Unschoolin' at Sams Club

I needed to get my tires rotated and balanced and since I bought the tires at Sam's, I get that done for a small cost...free for the service, 2 hours of my time! So what does a homeschooling mamma do with 2 boys aged 7 and 3. First, she wanders down every single aisle, hits up the free cookies in the back, then wanders back up to the front of the store and feeds her youngins pizza at 10:30 in the morning. Then school begins.

Health Sciences Lesson (appropriate attire, relationships, cleanliness)

• I buy Pete his first basketball looking shortset (I dislike these personally) and Pete asked why the arms are cut out. I say it is so you can show everyone your sweaty armpits. Pete asks, "Why? Does this attract the girls?" Not now, not ever.

• I repeatedly tell RePete not to make dust-angels on the dirty floor.

Mathematics (Probability, money, measurements, addition and subtraction)

• What is the probability that I get to Sam's 3 minutes before they open and I am still 5th in line to have work done to my tires? Crap. I've disliked statistics since my professor stated nobody in his class gets an A. I got a B+. Poop.

• I forgot my checkbook and Sam's only takes Discover or debit cards. I cannot remember my pin so I have to take money out of the ATM. Quiz: If Mom takes $60 out of the ATM, how many $20s does she have? $10s? $5s? How much money will she have left at the end of 2 hours? ZERO

• Pete pleads for gum so I buy him the Bubble Gum Tape that measures 72 inches. How many feet of gum does Pete have? If Mom is 5'7", how many inches is that and how much taller is the gum? This ended up being a trick question because Pete had about 3' of it in his mouth already.

• RePete? There's 400 books in here and none of them are about Thomas the Tank.

School's done, now to go home and finish laundry.

~R

Baby Bison and the state of Washington

We lived in Washington from Aug 1994 - May 1996. I had just gotten out of the Navy and BN was finishing his tour in dry dock and at the sub base. Bangor sub base is a gorgeous base because of course it is in WA. Not a lot of cement, but plenty of trees. Glorious trees. I remember the drive up to WA from San Diego when we were apartment hunting before our transfer and I was in total awe from somewhere in northern CA through OR and into WA. I could see stars again and green trees and grass. I hadn't seen these things in four years.

Even though it rained 3 fricking quarters of the year, it is one of the prettiest states I've seen or lived in. Everything is so lush and I consider it an "outdoor state", meaning anything worth doing is out of doors.

We learned to cross-county ski in the Cascades, hiked the Olympics right after a forest fire, visited Mount St. Helens where even 15 years later the devastation was still so fresh, watched the people catch fish at the famous Pike Place Fish Market, ate at Benihana (the original Japanese Steakhouse mmmm), meandered through fields of tulips - did you know WA is a major grower of tulips?, rode our bikes for miles and miles and visited the Dungeness Spit. I'm sure we did more, but some of those memory cells passed through my placenta to my wee ones-gone forever. sigh.

I love the Spit. It's about 5 miles long and due to lack of interest on BN's part, we only walked about a 1/2 mile of it. Huge logs wash up on shore and there is driftwood galore. I wish we'd gone the distance and had a look at the lighthouse and the natural wildlife refuge - one avid hiker of the spit claims to have observed over 96 species of birds! I love birds. Maybe next time.

And finally, I would feel like I was depriving you of a complete WA visit if I didn't mention the Olympic Game Farm. Here you can drive your car through the park and interact with the animals. So we purchased loaves of bread and headed out and the animals were so friendly and they walked right up to our windows. We fed zebras, deer and American bison. This was a lot of fun until one of the baby bison approached my window. I dutifully held out the slice of bread and when he tried to grab it, his huge black tongue glanced my hand! I let out a squeal and flung the bread. BN and I shared a laugh and then I glanced in my side mirror. That seemingly harmless baby bison was now on a mission. Apparently upset that he didn't get that slice of bread, he charged after us. I'm yelling for BN to STEP ON IT!! and he's laughing uncontrollably at the situation and I'm rolling up my window praying the mama bison doesn't see how upset her baby is and come charging too. The baby catches up and looks as if it is going full charge into the side of our truck...

...well, dear friends of mine, it seems that when the baby tried to get the bread from my hand and licked me causing me to fling the bread, the bread was also licked and made wet enough that when I flung it, it stuck to the side of the truck. Poor baby wasn't charging us, he just wanted that piece of bread. I don't remember any other part of the park because every time BN and I looked at one another, we began laughing hysterically all over again. I'm glad that memory cell stayed with me.

Here's a picture of that ferocious beast (shiver). This picture is captured just moments before it all went down.

Jammin' in the car

Memory Bank 1993. Red Hot Chili Peppers, San Diego...good times,,,good times!

On the way to our Homeschool Bowling League, we were rockin' out to RHCP and Pete reveals his new talent. Before I reveal it let me give you a clue or two. He doesn't need lessons (I don't think?), he doesn't need an instrument and I think he'll be one of only a handful of professionals who do this. Okay so that is 3 but let me continue.

I'm dreaming of the day we sell our home and have the room for me to purchase a piano. I daydream about Pete and RePete sitting on the bench with perfect posture playing beautiful music much to the delight of all of our family and friends at Christmastime. I also hope I get a lesson or two so that I can play a song, something besides the theme from "The Young and the Restless" which I taught myself at the ripe old age of 7.

Or maybe Pete and RePete will go on tour with me and their Dad. Nevermind that our band will consist of 3 drumsets (the boys) and me on the piano or maybe the tambourine. I've been practicing on the Fisher Price one for years.

But Pete's talent doesn't require a piano and nevermind the kid size drum sets to jam along side Dad. Pete's talent is SNAPPING! He snapped right along with RHCP, to the vocals as best I can tell.

Now if you just can't wrap your little brain around just how cool this can be, take a gander at this video clip or listen to this guy. I just Googled those and can't wait to show Pete tomorrow. You know, give him something to strive for, give him a purpose. I think we can still make the family band work.

Healthfood?

While crucifying me for drinking Diet Coke, BN answered Pete's question of "what are the good foods to eat". BN explained that anything made by Mother Earth would be good for you and things that were man-made would most likely be bad for you - such as Diet Coke!

Pete then asked another (and I think one of his most profound) question, "what about girl-made foods?"

Which led to his next question. Why don't lions just use bottles instead of their boobs to feed their babies? I of course answered with all the ready knowledge of a Mother who breastfed both her boys - they lack opposable thumbs. ba-da-bum

Cocoon, Chrysalis, or Village

Pete is fascinated with the caterpillars that are everywhere right now. You've seen the Eastern Tent caterpillars and I'm sure you've taken a stick and pulled on the big silken "tents" in the trees and watched them tumble to the ground. I would never!-at least not since I was 9.

We talked about the life cycle and whether his new friends would become butterflies or moths. Do you know? (answer found at the bottom of this post) We kept one in a container last year to watch the process. Unfortunately, we went away for 3 days and the caterpillar finished his metamorphosis only to meet his demise in our tiny container. I shook the container gently as Pete looked on and tried my best to make it look as though it was fluttering on the bottom of the container. Pete didn't buy it.

Today he found several crawling around the limbs of a tree in our backyard and decided to give them a home. I'm always amazed at what my son can do with leaves, twigs and rocks.

They look so happy in their new home although I have a sneaky suspicion they will pack their little caterpillar backpacks and leave quietly in the middle of the night. Have I told you about the time Pete tried to reconstitute, I mean revive worms he found on our sidewalk? He really does have such a big heart. HAPPY SPRING!

The Name Game is Over

While driving back from art class today, I made the final decision on names for my children in my posts. You may have read my earlier post about Sweetie and Lovey. Here's what made up my mind:
Sweetie: Mom I have to go pee.
Mom: I told you to go before we left. We'll be home soon.
Sweetie: (to brother) I've gotta go pee-pee.
Lovey: I ga go pee-pee.
Sweetie: Want to use the toilet? (we are trying to potty train Lovey)
Lovey: Wa u toywet.
Sweetie: Let's go. Let's pee-pee in the toilet.
Lovey: (this is where Lovey catches on to the PT reference) NNNNOOOO! No toywet!
Sweetie and Lovey shall henceforth and hitherto be called Pete and RePete on my blog.

Lego Robotics Day Camp

Today BN and Sweetie went to the Eastern Shore for a Lego Robotics day camp for homeschoolers.

First, I have to apologize to BN because as he well knows, I am a Skimmer. I admit it, I'm in a 12 step program - I'm working on it!!

When I read the information for this outing, I swear it was being held just up the road and only lasted 3 hours. While printing the particulars for BN, I read that it was 2 hrs and 15 min from us and lasted 7 hours. He decided to go anyway.

To get there, they had to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel - all 20 miles of it. We took the kids across this for their first time 2 summers ago when we went camping with some friends at Cherry Stone. Since then, any time we cross a bridge over water, Sweetie asks if it is the "17 mile bridge". (I mistakenly said it was 17 miles long and it stuck) This question comes up almost daily as we can't avoid these bridges in our neck of the woods. So FINALLY he got to cross it again and knows what it looks like, so maybe the question will stop. But I digress...

The kids were shown the flight simulators and then paired up to complete the Lego Robots. Sweetie and his partner did great in assembling the robot. BN commented that the other boy was the same age as Sweetie and could read very well. Luckily, the directions had pictures but when it came to the programming, he needed help reading the directions. This has been a sore topic at our house. We both want Sweetie to read and we do all the right "schooly" things to help him, but he is just not interested at this time. I've been reading up on this and finding out that he is not alone in his reluctance. It is quite common and even more common in boys. My approach has softened and I have resumed reading TO him and I ask him to read some from our text Let's Read, a Linguistic Approach by Leonard Bloomfield. We also use Beyond the Code, Book 1. He seems to like this workbook and we take turns reading paragraphs.

My latest read-to book is The Boxcar Children by G C Warner. It's very old school in its approach to life and sentimentality's. Little House on the Prairie-ish. Even my 3yo sits on my lap when I pull this book out. It's 3rd grade reading level, but I think Sweetie might be able to read the majority of it - if he wanted!

The robot worked but could only go back and forth in one direction. BN said they had faulty wires. The boys were very proud of themselves, especially since they were the youngest in the group. You go Sweetie!

Let me leave you with a nugget:
"Schools place emphasis on [early] reading not because it's the best way to learn but because it's the most efficient way to run assembly line learning." Joyce Fetterol