in between.

(Still thinking about adding AWANA to this night--it's such a great program--maybe after soccer is over, if we can still join late.)

Thursdays:

Three more online sessions, two more soccer practices.  One is for B16, who is helping a friend coach her son's team, so she provides his ride both ways.  Phew!  I will drive the carpool both ways to C9's practice, in return for them driving her on Tuesdays.  Maybe Papa R and I can do Date Night during her practice?  We'll have an hour and a half, if he's in town.

Fridays:

Nothing!!  How did that happen?  This will be the one weeknight, until soccer is over, that we could actually all sit down together for dinner AT dinnertime.  Better make meal prep a priority on Fridays.

And it looks like time to pull out the crockpot and soup recipes for the other nights; all those soccer practices are between 5 and 7:30.  With C9 and B6's bus arriving after 4 and their bedtime at 8:00, it's going to be tough to get in homework and piano practice, let alone dinner.  I am grateful for B20, who is always home, so at least he can supervise if I'm not there.  That's one silver lining of him not having a job yet.

Weekends:

Looks like we have four soccer games every Saturday for the next six weeks, with a few scattered games on Sunday afternoons as well.  The Saturday games begin as early as 9 and will usually end at 4:30.  So it's the whole day.

I confess I don't plan on watching every game!  Papa R and I will have to divide and conquer anyway, because sometimes we'll have kids playing at the same time.

And once the weather turns colder, I am a wimp.  I far prefer having theater rehearsals on Saturday mornings, when I can drop the kids off and go enjoy my quiet morning at Panera--indoors, with a hot cup of coffee, and no guilt about missing anything.  When it's performance time, I can be right in there with the kids, being creative with my makeup responsibilities and watching my kids perform...in the comfort of a cozy, cushy theater!  Even if I commit to helping out during rehearsals, I'm with friends.  It's hard to make friends with other parents on the soccer team when we are all trying not to miss our child's one goal or great assist.  Too often I've missed those moments because I've been chatting...and then I ask myself why I've been shivering out here in a lawn chair for the last hour!  So now I'm a quiet soccer mom, except to yell encouragement at the kids whose names I know, but the time does go slower then.

Papa R took lots of great soccer photos last weekend.  I should post some soon.

I should also take a shower.  While I have the chance!

Chores, Allowances, Cooperation, Motivation

I said there was more to tell about the younger set....

So we've instituted a new chore system here at the Henhouse.

We've gone through so many evolutions of chore charts, sticker charts, points, and monetary incentives in the past thirteen years that I've been homeschooling.  They've all worked great for awhile, and then inevitably, they become cumbersome, or life gets too busy, or the kids realize that it's still the same old chores (and I'm sure this one will be no different).  We've also gone through long periods of time in "git 'er done" mode, where we just gave out jobs to be done--or else.  That's where we've been since we moved.

But I sensed that it was time to start incentivizing and rewarding the younger three, now that they are all old enough to really be helpful.  And I kept thinking about a good system we had used with the older three when they were all in elementary school.  In fact, it's something I bought (and you can too, if you wish, right here).

It's a pegboard with little plastic circles that you hang on the pegs, and it's a great system.  I recommend the instructional materials that come with it, as a way to think about building character as well as responsibility.  But it can be a little complicated to keep up with the whole system, and in this house, I didn't have a good place to mount the pegboard.  (Mine is the jumbo size.)

So I'm just using the plastic circles, and a hanging shoebag.  (Not really like the one pictured, but ours has our kids' names all over it, so I didn't want to post a picture of it.)  My shoe bag is navy fabric, with mesh for the pockets, and it's much smaller than this--maybe it's for kids' shoes.  Or maybe because I got it at the dollar store--Dollar General, perhaps?  Anyway, it's longer and narrower, with 4 rows of two pockets, and it fits on a narrow wall by the kitchen pantry that faces the bathroom.  Out of sight, basically, but conveniently located for the whole family.

Their chores are written on cards.  When they do a chore, they move the card from the To Do pocket, to the Done pocket, and they put a green circle in in the Done pocket.  Each morning, they move the cards back to the To Do pocket (but if they forget, it's no big deal, because they remember when they go to put in their green circle after a chore is done).  When they get ten green circles in their Done pocket, they get a dollar.  They can earn extra green circles if they do an extra job that Mom thinks of, or if they do someone else's job, so I've found them very willing to pitch in when needed (vs. saying "That's not my job!").

There are bonus green circles they can earn, too, like "Finished my school before lunch."  (Sadly, I've paid out only once so far!)  They can also lose a green circle for disobedience, complaining, fighting, etc. This has been nice for me to have a non-emotional, objective consequence to give them.  And they can earn bonus yellow circles for good choices.  These aren't for money, but they praise good choices like, "Obeying quickly,"  "Didn't argue or complain," "Cheerful heart," "Good listening" and "Great attitude." They have colorful stickers on them and it reminds me to reward the attitude as well as compliance.

It's been working so well that we added the two teens that are still home.  We didn't have enough pockets, but with them, their cards are in a pocket, and if they complete the chore, it gets attached to the front of the pocket with a colored paperclip.  When all ten of their cards are under the paperclip--with the idea that these are spread over a week, as they have to help with dishes and meals multiple times--they get ten dollars. 

That's on top of what we normally fork out for lunch money and occasional spending money.  We've never really given a flat allowance.  We pay for things that come up, and we've paid for jobs that require lots of time, like lawn mowing and snow clearing.  We've occasionally had monetary incentives for chores, but we've had difficulties with nitpicking about how much a job was worth, or whether they should get paid for doing only some of their chores.

This system eliminates the timing element that sometimes became awkward, like what to do when we are gone all day?  Or the all-or-nothing approach I tried once, where they only got paid for the day if ALL their daily chores were done.  With this new plan, they earn more or less depending on how hard they work, and it rewards those who remember their responsibilities and do them.  The burden's on them, not me.  And they end up reminding each other.

I'm wondering why I've spent so much time on this post.  I guess I'm hopeful that it will inspire somebody else!  Teaching kids responsibility and helpfulness can be one of the most tedious parts of parenting, but it is so important. 

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  

Galatians 6:9 

Suddenly, Things Have Been Very Busy!

Last Friday night, the kids and I went back to see a musical at Wheaton Academy that so many friends and acquaintances where in. It was Into The Woods, and they did a wonderful job! It had been 15 years or so since I'd last seen the show, and it was amazing how differently it hit me at this stage of life. I never really "got" the darker Act Two, last time, but as a parent now launching teenagers, it was most poignant! I realized how much the show is about the pain of growing up, even at my age.

Then on Saturday, I met with a family who is considering homeschooling...went to the grocery and made food for guests on Sunday while the kids cleaned up the kids...enjoyed our guests for a relaxing Sunday afternoon...then Papa Rooster and I had a great visit with our friend who had surgery, and her husband, on Sunday night.

On Monday, the older kids had a day off of school, so I took Blondechick16 to our two favorite resale shops to freshen up her wardrobe...then back home to drop her off and pick up boys for dental check-ups...then driver education classes and piano lessons.

And now it's Tuesday and we're headed back to the dentist, since Bantam13 needs sealants, preferably before he gets braces put on next week. As long as I had to go, I asked for appointments for the three youngest as well--and then everybody's 6 month cleanings will be done except for Blondechick's. (One of the only things that really bugs me about having a large family is getting everybody in to the dentist! Not counting Papa Rooster, that's 14 appointments a year to schedule and sit through!)

Then this afternoon, a new session of theater classes begins. This time just the two middle boys are taking them. B13 is going to try out a film-making class, a new offering by the California director who's here to direct this session's production, The Wizard of Oz. (Auditions Friday!) And B10 didn't blink when I asked him what class he wanted to be in--he wants to take a dance class again, and this time he wants his OWN tap shoes!

(Remember the kid who couldn't stop doing somersaults? Same one! As his dance teacher said, "Some kids just want to stand there, but he really likes to move!")

There have been so many good readings in the Daily Office, but time is short, so I will excerpt one that needs little comment. This should be a warning to our own nation, as it was to Israel! But during Lent, especially, we need to search our hearts as individuals for ways that we fall into this thinking, maybe not about wealth, but about accomplishment:

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." ...If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed...for not obeying the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:11-20)

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

A few years ago, a friend gave me this book for my birthday. "This is one of those encouraging books that just help keep you going," she said.

And she was right. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less is truly a prize. So good, I just re-read it recently (by listening to my library's audio book, read by the author).

It is the true story, set in the 1950's and 60's, of a plucky, positive lady who, despite the obstacles of a large family and a husband who drinks up his salary, provides for her family in a most unusual way--by "contesting," or writing jingles, slogans and poems to advertise products, like the famous Burma Shave signs. This woman had a way with words (as well as twelve family members' names to use on different entries, increasing her odds). But it's still hard to believe, as the story unfolds, how many appliances, miscellany, cars and cash she won, sometimes at such opportune times that it seems likely that her Catholic faith was another factor in her favor.

It's also the story of a difficult marriage, in an era when women and children had few options, even when they were in danger of bodily harm. Despite her husband's unpredictable moods and paychecks, they have a cordial marriage and somehow manage to raise ten children in an intact family--no small feat even in ideal conditions--and most of those children go on to lasting marriages and impressive careers. This testimony renews one's faith in marriage--even imperfect marriage--and by comparison, most of us will realize we have little to complain about!

And that's the encouraging thing about this story. You can't help but feel, "If that woman could do what she did, then surely I can manage the small challenges in my marriage, in my budget, in my children, and in my house. How can I muster up that same kind of creativity, hope and positive thinking in my situation?"

As a Christian, I can't help but think that God helped this faithful woman to raise and provide for the children He gave her, even when their earthly father did not. The author only implies, at the very end, that God had anything to do with it--but that ending is well worth reading all the way to the end for, when the enormity of their mother's sacrifice becomes known to her children.

All in all--an unmistakable winner.

***

For other book reviews, visit Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books.


I noticed that there are plenty of used copies available through Amazon, some for as little as a penny plus shipping and handling. (Please consider entering through the portal in my sidebar.)


Also, has anyone seen the movie? I just discovered there was one made in 2005. Is it good?

Self-Taught

The other day Chicklet5 came in from outside and said to me, "Mom, you should come see me practicing riding my bike."

We keep not getting around to putting training wheels on one of the small bikes, so I figured her "practicing" involved a lot of "pretending."

"Sure, in just a little bit," I said, pondering yet another boxful of Stuff I'm Not Sure What To Do With.

A little later, she came in again. "Mom, you should come see me! I'm getting really good!"

My mommy radar informed me that this was a drop-everything, go-outside moment.


And there she went, riding that bike around the driveway, nice as you please!!! (Click to enlarge and enjoy the priceless expression on her face.)


She even remained steady with other drivers on the road.


Having gone through the tricycle stage already, the scooter is Bantam3's new vehicle of choice. He prefers to propel it with bare feet. (And boxer briefs look like shorts, don't they?)


To give credit where it's due, Chicklet says Bantam9 showed her how, and then she just practiced.

Ah, the blessing of older siblings!

A Day in Chicago

While I was on my blogging break during Advent, a momentous event occurred that I must post about, even belatedly: I took all six kids into Chicago, for a whole day!

I haven’t done that since I was pregnant with Bantam2. (Why I did it then is a story unto itself.) And incredibly, I didn’t pay one dime for parking all day! Three times I found on-the-street parking, and the one spot that had a meter wouldn’t take my quarter. Someone had inked “Broken” across the glass with a Sharpie marker, and 2 Chicago cops on bicycles told me it was my lucky day. (Not that plainly, of course.)

In fact, we hardly paid for anything all day. That was the reason for the trip, you see. Last summer, we all participated in the library’s reading program and received passes to a number of museums and attractions around Chicagoland. But--they all expired on 12/31/07.

So with that deadline looming, off we headed, bright and early one December morning, for the big city. We started out at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the nation’s greatest museums. Since we’ve been studying the ancient history of these cultures, we started with the Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman galleries. The only other thing on my agenda, since we had other places to go, was to take them upstairs to the Impressionists galleries--past Monet, Manet, Degas, and Renoir--to see Sunday on La Grande Jatte, which no reproduction can capture. It is bigger than you'd think, and in real life, it is the opposite of static; it almost shimmers and moves as you change position.

Then Bantam12 surprised me with an agenda of his own—he wanted to see the painting Nighthawks. Unfortunately, it’s on loan to another museum until February, we found out, so have a reason to go back soon!

We walked then to the Panera on State and Congress for lunch—because we had coupons, also courtesy of the reading program, to use there. Then back to the car to drive to Lincoln Park, where there was plenty of street parking outside the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, home of one of my favorite places in Chicago—the Butterfly Haven. It’s a tropical climate greenhouse with exotic butterflies everywhere! If you stand still long enough, sometimes they even land on you. On a cold winter day, it’s a perfect mini-vacation to somewhere warm and lush and green….

The rest of the museum is only so-so, but this time they had a special exhibit of reptiles that was amazing. Mostly there were snakes, including the hugest one I’ve ever seen, but what really captured our attention was a big, brightly-colored lizard whose eyeballs worked independently. One was staring out at me, then Blondechick15, then back at me, while one swept slowly across the ceiling of the cage. It was weird.

Then it was out of the tropics, into the December cold, across the street to the Lincoln Park Zoo—one of the last free zoos anywhere. We were glad we had all put on tights or long underwear under our jeans. It was so chilly, not even the polar bears were out—the one animal we thought we could count on seeing!

We had an exciting moment in the monkey house, however. As we approached the glass front of the cage of a couple of drills, the male rushed to the front of the cage and bared his teeth at Bantam12! It was as if he had singled him out to challenge. Bantam12 took a step backwards, surprised, and the drill haughtily turned around and mooned him—standing there a long while, with his iridescent bottom just inches from the glass, while we tried hard not to further offend him with our laughter. (And if you didn't click on that link, do so and you'll see the exact fellow--the male from the Lincoln Park Zoo--in Wikipedia!)

We made it back to the car before frostbite set in, and then Bantam2 and Chicklet5 got a little nap while I tried to find my way from Lincoln Park to the John Hancock building. I mean, the John Hancock is the second tallest building in Chicago, and I’ve approached it dozens of times from the south…but I sorely lamented forgetting the GPS device Papa Rooster had laid out for me before we finally arrived there at last. Then the serious prayer for a parking space began--and was favorably answered, just two blocks away! Saving the $20 that a parking garage would have cost was the miracle of the day.

On the walk over, there was a 50’s style diner called Johnny Rocket's, where we spent the big bucks on dinner for seven. Then it was on to the John Hancock Observatory, where we had free passes for the younger crowd and a $5 each coupon for me and the two teens (we'd otherwise have been twice that). It was impressive, after dark, with the lights of the city a twinkling panorama on three sides, and the lake a misty blackness to the east. Looking straight down, we saw the street we were parked on, and Johnny Rocket's, and the old Water Tower, the city’s one landmark to survive the Great Chicago Fire. We spent a half an hour or more just enjoying the view, while the two youngest played delightedly with the telescope thingys.

Then we ducked into Water Tower Place, a glitzy mall, to ride the escalator to the top and back down again, dipping our fingers in the water jet fountains on the way. Outside, we stopped to listen to a Salvation Army brass band, and on the way back to the car, we stopped again to pat a friendly carriage horse pulled up by the sidewalk, his harness and mane bedecked with Christmas decorations.

It was a good day to be in Chicago. A little cold, yes, but what a great city! And it’ll still be there, just as available to us when we move to Wisconsin. It might even be closer. It’s nice to know that that skyline will be a constant, on our landscape of change.

Family Education Update

Yesterday was Bantam8's first day in public school, third grade. (Our reasons for making this move are here, if you missed them.) And it was a good day! His first concern, of course, was making friends, and lo and behold, half his old soccer team must be in his class, and they all remembered him. The boy he was seated next to was very friendly and helpful, and reported to him at the end of the day that all the girls were in love with him. Ah, the joys of public school!

I was very happy with his teacher, who was young and wholesomely cute (she just got engaged over Christmas, she told the class) and did not have the superior teacher air that I've encountered before on my kids' first day, an attitude that says, "Oh, what a good thing that you're putting them in school where we can properly educate them." (Even the office staff exude this "welcoming" attitude, which amuses me more than it annoys.) And she called me last night to tell me about his day and ask how he felt about it. She said there were a lot of new routines for him to acclimate to, that the other kids already know, and she thought he might be feeling overwhelmed. I told her he'd enjoyed it, and I was sure he'd catch on very quickly.

He did better on his spelling pretest than most of the class, which pleased him, and in computer, he started learning to type, which fills him with pride and puts the pressure on Bantam12, who can't seem to find the time to practice keyboarding. His favorite parts of the day? Lunch, gym and recess. Spelling, he said, when pushed to choose an academic subject. He'll be tested by the reading specialist today, and I am eager to hear the results. He's a very good reader.

As for the rest of us...

All last fall, I meant to do a post on how our homeschooling year was going, but then it kept changing! We started out with a bang, though.

One thing that worked well initially was starting our day—after breakfast and chores—with Bible and prayer, poetry, mental math and yoga (a simple stretching routine). All four of the school kids participated in this morning lineup, with the littler ones drifting in and out.This time together was a good way to “reassimilate” Bantam16, who had been in school for the past five years, and they all thought doing yoga was very cool. (It didn't hurt that in one scene in High School Musical 2, one of the main characters does yoga with his mom. I felt so hip.)

Then Bantam16 would leave to go read his American history and literature, first putting on a video for the two youngest, so that I could get through the History and Read-Aloud chapters to the other three without interruption. (In the event of a move, Blondechick15 would take over the reading aloud, I planned.)

(For those who like the details: I have my 6^th grader and 9^th grader using Sonlight’s Core 6 Alternate One-Year World History, with the advanced 3^rd grader listening in on the History and Read-Alouds and reading some of the easier Readers. My 9^th grader did Core 100 American History last year as an 8^th grader (which my 10^th grader is using this year), so it seemed like a good year to do the 6^th and 9^th grader together on world history, especially as there are so many good books on the reading list that the 9^th grader never read. To make sure she’s getting a high school level experience, I require her and the 10^th grader to write papers using Sonlight suggestions and make outlines of their history texts; I’m also giving them the Sonlight summaries of those texts to use as study guides for “finals”—tests I’ll make up.)

After that, we sometimes worked on a writing assignment, or else we’d go straight to math, which they usually finished before lunch. That left only their language arts workbooks and reading for the afternoon, subjects which require minimal attention from me. It was a perfect schedule.

But then entropy set in and it all began to fall apart--I know some of y'all can relate. We started having trouble getting up on time, getting our chores done quickly, and getting started at a reasonable time. We started cutting things (like mental math or writing or even yoga), “because we’re getting such a late start today.” Math started dragging into the afternoon, and then reading carried into the evening or on to the next day--and soon we felt constantly behind.

And I was getting frustrated with the morning read-aloud time, because when I stopped and asked for a summary, usually only one out of three knew what was going on. None of them are auditory learners, and the older two insisted that they preferred reading to themselves, so I began to question whether this was the best way to handle these subjects--though I enjoyed teaching "on the fly," drawing out the most important points and checking comprehension as we went.

But since I was spending my mornings reading aloud (and my afternoons/evenings on everything else), I never seemed to have time to plan writing assignments, or go over them with the kids, or write tests for my highschoolers, or assign mapwork (which is all right there in the Sonlight Instructor’s Guide), or correct their workbooks, or do kindergarten with Chicklet5. In the past I have just slowed down the pace of the Sonlight reading and spread it out into the next year, but having highschoolers has put the pressure on to complete a history course in one year—and the possibility of a move sometime during this school year has made me feel like we have to push today, for tomorrow we may have to drop everything and pack like crazy for six weeks!

So all these anxieties contributed to the darkness I alluded to during Advent. I was having a crisis of confusion and doubt, when it seemed God burst in with his light, giving insight and ideas.

One was to put Bantam8 in school. One less student will undoubtedly make a big difference, and another plus (besides all those listed here) is that it will help us commit to a definite time for Bible and morning prayer before he is picked up in the mornings.

Another change we're implementing for the new year is having Blondechick15 and Bantam 12 read the History and the Read-Aloud to themselves. Though I'll miss the on-the-spot teaching and assessment, it will free me up to plan the writing assignments, write the tests, and do the grading (other needed forms of assessment).

Additionally, since reading to themselves is faster than being read to, the two high schoolers have agreed to double up on the Sonlight reading schedule, most days. That way, if I want to interrupt the schedule for a day, to have them focus on mapwork or write a paper or study for a test, they won’t be getting “behind” to do it. And the real motivator is: If they do finish early, they’ll only have a few subjects to do this spring when, Lord willing, we’ll be busy packing and moving. Since they don't want to be stuck doing school next summer, in the event of a spring move, they're willing and eager to read more now.

Bantam12 will continue with the Sonlight Alt 6 reading schedule as is, except if he gets behind or I want to interrupt it for mapwork or a paper, that’s fine--now I'm planning on stretching the schedule out into next year for him.

So that's the new plan for the new year. Already we've noticed a big change without Bantam8 here all day--it's quieter and there are more quiet rooms in the house to read or study in! The little kids tend to hang out on the main level with me, and Bantam8 always bounced like a pinball between me, or them, or Bantam12, creating distractions wherever he went.

Don't get me wrong--we miss him. But for now, it's nice to think of the pinball neatly contained in a classroom.

When he came home yesterday, we all gathered 'round to hear about his day. When he couldn't think of anything else to tell, he leaned over and somersaulted off the couch. "Is that your first somersault of the day?" I asked. "Why--yes," he said with evident surprise. "Were you able to sit still in your desk all day, or did you keep falling out?" I asked. "I sat still all day, Mom," he said earnestly. "I was very good."

Cheaper by the Four-Pack?

I just can't stay away....

From Time online:

There's an odd phenomenon being reported in tony enclaves across the country: highly educated, highly compensated couples popping out four or more children--happily and by choice. In Loudoun County, a suburb of Washington, four-packs of siblings rule the playgrounds. In New York City, real estate agents tell of families buying two or three adjacent apartments to create giant spaces for their giant broods. Oradell, N.J., is home to so many sprawling clans that residents call it Fouradell. In a suburb of Chicago, the sibling boomlet is called the Wheaton Four.

I found this amusing because although I went to college in Wheaton, have friends in Wheaton, and presently live not terribly far from Wheaton, I've never heard of the Wheaton Four!

Have any of my Wheaton-area readers?

And isn't it amusing to think of that fair city as a "tony enclave"? (I suppose it is, strictly speaking. But what does that make Glen Ellyn??)

The rest of the disappointingly brief article is here.