Spring Break (so far)

Yesterday was our first day of Spring Break, and I won't lie.  It was hard.  Too much free time.  Not enough structure.  I'm sure many folks think the homeschool family would see no difference between vacation and school.  Those folks would be wrong.  Without the schedule of school, the kids ended up bickering WAY too much.  Bleh.

So today, we are being a bit more structured about this.  Nothing like school, but also not hours and hours of free time.  The boys did spend about an hour downstairs with some LEGO creations.

 The brown paper around the outside is the force field.  The bricks are an island in the middle of the ocean.  That's the republic gunship on top of it.  (I knew that without asking!)

Close up of "the island."

After they had been down there about an hour, the first squabble arose.  I quickly transitioned them.  Everyone got to do one chore and then it was on to the next activity, which I hadn't planned...Luke came up with it.  BOX CREATIONS!

The boys have been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes lately.  Yes, they can be a little obnoxious.  But the imagination portrayed fits perfectly in this house.  Both boys found boxes in the garage and the creating commenced.

 They only just barely fit in one, so they decided to make two.

 Blurry, but still adorable.

 Paul is working on the dials for his time machine.

Luke is inside his transmogrifier - it's a Calvin and Hobbes thing.  When he pops out of it, he has been transformed into something different.  So far, I've seen a bunny.  It's fabulous.

After box time, we headed down to a new to us library in Clackamas.  The Daddy-Man found it and highly recommended it.  Sure enough, the boys spent an hour perusing and then reading.  We were able to obtain a card and checked out about twenty items, including a new Humphrey book and a new Calvin and Hobbes.  Delightful.

On another note, I've been reading a bit lately about education, including this article, What's Worth Learning in School?  I won't do a full commentary here, but I feel strongly that despite some of the obvious challenges with homeschooling (no personal time and no personal time), this journey does seem better suited to address the issues that are arising in education right now.

High stakes testing.  Teach to the test?  My kids have never taken a test.  Luke will be required to take his first standardized test this spring.  It will be a non-issue because I have refused to focus on it.  I have that luxury.  My job doesn't depend on it.  But Amy, what about your homeschooling "job."  Doesn't that depend on Luke passing that test?  Yep.  It does.  But guess what?  By spending the last four years reading high quality books to Luke (thank you Sonlight) and doing math with Luke, he is going to pass with flying colors.

Sometimes folks ask me, "But Amy, if your kids have never taken a test, how do you know that they are learning?" Well, every once in awhile while we are reading together, one of them will ask a crazy profound question or make an amazing inference, drawing a connection with an earlier era or another area of study.  That's how.  I don't need to make them take a multiple choice test.  I don't need to require a formulaic and painfully boring paragraph.   Memorizing every fact that I read to them is not how I want to measure their learning.  Right now, at nine and seven, I am satisfied with their ability to converse about what made Elizabeth I a radically better ruler than George I, or how the beginnings of Islam and Hinduism are similar/different from the beginnings of Christianity.  I'm not kidding.  We've talked about those things.  Crazy?  Yep.  Amazing education?  We think so.

End rant.  Stepping down off soapbox.  :-)

Orange Belts

I'm a little behind.  This happened last Saturday, and I mentioned it in a previous post, but I still haven't shared any of the pictures.

The boys and I tested for our orange belts in Taekwondo.  All three of us passed.  I had just broken my toe Friday morning in class, but was still able to complete all the testing components.  I was wobbly on my side kicks, and it took me two tries to break my board, but they passed me anyway. :-)

Warning:  shameless bragging alert.  Both boys are doing so well.  They are both getting stronger and faster.  Just today in class, they did 20 pushups, but not just regular push-ups.  Every other time up, they reached up and gave the instructor a high-five.  It looked SO hard!  (Yes, I took a Friday off from class in the interest of actually allowing the toe to heal...push ups with a broken toe...um...no.)

Anyway, I am also super pleased with how the boys have improved their focus.  Yes, they can still be squirrelly, but over and over today I heard the instructor saying things like, "Yes!  I like that!  Good job!"  And this was about stuff that looks HARD to me.  I mean, after thirty minutes of calisthenics, making your last ten sit-ups of forty look good?  That's amazing to me!  (Luke did that today.  For real.)

Black belts have to be ultra focused.  They have to undergo testing that requires a lot from them physically and mentally.  When we started this journey, I didn't really know if these peeps would be willing to work that hard.  After six months, I'm fairly certain that my people are in this to win it.  One hundred push ups and one hundred sit ups to qualify for black belt testing, huh?  Okay.  I'll train toward that goal.  How cool is it that?

Okay.  I'll go find the pictures.  It's always a little more complex when they were taken with the Daddy-Man's phone.

Standing at attention, ready for testing to begin.  Does anyone else think it's amazing that my children even do this? (Paul is the second one in and Luke is the fourth one in...I'm on the end...clearly.)

Doing Basic Form for the judges.  (I am supposed to be looking up...oh...self evaluation...so useful.)

 Side Kicks!

 Luke's board breaking

 Paul's board breaking

 Luke receives his belt from Master Nirangen.  We all received them, but this picture was the clearest!

 Saluting the flags at the end of testing.

Our testing group - FUN!

Socialization

I have a theory. Let me start with the story of our day so far. We spent the morning at Taekwondo testing. All three of us earned our Orange belts! Woot! But I digress.

After testing, the boys and I headed for the library and now we are enjoying the nearly seventy degree weather at the local park.

Within five minutes of our arrival, both boys have entered conversations with other kids and are creating games for all of them to play together.  They include everyone regardless of age, something that is a complete enigma to their peers. But the public school kids will allow it for awhile.

Here's my theory:  I think that some homeschool kids are actually more capable of healthy socialization than many other kids. My kids don't spend any time worrying about what other kids think of them and it draws people to them. It's more fun to be around people who are comfortable in their own skin. My people have not been conditioned to look to their peers for their worth. At times, that can be disconcerting for those who live and die by those social rules, but for the most part, I think it's just attractive.  It doesn't hurt that both my guys are very verbal.

In addition,while being appropriately able to play with peers, they appear to be completely immune to the negative side of peer pressure. At one point, I heard a boy say to Luke something about daring him to do something. Luke plainly started, "I'm not doing that. It's too dangerous." Awesome, huh?

February Recap

Blog much?  Apparently not.  Regardless, I have a moment, so the quick catch up.

February - Gross.  Luke contracted the community version of c diff.  Doesn't sound revolting, but it was.  We spent almost the entire month walking that road.  Yuck.  Blessedly, we finally got it diagnosed and treated.  And then Erik and I ran away to Sunriver for five days.  So.  Good.  

Homeschooling - yep.  We do that business.  And despite Luke's February health issues...we didn't miss a single day of school.  That poor kid.  We won't talk about how often he had to run for the bathroom.  Before you judge me, you should know that he wanted to be doing school because it distracted him from his failing GI tract.  I'm serious.

Ministry - still doin' the same stuff, but Erik's responsibilities have increased at his Bible Study class.  It's been an adjustment as he is now responsible for preparing to teach the Bible passage to around 200 men each Monday night.  But we are SO blessed to be carried by Jesus Christ.  He is faithful and good.  We trust Him to provide all we need.

I wish I had pictures of the kids, but it's been a busy/gross/disgusting month.  So, I don't.  But here is a picture of the grammar lesson Luke did today!  He is learning to diagram adverbial phrases!  Oh, be still my English-teacher heart!  By the way - Luke is drawn to diagramming.  All the pieces fit into very specific places.  It is quite appealing to him.  Isn't it appealing to everyone?  ;-)