The sun has returned to Seattle and not before times either! Everyone here in the Pacific Northwest was beginning to fuss and fret at the insanity of the weather. One day 70 degrees and sunny then weeks of hail, sleet and 40 degrees. Not pretty. As might be expected of such temperatures, illness has struck anew -- Jason, who is almost never ill these days, came down with a bad cold and Xander developed dueling ear infections. His cough was horrible -- is horrible -- a choking mess that denied him sleep unless I sat up (literally) holding him upright through out the night. That meant, of course, that I was denied sleep. Then inspiration struck. I checked and we had some Axid. Axis is a reflux medication. Last night I gave him Axid, along with lathering his feet in Vicks Baby Rub, and for the first time in several nights, he slept the whole night through with nary a cough. Hallelujah!
Today, well... today it is I who is the slug. I finally got around to checking the medication that the doctor gave me for my headaches. Turns out that the painkiller she proscribed is not to be used more than three times a week or it will create backlash headaches. Would've been nice if someone had told me that. So today I am suffering the headaches again. Good news is that I managed to get an appointment with a headache specialist for tomorrow. Maybe he can help. I do hope so. These headaches have been plaguing me for almost two months and everyone is suffering as a result. Even Tom commented that my energy levels have dropped markedly. Now is not the time for that!
But wait! This is a schooling blog is it not? So what about school? Well, let me see... Today Jason began learning Microsoft Excel. Yeah, I know. He is 8. Why is he learning Excel? Simple, really. He wanted to do something to help out at the Church we attend (and that is a whole OTHER story!) so I asked the Religious Education coordinator what jobs he might do. She answered promptly that there were two that she knew of right off: weeding around the buildings and organizing the library. Jason, ever the bibliofiend, volunteered immediately and vocally for the second. So yesterday, after Church, we went to meet with her. She explained that what she needed him to do was to log all the books into her Excel database. She wants to be able to search Author and Title when she needs a book. Jason was, of course, thrilled. Not only does he get to look through books but he gets to work on computers! As we were leaving he expounded on what he planned to do: Once he has mastered Excel he wants to learn computer programming with an aim to, what else?, creating computer games of his own! Myself, I think just mastering Excel will be enough of a challenge to keep him occupied for awhile. But then, I may be wrong. He certainly taught himself to read fast enough!
And speaking of reading, his reading these days is eclectic. He badgered his father until Tom dug up his old copy of 'The Hobbit' -- that is Jason's latest rabbit trail. In addition to the Hobbit, he is also reading through the "Horrible Histories" by Terry Deary as well as every Garfield, Peanuts, Asterix and Obelix comics books he can find. He reads voraciously and one of the most common refrains in our house these days is 'Jason, don't read while walking down steps' or 'Jason, please, close the book and eat' or 'Jason, mark your book and go to the restroom!' LOL.
Another recent, and to my mind hysterical, development is the 'adding' phenomenon. It began with Xander, really. One day, for no apparent reason, Xander started adding two to everything. Indeed, one day while we were in the grocery store I came in on the end of an apparent argument between the boys when Xander demanded of me 'MOMMY! Two plus Two IS FOUR, ISN'T IT?!' Puzzled I said 'Yes, I believe, under most circumstances it is.' Xander turned to Jason and said fiercely 'SEE!' Jason said 'I wasn't arguing.' Xander said 'And 1 + 1 +1 +1 = 4' and Jason responded 'and 3+1=4' and off they went, still coming up with ways to get to four. A woman walking past starred at them and then at me as if we had all sprouted horns. I just shrugged. A short time later, Jason came to me and said 'Mom, there sure are a lot of ways to get to 10, aren't there?' Uh, yeah? Jason has also picked up on his father's dreaming habits: he wakes up on occasion and spouts mathematical equations at me.
Then there is the zoo... I found an interesting book called 'How to build a miniature zoo' by Vinson Brown. The boys and I have been reading it and, of course, the boys are intrigued and ambitious. Now I admit, I sort of set this up. Months and months ago I introduced the boys to the writings of Gerald Durrell through his book 'My family and other animals.' The boys were delighted with that book and fascinated with Durrell's mini zoo of bugs and birds and beasties. Now here we have a 'how to' manual. It really is a nice book, I must say, and I am myself inclined to think that if we do end up in a place with sufficient space, a mini zoo of the type suggested by Brown would be a wonderful introduction to science.
So far as science goes, the boys' favorite subjects to date are: biology, astronomy, and chemistry. We haven't really done that much in the way of chemistry mostly because Mom has been lagging. The boys would be more than willing to do 'experiements' of all sorts if only I would let them... Again, space and my energy are the issues at hand.
Hmmm... what else? Well, soccer is over and done and baseball is upon us. I have found myself in the position of coaching Xander's tee ball team. That is interesting. I am rather frustrated with Jason's team and so do my best to stay far away for fear that I will open my mouth and make unwelcomed comments. I leave Tom to help out. He is, in this case, the more diplomatic of the two of us. I blame it all on these headaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment