Jaden is reading a Rocket Readers book to me nearly every day when the boys and I have our reading time together. He is doing so well. :-)
As far as the plant/leaf project goes, we've added gaura, partridge pea (toxic, good for nothing but beauty, I guess), goldenrod, pokeweed, and I can't remember what else since the last time I updated. We together gather the leaves off trees and shrubs, or we pick flowers with the leaves. I look up the info and record it, and Jaden scans the plant parts, pastes index cards to the card stock, and cuts and pastes the scanned pictures. Trusten just sticks around and observes everything. ;-)
Jaden is always bombarding me with questions, and there's no way I could ever record all of it and remember to post it here, nor would I have time. Lately, he has asked a lot about different bodily functions. Human anatomy and physiology happens to be among of my favorite subjects, so I can explain fairly well w/o consulting anything. He's asked so much lately, though, that I've almost considered going through the science book on the human body before the one on animals, but I've decided to stick to my plan, which is to start on animals when we go back to the books next week; and then he'll start the human body next, once he starts the second grade.
Last week sometime, he asked about fiberglass insulation (or was it cotton candy?). It was about one of those things, and then I compared it to the other. Anyway, I told him I'd try to find some videos on both. I finally got around to that today. He watched two different videos on how to make cotton candy, and I couldn't find one on the making of fiberglass insulation, though we did find a video talking briefly about how fiberglass is made, which didn't really say anything beyond what I'd already said. He decided to also watch videos on:
How to Make Bubble Gum (This we'd all already watched a year or so ago.)
How to Make Potato Chips
How Chocolate is Made
How Crayons are Made (I remember very well watching this on Sesame Street as a child.)
And
But, the real reason I finally got around to videos on cotton candy and insulation is because today he asked me about the days getting shorter and seasons. I reminded him it was because of the earth's tilt and revolution around the sun. I told him it would help to see a video demonstration of it, so I went to find a video for that. The video I found discussing the earth in motion is awesome. Jaden sat down and ran the video, and then he had to follow instructions to test what he'd learned. What a neat site. :-)
While Jaden was watching some of the "how things are made" videos, I half-watched while I sat with Trusten on the couch and went through one of our books on colors. I also had to dig a large splinter out of Trust's foot. I'm not sure how he managed to get that.
I'm over halfway through a book by Kevin Leman called Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours. So far, it is mostly good. As he suggests, I discard certain things. I'm seriously thinking about reading Crystal Lutton's Biblical Parenting again. I have it in my library. I remember it being a very good read, but I read it when Jaden was a baby. I felt like I was almost the perfect mother during his first two years, and then things started falling apart when we lost our second-born son Asher. Just when I thought I was getting everything back together, I had Trusten, whom has been quite a challenge all along. I've gotten to the point where mothering hasn't even been very enjoyable and that I feel more frustrated than anything and knowing where my own faults lie (as well as my husband's) but feeling helpless to overcome them. I think reading back over things like what I'm doing will help me. I think it already is.
I really believe I have to change myself before I start seeing changes in my children (and we used to say Jaden was a perfect child). I have to approach this as I did my marriage many years ago. A person can't change one's spouse, but a person can change oneself. Once that's done, usually the other person changes, too. I have to overcome what I have been doing wrong. That's not to say that I'm to blame for everything that is wrong, but I am responsible for what I am doing wrongly. I know Nathan really wants things to be better again, too. I hope he won't give up and will do this with me.
Nathan has cut down some trees and has been working on cutting up the wood so that we'll have wood to burn this winter, especially if and when we lose electricity. Jaden has watched so that he can learn, and he helped pile wood.
Jaden will be watching me work on some sewing soon. I want to do a project this winter (not sure what, yet, but I need to work on my sewing), but within the next couple of weeks I'll be doing a hand-sewing repair to a Boppy pillow. The seams have broken, and the stuffing is coming out. I need to get it done before the baby is born.
Well, that's it for now. Next week Jaden will start back on book work, and I'll be letting Trusten do art work. Also the end of next week is a Christian feast, the Feast of Trumpets. I LOVE that day. I'm planning for it to be the greatest this year so far. I'll talk all about that soon.
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