Lex: On Homeschooling, Life and Star Wars

Oftentimes, I will forget that Lex is a six year-old, because most of the time, he acts way older than that.  His vocabulary is amazing.  He is interested in older things.  He plays with Connor and keeps up on his level all day, every day.  He's very socially intuitive and aware of what is going on around him.  Most of his best friends are twice his age, and are going to be in middle school next year.  His other friends are Connor's age.

But every once in a while, he will get mad about something really trivial (to a grown up), like who got to take the suitcase off the conveyor belt at the baggage claim at the airport (I said I was sorry), and when I try to figure out what the heck just happened, I will have to actively remind myself that he is still only 6 years old.

For crying out loud, when I was 6, I was in kindergarten.

Then, when I remember that, it all makes sense again.

If we didn't homeschool, he would have just finished kindergarten himself.  But we do homeschool.  So, when he was four, and he was ready for kindergarten, we did it.  Then last year he finished first grade in less than a whole school year, and started on second grade.  So when I look at him, I see a little boy who is a second grader, who is going to be doing some second grade and some third grade coursework in the fall.  Because he is ready for it.  And most of the time, that's what he acts like.  Or older.  He's 6 going on 16.  Or 21.

He asked me if he could stay a homeschooler until he was old enough to drive.  I think he plans on going to college then.

Since we are talking about Lex (if you are reading this, I love you, buddy!), here is a funny conversation that he had with Daddy a few days ago (I wrote it down because it made me laugh):

Daddy:  "Lex, how many hours would you guess that you have watched on You Tube?"

Lex:  "One million."

(This is only a slight exaggeration.  I think.)

Daddy:  "And, what do you think of good verses evil?"

Lex:  "I guess I would say that I like the dark side because they get better colored light sabers."

(I didn't know we were talking about Star Wars here.)

Some Bug Art

This summer, we have been doing a little homeschool bug camp.  I have a set of 4-H entomology learning guides that spans about 4 years of entomology projects.  We are going through them and doing the fun parts.  Because it's summer.  We are also doing some coloring and drawing.  Here are some of our recent pictures:

A grasshopper drawn by Connor.

Grasshopper by Lex

Connor chose to color a firefly.

Lex colored a cricket.  

Butterfly drawn by Lex

Monarch Butter by Connor.  

Stay tuned for more from our little bug summer camp.

End of the School Year

We ended our school year here at Redstone Academy earlier this week.

We finished two more Magic Tree House books recently.



We have been going in order, and with each book we do a little unit study to go along with the topic.

So far, we have covered dinosaurs, knights and medieval castles, mummies and ancient Egypt, pirates, ninjas, the Amazon rain forest, prehistoric mammals, the Moon and outer space, Dolphins, cowboys and the old west, lions and the African Savannah, Polar Bears and the Arctic, Pompeii, the Great Wall of China and ancient China, Vikings, the Olympics and ancient Greece, and the sinking of the Titanic.
 
Here are some (photographic) notes (mostly for myself) about some of the curriculum that we completed this year, and my plans for next year:

Lex completed 1st grade Science, Math and Phonics.  He completed 2nd grade Geography.  Next year I'm going to order 2nd grade Science and Math, and 3rd grade Phonics and Geography for him.

Connor completed 3rd grade Science, Phonics, Daily Paragraph Editing, Writing, Academic Vocabulary and Language Review.  I don't think we are going to do all of these again next year for him, since we are going to begin a different English curriculum next year for both boys.  He'll definitely do 4th grade Science.

Connor also completed 4th grade Georgraphy.  He'll do 5th grade in that subject next year.  He's not quite done with these 4th grade common core math books, so we will work on them again next year, along with his Life of Fred books.  The Word Problems book is better than the Math Practice book, so we might just go with that version for both the boys from now on.

This summer we are going to focus on handwriting for both boys.  We are going to review printing, and Lex is going to learn cursive.  We are also going to review the Greek alphabet before we start our next Greek book in the fall.

Lex completed two-thirds of this book already, and both the boys are going to finish it this summer.  Connor is already done with his cursive book, and I'm going to get the same one for Lex.

This Spelling program wasn't very useful or fun, but Connor managed to work through two-thirds of this book this year despite its shortcomings.  I'm just going to use the last 10 spelling lists this summer as words for handwriting practice.

My goal is to focus on handwriting this summer, but to keep it easy and fun.  Hopefully by the fall, their handwriting will be clearer and more effortless, and then we won't have to worry about it any more.  A gal can dream, right?  Boys can have beautiful handwriting, right?

In which I teach the boys how to use a hot glue gun

So my kids don't really like arts and crafts.  They don't particularly enjoy coloring.  This upsets me, so I am always looking for ways to try to convince them that arts and crafts and coloring could be fun and amazing, which they obviously are, why can't they see that?!

So, I got this idea that if I taught them to use a hot glue gun, they might get more interested.  I mean, it's dangerous and it's a gun.  What's not to like?

And, I was right!  Basically, I let them have a low-temperature hot glue gun, so it's not quite as likely that they will burn themselves with it.  I explained to them that they could still burn themselves, and asked them to make sure that they didn't.  And they didn't.  But they did craft.



And not only did they craft, they enjoyed it!

This is a little campfire that Lex helped me to make while I was explaining how the hot glue gun works.

I made this bird, too, as part of the whole glue gun demonstration.



Basically they had a whole box of assorted craft junk to pick from, and they made these guys out of take-out cartons.  Lex made a bunny and Connor made a fuzzy monster.

Also, they made me happy.  The family that crafts together...crafts together again?

George Bush Library and Museum

While we were in College Station, Texas, we decided to explore the Texas A&M Campus.



And do you know what is at Texas A&M?  The George Bush Presidential Library!



You know we love these Presidential Libraries and Museums.  Connor is still really interested in the history of all the US Presidents.



So of course, he wanted to visit.  Since the dog was with us, and it was too hot to leave him in the car, I volunteered to stay outside with the dog while Kevin took the boys for a tour of the museum.



Tik and I walked around campus for about an hour while they were inside, and we had a lovely time sniffing all the flowers and looking all various statutes, like this one that incorporated part of the Berlin Wall.



There was also a nice rose garden and a larger-than-life statue of George Bush.

Tik sniffed so many flowers that all the fur on his face was covered with pollen by the time he was done.

Kevin took the camera inside the museum, and here are the photos that he and the boys took:





















They explored the whole thing in about an hour, and they seemed to have had a great time!



Before we left, I gave them some pennies so that they could make some wishes in the fountain.

Spring Recitals

Yesterday the boys had all of their spring recitals.  Three in one day!



First was Lex's violin recital.  He's been playing for about five months now.



Here he is with his violin teacher, Melissa.



Then we went home for lunch, and then we came back for piano recitals!



Lex played two songs, Happy New Year and Big Fat Frog, both by Bastien.




Connor played Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.





Here they are with their piano teacher, Jean.

The Tooth Fairy

So Thursday night before bed, Lex decided to set a trap to catch the tooth fairy in action:



The trap consisted of a couple of Pottery Barn chairs turned onto their sides, along with blankets and pillows and assorted sharp toys that one might step on.  Vicious.

But, the tooth fairy managed to elude the trap, and was successful in the tooth fairy mission.

The next morning, Lex came in and thanked me for the $5.  I asked him why he was thanking me, and he said that he knew I was the tooth fairy.  My response?  "In that case, honey, you need to look again, because I put $10 under your pillow."

He went and checked again, and then he came back to thank me for the $10.

He knew I was the tooth fairy, but he set the trap anyways.  He clearly understands how this game works.  We keep it fun around here.

In which the tooth fairy will be called into action

Today I took Lex to the dentist, and he had a tooth pulled.  It was a baby tooth that had been loose for about a month, but it wasn't coming out.  We were concerned because the adult tooth had already come in behind it.  Like a shark, which he thinks is awesome.

He let the dentist pull it out without any numbing medication at all!  He was a champ.  I took him home and let him eat ice cream, which he said made it feel all better.

Lex got new glasses

I offered to take him to a different place to pick out his glasses this time, but he said that he wanted to buy them from Wal*Mart again.  I was totally okay with that, because no matter where we go, if something happens to his glasses, there should be a Wal*Mart somewhere nearby where we can go to get them fixed or replaced.  Also, they have a great warranty, which we have used every single time.  Basically, every time we buy him a pair of glasses, he gets a free replacement pair sometime during the 12-month warranty period.

When we were picking out his glasses, he tried on every single pair that they had.  And he picked the same glasses he picked the past two times again.  I can't argue with that.  He went in with an open mind, and the ones he bought must just be the ones fit the best.  They look good on him, too.

These are his back-up glasses (from two prescriptions ago, now) and the pair that he just quit wearing.  His new frames are exactly the same.  The top pair is the most recent pair, and the frame is totally broken.  If you look closely, you can see where the frame holding the right lens has separated from the rest of the frame.  But both of these are already the warranty replacement pair for that year.

Here's to another new pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle glasses!  

Friday Field Trip

This morning I took the boys to see a David Holt performance at WTAMU.  He's an incredible story teller, who tells stories and sings songs, and he plays the banjo and the harmonica, usually at the same time.  Also, while tap dancing.  Also, while barking like a dog.  I didn't know it was possible to bark like a dog while playing the harmonica, but it is.  He told some really great scary stories about the Hairy Man and a witch, and he even played a washboard.  And he played bones.  They were rib bones from cows, and he played them like castanets.  And he gave all the kids a lesson on how to play spoons, so I imagine that the boys will probably try to do that at dinner tonight.

It was fun and entertaining, and I think it was educational as well.  Just in case you want to get a glimpse of this banjo-harmonica-steel-guitar-playing-tap-dancing-barking-storyteller, here is a link to a TED Talk that he did once upon a time:


You're welcome.

In which the end is in sight (pun very intentional)

Lex wants to have a huge party when the doctor says that he can stop wearing his eye patch.  He is planning to invite everyone he knows, and honestly, Kevin and I are totally on board.  We will throw him such a party!  The biggest party ever.  He has really earned it.  Wearing his eye patch has never gotten easier for him, and he has been doing it every. single. day. for most of his life.  He is currently wearing it for four hours a day.  It's like a bad part time job that he doesn't get paid for.

But.  But.  But.

It's totally working.

We went to see his eye doctor today, and with his glasses on, using both eyes, he is 20/15.  20/15!  That's better than 20/20!

With his glasses, in his good eye, he is 20/20.

With his glasses, in his weak eye, he passed at 20/20, even though his missed one letter.  He read one letter C on the chart as an O.

Totally huge news!  Totally great progress!  This kid can actually see!

As to his eye patch, we have an end game officially planned.  He is going to continue to wear the patch for four hours a day until he is about seven years old.  He turns seven in October, and the week before his birthday, we are scheduled for a return trip to the eye doctor.  As long as his vision is still good then, we will start the process of weaning him off the eye patch, with frequent visits to check his eye sight to make sure that it doesn't get worse at all during the weaning process.  She doesn't think it will, though, because by the time he is seven, the neurological pathway between the eyes and brain is supposed to be totally solid.

Hopefully that means he will get his epic eye patch completion party sometime later this year, or early next year, when he is seven years old!  Stay tuned.  Your invitation is in the mail, as they say.

Lex drew a penguin today and I love him. The penguin. And Lex.

Isn't he an adorable penguin?

In other Lex-related-news, he is now considering wanting a Toy Pomeranian for his puppy when he turns 7 later this year.  Also, he wants to name him Diego.  Not the penguin.  The puppy.  But Diego is a pretty good penguin name, too.

Some Drawings of Animals

A Numbat by Lex

A Penguin by Connor

A Moose by Connor

Some of the endangered animals I drew.  We were using the Draw 50 Endangered Animals book pictured below.  The kids didn't really care for this book, because the pictures were a little more complex than they were used to drawing, so they didn't want to do as many before taking it back to the library.

I keep track of the books we use for homeschool by taking photos of them on my phone.  It works for me, mostly because it isn't a lot of work.