The Road Less Traveled
• Feb. 27, 2008 - The Professor
My 6 yo loves to teach his younger brother.
The other day, while playing with Rescue Hero dolls action figures, they had the following conversation:
3 yo: OK, there are only two guy left.
6 yo: You mean, two guys left.
3 yo: Two guy...sssssssss
I have asked the 6 yo where he thinks his brother has learned such sarcasm. His answer? "Meeee", accompanied by a long sigh. At least he is aware that his habits are passed just as easily as his knowledge!
The professor has also been showing his brother how to use the computer paint program. He began today's lesson with a demonstration of his Larry Boy expertise:
The 3 yo's assignment was to draw the same thing. Wishing to show originality, however, he chose to practice his new skills by drawing Goliath (the Veggie Tales version):
When the 3 yo appeared to get frustrated while trying to erase something, his mentor said, "It's OK. I know it can be hard sometimes! Here, you just go like this..." He proceeded to gently guide his student through the process. I was quite proud of him! |
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• Jan. 24, 2008 - More Veggie Tales, etc.
My kids are torturing me with Veggie Tales "silly songs"! Just kidding- I don't really mind them. Except when they get stuck in my head for a million years. The boys' latest favorite is the bunny song. "The bunny, the bunny, oh, I ate the bunny..." It sounds disturbing, until you learn that it is about someone eating his chocolate bunny instead of dinner. My boys like to use different voices and change up the words. This evening, I was singing it while cleaning. Sick, isn't it? My three year old got upset and demanded that I allow him to sing it, instead. I obliged. "Bunny, the bunny, no, wait...block, the block, oh, I ate block/ I'm sick in my head tummy..." His older brother got him into the habit of doing this. I suppose I can give him fine arts credit for creativity?
My 6 yo's favorite subject is math. At least, it was until recently. It has become apparent that he has forgotten a few basic skills, so now it's practice, practice, practice the old stuff. He's kind of bummed out. His habit in this subject, up to this point, has been to progress quickly and move on. I'm not sure what has caused the backslide, since he had these particular skills mastered long ago. Each time I've reviewed with him since then, I have seen no loss in retention (until about a month ago). Maybe I've moved too quickly with him. At any rate, I will not have him back at his previous level until I'm certain that he has all of this back under his belt. I'm so glad that we are in a situation where we can do this! If he were having this situation in public school, he'd just be shuffled along as if it didn't matter! Thank God for homeschooling! |
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• Jan. 9, 2008 - Back to the Grind...
It is the start of the new year, which means trying to get back on our school schedule. We are all feeling a bit sluggish about returning to disciplined work habits (more me, than the kids!). We are getting there, though.
One of my oldest son's Christmas gifts was a "How to Draw Veggie Tales" DVD. It's more like a gift to me, because he is getting school work done and playing with a new "toy"! Since he is learning to draw as part of his fine arts, he gets to spend this afternoon drawing his favorite television characters.
Bob the Tomato:
Madame Blueberry:
Larry Boy:
Ever since Christmas, my home has been in a state of more-than-the-usual disarray. I am having some difficulty getting things under control, as 1) The house is now infested with monkeys,
(she is supposed to be hunting the monkeys)
2) The boys' cookie dough exploded,
and 3), The vacuum cleaner broke down. Luckily, my mechanic was nearby to save the day!
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• Jan. 3, 2008 - Supportive Attitudes
I'm so glad to be homeschooling in this day and age! While there are a few people that disagree with my family's choice of lifestyle, most of the people we've discussed homeschooling with, have been supportive. Even strangers!
This afternoon at a grocery store, a woman approached my 6yo and said, "Shouldn't you be in school?" I told her that he is homeschooled. She smiled and said to my son, "Oh, then you're getting a lot of education!" It is possible that she was being facetious, but I don't think that is the case.
A little while back, a cashier at another store asked my son what school he attended. He proudly answered, "I go to home school!" The cashier told me that she thought it was wonderful, and had considered homeschooling her daughter.
A little while before that, we met another supportive woman. My boys and I were waiting in our van for my husband, who was taking care of an errand. The woman walked by our van with the cutest little dog! The boys wanted to see it, so she graciously stopped. We got out of the van and the kids spent some time doting on the dog. The woman and I talked for a bit, and eventually she asked me where my oldest attented school. When I told her that we homeschool our kids, she nodded her head and said, "Good! Your better off that way!" She was not a homeschool mom.
My neighbors have all been wonderful about this, too. One neighbor told me that she wished that she had homeschooled her own child. Another told me that she thinks it's great, and that it must be why the boys seem to be so happy!
I am so grateful for the Lord's intervention on behalf of the homeschooling movement. He helped pioneer homeschoolers face the demons of a society that did not see life the way they did. He continues to help us now. What would we do without Him? |
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• Dec. 22, 2007 - When I'm not looking
It would seem that our 6 yo is paying attention to us, despite my occasional doubts as to whether or not our words are sinking in.
Our family was watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. He became rather animated when he came to the realization that most of the characters were stuck on the commercial aspect of the holiday. He exclaimed, "That's not what Christmas is about!" When asked what it is about, he jumped up from his seat, pointed to the Nativity scene on our mantel and said, "That!"
Today, he blurted out, "When you believe in Jesus, you go to Heaven. And you have to try to be good and ask Him to forgive you. God loves the bad guys, just not the bad things they do. When they're in Hell, He still loves them!"
The other day he corrected someone's speech. An individual used the word "ain't" when speaking to him. He got rather annoyed and said, "Ain't is not a word! You say, 'is not'!" The same individual used the phrase, "don't got no (something or other- I don't remember what)". My son corrected the use of this phrase by saying, "No! You say, 'have no (whatever it was)'!".
He's been teaching his little brother some ten dollar words, too. The other day, as we were sitting down for lunch, he was making silly noises. My (very nearly) 3 yo reacted by shaking his head and saying, "No! That's inappropriate!"
It is so reassuring to hear such things! There have been other instances such as these recently, but I am having difficulty remembering them. Oh, well. I will likely remember them all some time after making this post! |
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• Dec. 3, 2007 - Unit study
My six year old recently began a lapbook unit study on snow. So far, we have made progress, but without doing a single activity listed in the study. We are trying to do the assignments that came with the unit. Somehow, we always wind up doing something else. We are, at least, sticking to the topic!
Today's lesson began with an attempt at writing out the process by which snow forms. I should actually say "intention" instead of "attempt", because we did not get any further than my looking for the information to read with my son. As soon as my toddler saw me flipping through the unit information, he left his snow-watching marathon at the window and began a monumental tantrum:
Me: (standing at the table with a stack of papers in my hand) Let's see, how snow forms...no, that's not it, maybe this page.
2yo: (approaches me with his arms in the air; I think, at first, that he wants to be picked up) Nooooo! Noooooooooooo! (Turns out, he does not want to be picked up. He wants to pull the packet from my hands).
Me: I have to find this. Please, just let me do this.
2yo: Nnnnnnnoooooooooo!
Me: (To my six year old:) Why don't you get the colored pencils from upstairs?
6yo: OK. Is he going to color?
Me: Yes.
2yo: Nnnnooooooo! I don't want to color!
I get his preschool activity book and pull out some pages with same/different exercises.
Me: Here you go.
2 yo: Yay!
The six year old hops over to his brother's chair, pencils in hand, and explains the "assignment". He is supposed to be doing his own work now, but...
They work on this for a while, then I ask them if they want a snack.
Me: Would you like yogurt?
6yo: Yeah, yogurt!
2yo: Nnnoooo! I don't want yogurt!
Me: (after other options are refused) Do you want ice cream?
6yo and 2yo, together: Yeah, yeah, ice cream!
Me: You do know that this will give you brain freeze, don't you?
6 yo: No, it won't. I know how to not get brain freeze.
2yo: Ice cream! (He is jumping up and down now)
They sit down to their snacks, and I wonder what on earth could make them want ice cream when it is snowing and cold outside?
6yo: Do you have brain freeze yet?
2yo: No.
6yo: Well, if you get it, you just do this: put your hands on your head, get up and walk around. (He demonstrates and his brother follows)
So, this is how you get rid of brain freeze? Well, it's cold-related, so maybe I could find a way to incorporate this scientific discovery into his lapbook! |
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• Nov. 16, 2007 - Science projects
Our Hair Growth Center for Spuds is coming along nicely.
Note: potential members should be aware that having children plant your hair may result in the loss of one or more pieces of your mouth.
The vegetable seeds planted a little while ago have finally been placed in containers.
Before:
After:
The name of this lesson is: How not to grow vegetables! The seeds sat for too long in plastic bags. I know better than to let seeds grow for long in such close proximity to one another. So what did I do? Out of sheer laziness, I repeatedly put off potting the seeds. I hoped that the roots would not all knot together too badly. Right! And what did we learn from mommy's procrastination? The roots were, as you probably guessed, so badly intertwined that some of them could not be separated without sustaining a great deal of damage. Oops! Those are now packed in their containers like sardines. This wasn't a total bust, though. A few of the seeds were spared! The kids can eventually compare the results of proper planting to improper planting. |
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• Nov. 10, 2007 - Balloons, Greek and potatoes
Balloon season is here! Our living room heating vent is located on the floor. When the heat comes on, my little ones love to put balloons over the vent and watch them dance. Each child likes to jump as high as he can to try and catch these multi-colored objects of amusement. Why is it that kids are often most content with inexpensive objects? I'm not complaining, by the way (far from it!). I'm just astounded that when given the latest-and-greatest toys, my kids are entertained for a short time, if at all. When given a noisy pot and plastic spatula drum set, balloons, etc., they show more interest. My two year old prefers the box that a toy comes in, to the toy itself. His six year old brother will gladly leave a video game for a chance to learn a new art project. He thinks that it is more fun to play "space rangers" with his little brother than to play alone with a state-of-the-art, just-released-ten-minutes-ago toy! My bank account is quite happy with this arrangement.
OK, on to school topics. My oldest and I will be playing a new game soon. He was getting bored with mommy's way of teaching the Greek alphabet (I'm so dejected!), so I decided to make Greek letter squares for Scrabble. For now, we will be spelling out only English words, using equivalent (or the closest thing to it) letters. I made an extra set for the toddler so that he can "play", too. I love that about homeschooling! My two year old can be included in his older brother's activities and learn alongside him.
This afternoon we began a potato head experiment. I hollowed out the top of a potato and the kids decorated its face. We will be planting grass in it for hair when the face components are dry. I got the idea from Plants for Kids, a web site dedicated to children's plant study. If you are curious about it, the site is located at http://herbarium.desu.edu/project_1/index.html
Here is a picture of Spudman (yes, that is what my six year old chose to name it):
That's about it for now. |
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• Nov. 1, 2007 - Nature study
Yay! My boys are finally interested in studying something other than bugs for science. OK, I confess, I steered them away from it. It's not that I have a problem with my children wanting to have pet slugs- I'm just a little tired of the subject. Leave it to me to get bored with my kids' lesson plans before they do! Of course, the two year old is not being formally educated yet. I say "kids' lesson plans" because he insists on being involved with just about everything his big brother does (so, they "share" lesson plans). It is so cute! Well, it is when the toddler is not hitting climbing on throwing toys at distracting his idol while he is trying (reluctant though he may be) to complete his work.
Anyway, they are into plants now. It seems a little bit strange to me to be planting seeds in October, but the kids are interested. We put corn, carrot and radish seeds in ziploc baggies with wet paper towels. They are hanging by the kitchen windows. And- they are still intact! I was concerned when we began this project, that Babyzilla would see them as fodder for his destructive tendencies. However, he has been great about it! So far, I have not had to thwart a single attempt at their little veggie lives. |
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• Oct. 23, 2007 - Prayer works for the little things, too!
This afternoon, my oldest was (gasp!) reluctant to finish his science assignment. I was unable (unwilling?) to try anything more to get him to complete it, so I asked God for help. The solution He offered was not exactly what I had in mind, but then again, when is it ever?
Here is part of this afternoon's conversation. It began after I left for room for all of two seconds.
6 yo: Knock, knock.
2 yo: Knock, knock.
6 yo: No, you say, "Who's there?"
2 yo: Who's there?
6 yo: Banana.
2 yo: Banana.
6 yo: No, you say, "Banana who?"
2 yo: Banana who?
6 yo: Now you say, "Knock, knock".
2 yo: Knock, knock.
6 yo: Who's there?
2 yo: Banana who! (bursts out laughing)
6 yo: No! You say, "Banana!"
2 yo: Banana.
6 yo: Banana who?
2 yo: Banana who?
6 yo: No, you're supposed to say, "Mix banana and orange!" (He forgot the proper ending, so he substituted this one.)
They went on like this for about half an eternity before I asked them to stop.
Me: OK guys, time to get back to work.
6 yo: But mom, I'm teaching him! (I ponder whether it would be appropriate to count this as part of the six-year-old's school day. Mmmm- no.)
Me: Finish your assignment, please.
6 yo: Ah, man! (He slumps in his chair and pouts, holding his pencil as if he intends to finish his work, but not actually doing anything.)
Another half an eternity passes, then:
2 yo: (climbing on to the table and grabbing his brother's work) Mine! I want it! My assignment!
6 yo: No! (He picks up the paper and hold it over his head in a overly dramatic way, grimacing.)
2 yo: Yes! (giggles) Mine! (tries to grab the sheet from his brother's hand)
6 yo: Mooooom!
Me: Off the table! (I physically remove the two year old from his perch. Again. I think that I will look into getting a crane installed in my kitchen for this.) You had better finish soon, or I will let him have your work. Then you will have to do it again tomorrow.
6 yo: Noooooooo! (Again with the drama- but he finished his work in record time!)
Thank you, Lord!
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