More about boys and forts

Toa of Boy has built another fort in a new location. This one is a sheet stretching from his desk, across the room to his bed. It's held in place by books and Awana trophies. Under the sheet his bed pillow is propped up against the wall with a couple smaller cushions on the floor in front of it. Two rows of stuffed animals line the entrance to the fort and an assortment of toys is squirreled away in the foot cubby under his desk.

Toa is quite proud of his new fort and enumerated for me the reasons his fort was a good fort. Here they are, quoted as accurately as I can remember them.

"One, it has a couch.


"Two, it has weapons, just in case.


"Three, it has a roof.


"Four, it has guards."

And once again, the fort must be slept in. This time at least there was room for a sleeping bag and for him to actually unfold his body and lay down. A big step up over the fort behind the living room chair.

King of the Ring

We did “King of the Ring” tonight in tae kwon do. The school is hosting a tournament on May 19^th, so we’ve been prepping for that. In tournaments, if there is a tied score during a sparring round, they go to ‘sudden death’…where the first point scored wins. King of the Ring is a game to practice ‘sudden death’ skills. Two students go to the center of the ring, bow, shake hands, and step apart. The instructor says, ‘ready…go’. The first person to score a solid body or head kick stays in the ring. The loser leaves the ring, and the next contender enters the ring. The goal is to be the last person in the ring.

I had been paired with a yellow belt for sparring drills to help her with her drills, so the two of us got called up first. Which I think was unfair to the yellow belt, because usually we progress in size and belt order. But the yellow belt was the tallest female in the class, so we looked evenly matched size wise. I pretty easily scored a point. The female green belt came in, and she is never a very aggressive sparring partner, so I pretty easily scored against her. She seemed happy to leave the ring. The female blue belt came in, and was much more aggressive than I’ve ever seen her. That wound up being a pretty good match and we exchanged several kicks without scoring a body point. Eventually, I got the point, and she went out.

That was all the female students, so the next person to come into the ring with me was an MMA student who was cross training in tae kwon do. He’s in his twenties, 5’11”, two hundred some pounds, boxer. But, in King of the Ring, only kicks score points, and his kicks are what he’s in tkd to work on. Since he couldn’t punch me, I stood a chance. Plus, I could tell he was trying to kick me to score a point, but without putting his full force into his kick so that he didn’t hurt me. A fact which I really appreciated, since if he did land a full force kick on my little self, he would have laid me out.

We threw kicks back and forth, but I couldn’t land a kick on his body; he kept blocking. And since he was trying to pull the force of his kicks, they were just slow enough that I could evade them. Finally, I noticed that because of his boxing training, he always kept his hands high, up near his face. I thought I could get a quick front snap kick in under his elbows to his low gut. So, I threw a fast snap kick in low….at the same time that he stepped forward….and my kick landed several inches lower than its intended target. Several *significant* inches lower.

Later, when he could talk again, he said it was the first time he had ever forgotten to wear certain protective equipment. I bet it will be the last time he forgets. I never saw such a large man go down so quickly. He went down and he stayed down. He spit out his mouth guard so that he could breathe. He tried to struggle to his feet, only to stagger across the gym and collapse again against the far wall.

I went out of the ring on a disqualification.

Facebook Friday

Facebook Friday....it's almost like "flashback Friday", since it's been so long since I've done this.

Once again, the point here is that I do reread my blog, and grabbing a few of my Facebook posts for the past couple of weeks lets me revisit some of those memories. I'm going to leave off the post date. I think that was just unnecessary work I made for myself.

• What's a good post-gardening snack? (Hint: it is NOT a salad. I'm all done messing with green things.) 

•  Dear Student Ministries, Toa of Boy was very disappointed that bags full of live earthworms were not sent home as party favors. He would have given some of them a good home. 

• There is, apparently, a big difference between baking soda and corn starch....even though they both live in a yellow box on the same shelf of the fridge. When one is cooking a pancake dinner and talking on the phone at the same time, one should pay better attention to which box one is grabbing. Just an FYI. 

• Even though I'm not prone to notice which yellow box I've grabbed when distracted...I *CAN* make corn muffins without eggs! Boo-yah!!! 

• My life in the kitchen is such a roller coaster of highs and lows. The terrible cornstarch/backing soda switch was followed by an egg-less corn muffin victory...and then I forgot to add the yeast to the scrumptious homemade wheat hamburger buns. Ah well, if the London Olympics needs a few extra discuses, I have them.

•  I know what we're doing for the first three weeks of the Amazing Race at Learning Tree next year!!! So pumped about this class!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Spelling and Handwriting

Curriculum Choices

You think its too early to be picking curriculum for next year? Think again!

The biggest problem with picking curriculum for next year....is that I want to be finished with the ones we're using now! Still have a few weeks to go in this school year though!

Sweetling's possible courses for 2012-2013

•  One Year Adventure Novel
(Sweetling found this one herself at the convention and is excited about it. We bought it, so this is a "for sure" for next year.)

• Formal Logic

(For Sweetling's high school years, I want to incorporate some elements of classical education. Sweetling spoke to the author of this book at the convention and is excited about doing logic next year. We're going to hang out on the waterbed and read this book together.)

• Japanese
(another awesome Sweetling find at the convention.)
• The World of the Bible: Matthew-Acts
• American Literature (yeah, we don't have a curriculum or a reading list yet. I'm working on it.)
• American History (led by the Jedi.)
• German (with the Jedi)
• Shakespeare (at co-op)
• General Science (at co-op)
• Spanish 3 (at co-op)
• American Sign Language 1 (at co-op) 
• Drawing (at co-op)
• Vocabulary from Classical Roots (We need to get back to this. I think I'll do this course with her, so we can try to use the words in our regular speech more often.)
• Algebra 2 or Pre-Calculus (I'm going to look for a decent, used Algebra 2 text. Then, with each chapter, we will pretest. If she already knows it, we're not doing it again. If she doesn't know the chapter, or is missing pieces, then we'll just do those sections. The Algebra 2 book I saw from A Beka primarily contained material Sweetling already mastered a few years ago.  I'm going to look at some books from Holt McDougal as well. We might need to go to pre-calculus to find some new math concepts for Sweetling.)

Sound like a lot for a Sweetling? Maybe. But some of these won't take much time per day or even much time per week. I think she can handle it and we'll scale back if need be. The important part of this curriculum is that she picked out most of it herself. She loves languages, and is so quick to pick them up, so I'm letting her run with it!

Toa of Boy's possible courses for 2012-2013

• Logic of English 

(I bought a course which includes spelling, handwriting, grammar, light vocabulary, simple composition....with exercises and directions geared toward the kinesthetic learner. The presenter sold me when she was incorporating relay races, scavenger hunts, and nerf guns into spelling lessons. )

 

America the Beautiful

 (This is designed as a one year history/geography curriculum....but I looked at it and we're going to do it over two years to give us time to read historical fiction and do cool hands-on projects. I like how each small unit includes a lesson overviewing that particular period of history, a lesson on a natural landmark, a lesson on daily life at the time, a brief biography of a noteworthy American, and a lesson on a man-made landmark. Each unit also has a hands on art, cooking, or building project as well as mapping and timeline activities.)

• The World of the Bible: Matthew-Acts
(Sweetling, Toa, and I will be doing this together.) 

• Finish off Elementary Math. (I'm going bookless for this one. I can't find a fifth grade math curriculum worth our time. I think we'll take half a year to finish off fractions, decimals, ratios, probability, and geometry. I'll use my Teaching Children Mathematics textbook from college to help me cover all the concepts in a reasonable order. Then we're moving on to fun math....like "It's ALIVE: Math that Makes You Squirm!") 
• Reading (Toa of Boy wants the opportunity to throw a pie in my face if he reads a certain number of books during the school year. Lovely.)


• Mythbusters: Don't Try This at Home (Unless We Tell You To) (Cause what is cooler for science than watching a Mythbusters episode, then reading a bit about the science behind the experiments, AND THEN TRYING ONE YOURSELF).
• EDIT TO ADD: Toa of Boy just told me he wants to learn about the human body...so we might be doing Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology instead. 
• Art by Deep Space Sparkle. (I just love this site. I want to be a bit more intentional about Toa's art, because he is so gifted. I found a great curriculum at the convention, but it was a bit pricey...and I think that I'm going to wait one more year before going more 'formal' with Toa's art instruction. Meanwhile, Deep Space Sparkle has lots of terrific lessons which showcase important 'building blocks' of good art.)
• Chess (at co-op)
• General Art (at co-op)
• Travel USA (at co-op)
• Phys Ed (at co-op)
• Lego Creation (at co-op)

 Looks good, doesn't it?

And finally, for the mom...(that's me, by the way)...I found a really interesting planning site at PlanBook.com. Now, if only I could find myself a robot, fairy, or brownie that would do most of the housework for me, I'd be set to go!

Tidbits from the Homeschool Convention

In no particular order, and without any cool graphics....things I learned at the homeschool convention.

• Walking on the skywalk might make us Skywalkers, but it does not come with a free lightsaber.
• For an active boy, creative writing exercises must involve terror and tragedy, and then be acted out.....with ketchup.
• Short division is cool.
• Through the lens of God's word, a "distractable" learner looks like this:
• Exuberant --Psalms 100:1
• Creative---Exodus 31:6
• Strong and Courageous--Joshua 1:9
• Enthusiastic--Colossians 3:23
•  Visionary-- Proverbs 29:18
• Inquisitive--2 Timothy 2:15
• Doers-- James 1:22-25
• Joyful -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16
• Worshipers -- Psalm 19:1-6

• A nerf gun is a must have on next year's school supply list.
• Sometimes a silent e is added to the end of the word just to make it look longer.
• Special needs children are expensive, but God will provide.
• Don't doubt what God has called you to do.
• Trust the Lord to open doors.
• Pre-test and SKIP chapters and sections.
• Don't push a gifted student. If she loses interest and needs a break, let her take it!
• Get back to going grocery shopping only once every 2 weeks.
• Give myself grace.
• Read the Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and The City of God.
• I do know how to spell erroneous.
• I do not know how to spell arrogance. (It's -ance, not -ence.)
• We need to learn formal logic and classical rhetoric.
• Using 'goes into' to talk about division is ridiculous. 
• Toilet paper and leaf blowers made the best sermon I've received in a long time.

And finally---

1. Enjoy teaching and learning
2. Find and memorize Scripture verses daily.
3. Remember my goal.

Forts

Toa of Boy has claimed (again) the space behind the corner chair in the living room as his fort.

He does this periodically. He'll claim the space, move a bunch of his toys into it, and spend several days crawling back there to play. Then he realizes that playing in a cramped foot and a half of space isn't that great, and he abandons the fort for months on end.

A little more or less than a year later, and he rediscovers his 'fort.'

Such happened today. Weapons were moved in. Pillows were moved in. A blanket was moved in. Stuffed guard dogs were moved in. A plastic banana was moved in. The fort was established.

At bedtime tonight, he draped another blanket between the back of the armchair and the stand of TV trays to form a tent over the fort. He took in his pillow from his bed, and informed me that he was ready for bedtime.

I asked him if he had brushed his teeth, verified that he had a pillow and a blanket back there, and gave the go ahead to sleeping in a tightly wedged ball of boy.

The Jedi came upstairs to tuck Toa in, and bedtime prayers were said to a stuffed arm chair. He did crawl back out for a hug.  I turned out the living room light, and left the room.

That was an hour ago. I'm assuming he's asleep back there.

If worse comes to worse, I know a great massage therapist ;)