Still Learning....

We've mostly done our regular things the last few days. We've been very busy with other things, too, so I haven't had time to detail things on the blog.

We are always discussing new things that are not a part of the books and activities I've been mentioning, BECAUSE:

1.) There are always opportunities that arise that are ideal to use to teach lessons

and

2.) William is always asking plenty of questions. I've discovered that he's a lot like I am in many ways. For the most part, I LIKE how I am, so I can't rightly discourage the way he IS, but this all has made me realize better how others perceive me, I think, and let's just say it's a major eye-opener! Okay.....so this is definitely an adventure.

For example, Sunday night we went to town, and one question led to another, so I started discussing friction (which I know I've talked to him about before), heat, and fires. When we got home, he asked Nathan about something else, though I can't remember what it was, so that led to a conversation. Last night (Monday), he was playing with one of his airplanes, and he started asking me questions about planes. I think it's about time for his first airplane ride. :-) But, anyway, he's always asking questions...and not just any questions.

William also has a rich imagination, and I had the same as a child. I LOVE hearing what he has to say. The other night, he started telling me that there is often a scroll that comes down from inside his body, and there are scissors that cut it, and it pops up out of his "door" (he's talked about this "door" before, which is at his abdomen's side) and pops up in front of his eyes so that he can read the words. He says it will tell him words, and since he can read but is not yet an expert reader, I asked him whether he could always read everything it says, and he said, "I have something inside of me that helps me read the words." He further said that after he's done reading the words, he stores them inside of his brain, and then the paper that he read goes back inside and is shredded by some paper shredding gadget he said he has in his body and then goes into a trash. The scroll (the part that wasn't cut) then rolls back up and goes back up to wherever from whence it came. (His head?) I asked him what kind of things this scroll tells him, and he said, "Just anything. For example, if Trusten was grown up as a man, and he didn't take me fishing, it would say those words." Hahaha! That didn't really make any sense to me. I asked him whether the scroll ever said that, and he said, "No, it was just an example." He is just too funny, sometimes.

He dug a "pit," as he called it outside yesterday. It's just a deep hole in the ground. He said it could be used for a toilet!

About a week ago, he strung up a "fence" with some skinny rope near the woods, and he said it was to protect deer from walking through the scrap materials, broken deck, etc. that is down the hill by the two rooms of the house that are still unfinished. I guess Nathan couldn't resist being sarcastic, as he said, "Yeah, we can hardly keep the deer out of there." After I stopped laughing, I told William that I thought he was being very thoughtful. Nathan then agreed.

We've had chickens laying eggs like crazy. Nathan gave half of them away. Well, yesterday one of the Aracaunas (sp?) finally laid an egg. None of those chickens had laid one, yet. For anyone who doesn't know, they lay green eggs. Well, Will went to collect eggs, and he came to show me the single green egg (along with the brown ones and the white one he had). He was very excited about it and said he liked it very much. He said, "Momma, I don't want you cooking this egg, because I like looking at it." :-)

A few days ago, he told he'd had a dream the previous night that Jesus took him to see God's house in heaven. He said that God had a lot of very neat things and very pretty. He said he had glass windows that were colored with red and all kinds of colors "like a rainbow." Earlier today he told me that he loves Jesus and he loves the Father. :-) How sweet to hear words like these. It truly makes me wonder who that "other child" is who is disrespectul and disobedient. It makes ME all wonder how God sees his children, including MYSELF sometimes....

Well, Will has been doing pretty well with most of his learning, and he did well on his second test that I made out and Nathan gave him. His writing still needs quite a bit of work, but it will get better. He HAS to work on getting his letters CLOSE together in one word. That's probably the number one problem. But, he'll get it. I have to be patient and just work with him. There are so many things that have seemed hopeless before, but with patience and effort, I've seen him turn the things around.

I'm hoping we can work out his 'l' sounds soon, too. His l's sound like w's. His r's sometimes do, but they sometimes sound good. Some s blends still need some work, but it's mostly his l's. I know that he'll eventually get them. He does stutter, too, but it's not too bad, as long as whomever he's talking to is patiently listening. He'll get better with that, too. I'm confident of it. I had speech problems and STILL struggle with my speech, and I'm making it all right. I'm actually trying to work on MINE so that I'm not causing him more problems. :-(

As far as listing what we did book-wise, I'm going to change it up and just give a weekly synopsis of that.

As for Trusten, I am hoping to succesfully teach him all his colors, shapes, the alphabet, and how to count to ten by his second birthday, which is in May. He won't sit still long with me and a book, though. William knew a lot more at this age than Trusten, as far as those kind of things are concerned. But, Trusten has talked in sentences since last summer, around 13 or 14 months old. BUT, a lot of people might not understand what he's saying. It's obvious to some that he's talking in sentences, and some even realize what he's saying, but they're not CLEAR. Will didn't really talk in sentences until he was 2.5 or older. They're all so different...

As for Nathan, he's getting ready to take a 1-day course in Dallas and then test to get his business and law license. He will be able to legally bid bigger jobs with that license. He then plans to go to Dallas again sometime (for probably a week) to take some classes on solar, wind, etc. technologies so that he can broaden his horizons, as the saying goes.

As for myself, I am halfway through a book called Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Kurchinka. So far, it's a good and helpful read. I have one VERY spirited child (Trusten), and another who is spirited or at least "spunky." I am at least spunky myself. I'm trying to learn positive ways to rear these very ENERGETIC boys, including learning positive labeling. I bought the book a few months ago, but I only started really reading it about 2 weeks ago. I want to read a little bit every day, but it hasn't worked that way. Always my number one reading priority is the bible, and I never go a day w/o reading it, and never a week goes by that I don't just read it but STUDY it. Everything else I read is a bonus. After I finish this book, I have to go back and finish another book I started last year, and then I have two more books lined up to read. I'll talk about those as I get to them. I'm probably going to be investing in a used genetics college textbook soon. I study and teach on genetics, and my studies are ongoing...

Well, that's it for today.