February 18, 2009
I’ve been silent the last two weeks. Week one I was helping Steve prep for the NY Comicon. Week two I spent every evening on the phone letting everyone know about my pregnancy. I was supposed to get back on the wagon this week, and I have no excuse for waiting till Wednesday, other than sheer laziness, compounded by the fact that our AirPort has been really buggy lately. Not having internet on my laptop makes daily updating a bit of a drag. On a regular, password free network it mostly works, but is often slow and kicks me of for no reason rather frequently. With a password protected wireless connection, it accepts my password, but tells me there’s an error joining the network. Our other option is to directly wire in, which involves switching the cord from the cable router and resetting the router, but that means stealing the internet away from Steve. To make it even brighter, the cord won’t reach anywhere where I am actually comfortable sitting. All could be solved with a splitter and a longer cord, I just keep forgetting to actually go out and get it or order it.
Anyway, rather than recap the last two weeks I will tell you the big things I have learned:
1) When you’re pregnant and more tired than usual, it’s easier to let some things slip. We started out with really long days of learning (too long really), and have now whittled it down to 4 hours of actual instruction (not counting snacks, lunch, or Rocket Boy’s choose-and-do time).
2) My kid really hates writing and really loves science and math. I need to do some more research. A while ago I was reading about brain development and how our language centers don’t begin to mature to really handle symbolic language until after we’re 7. Despite this it has been ingrained in us, as individual parents and systemically in our schools, that early reading is a sign of advanced intelligence. Seeing my child, with his highly advanced vocabulary and comprehension, struggle with the act of writing, has me wanting to delve more into those studies. I’m experimenting some oblique strategies to help him with fine motor writing skills that don’t involve writing actual letters.
3) His disposition has turned dramatically. He used to spend a lot of time acting aggressively towards others with lots of punches and kicks and shoves. Now he is calmer, more polite, and is more likely to hug than punch. I attribute the change in part to his activity level. He spends the day moving around, not being told to sit at his table. That means less unspent energy needing to go somewhere, anywhere. He also spends the day with me not tolerating his aggressive movements, and gently reminding him that if he really needs more touching (part of his sensory integration issues) he can always ask me for a hug or a squeeze. He is the huggingest kid these days. Pair that with him regularly hugging me so he can whisper into my belly at his new sibling, and I’ve been a melting puddle these days.
4) This week mid-winter break for the public schools so we’re taking it easy and filling our week with field trips and play dates: NY Hall of Science for Engineer’s Day, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, tomorrow Museum of Natural History. Friday we’ll stay home and do regular school stuff and tennis in the afternoon. Saturday Steve is taking him to the NY hall of Science again. It’s a week full of experiential learning and very few worksheets. We’re having a blast.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Ending on a good note
Friday, January 30, 2009
After dropping Hypersteve at his studio, Rocket Boy and I did a lightning strike on the grocery store. We’ve never gotten our groceries that fast. I was thrilled, because after losing so much teaching time yesterday, I really didn’t want to lose much today.
After we got home and ate a bit, we settled into our workbooks. Rocket Boy whizzed through an entire chapter of activities in his math book. He was on a roll and didn’t want to stop. The lessons were really simple, and honestly below him, from the kindergarten workbook he used when he was in school last fall. After seeing him move through those, I am doubly glad he’s not in school anymore. He’s really stuck in an in between place grade-wise. He’s got too many skills that K just bores him, but not enough skills to handle everything in 1st grade. As a result I’m following a basic 1st grade curriculum for him with some modifications. Some of the stuff he flies through, and other stuff still needs the kindergarten touch. My hope is that by the summer, we’ve achieved all the 1st grade goals. That way in the fall, if we choose to send him to school, he’s ready for 2nd grade. I don’t know if we’re going to enroll him or not. All I do know is that we have some major life changes coming up – this summer I hope we’ll be living somewhere that’s *not here.* I don’t know where that will be yet, but hopefully it will be in a place with abundant natural beauty, property for me to garden and Rocket Boy to roam, and good schools so we have that option if we need it, plus progressive wonderful people. Wish us luck.
After the mathstravaganza, we read Rocket Boy’s new favorite book, The Three Samurai Cats, and worked on adding more words to his word box. He was impatient and I was tired so we were both glad when it was time to leave for tennis. That class is a nice way to cap our week. It gives finality to the school week and marks the beginning of the weekend on a good, energetic note.
After dropping Hypersteve at his studio, Rocket Boy and I did a lightning strike on the grocery store. We’ve never gotten our groceries that fast. I was thrilled, because after losing so much teaching time yesterday, I really didn’t want to lose much today.
After we got home and ate a bit, we settled into our workbooks. Rocket Boy whizzed through an entire chapter of activities in his math book. He was on a roll and didn’t want to stop. The lessons were really simple, and honestly below him, from the kindergarten workbook he used when he was in school last fall. After seeing him move through those, I am doubly glad he’s not in school anymore. He’s really stuck in an in between place grade-wise. He’s got too many skills that K just bores him, but not enough skills to handle everything in 1st grade. As a result I’m following a basic 1st grade curriculum for him with some modifications. Some of the stuff he flies through, and other stuff still needs the kindergarten touch. My hope is that by the summer, we’ve achieved all the 1st grade goals. That way in the fall, if we choose to send him to school, he’s ready for 2nd grade. I don’t know if we’re going to enroll him or not. All I do know is that we have some major life changes coming up – this summer I hope we’ll be living somewhere that’s *not here.* I don’t know where that will be yet, but hopefully it will be in a place with abundant natural beauty, property for me to garden and Rocket Boy to roam, and good schools so we have that option if we need it, plus progressive wonderful people. Wish us luck.
After the mathstravaganza, we read Rocket Boy’s new favorite book, The Three Samurai Cats, and worked on adding more words to his word box. He was impatient and I was tired so we were both glad when it was time to leave for tennis. That class is a nice way to cap our week. It gives finality to the school week and marks the beginning of the weekend on a good, energetic note.
I’ll have a scoop of frustration and a scoop of delight, with sprinkles please.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I’ll have a scoop of frustration and a scoop of delight, with sprinkles please.
No, there was no ice cream had today. Today started out slow. Instead of starting at 9 on the dot, we straggled since we were planning to drive Hypersteve at his studio. We were just about to leave, and just about to leave again and again that I didn’t want to get anything started, just to have to stop mid-activity. Well by the time we dropped him off it was quarter after 10. We needed to return some books so I decided to make it a library morning, and do most of our lessons there. We had a play date scheduled for 2, closer to his studio than our house, and it’s usually so much easier to extract Rocket Boy from somewhere other than home. We went to the library near the studio, but they don’t open till 1 on Thursdays. Meh. I decided to head over towards our play date neighborhood about 15 minutes further, and go to the library there. My trusty GPS that kindly lists all the libraries was full of fail. I drove past the place where there should have been one, but no such luck.
Figuring I had no library luck, we decided to go back to the neighborhood with the studio to Barnes & Noble. I’ve been wanting to pick something up that was more social studies related anyway since we seem to have so little of that material in our house. Easy, right? Not so much. Apparently there is nowhere to park in Park Slope at noon. No street parking, no meter parking, after 20 minutes I just gave up. We headed towards home to go to the trusty library branch that is halfway between Park Slope and our house, and where parking is not a huge problem. Got there quickly, parked right in front, and was thrilled to see that the gate was open. Except they weren’t actually going to open for another hour, the staff was inside doing all the things that a library staff does before the hordes descend.
That’s over 2 hours in the car not accomplishing anything. We were both super cranky. On the bright side, I finally listed to the book on CD we’ve had in our car for ages: The Magic Tree house Wild West Adventure. The reader was a bit cloying, but I came to enjoy it and Rocket Boy seemed to love it.
Luckily there is a friendly café on the next corner, were we proceeded to sit, eat, and do lessons until it was time to leave for the play date. The kids meal, a grilled cheese on good multigrain bread, OJ, and a huge fruit salad that I happily shared, was only $4.00. We worked on basic phonics. He is still having trouble remembering the short U, but other than that he’s getting a good grip on all the sounds made by individual letters, digraphs, and blends. Time flew and we went to the play date.
This is a new person we met on a homeschoolers listserv. The mom was looking for a babysitter/play date for her son, Rocket Boy needs more regular kid relationships, and I’m happy to have grocery money. The kids got along famously, the mom and I got along famously. I was thrilled that there’s a boy out there with similar energy to Rocket Boy and a mom out there who isn’t freaked out by the roughhousing that boys do. I’d go in to more detail, but I am sleepy and drained and happy by how our day ended up, despite the morning’s horribly frustration.
I’ll have a scoop of frustration and a scoop of delight, with sprinkles please.
No, there was no ice cream had today. Today started out slow. Instead of starting at 9 on the dot, we straggled since we were planning to drive Hypersteve at his studio. We were just about to leave, and just about to leave again and again that I didn’t want to get anything started, just to have to stop mid-activity. Well by the time we dropped him off it was quarter after 10. We needed to return some books so I decided to make it a library morning, and do most of our lessons there. We had a play date scheduled for 2, closer to his studio than our house, and it’s usually so much easier to extract Rocket Boy from somewhere other than home. We went to the library near the studio, but they don’t open till 1 on Thursdays. Meh. I decided to head over towards our play date neighborhood about 15 minutes further, and go to the library there. My trusty GPS that kindly lists all the libraries was full of fail. I drove past the place where there should have been one, but no such luck.
Figuring I had no library luck, we decided to go back to the neighborhood with the studio to Barnes & Noble. I’ve been wanting to pick something up that was more social studies related anyway since we seem to have so little of that material in our house. Easy, right? Not so much. Apparently there is nowhere to park in Park Slope at noon. No street parking, no meter parking, after 20 minutes I just gave up. We headed towards home to go to the trusty library branch that is halfway between Park Slope and our house, and where parking is not a huge problem. Got there quickly, parked right in front, and was thrilled to see that the gate was open. Except they weren’t actually going to open for another hour, the staff was inside doing all the things that a library staff does before the hordes descend.
That’s over 2 hours in the car not accomplishing anything. We were both super cranky. On the bright side, I finally listed to the book on CD we’ve had in our car for ages: The Magic Tree house Wild West Adventure. The reader was a bit cloying, but I came to enjoy it and Rocket Boy seemed to love it.
Luckily there is a friendly café on the next corner, were we proceeded to sit, eat, and do lessons until it was time to leave for the play date. The kids meal, a grilled cheese on good multigrain bread, OJ, and a huge fruit salad that I happily shared, was only $4.00. We worked on basic phonics. He is still having trouble remembering the short U, but other than that he’s getting a good grip on all the sounds made by individual letters, digraphs, and blends. Time flew and we went to the play date.
This is a new person we met on a homeschoolers listserv. The mom was looking for a babysitter/play date for her son, Rocket Boy needs more regular kid relationships, and I’m happy to have grocery money. The kids got along famously, the mom and I got along famously. I was thrilled that there’s a boy out there with similar energy to Rocket Boy and a mom out there who isn’t freaked out by the roughhousing that boys do. I’d go in to more detail, but I am sleepy and drained and happy by how our day ended up, despite the morning’s horribly frustration.
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