"WARNING TMI" or "Merit Badge in Order for Mom" or "Say YES, it's good"

Every now and again I am hit with the conviction that we - as parents - aught to have merit badges like the scouts do.  One merit badge being for every time you successfully potty trained a kid.

And now - a merit badge for when you said "YES" to something for the benefit of the kid and you had all reason and logic would dictate, and the planets were alined to say NO.

A binge in selfishness was *certainly* in order and due.

I am at a point of said selfishness - my moon is aligned such that I AM THE CENTER . . . so motivated by pain since it's my first day of . . . *cough* "aunt flow's" visit and she always comes with such a wallop of pain.

My spine and legs are trying to pull away from my body and to walk independently of me, and my back keeps me doubled over in submission . . . . so I go for the big stuff - the vicodin, and if I don't fall asleep soon, I usually start to get sick to my stomach.

But, it seems that at this moment where every.single.thing. is getting on my LAST nerve, my 7yr old wants to do LEAPS AND BOUNDS in learning and - inspired by finding his dad's "diary" from when his dad was his age - now my boy wants to write in a notebook too.

This is leaps and bounds because up to this point he has had no interest and - dare I say - an aversion - to writing.  Even to write his name - especially his LAST name, which is a mouthful, I grant you - would cause tears and fits; and all this time, every time, I asked him to try to read something he'd says "I can't" . .

Now -really, does it have to be right now*eye roll*! He comes in with a note book and draws pictures and is attempting to sound out a story.

And I try to sneak away and go to bed early "Mommy doesn't feel good" . .

But he finds me in the bathroom - and is on the BATHROOM FLOOR asking me about this word, that  word, can I help him . .

"Yes," I say thinking GET OUT!  GIVE ME SOME PRIVACY!  GO BUG YOUR DAD! LETS DO THIS LATER! LETS NOT DO THIS AT ALL!

Nevertheless, I know if I drop this ball now- that's it - I'm not going to get this chance later, and I can't call up his enthusiasm when it suites me, and honestly, I LOVE what I'm seeing happening before me . . . so Yes it is.

I praise his work so far, tell him I'm proud of what he is doing, but that it's really hard for me to read his writing without spaces. And then actually tell him - nicely- that mommy needs her privacy here and I'd meet him in my bed if he wanted to continue.

In bed we continue to talk back and forth and he continues to write and draw.

I suppress the desire to nit pick EVERY mistake, a "d" flipped backwards, the switch from lower case to upper case letters and the total lack of a period . . . and just put in little helps along the way 'cause I don't want this beautiful thing to stop.

And the vicodin is kicking in, and I'm now throbbing at a dull ache . . .

and my boy has gone from this:

It says "A plane. A plane flies. And I am in the plane."

To this!

And it is actually a complete story -  which he read back to me (picking my chin off the floor).   He has sworn me to secrecy, and these are the only excerpts that he has OK'd for public viewing . . the rest is for Grandma's eyes only.


 And he is still writing -

I have ask for NOTHING of this, kinda been begging for it to stop, really.
So.  I think I need to add a SAY YES badge to my sash - or some such ceremony - this one was EFFORT!

But I'm so glad I did.

We are rich!

I will bear the brunt of being poor.

Perhaps that is a poor statement in and of itself - wealth is so relative.

Wealth, like fame, is all about perspective.

So, now, in small town America - my family find ourselves below the poverty line.  In essence because we chose that lifestyle; large part is that I've chosen to stay at home with our kids.  We cut corners, I chew my nails off when making a budget and living by it, we are careful when defining the necessary.

Yet my goal has been to have contentment at where we are at, and to gratitude for what we do have.

When, then, my daughter made the statement that "We are poor!" I asked her why she thought so - the answer was as expected; she can't buy the stuff she'd like.

I told her that we are wealthy compared to other countries, I named a few.  I pointed out what we do have and there are so many out there with less.  She, at least, has the option to save up for something she'd like, since she gets something that *most* children of the world do not - an allowance.

I think she got it.

My hope is that my kids don't grow up with the idea that they are poor, or lacking.  I want them to feel they are fine- cause they are!

There is no poverty in possibilities.

There is riches in gratitude.

When we do nothing at all.

We went to a drive-in double feature last night and all were in bed by 3am.

One of the benefits of no public school - we didn't have to worry about whether or not it's a school night!

Anyway - back to subject -

This morning I was loving not getting out of bed' til late, having no hurry to change out of jammies and LOVING having nothing on our calendar for anybody!

Hubby was loving that too.

So out of our languid attitude today hubby has already taken the boys out into the back yard and done some archery.  Then -

Andrew is sculpting.

I made the clay for them, but it really just took a few minutes.

I used:
 4 cups flour

1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups hot tap water
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Step 1: Combine flour, salt & water. Add oil. Knead. If it is too dry, add water. If too sticky, add flour.

 Alex (just turned 5) is painting some wooden cars.

Sarah comes and works on sculpting in between episodes of whatever she is watching on netflix at the moment.

Once Andrew's sculpture is done he wants to make some craft he found in a book that was strewn around here . . .

Of course little brother doesn't waist much time in jumping in on whatever bigger brother is doing so he got crafty too . .

 It's *ROADS* obviously!

Feeling happy with that, he made a lego man.  Silly me, thinking it was a robot . . . it'a a man.

And then Sarah shut off her netflix and started painting. Painting while singing . . . .

Not an ounce of prompting from me -
just a whole lot of "YES"'s

Record keeping . . .

So - here I attempt again to note down the learning we do without even trying; last night we watched "How Stuff Works" about Wheat, Corn, Coffee and Salt.

And Andrew is now on Minecraft . . . whole lot of subtle learning there . . .

And just now this morning - Sarah- my dyslexic picked up and is reading "Lift and Separate" Baby Blues book #5

Finally on our way to the local mill pond we listened to "Stink-Solar System Superhero" which surprisingly was a fun story around the planets and the demoted-to-dwarf-planet the planet previously known as Pluto and the mnemonic  "My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas." for the planets - Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury . . . etc.  So we get home and watch on Netflix "The Planets" and that was the end of the day! 

*blow* cough cough . . . .

Getting all that dust off this blog.

There - that's better.

I know it's summer, but when does learning stop?

We went camping these few days and my girl brought a book she is reading.  A Book. She. Is. READING!  It's still a very "simple" book to read, but while we were camping she curled up in the hammock and went at it.  (heart glowing)

Last month, June, she finished reading the big book of Dick and Jane.  For a reward we are going to Barns & Noble so she can pick out a *NEW* book.  Yay!

Love how she's doing - seeing how she struggles so with reading.  :-)

Rube Goldberg Machines

Andrew, my "maker" has been reinventing this versions of  a hot wheels Rube Goldberg Machine.

Today we did this after we watched this video: 

And a Mythbusters where they did a Rube Goldberg machine for Christmas.  Seemed appropriate: 

Showcase

Something I hope to do again . . . Andrew did this:

  

Ironically, I admit to being a dyslexic, and the error in the spelling of camouflage is something I would totally do -even had to rely on the computers spell check to get it right this time- but the mistake is my husbands.  Hehe -

And Sarah did Mermaids . . . so *we* knew Mermaids liked to drown people long before that Pirate of the Caribbean movie.

Then there was a talent show, and it was so much fun!

Lessons by Strewing.

\\

Dinosaur math, enjoyed by all.

Geography lesson taught by dad.

This night, besides the math games, and letter bingo, we talked about presidents that were on our currency and Benjamin Franklin who was *not* a president but on our currency.

This spun off to a talk about what Benjamin Franklin did, and the kite and electricity thing . . . so we ended the day watching a Mythbusters (don't ya' know, we love em.) about the kite flying experience.

Red Ridding Hood

Andrew tells the story with the help of his little brother.

Historyteachers

watched Bill Nhy the Science guy about flight and seasons.

Found GREAT YouTube Channel called Historyteachers and watched about the black death (bubonic plague) Cleopatra, Henry the VIII and his wives . . . just your general fun with internet learning!  LOL

In these days

We have NOT been idil, I promise you!

Between educational shows on science, history, natural sciences and internet games on math and physic and logic.  Not to mention Sarah's proclivity now to shout out "What's 2x4?" for anyone to answer . . .

And those multiplication songs keep bubbling up from the girl . . . the best investment I've put towards learning.

Today Andrew and a little bit me, dissected a snake.!!!

We've classified it as a common small Ribbon or Garter snake.

Chess,

Spent hours with Andrew on chess kids academy site 

learning the game of chess.  And so far we've completed lesson one with it's quizzes and are in lesson two.  :-)  Then we found the Chess Kid (non-plural) site below -

And then got distracted by Fenius and Ferb.

My kids are visual learners.

Hence we use the computer and internet as learning tools.

A while ago Sarah old told me she wanted to learn multiplication.  So I purchased from itunes "Multiplication by Heart".  And the songs worked, as I've posted previously, she's been singing her facts for a couple of days now.

Yup, pretty much every day she's singing the multiplications . . .

So today I showed her how to use her "songs" in multiplication problems . . .First on Fish Shop where she completed all three levels of "easy" and then we switched to Farm Freak Out.  I think she enjoyed Fish shop better, but Farm Freak out let her pick which multiplication fact she wanted to work on.  We chose 1, 2, 4, and 5.

Andrew was hovering around all this while so I set him up on the other computer with a little bit of "Action Fraction" but it was above his level, so we switched after a game to "Cannon Math" which was much more his level.  He loved it.

His dad pointed out to Andrew how he didn't have to start from 1 each time but how to "count on" from the big number.




Sometimes we had to get our "songs" right to get the right answer and often Sarah would need to sing her facts our; but if it wasn't timed, Sarah did SUPER.

It was kinda funny to be telling grandma . . . "Grandma, would you turn the TV down . . we're trying to do *MATH* in here!"

Ever "making"

Today's agenda, SURF SCHOOL!

Both Andrew and Sarah got up on their boards and Andrew even tried to jump and turn mid ride . . . He's so adventurous!

On the way to surf school  Sarah was *singing* her multiplications . . . 12's, 3's, 7's . . she knows them all!  I can not recommend Multiplication by Heart enough!

Then, Andrew is starting to leave me notes . . . "Luv mom" !  He talked about writing it "Luf mom" so we talked about the difference in the sound of "v" and "f" . . . I'm happy he's writing.

But more than that . . he *makes* things all the time.  Sewing, building, painting, fixing, sculpting and drawings . .  . Just now he quit his game on PBS.com to go and draw his dad.  He pulled down the "How to Draw Everything" book and opened it up and is figuring out how to draw his dad.

Boy, is there anything he won't -CREATE- with?

So, what did you do in class today?

Sarah took these pictures.  So we don't see her, but she did participate.  Participate in helping repair dad's car.  She didn't build a city with blocks but she did do archery under dad's supervision.  She worked on a  Math workbook, but only finish half a page.  She wrote me several notes.  And she read a bit from Dick and Jane. 

Also not pictured here is a hike down into the valley where Sarah identified which way the horse was walking by it's tracts.

And Andrew got a bullseye from this distance!

Good times. :-)

Princesses, Roblox, Dentist and Mud.

On Thursday we had Health Education and Career Exploration day with a visit to the . . . . *drum roll* DENTIST with Andrew.  Who left this kid-friendly place with a new t-shirt and certificate for have 3 visits without cavities!  Woot Woot!

Meanwhile, on Friday I introduced Builder Boy (a.k.a. Andrew) to Roblox!  Which is wonderful for his building mind, but I am useless on it and had to watch some youtube "how to" to figure out how to play.  Well, once he got the hang of it his enthusiasm caught to his sister - and so I let her set up an account and play on my computer while he played on the home computer and there they were building their worlds pretty much all day!

Yesterday Sarah had a "Polite as a Princess" class on etiquette given by Princess by Design - the teacher being a former Disney princess character (Belle) and Pageant winner. (also on Facebook)

walking/posture lessons

Special guest, Miss Teen California-World crowned each princess with a crown and a rose

On the drive there we listened and tried to sing along with all the songs on Multiplication by Heart - and she did well with all her skip counting song up to 6.  I think that is wonderful, considering it's nothing we "sat down and taught".  . . it's been entirely fun and easy!  We laughed and laughed the whole time.


Today, Andrew was working on a list of "Things to do that are fun" in response to his question/whine about what he could do.  Having him make out a list was so good - even though I had to prohibit him putting "Fighting with brother" on it, but we finally came to the point where he listed "do science experiment".  Well! that was all the encouragement that I needed because I *had* an experiment  that I've been waiting to do with them.  The idea came from Janet's post, so out we went to "play" with baking soda and vinegar.  Andrew decided that he wanted to make a volcano.  It's still drying, and we think tomorrow we will be able to make the "lava" flow.

What fun it's been!

Spanish

I am not posting, but I should, the Spanish education, not to mention cultural education while we are in Mexico.

Like right now, the kids are watching a cartoon movie in Spanish.  They do this almost daily. Dora la Exploradora is always in Spanish, and will use some English words mixed in there.

Ironically enough, the English is *heavily* accented, and some pronunciations are down right hilarious!

So, count every day so far a mark in Spanish and Culture! :-)

Welcome back students!

Budding film producers!

Andrew and Sarah have been working on this film.  Andrew wanted me to "edit out the fingers and hands" but since I don't have that kind of equipment - please forgive the fingers and hands.  Andrew is acting camera man and sound effects, Sarah manipulates the playmobil figurines. 

The story and set up is all their own - I just handed them my camera and let them go at it!  Hehe -

Today they are working with finger paints.

 And for quite a while now, Andrew has been wanting to make boats.  He even layed out the design and the color swatches are the colors he wants the boat to be.

He wants me to help him make a REAL boat *couph*, but I explained we don't have an axe.

Anyway, we'd thought we could build a smaller scale boat with a plastic soda bottle and finger paint.