Update

As I was chopping up the strawberries to freeze them, I forgot to save some whole. This means I will live another year in ignorance of the joys of a frozen strawberry on a hot summer day. We sure are enjoying the strawberry shortcake!!

I have been over my business finances every which way and could not find a way to pay for pool membership without another student. Then I asked Sam which he would choose, more time with his mom or pool membership. He chose more time with me without pause. Since neither Dwight or I are much for the water, I guess Sam's the same way. So here I was working hard to give my son something he really wasn't that thrilled about anyway (communication is huge, isn't it?).

Now, what is my summer going to look like? That is the next big question. Light school work, more free time...I guess I don't have to plan it out really, just be ready to do or go when opportunities arise.

We drove over to Virginia Beach today to get free library cards. If you count gas, I'm thinking the cards cost us about $10 and 2 hours of time. Why would we want library cards for a library too far away to visit? Free Rosetta Stone access. We can access 25 different languages free through their website!! I had Sam and I both get a card because I am thinking of dabbling in it, too. Sam wants to learn spanish and who knows what else. Since it is free--we can "play" around however much we feel like it!! City life does have its benefits, I guess.

We have some history reading to do and not much else. The Wendys that is nearby is calling my name and suggesting frosties be purchased...Hope you all are having great weeks.

Strawberry Picking

Sam and I went strawberry picking today with a group of home schoolers. It was fun. We now have 2 baskets of strawberries to do something with...Dwight will make strawberry shortcake. I want to freeze some to eat like Sabrina suggested one time (just plain and eat while frozen). I think we'll make some strawberry milkshakes, too. Any suggestions?

A ten year old has a lot of power. This one has the power to make a single chore last FOREVER. He can make redoing a math problem last a week. Right now he is under the "no WOW until your math final is corrected," and he is willing to put it off tomorrow (playing something else must be on his mind). Do you think he'll be more willing tomorrow? The training of diligence isn't necessary for children who already have the quality. Sometimes I think my training consists too much of "Get back to work" instead of allowing him to waste his day and suffer the consequences. My annoyance gets in the way of good training and I succumb to the temptation to whine him into high gear. This does not teach him to work diligently, but only teaches him to dawdle until he hears the "mom whine" again.

Dwight turned 46 on Thursday. He picked out a gift that I was incapable of buying for him (for editing video on his computer), so he went and bought it himself. This didn't feel like a present from Sam and me, so we tried to give him a "Dwight Weekend." We did yard work and housework that he normally does on weekends and so he had time to go for a bike ride and play games on his computer. We also conspired with some friends of ours to give him a surprise cake. After church on Saturday night we went to their house to talk about something serious, but instead we had a Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake and played a party game. Dwight was totally surprised and it was lots of fun.

If you don't know what Cold Stone Ice Cream is, I'll take you there next time you visit. It is gourmet ice cream and they mix yummy stuff in while you watch.

Really looking forward to a lighter summer schedule (with mostly independent work).

Keep some old stuff

I do follow the FLY lady and try to get rid of clutter. I think that when my house is cluttered it dampens my happiness. But I also think it is possible to go too far the other way.

When I was in college I bought this little calculator that could also do some BASIC programming. It was very small and powerful enough for the engineering classes I was taking. Then I bought the printer/microcassette add-on for it. Now I could save my programs on the microcassette and print them out on thermal paper. It was as much a toy and gimmick as it was helpful. It was rather quickly outdated, but it was my first pda.

I never got rid of it mainly because it is so cute and small enough to stick in a corner of a closet. It made me smile when I saw it (so it wasn't weighing me down). When Sam saw it a few years ago he was hooked, but not old enough to really understand it.

But recently his babysitter showed him how to get to a dos command prompt and change directories. He was playing with this like with joy and enthusiasm even tho not much was happening. He was thrilled when he remembered the exact right key sequences.

This made me realize he was ready to learn BASIC so last night I got it back out and he and I wrote a program to calculate the area of a circle when the radius is inputed. He was so excited. This morning with me just showing him where to find information in a book and teaching him the basics of BASIC he wrote a program that generated a dice throw and then a random number from 1 to 100. We also tested the INT(a) command which we found in his pre-algebra book. It worked.

Dwight is looking to find a BASIC platform for Sam's computer that he can truly explore a more modern version of BASIC and I will be trying to find a book that teaches it to him. I don't think I'll have to do anything--I think the boy will run with this faster than I can keep up.

Sam still prefers to play computer games than read. He does his school because playing a computer game is his reward. And yet, his love of learning is back, too. He drinks in anything we talk about. Last night it was how the brain sends messages (electricity and chemical reactions). He took that thought and really got imaginitive with it. He spent the evening picking up signals from one neuron and sending them along to another.

Yesterday Dwight took the day off to see an opthamologist about his cataract. It has grown a lot since the eye doctor saw it (which was four months ago). This doctor thinks that it will need to be taken care of in about three months. Sam went with him (I was testing a student) and so he had a field trip and learned about eyes. He got to see his dad's eye up close with some kind of magnifier.

With that visit, the discussion about the brain and the programming late at night--yesterday was definitely an unschooling day!! There is no way I could relax if that was the way I did all school, but I certainly can see the value of that kind of learning. Since it is child directed you have an eager student. With a mind like Sam's there are so many thing he is curious about. But with my work schedule we can't just up and run to the library whenever his curiosity hits. And to do it well I think all "mindless" entertainment like television, computer games that are not educational, etc. would need to be removed or severely limited.

But combining formal learning with an unschooling spirit seems to work well for us.

As we wrap up this school year, I am looking to what we'll do next year. Here it is so far:

SonLight 5 Eastern Hemisphere
SonLight 5 Language Arts (which goes with same literature)
Algebra 1 (which we'll start this summer)
Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science (finish)
Aplogia Exploring Creation with Physical Science (after above is finished)
Rosetta Stone Latin (finish)--then move to Rosetta Stone Spanish maybe

and maybe continue with Easy Grammar Plus (it depends on what SonLight 5 Language Arts looks like).

Personal news:

We are now advocates for our friends the Lott's who are heading back to Africa this summer. We have come to love them deeply this past year. They will be in the process of moving from Botswana to Zambia when they first return, but don't know where in Zambia. That is their first job when they return--to pick which of two places to go in Zambia.

Summer is still up in the air. Waiting for schedules to be set and get a final answer from some potential students. I will continue working with my first grader. I will be tutoring my neighbor's daughter in algebra. I have a potential NILD student from a recommendation by her neighbor (my church friend). Another first grader may switch to me or continue with her current therapist (I give than less than 50% chance). Another person gave my name to a family who's son needs math tutoring, but haven't heard anything. So things are normal. I won't know anything until beginning of summer--anther opportunity to trust God (he's my boss, financial advisor and schedule problem solver--pretty much CEO and behind the scenes fixer of all problems!)

Is my house cleaning itself?

Now I'm not saying my house is spotless. But it seems so uncluttered!

My house is not cleaning itself, but maybe this is even more of a miracle--Sam is doing it!!! Sam is doing a couple of room rescues every day. His room and his school stuff and he has another household chore each morning and afternoon.

How do you get a ten year old to do housework? Make it part of school! We are following flylady and doing a "home management" unit in school. My darling boy is passing with flying colors. He does his room by remembering the sentence "Super Wonderful Boy Cleans The Room" which reminds him to clean up Shoes, Water, Bed, Clothes, Trash, and Reading material.

I need an acronym for his morning routine, too because the child never looks at the list. I heard him recite that sentence and he has never forgotten any of those steps...

I love home schooling--always before he never had time to help because of his homework load (which I'm sure he saw the advantage of).

misdiagnosis times 2

Dwight's chiggers magically turned into poison ivy when he went to the doctor on Sunday. My tick bite ended up with a rash around it--I went to the doctor. No lyme disease, just an allergic reaction to the bite. I had one of my worst allergy attacks ever and canceled both my students and canceled Sam's afternoon class (science review).

Sam is trying to work out when to sleep and when to wake. I am turning this somewhat over to him since it doesn't really matter when we do school. The only thing that matters is that it gets done and Dwight and I get some alone time each evening we are home. Sam's top choice would be to never sleep or to stay up late and get up early. He can do that for one or two days, then his body won't wake up on the third day. This morning he slept as late as I did!! (AMAZING!).

We may not be able to give him this freedom all the time, but for this summer I think it is very doable.

My work schedule for the summer is already full. I have 4 definite students and 2 maybes. I am actually hopeful to only have 4 students. I'm wondering what my CEO is going to do about that. He takes such good care of me, I'm not even worrying about it. Maybe we're going to need the money and I just don't know it yet.

It is time to decide whether to join the pool for the summer, I'm leaning toward yes.