Some Things We've Done...

My next blog entry I plan to post soon, and it will detail new things we're about to do (and some of what we've already started but won't discuss in this entry), new school books we got, etc.  But for now, some of the things we've done since the last entry....

Some Book Work Done...

Over the last month Jaden did spelling lessons and math word problems.  He finished the Gr. 2 math word problems and has started on the Gr. 3.  Trusten did alphabet flash cards but no longer needs to do those. 

Things We've Read...

 
We started getting our Weekly Readers in.  Trusten's came nearly a month sooner, so he's enjoyed four issues, whereas Jaden has just had one.  We've enjoyed our Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard magazines, as always.  The former one expired, though, so we didn't get a September issue.  Trusten has enjoyed my reading little children's books to him much more over the past few months.  His favorites lately are the Little Golden books:  The Little Red Hen; The Happy Man and His Dump Truck; I Love You Daddy!; and I Love You Mommy!  We have several Little Golden books.  The first two I named above were two of Jaden William's favorites when he was that age and younger.  Just as I had William fill in the blanks at the end of some sentences, I have Trusten do so.  He can just about read The Little Red Hen by himself (he actually does sit down with it by himself and reads it by memory).  He fills in more than I expect him to.  He gets ahead of me.  It's fun. 

Jaden went through all of his graphic novels about inventors that he got for his birthday in just a month and a half, along with most of his six Hardy Boys books.  I think he's working on the last one or two.  He usually reads two books at a time, because he keeps a book in the Suburban for rides, and then he reads with his Light Wedge in bed at night.  I'm so glad he loves to read, though!  :-)  He likes to talk about the nonfiction ones, too.  He'll ask whether I know such and such thing.  As for fiction, I try my best to introduce him to only kosher reads, and even afterward I ask questions about what he's reading. 

Things We've Louped...

A leaf-resembling katydid that got in the house

Luna moth, Polyphemus moth, four swallowtail butterflies, and stalactite or stalagmite

The butterflies and moths were really fun to loupe.  It ended up getting so hot and so dry for so long that the butterflies and moths started dying.  :-(  It was so sad, but we took advantage of it and collected them to study.  Now, thankfully, there are many flying around again.  The tongue of one of the butterflies was positioned nicely, and the hair on the moths was awesome!  Seeing the eyespots under a loupe was also a treat.   I wish I could have gotten the picture to show up better.  That other thing is a stalactite or stalagmite that Nathan's friend Dave found when they went into our neighbor's cave.  Looking at the katydid under the loupe brought out all the more how much it was designed to look like a leaf. 

Some Plants We've Identified...

Oak leaves, pokeberry, yarrow, and others

Some cutting and pasting still needs to be done on a few of these.  Jaden will do that.  I need to read about these things and add to the index cards, and then they will find a place in our plant binder. 

Some Things Jaden Has Done...

Constructing his homemade sawing table as Trusten watches

He's hoping to find gold

Jaden has been busy with outdoor activities, as usual.  He kept telling me he needed a saw.  I didn't want him to buy one.  He already has enough tools that are dangerous enough, I think.  He finally talked his daddy into letting him buy one.  Not only that, Nathan bought the thing!  So then Jaden set to work building himself a sawing table so that he can lay his boards to saw over it.  That denim thing with the duct tape on it that he's sporting?  Why, that's the makeshift tool pouch he made for himself.  He got the denim out of the rag bag. 

He was excited one night last week, telling me excitedly that he had an idea of something to make.  He wouldn't tell me what it was.  He said I had to wait until morning to find out.  He told me that he needed to go outside for a few minutes first thing in the morning to get some materials, so I told him that was fine.  The next morning, he zoomed outside.  Not long afterward he showed me his finished work.  He had taken sticks, a thick and sturdy ponytail holder, and a big pink bobby pin to construct a round goal on a stand, and then he showed me that it was for a game.  He had also collected a small rock, and he demonstrated his invention by throwing the rock through the hoop/goal.  I was impressed.  I sure wish I had taken a picture of it right away.  He took the thing to my parents' house when I made a quick trip down there to attend my sister's baby shower, and he left it there for my mother.  He assured me that he'd be making a new one soon, so I'll be sure to take a picture of it and share it. 

He always has new ideas of inventions and things to build.  He gets that from his daddy.  :-)

The other picture is of him out roaming the yard with our metal detector.  His goal?  To find some gold.  He also wants to find out how to make gold.  You read correctly.  He wants to figure out the chemical way to manufacture his own gold.  He is so funny, but he's ambitious.  Gotta love him!

Well, that's it for now.  I am already planning my next post, so look for it soon.

Until next time...

Leaf Project, Money Matters, and the Start of TSAP

In the bible, we are two thirds of the way through Isaiah, and as always, we're reading a chapter of Proverbs each day.

We went to a family reunion (my dad's family) the evening of July 18th to mid-day the next day. The reunion was at my aunt's bed and breakfast that my cousins bought for her. It's like a huge mansion, and it has a game room. Nathan worked on teaching William how to play the game of pool. It's been one of Nathan's favorites since he was a young child. He always loved to play with the old men in his hometown. And he's plays well. :-) I've included a picture. I also have included one of the pictures from Will's swimming lessons. His instructor was teaching him how to float in the picture.

Will painted a picture a week ago, and he got the brilliant idea of spending some of his money on a frame so that the picture could be framed and hung in their bedroom. I thought that was a wonderful idea. Doesn't it look great on his bright green wall?

We are about to start the Leaf Project. I have decided we will put aside our outdoors time on Thursdays to work on our plant identification. I bought a green binder, a package of colored card stock (beautiful shades of red, blue, yellow, and green), a pack of large index cards, and some plastic sheet protectors. We'll collect leaves (and other identifiers, such as fruit, seeds, or whatever) and identify the plant. We're going to start out pressing the leaves, and if that glueing them to the card stock doesn't work well, we'll start scanning and printing copies of the leaves. Then, we'll talk about the plants together, and I'll have Will tell me things like whether the leaves are palmate or pinnate, what the leaf pattern is, etc. I'll write these things down on the index card after the name of the plant and include whether it is a source of food and/or drug, whether it is poisonous, and any other important information. Next, Will will paste the index card to the bottom of the card stock, and finally I'll glue/paste the leaf and insert the page into one of the sheet protectors inside the binder.

I wanted a nice cover for the binder, so I found an image of leaves and printed them on sticky paper. I chose the black walnut, because we have a lot of black walnuts in this area, and it is a good food source. (We also have a lot cedars up here, and though juniper berries are edible, those aren't as tasty or beneficial as the walnuts.) I almost chose oak, because I love oak, and acorns are edible in small amounts, too. I'm really pleased with the walnut branch cover, though. :-)

I am scheduling my days in a planner, because I need to work on time management. I've been doing a poor job of it. I'm pleased that it's helping me get more done and also helping to have more peace in the home. I'm also getting to read more, and I've had a hard time getting books read in a decent amount of time over the past few years. Right now, I'm reading The Firstborn Advantage. I've been fascinated with birth order, among all my other interests in physical and spiritual genetics and family dynamics. I've been led to write about family and show how our relationships in physical human families are parallel in many ways to our relationships in the Spiritual Family of God. One of the things I've been shown and have been led to write about is the importance of the firstborn child and more specifically a firstborn son (though people can lose their firstborn rights and not even act like firstborns). So, when I saw this book, it jumped out at me, especially since I'm a firstborn child myself. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I'm reading things I already know, but I'm learning new things, too.

Will is getting a break from most of his school work now. We are going to be working on the Leaf Project on Thursdays, and in the afternoons on most days we are going to be spending a little time on his learning time and money. He's going to learn more responsibility so that he can earn a good regular allowance, and he's going to learn how to tithe, save, and spend. He is going to pick someone or an organization of his choice to help with his tithe, his savings money is going into an envelope that will go into our safe, and he'll have his vacation money for the feasts (it'll be like his feast tithe, since I'm going to be having him do 10 percent for his savings, too), and his spending money will be kept in his piggy bank and his wallet.

I started TSAP--Torturous Solanaceae Abstinence Program--which is what I've named my two month experimental abstinence from all plants in the Solanaceae family. I started going without yesterday--July 27, and even though I'd already cut back, now that I've set a date to stop eating it, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes look and sound that more appetizing to me, which is why I've named the experiment what I have.

I read a book to the boys after lunch and before we go outside. Then after we come in, I let Will read to me a Rocket Readers book and then work on time or money. I also sit down with Trusten and look at a book with him that works on one of the basic things like counting, alphabet, colors, shapes, etc.

Well, that's it for now.