Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Don't Forget to Pack an Axe

Our Homeschool is 100 days plus in and I see so much to do at Gabriel Independent School.  I have full lesson plans but I want to keep our flexibility. Maybe the "Schedule" is too full.  Things haven't been so scheduled until recently. We'd lost some oomph during my recovery time and all our winter colds and such.
I see some real beauty in the relaxed way of doing things and yet I want to keep Him and Her marching forward at a nice clip.  We have made progress despite fluctuating schedules and illnesses.

G-man is reading a Magic Tree House novel to me, one page at a time.  Six chapters now, SIX.  He gets so into what he reads, he comments, comprehends and will even go back and reread after he has sorted the words out so that the characters have feeling and sentences flow like well thought out revelations.

 He is doing well in math too.  I keep thinking, drilldrilldrill.  The other day I told him we would move to multiplication and other difficult stuff after I felt like his foundation was as sure asthe base of an Egyptian pyramid.

 We have a wonderful tile game that works like Quirkle that is called Sumoku.  Rows and columns are no more than six colors long and you can only place tiles based on a multiplier, like 2, 3, 4 or 5.  Each row has to add up in multiples of the given number... points based on tiles placed plus those used.  He wants to get it and really pushes thorough to play a wonderful game, and we have only played it twice so far. It sure does tire out his mind.

C-bird is counting accurately to twelve and singing the alphabet. She loves eye spy, bed time book memorization, and the Spot-It game.  She is all about her scissors and crayons. She loves to carry around any number of baby dolls in bags, baskets and carts.  A few days ago she sat down and drew me a person, super cute, really good drawing I thought, with arms legs, nose mouth  and eyes.  She titled it something like "Man flying through a door".

I want to push us harder since my head has been clearing and I feel like I'm back.  Now all I need to do is breathe and let the plants I water soak it up in the sun a bit.  All the stuff I have heard about homeschool and unschool can be a bit conflicting, but I can say this.  They really want to learn... they really do. They put thoughts together in beautiful ways.  Sometimes the pencil and paper part is all about me hounding Him.  I still make G do it cause I think the "drilldrilldrill" is kind of important to reading/writing and math foundations.

G posted an interesting question at bed time tonight.  Why didn't Columbus just take a northerly route and pack a bunch of axes...(to sail over Russia) to chop up the ice along the way?

While there is some Minecraft-esque thinking it is thoughtful.  I told him the ships weren't big enough to carry all the food they would need to eat to fuel all the men it would take to chop up the ice.  Kinda like "how big is Santa's sleigh?"  Anyone know a website or radio show that would try and tackle this question?

Monday, January 28, 2013

If you give a kid a camera...









If you give a kid a sapling...

Grady in the Backyard climbing a wild Cherry sapling.  I heard "Mom!" and went outside to find this scene.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Sling Life


Good old "Dump and Pour" every childs favorite kitchen game.


 C being ill this week has been exhausting.  She wants to sleep "on" me so I pulled out an old sling... for old times sake.

Playing at Grandmother

Given our unique family tree I have the opportunity on occasion to play Grandma.  Of course all the Grand kids just call me Amanda, but I get to roast marshmallows and play video games until late at night with them. I get to say good night prayers and tuck in our little believers. Chester the dog gets to bed hog from all the boys


Maybe we have a special dinner, like a MINECRAFT dinner. That would be, before the XBox updates a dinner of Pork chops and Bread followed by Cookies and Milk.

  Now the possibilities include zombie flesh, spider eyes and steak! This last time we played we talked  all about fermented spider eyes and growing cane sugar and mooshroom soup... for Five hours. You might think this is a terrible indulgence and you would be both correct and wrong.  We talk a lot during game play, about a lot of things.  We set goals together, we conquer together, we scream together, we cooperate and we yell at each other together.  I call that Bonding, unique and very important bonding.

 Of course it depends on the grandson. With Tyler it is Lego Indiana Jones Marathon all the way.

  Maybe I get to watch my Son read bed time stories to his Nephew. Or my "Grandson" read to his Uncle.  All of these experiences are very cool.  Very very cool.

We have a drawer with extra big boy clothes deodorant and a tooth brush. We have extra younger boy underwear and t-shirts lying around.  All of these are signs that life here is as we had hoped.