Home Schooling

It occurs to me, looking over the postings, that I haven't talked much about what we have been doing HS wise. So here goes... at the moment we are doing a dinosaur unit. The boys are learning a lot -- I am learning a lot too! Jason (and Xander when he wants to) knows the meanings of words 'carne', 'herbi' and 'omni' as well as the verb 'vore'. They also know how the 'age of the dinosaurs' is divided and when it ended. They know the names and types of an enormous number of dinosaurs. Jason is becoming very familiar with the process of using encyclopedias and dictionaries as he researchs his dinosaurs. Xander... grin... well Xander is torn between his love for 'meat eaters' (This is Tyrannosaurus Rex, better known as TREX' he informs me) and his fascination with Stegasaurus ('He wore PLATE MAIL, Mommy! He had armor!). He is also delighted with the flying dinosaurs and he and Jason just love the idea that modern birds are related to some of those beasties from the past.

Beyond Dinosaurs (and we shall be ending that unit soon to move on to our next one!), we are also 'enrolled' in Hogwarts Correspondence School. This is a webgroup and what happens, simply enough, is that the HS parent 'renames' courses and coursework. So Jason is taking Arithmancy (Math), Quills (Handwriting and Spelling), History of Magic (History/Reading). Xander is also enrolled and is taking similar courses (grin). They both have 'mentors' (me) who write them notes and send them books and a variety of other items via 'owl post'. The boys' Nana has made them each a Hogwarts shirt to wear:> Now I just need to finish making them their robes.

We are also using 'English from the Roots up' to learn English/Latin/Greek. And we are going to start learning Hawaiian.

Enough for now. Boys are awake. I am off.

From the mouths of babes

Okay, I admit it. I find my children hysterically funny on occasion. This morning was one of those moments. Keep in mind that both boys are sick as am I and that neither Xander nor I got much sleep last night as a result of his bad cough... Anyway, I had asked the boys what they wanted for breakfast. Xander announced that he wanted Waffles -- Legos Waffles, to be precise (And Xander always is!) I explained that I didn't have any Legos Waffles, that they had all been eaten and that I would be happy to take him to the Grocery so that he could help pick out what he wanted. He looked at me solemnly, big brown eyes and little boy dressed up as a super hero (i.e. cape and a mask) and said firmly 'Superheros don't HAVE to go to the Grocery Store!' Then off he went, flying through the air to defeat imaginary enemies.

Fall AGAIN!

Well, I guess we know that fall is here: both boys have colds and that horrendous, chest deep cough. Jason woke up at 4:30 am with the cough. Xander is still sleeping but periodically coughs and yells. Sigh. And they were supposed to have their annual 'well baby' check ups today. Much as I would prefer to just cancel, the office has a policy about last minute cancellations: if we do so we will be dropped from their patient list so.... I shall take my two sick little boys in and let them cough all over everyone! Yeah, I am feeling a bit irritable, I guess. Lack of sleep and frustration with small minds are not a good combination.

The good news is that the damage to Xander's arm was temporary. (We had been playing and he started to lean/fall backwards and I grabbed him. Unfortunately I caught one wrist and all of his weight dragged on it. Poor baby. We called the doc who had us check to see if he could move it. Since he could, we iced it and fed him ibuprofen. We also had him sleep with us.) He woke up as happy as a lark and, when asked, said his arm was 'just fine!' Thank god. I spent several sleepless hours going over all the various hospitals we could take him to if we needed to do so (It being a Sunday).

So now it is a cold, grey, rainy Monday. Jason is playing legos, Xander is asleep -- though he will wake soon. And I am wishing for a weekend with sunshine and general health. Ah, for the return of summer!

Xander is a poet -- a strange sort of poet but a poet nonetheless. His latest contribution to the world of wonder was his statement (when I asked what he wanted for breakfast) that 'I want to eat the sky and drink the clouds.' Curiously enough, when I then asked him for flavors, he told me that the sky was vanilla and the clouds chocolate. Hmmm... I would've thought the other way round -- goes to show that I lack imagination, I guess!

Anyway, I am currently working on creating our homeschool tee-shirts. At last vote, the name Jason wanted was 'Dragon riders' academy' -- I was thinking something like 'Magic Minds Academy' with the subphrase 'Training minds one child at a time' Any suggestions? We are going to use Jason's dragon as our logo -- and allow Xander, the artist of the hour, to design the back. I am attaching a copy of Jason's dragon so that you can all see what it looks like.

Hugs

Jenn

What we learn from Dinosaurs

We are working on a dinosaur unit for our first project this year... and what has Jason learned? Well, here is an example:>

We were at swimming for the first time this month... the boys have a new teacher, Ms. Rhonda. She has substitute taught Jason before so when she saw him, she greeted him as follows:

Ms. Rhonda: Hi, Jason! Boy, have you grown! You are so tall. That must mean you have a bigger brain as well, hmmm?

(I think she was trying to lead up to something but...)

Jason: Actually, no, that is not true. We are studying Dinosaurs right now and the biggest ones had the smallest brains. Paleoentologists think that Gigantisaurus had a brain the size of a bean.

Ms. Rhonda: Silenced.

Ah, the joy of boys!

And what has Xander learned? He likes carnivores! Especially T-Rex. Why am I not surprised?