Homegrown Thoughts

Obviously, we also survived day 2 of the convention. It wasn’t as much fun as the first day for me, but I was getting exhausted. It tires me out to be around a lot of people and action for extended periods of time. The main vendor halls were even hotter than the day before. They really need to come up with a solution for that - it’s the same problem every year. Having a couple of big fans for each gym just doesn’t cut it. They just blow the hot air around. It’s not conducive to shopping and buying, that’s for sure! On the up side, the classrooms where the sessions were held were very well air-conditioned this year, which was an improvement over last year when I believe the a/c was at least partially broken in that area of the building.

Our purchases on this day included Beer’s Victor Journey Through the Bible, which we got from Rainbow Resource. We managed to make purchases from them both days. :-) We also purchased Snap Circuits, Jr. from R & D. I would have liked to link to the product at their site, but their site needs some navigational help. Sorry, it’s the website designer in me, but if people can’t find what they want on your site…they can’t buy it! Ending that tangent now.

Anyway…the boys are having tons of fun with the Snap Circuit set and I’m having to limit them to just a couple/few projects a day or they’ll be done with it before 2 weeks have passed. They’re already asking for a larger set. They now know more about how electricity works at ages 9 and 7 than I do at *ahem, enter OLD age here*.

We attended more sessions by My Father’s World, split up for some family meeting and “Bringing Your Child to Christ and Keeping Them There” sessions.

I guess my plan for this year is to plan more. My husband would like to have a better idea of what we are doing and hear less about all I wanted to do and didn’t get done. He thinks actually planning out what we’re going to do in advance would be helpful. That may seem pretty obvious to most, but I, especially last year, did not really plan ahead. I just grabbed whatever we were working on and we did the next thing. If it was going well, we’d do a little more. If it wasn’t going so well, we’d do a little less. Then I’d just track what we did after the fact. I’m also very eclectic and use many different things, so I don’t have anything already made up that tells me when to do what.  Which I like, by the way.  I don’t like the pressure of having to do such and such by a certain date or feel I’m ‘behind’ and have to catch up to…what, I’m not sure!

So, this will be a challenge for me, especially as this is the first year I’ll be schooling both boys ‘officially’. I did almost everything orally with my younger one last year, but this year he will have to have some tangible work for his portfolio to be reviewed, so it should be interesting. He’s not a ’sit down and do it on paper’ kind of a kid. I’ll have to be sure I record our oral schooling or it’ll look like we did nothing. I think I can teach both kids from the same materials in a couple of subjects, so that should help.

Let’s see…I guess that’s about it for the convention and the motivation it stirred. I’m trying to finish up my summer school plans this week so we can get back to in on Monday. We’ve had a long break considering we school year round. It’s always so hard to get back into the groove after a break!  I make the workload lighter in the summer, but I think it’s best for us if we keep doing something.

Just a quick note tonight (ha! Am I capable of being quick? We shall see…). Today was the first day of our state homeschooling convention. After being up in the night herding the family down to the basement for a tornado warning and then shuttling the kids to their grandparents early this morning so we could go to said convention, I was not all that alert this morning. I about fell asleep during Zan Tyler’s morning Keynote, and I’m pretty sure that is not a comment on Zan’s speaking abilities. She is so cute! I did manage to wake up a bit later in the day and very much enjoyed the sessions by Todd Wilson of FamilyMan Ministries. So much so that I attended 3 in a row. And that was not just because they were held in the sanctuary where there were padded pews and air conditioning. Partly, but not completely. :-) He had a lot of good things to say and he is quite the funny guy. Great combo in my book.

Apparently we have to leave at the crack of dawn again tomorrow morning to make it in time for the start of the conference. It’s even more fun to find parking on Saturday than it is on Friday due to the extra folks that come who weren’t there the day before. So it’s a good idea to get there on time or a bit early. I’m glad we only live a few miles away. Have I mentioned that I’m not a morning person? Like, not at all.

I did purchase some curriculum I needed today. I got the next level of Math-U-See (check!) and we’re trying A Reason for Spelling for both boys this year (check! check!). So they’re taken care of. I’m not sure I really need anything else, so I might be good for the coming year. Although my husband is now thinking we should consider using a ‘program’ that has lesson plans laid out for me. My Father’s World, in particular, but I’m also going to look at Heart of Dakota on the recommendation of my friend, Heather. I’m not convinced that this is what we need (I’m very eclectic at heart), but I’m trying to stay open to the idea since I do want to do what’s best for our kids and I realize that might mean that I’ll have to adapt to a new way of doing things.  Or not. We’ll see. :-)

I guess this is as quick as I can be. Not too bad for me, really. I really need to write about my adventures of the day following the Great Geocaching Disaster of ‘08, but that’ll have to wait for another time. I would like to state for the record, however, that after receiving assistance from a fellow homeschooling geocacher, we were able to go back and find the first cache we looked for. It’s amazing how much easier it is to find when you know what you’re looking for! Thanks Randy (and Vickie)!!

I’m off to bed. The morning will be here all too soon.

Is that title random enough?

We have ‘officially’ finished the legally required number of school days for this year.  Since we school year-round, this isn’t really that big of a deal, but for some reason I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment.  We’ve also just finished my older son’s grammar book, the math book we were working on (taking time from Math-U-See to establish a bit more mastery in a tricky area before moving on) and the Capitalization & Punctuation workbook we were also using for Language Arts.  Things seem to be wrapping up all at the same time here without me planning it that way.  Funny how that happens.

We’re going back to Math-U-See now.  I back-tracked a few lessons to make sure we get a running start at it, and so far things are going much more smoothly than they did the last time we were here.  I’m glad I seem to have made the right decision to step back and work on the tough stuff more before moving on to new skills.

We’ll also be diving back in to The Mystery of History and our timeline notebook.  We’re learning about Africa in general and Tanzania in particular since we started sponsoring Selina.  I haven’t yet decided what will go into our Selina notebook and what will be made into a lapbook.  We’ll be continuing our Language Arts by using the Total Language Plus guide for Charlotte’s Web.  Just a small problem there.  I can’t find our copy of the book!  I’ve been almost literally tripping over the thing since I bought it last year and of course now that I need it, I can’t find it anywhere.  ARGH!  Good thing I’m in spring cleaning mode.  I’ll find that thing one way or another.  Or buy a new one, LOL.

My younger son has a new pet - a ladybug.  I got him a bug pod for Christmas and he’s had to wait all this time for a bug to put in it.  Poor child.  I suppose it was a little mean to give it to him so far ahead of time, but he managed to play with it in the meantime - treating it like Tinker Toys, mostly.  My older son found the first ladybug of the season (or a ‘leftover’ from last year) in the kitchen yesterday, so we now have it imprisoned comfortable in its new home.  Which my younger son is carrying around the house like it’s a pet carrier.  I’m just waiting for one of the tubes to fall off and the ladybug escape.  We’ve warned him but he doesn’t care.  He wants his ladybug with him so he can keep an eye on it. I’ve armed him with a magnifying glass in the hopes he’ll be happy watching it that way and not decide to take it out and ‘play’ with it.  We’ve given it water and some raisins so it should be good for now.  It’s currently napping on top of one of the raisins. :-)

So, that about does it for the excitement around here today.  Our heavy rainfall of earlier today has now turned into snow of the very fat and fluffy piling up quickly kind.  It should melt by tomorrow, though.  I’m so sick of snow, but at least we’re getting to the time of year when any snow we get can’t stay long.  Hopefully this will be the last of it for this season!

I’ve decided that I’ve been remiss in not having my 3rd grade son do some creative writing. Frankly, I’ve been busy concentrating on trying to improve his horrific handwriting, but that’s not going so well. He is so stubborn (wonder where he gets that from) and doesn’t like to take my oh, so helpful advice on the matter. My plan now is to have him get his handwriting practice through writing his own stories. He’s a natural at this - he is always making up little stories to entertain his little brother and they are forever acting out their imaginary battles and such. He actually did a pretty good job with little complaint yesterday. Then came today. He took 15 minutes to look through our 2 story starter resources before declaring that he’d rather just do practice sentences. *sigh* These are good story starters, too. His little brother even started writing his own story from one of them (on the computer since I haven’t started handwriting with him much yet).

I was really hoping this wouldn’t turn into another subject that we’d have to tussle over. I was sure he would enjoy doing it - I still think he will. But I’m not sure how to get HIM to realize this. I’m afraid to even bring up the topic of book reports, his reaction will be quite fierce, I’m sure.

And yes, I do realize I’m the mom here. I’m not letting him walk all over me, he does have to get his work done rather he feels like it or not. It’s his time he’s wasting when he fiddles around and refuses to get busy. But I also want him to enjoy these things - like I do. Yes, I admit it, I am a bit sensitive about this because these are things I personally enjoy. But he is so much like me and I do know him very well - if he would give it a chance and not treat it like torture, I am sure he would enjoy it.

We’re a pretty tech-savvy family. We like the latest gadgets and gizmos and haven’t really felt the need to shun modern technology. Don’t get me wrong, I love history - I just don’t want to live in it. And our children are right here with us. My 6 year old is a computer whiz. He’s been playing some fairly advanced games for awhile now. Even things like Train Simulator and Flight Simulator, which are probably intended for a bit older age group. Now, he doesn’t always understand the deeper strategies of these things, but he certainly knows how to play and have a ton of fun doing it. He digs out every little feature as he’s playing.

Some of his favorites are the “Tycoon” games. Monopoly Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon and Roller Coaster Tycoon. He spends hours playing these. Even when he’s not on the computer. He’ll start the game and then leave to go play elsewhere or have his afternoon rest time, leaving the game running “just to see what happens”. A lot of his activities are done for this reason - just to see what happens.

So last night, my husband goes to check on my son as he’s playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and comes back rather amused. My son had built a ride and as the people left the ride after it was over, each one would fall into a deep pit he’d constructed at the exit. There was no way out. So all these ‘peeps’ (as he has informed me they are to be called) are wandering around aimlessly in this pit (uninjured, for the record). But, lest you feel too sorry for them, the ‘peeps’ were able to buy balloons. I guess a balloon seller also fell in the pit?? I asked if somebody could buy enough balloons to float out of the pit, but that didn’t seem to be an option. Last I knew, he was considering building some stairs so the people could leave. Considerate of him, wasn’t it? This is where the lack of strategy comes in…customers falling into a pit that they can’t get out of at the end of a ride really cuts down on your repeat business. I have yet to figure out why there is an option to build a pit in that game, but leave it to my son to find out how to do it and exploit it.

Of course, this behavior isn’t as surprising as it might be if you know his history with Zoo Tycoon. One of his favorite things to do is build an enclosure for dinosaurs and fill it completely with dinosaur eggs. The zoo fills with guests and eventually the dinosaur eggs begin to hatch. After most of the dinosaurs break out of their shells, my son knocks down part of the fence so he can watch the dinosaurs chase the zoo patrons. Apparently it is great fun to watch the masses run for their lives. I think I have my brother-in-law to thank for putting this particular idea into his head.

Should I be bothered by all of this? We strictly limit him to non-violent games and for the most part only get games that have some educational value. Yet, he still manages to do something quasi-destructive in them. But when I talk to him about it, he assures me that he knows it’s only pretend and he would never do that with real people. In fact, he acts kind of insulted that I feel the need to question him about it. And he’s pretty responsible about making sure there are enough custodians to clean the amusement park and that animals get fed and have the right environments in the zoo. He’s also pretty good at flying a Boeing 747. So I think he’s actually learning things that I want him to learn from this.

And as far as the other things…well, he’s a 6 year old boy with the power to hatch dinosaur eggs. Who knows what we would have done at his age if we had had that opportunity. We caught fireflies to steal their blinkers and irritated the neighbors by putting trading cards in our bike spokes. I’m sure everyone can think of things they did as a child that make them cringe now. So is it really so bad for my son to dig pits and tear down dinosaur fences in an imaginary world? I’m thinking it’s okay for him to dream big dreams as he builds these worlds of his, and maybe make a bit of childish mischief along the way. At least it’s clever mischief.

Still, you may want to watch your step when attending amusement parks in about 20 years time. You just never know…