Entries Tagged 'boys will be boys' ↓

Today, Gamma and I played Mario Kart Wii until I thought my eyeballs would bleed.  Or maybe just during Epsilon’s nap.  But still, for a long, LONG time.  (I should add that I am a FAR better driver in real life than I am on the Wii.  Truly.  I’ve yet to drive off a cliff, or over a banana, or smash repeatedly into a guard-rail in an effort to turn around and move in the right direction.) Gamma has played this much more than I have, and loves to impart special tips that I have yet to discover.

So… there we are, laughing, having a great time (although I may or may not have swore at the ink blobs, and Gamma may or may not have repeated what I said), and Gamma pauses the game and says, “Know what?”  You’re playing and having fun,” here he leans over and taps me repeatedly on the temple, “and you’re learning at the same time.  And didn’t even know it!”  then he resumes the game.

Huh… wonder where he learned that?  Surely I’m not that pedantic?!

We are still here.  I am doing lots of reading and thinking and processing.  It’s all good reading and thinking and processing, I promise.  Just not ready to go into detail — the thoughts have not all been processed and are still currently whirling around inside my head.

It’s been over two weeks since we cracked open our phonics program.  And yet Gamma’s reading more than ever.  I’m learning to sit back and relax and enjoy watching the progress, rather than trying to instigate it.

Learning being the operative word here.  It takes time to learn to relax.  Who knew I was so uptight?  In the meantime, I’ve been crocheting.

Keeping my hands busy and out of his business… some of the time.

*edited to link to Nicole’s fabulous basic sock pattern.  I could never have come up with this on my own!

the pack will play, apparently.

Alpha is in London at the first ever TAM London event.  I’m practically rabid with jealousy.  But I’m trying to contain myself.

I had grand plans for the weekend — taking the boys out every day to do something cool and different.  A hike, perhaps a zoo or wildlife preserve, maybe a movie.  But when we woke up this morning, all they really wanted to do was stay in their jammies and play.

So that’s what we did.

I’ve done some editing as of late around here, to reflect our slightly less-schooly mentality (haven’t gone all the way, sorry JJ!).  Note the change from “teaching them to think for themselves” to “thinking for ourselves… all day, in every way.”    The reading seems to be rolling along just fine, despite my interference.  So, for the time being, I’m letting go of that.   I think Gamma’s getting more out of reading the instructions for video games, et al, than he was getting out of our phonics program.  Recently, he seems to be quite intrigued by maths, so we’re working on that more.  Funny to me, he still gets the numerals 6,7,8, and 9 confused, but he can add and subtract, and even multiply numbers much higher.  The concept is there, just not the notation.

Also, Gamma’s Lit Picks in the sidebar will no longer contain just our current reads.  Rather, it will hold only the cream of the crop — books Gamma personally recommends for other adventure-loving, thrill-seeking, irrepressible five year old boys!  As you can all ready see, we’ve been on a bit of a Roald Dahl kick, as of late.  We’ve also read Winnie the Pooh and attempted The Wind in the Willows, but neither of them have passed the 5-year old boy test!  Hopefully, someday, this list will help other starting-out homeschooling mums, desperate for good literature for their young sons — sons who are left cold by the current “recommended” reads for this age group!

things Gamma, Epsilon and I did today:

• read three chapters in Dahl’s “The Witches”
• read assorted other books throughout the day
• measured a bedroom window for curtains
• took the circumference of the biggest pumpkin from our garden (55 inches)
• vacuumed, Gamma earning 2 euros toward his next Bionicle purchase
• pretended a plain brown refrigerator-sized cardboard box was a castle
• played knights and marauders, Gamma and Epsilon shooting imaginary arrows through the slits in the box
• played Bionicle on the Wii (Gamma gave me lessons)
• looked up information on the computer about Bionicles and read said info aloud until I was hoarse
• played outside, some kind of made up game in which I am the Queen of Ice and he is the King of Fire (Epsilon gets to be minion to us both, running back and forth to serve our dastardly plans)

Things we did not do today:

• phonics
• fight

I had been planning on making my kids participating in TV Turnoff Week, back when I just missed the last one.  Although I’m not in the “television is evil” camp, I do wish the kids our family spent more time outside and less time plopped on the couch watching the tube.   I’m hesitant to establish any kind of ruling or specific hourly-allowance for the boys — my controlling nature is at odds with my desire for them to be as autonomous as possible from an early age and able to make these kind of judgments for themselves.  But I digress…the planned TV Turnoff Week…

The timing was off.  We had just returned from Scotland, the ease-into-homeschooling wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped, and I was smack out of ideas on how to make it a fun adventure.  So how did we compromise??

We bought a Wii.

We’re back, and ready to hit the books, so to speak.  Scotland was…. awesome.  Incredible.  Bonny.  Alpha and I spent a good portion of our time there trying to figure out if there was really, truly, a way we could stay there permanently.  We both know it’s simply not practical, but, oh!  In our hearts we desperately wish it were!  It was two weeks of relaxation, luscious surroundings, enjoying each other and the kids, and visiting with good friends.  And the bonus?  No internet.  Funny, I imagined I’d go stir crazy without it, but it was wonderful.  No constant e-mail checking, no blog updates, no mindless celebrity gossip.  I’ve actually been loathe to sit down at the computer since we returned home on Sunday.

School has started.  By the end of day one, I was quite literally re-evaluating the local schools.  Epsilon turned two while we were on hiatus, and has hit the terrible twos with a passion bordering on madness.  He’s turned into a screaming-hitting-fighting-whining machine.  And Gamma, well Gamma has perfected the fine art of backtalk.  And ignoring one’s parents.  And making glaring faces.  And blatantly refusing do anything that’s asked of him.

Day two was a little better, but it’s been a tough return to reality.  And let me assure you, we’re not attempting to do hard-hitting, sit in your seat academics.  I don’t think at this point it’s a matter of what we’re doing.  It’s a matter of me trying to establish a little parental control over the situation. Of re-establishing boundaries that have somehow disappeared somewhere along the way.  When did that happen?  Neither of the boys has ever really challenged us before.  Now, to have both of them doing so at once, is really difficult.

OK, enough complaining.  I’m just going to pretend I’m back in our cottage in Fort Augustus, back when I thought the behavior issues would disappear when they got home to familiar surroundings.  Imagine that!  I’m 37, and I’m still that naive!

the view out the kitchen window

the River Oich, as seen from our living room

canal-side, as seen from the living room

I’ll post a link to photos from the trip in a day or two, when I get organized.  It’s going to take some time to get back in the swing of things.

Alpha and I are sick.  Dog sick.  Feel like we’re going to die sick. Last week the kids were suffering.  Now it’s our turn.

The kids are ruling the roost.

It isn’t pretty.

It’s been a few weeks since I participated in the Well-Read Child meme.  Not that we haven’t been reading, because we have.  It’s 86˚ here today, and I’ve had one boy or another pressed up against me half the time, reading.

In this weeks bag, we’ve got:

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, by Eugene Field, illustrated by Giselle Potter.

• This has been reviewed previously on The Well-Read Child.  What can I add?  Beautiful pictures, wonderful meter to the poem, magical theme.  The combination is like a beautiful dream just barely remembered.  We’ve been to the Netherlands, and have friends there, and Gamma even has a pair of wooden shoes, so we’ve been able to tie in many other themes as well.  I’ve read this so many times in the past three days that I have the poem memorized.

Anansi the Spider: A Tale From the Ashanti, by Gerald McDermott.

• This is another favorite, with both Gamma and Epsilon.  This is a retelling of a West African folktale about Anansi, the trickster.  The pictures are bold and vivid, and the storyline kept both my sons hooked.  I had a little problem with the language — I kept wanting to put it into “correct” grammar.  For example: “He split open Fish.”  And, “Very soft, Anansi came down.”  But the grammatical structure, I’m sure, was intentional, to help make the story as much as possible as if you were listening to an Ashanti storyteller firsthand.  This story also introduced us to yet another tale of how the moon came to be in the sky, ant to yet another god.  While writing this review, Gamma came over and begged me to read it to him, and is now sitting on the couch, flipping through the pages, naming all the sons and telling the story back to me.  Although Gamma tends to be into longer, chapter-type books now, this has been a real hit.

Monsieur Étourdi, by Roger Hargreaves.

• Each week, Gamma and I will be tackling at least one children’s book in French.  This week was one of the Mr. Men characters — in English it’s Mr. Forgetful.  This series, in English, would be more of interest to Epsilon, but in French, it’s just a bit beyond Gamma’s level, so it’s perfect.  Even I learned a couple verbs and phrases I didn’t know before!  The story is simple, but sweet: M. Étourdi forgets everything: what he needs at the store, what he dreamt about last night, even where his bathroom is in his own house!  He is  given an impossible task — to take a message to his neighbor, M. Pâturage.  (Mr. Fields, in English, I’d guess).  As you would expect, he messes up his task completely, but all ends well and happily.  Not really a tale for a kindergartener, but if you have a 3-4 year old, the English version would be quite amusing, I’m sure.

We’ve got other books in the bag, obviously, but these are the ones we felt noteworthy enough to blog about.  For Gamma, the hit of the week would have to be Anansi the Spider: A Tale From the Ashanti.