Week 4 - Lots of Fun

This week was another great one at Lorene Park Academy, our happy, little homeschool.  I'll let the pictures share the highlights.

Tuesday after school (around 10am) Grandpa came to teach a lesson in bike repair.  It was AWESOME!  They patched tires together on Paul's pedal bike, a bike that currently sees NO action.  We will probably sell this bike before Paul decides to ride it.  He grew.  But it was totally cool to see Dave teach the boys how to repair flat bike tires.  Grandpa rocks.

This is serious business.

These two work well together.

Paul gets in on the action.

And then everyone went for a ride!  Grandma was also there...she took the pics!

Wednesday was another special day.  Luke and I visited the Portland office for Living Water International where he met Stan the Man, our contact there.  Stan was the guy who helped Luke get his own link for online giving.  It was fun to see these two meet for the first time.  Luke thinks anyone  who has been to Haiti and works for Living Water International is some kind of rock star.  And I think Stan thinks pretty highly of our boy, Luke.

Pretty Special Moment - Little Hero Meets Big Hero

I actually took this picture last, so Luke's smile is a little tired.  But I had to get the sign!

Better smile!  The girl in the photo above Luke is in Haiti getting clean water from a new well for the first time. Luke thinks that is cool.  So do I!

 The office is lined with these yellow, plastic containers that are similar to what children all over the world use to haul water.  They carry them on their heads and strapped onto their backs, often for miles.

"This is heavy!"  Yes, Luke, and that one is empty.

 They did have one of these filled with water.  Luke could only lift it about an inch, and I was busy trying to make sure he didn't hurt himself, so no picture.  We are SO blessed.  We are SO thankful for all God has given us.  It is a joy to know that there will be a new well in Haiti because of Luke's 7th Birthday.  Yes, $3,000 was raised!  On a side note, if you donated online and haven't received a thank you from Luke, would you be willing to drop me an email?  Living Water International has been unable to provide us with a list of donors due to privacy issues.  I would LOVE to get a thank you to each of you.

We also did academics this week!  I had two favorite moments with my "class."  We finished reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Thursday.  After Dorothy FINALLY reaches home using the silver shoes that she's been wearing for the entire book, I asked the question, "How did you feel about the fact that Dorothy had the ability to go home all along?"  Luke thought for a moment and then I saw the light bulb BLAZE on.  "Yes, but then the scarecrow would probably still be in that field!  And the Tin Woodman would be rusted in the woods!  And the Cowardly Lion would still be...well...cowardly!  Mom, I think it's a good thing that Dorothy didn't know about the shoes.  It meant that she got to make friends and help them."  Aaah.   Good literature.  Themes that are universal and can be fleshed out by a seven year old.  I love it.

And then my second favorite moment happened on Friday.  It was time for Luke to take his first math test ever.  You see, last year, math was hard.  And it wasn't sticking.  I did not want my boy thinking he wasn't good at math, so I didn't test him.  We just worked and worked AND WORKED on addition.  This year, I was a little concerned that perhaps we might be in the same boat.  Then I decided to write some songs.  Lots of songs.  Every +8 fact has a song.  There's a fun little trick for the +9 facts.  I decided that Luke was ready for a math test.

I took him to the dining room table, where it is quiet.  I gave him two pages, front and back, of math test.  And then I left.  You see, I homeschool.  It's too tempting.  I unloaded the dishwasher, hovering one room away.  It was silent in the dining room.  After almost 20 minutes, I peeked in.  Luke looked up and said, "I'm done.  Can I go play?"

Yep.  I picked up the test.  It took me less than three minutes to grade it.  Here are the results:

 I'm so happy for my boy.  This is totally first grade math and he is sort of a second grader this year; however, because we homeschool, he has no stigma about his math abilities.  I also think about the fact that he is a very young seven.  With an August 16th birthday, I'm not sure we would have started him in kindergarten at five which would make this his first grade year anyway!  ;-)

In one more completely random moment, there is an article in this month's Atlantic about homeschooling!  Crazy, huh?  It turns out that there are some other folks, fancier than myself, who are seeing the benefits of this business.  Nifty.