Snippets from Unschooling (#2)

Seven snippets from our life since the last time I posted - a week ago...has it been two weeks already?!?!

~1~

We celebrated 2 birthdays last weekend. Padawan and my Dad both share a birthday.***
 My parents came over for lunch and cake. Then they took the boy home with them. (It was his weekend to spend the night.)

My mother-in-law was in the hospital with breathing problems, so she didn't get to come. She has COPD. She's home now and doing better, but we found out this week that she has 30% lung capacity. Any less and she would need a lung transplant.


***I'm pretty sure Padawan planned to be born on that day. I was hoping for an Easter or Good Friday baby (which would have been just a few days before or right around my due date- can't remember exactly now) But he held out for 11 extra days so he could be born on my Dad's birthday. Which in pregnant impatient Mom-to-be time that equates to F O R E V E R. 


My labor sort of began around 3 am the morning of Dad's birthday. Since my doctor was planning on inducing me in two days anyway, they cranked up the Pitocin after I got to the hospital (around 8 am) to help speed things along. 


I was ready to start pushing sometime around 9 pm. Just to keep us in suspense, he drug out the drama until about 20 minutes before midnight . Yeah, I was watching the clock the whole time I was pushing- when 11:30 pm came around I was starting to sweat! The problem was his "melon" head was stuck  for what seemed like F O R E V E R. The doctor sent for the suction cup, but he finally popped out before they could use it.


Told ya- he's been stubborn since the beginning.

~2~

Padawan's public school friend came over twice this week. They traded some Legos - as usual.

They've been trading Legos and Hot Wheels since Kindergarten. Friend's Mom used to be against trading, but I've always kind of always kept a blind eye to the situation. Does that make me a bad influence? I promise I wouldn't let someone else's kid smoke or do bad things under my watchful eye. Really.

They also talked about the new Scottish Lego Mini-figures and have plans to get some to make some sort of WWII scene involving the Scottish Infantry. Once again, he's teaching me history. It's good to be homeschooled. haha

~3~

:sigh:
We have a car situation. Err...more of a lack of a car situation. We do still have an old Ford truck so we are not totally without transportation. But it is a gas hog.

Back in November Hubby was in a minor accident when a DUI driver hit him and ran. Hubby did manage to chase the guy down. Long story short. The insurance company total lossed our 1989 Plymouth. So, although it only has cosmetic damage- it also has a salvage title and is not street legal.

Right around New Year's, we used some of the money from that to replace the rack and pinion in our 2001 Dodge that had been sitting for about a year. Soon after the car started making a funny noise. Our multiple-award-winning-auto--technician brother-in-law had never heard such a noise and did not know what was causing it.

We found out over the weekend. It was the tranny. Yep. Now we have an insurable car that can't be driven and a perfectly good car that can't be insured.

We're weighing our options. Fix the 2001 car or find a body for the engine and transmission for the other car or....

~4~

I haven't mentioned that hubs STILL isn't working. So the car solution will have to wait. Orientation has not been his friend!
Once again. I'm thankful for my parents. We're borrowing Dad's truck just in case hubby gets hired next week by one company that looks promising.

~5~

I strewed pc game this week. Cold War - Supreme Ruler. Padawan and I played it for a couple of hours. He said it would be more fun if he had done the tutorial. But it was pretty fun watching him play.

He played as the United Kingdom (since he is on a Scottish kick this week). He raised taxes to 95% to quickly get enough money to build the things he wanted. Then I watched him try to make an deal with North Vietnam, but they couldn't come to an agreement.

I was asking question and trying to act like I was playing dumb about different countries' involvement in various wars. I really didn't know. He once again baffled me with his historical knowledge.

~6~

I also strewed a link to a math website. It's called MathMovesU. I want to hug whoever shared that link, but I don't even remember which of the several Homeschool groups it was shared in.
This is the first time that he has been engaged with any online math game.

He checked it out a few days ago and made an account. Last night he wanted to do school. (Yeah, wanted to do school on a Saturday night.)

So, he decided to play on that website. He had to answer some multi-step math questions to complete some of the steps in one of the games. (He was building a roller coaster.)

He asked me for help on some of the questions. I helped him sort through the information and determine what steps he needed to do to solve the problem. For the most part he knew exactly what to do. And I remembered how to find the circumference of a circle!

Then I told him it was ok to use the calculator to do the...well..calculating. He was a little leary and thought I was letting him cheat! I told him he was more than welcome to do the calcuations by hand if he wanted to.

Afterward there was even an inquisition (from him) about me letting him use a calculator. I think he thinks I'm a slacker teacher. :)

~7~

I'm still loving my job, and Padawan has been helping me here and there by giving me pointers. He showed me how to make a zip file yesterday. Where does this kid learn this stuff?

I'm setting up an Etsy shop for my sister-in-law who crochets. She's all excited. I'm also doing a pro bono website for her..just so I can add it to my portfolio. (Which is pretty empty at the moment)

______________
And there you have it. 7 Snippets from our Unschoolish life.

You can join up at Carma's blog, Winging-it.me.

Snippits From Unschooling

-1-

We've finally been spending some time OUTSIDE. 

Padawan has taken a (renewed) interest in Air Soft guns. He spent his birthday money on a new a rifle complete with scope. My parents were gracious enough  to let him have his present a couple of weeks early since the weather has been so nice and we all know it could get hot and humid here any time now.

Before and After

Unschooling Typing, Spelling, and Writing
A Progress Report...

I know I've mentioned before that I started suspecting Padawan has dysgraphia not long before I pulled him out of public school in November 2010. He is also not a natural speller. And forget about anything handwritten being legible, unless he takes a REALLY long time to write it.

Our Conversation About The Standards

My child is a riot. Sometimes I can't decide if he's trying to parent me, give me hints on how to parent him, or if he's just outright messing with my head.

Since we've been home educating, I haven't been following "The Almighty Standards" that had been drilled into his head from 3rd to 5th grade. I did look over "The Standards" (a) to be nosey, (b) to see what his friend would be doing in school this year, (c) to see if I wanted to plan any of that for the Middle School Years, (d) to see praise God for what I would not be stressing out over for the first school year since Standard Based Education began.  

Well, apparently Padawan had been thinking missing all the hoopla about "The Standards" in his new life and decided to have an impromptu talk with me about it.

(I can't remember word for word, but this is the general gist of the conversation.)

Padawan: (randomly stops what he is doing, sits at the edge of the recliner, crosses his legs, and leans towards me as he begins to speak in a tone that sounds freakishly like Ben Stein) Mooooom, you don't really like The Standards...dooooo youuuuuu?

Me: (trying not to laugh at the serious look on his face) No, I don't much care for them. Why do you ask?

Him: (in a sing-song voice) I'm just asking.

Me: Ok.

Him: (waits a minute for a dramatic effect) Whyyyy don't you like The Standards?

Me: Do you really want to know what I think about the Standards?

Him: Yes.

Me:  I think a lot of them are random. The Standards stress the kids and teachers out too much when half of them are repeated on the next grades list. The teachers have to teach you the actual list of Standards instead of just teaching to the Standards.  Besides, when you were in 3rd grade they were having you do things that I didn't do til High School because of the Standards. They should save some things to learn in High School.

Him: Well, you went to school waayyy back in the 80's things have changed since then.

Me: (appreciating him pointing out just how ancient I am becoming) Do you want to follow "The Standards"? I can print out a checklist, and we can follow "The Standards". 

Him: No, I was just asking.

I CU #6- Intensive Care for the Christian Unschooler

Its time again for the weekly meme 
I CU -Intensive Care For The Christian Unschooler

“This week we want to…”

Plank Pullin' - Rotten Fruit

Recently I read about a phenomenon called Homeschool Split Personality Disorder. I didn't realize there was a name for what I had been feeling due to my internal battle between my schooly and Unschooly ways and that other Mom's suffered from it too.

This school year, I AM doing better than I was when we first started Homeschooling last fall. We're only about a month into our "official" school year, but so far I seem to only suffer with Homeschool Split Personality Disorder about once a week now. Its usually not a big event....just an internal freak out with minor outward signs....

But, I had a major episode a couple weeks ago.

What My Child Is Reading – August 27, 2011

What My Child Is Reading – August 27, 2011

Head over to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns 

to link up to this weekly meme. 

 

 

 

I CU #5

Its time again for the weekly meme 
I CU -Intensive Care For The Christian Unschooler


“This week we want to…”

First Post Ever Link Up

I stumbled upon a fun link up! Its called First Post Ever Link Up.

My first blog post ever was a little introduction of myself. I wrote it not long after we began our transition from Public School to Homeschool. The purpose of my blog at the time was to tell my son's story. Since then it has grown to include ramblings about me finding my way as a new-to-Homeschooling Mom, and many rambles about my thoughts on Unschooling and Natural Learning. There are also a few highlights here and there of things we've done so far. Now that I've finally finished writing my son's story, who knows what I'll come up with to ramble about....

Click Here To Read My First Post Ever

If you want to join the Link Up too, you can find it here:     

Training Children up for Christ: First Post Ever Link Up

I-CU #4

Intensive Care for the Christian Unschooler

“This week we want to…”