Happy 11th Birthday

the best cakes are hand mixed with a wisk

350'F for 40 minutes is just perfect

20 minutes on a cooling wrack is a long time to be patient
torting with fig preserves is just the right touchCream Cheese and Lemon frosting, 1/2 the recipe, that is TOO much frosting

Pokemon games with friends

brunch with friends (we are all going camping next weekend!)

Brunch with Friends

Mountasia: NO LINES, NO WAITING

Okay a LITTLE waiting

3 hours of Go Carts

Dinner at Sweet Tomatoes
Mac Daddy of Gifts
My birthday was pretty cool

Happy 11th Birthday

k12 program suggestions

we had one start on time and one start late, because I enrolled one in May and the other in August. however we have never been told that we are behind, in hours in attendance or in progress for academics. when I work, how I work, and how much I work is entirely up to me.

I let the teacher know what I am doing, and loosely why I am doing it that way and they have been very supportive that if this is what works best for me that is perfectly acceptable.

I would double check in a live voice conversation with your teacher that it is really necessary for you to put in more than 6 hours a day 5 days a week.

as for solutions, I discovered for us, that if I read the literature during nap time (yes, my 9 year old naps occasionally) that we can talk about it rationally and I can mark it mastered that afternoon. It would be beneficial for penmanship if my child did more writing, but that is not a battle that I want to impede his progress. someone else posted that k12 recommended skipping assessments and they were confused that it would not be a good thing.

assessments are not to teach, they are to test if a theory was mastered, we do not need to take an assessment after we watch Over the Hedge to verify that the child listened to the message of eco-friendliness. the assessment take a lot of time and they only serve to check, if the parent feels that the lesson was absorbed, move on and get it done. there are lots of short cuts without short changing your child's education.

btw, we are at about 6% on some of our courses like math and social studies, but we are on day 4 of our weekend because we did work our fannies off to get this far, I am a slave driver, but I am not going to push to the point of mutiny.

Texting

my boys hang out with the kids in the neighborhood, so even though some go to public school, and some homeschool, we do not see them until after 'school' hours, but then they do run and hang out.

now backing up a bit, I remember in the dark ages before Wii and Internet, when I was a kid, we did a very strange ritual. we would go outside and play. I know, it sounds as barbaric as eating dead cows. but honestly, we did do this. would would play with the local kids in our neighborhood, they were out playing as well, getting dirty, scraping knees and possibly stepping on nails and catching virus's.

my children are free range children they are out visiting other children in the neighborhood until the street lights come on, even in this day and age. they make their own friends without my assistance in playdates and my supervision in who is sharing and who is enabling whom's (is that even a word) fragile self esteem.

now my husband will argue that I over schedule them with field trips, scouts and sport activities, but honestly, even last night, he had no idea where they were until dinner time (I knew that one was across the street with a B&M child and the other was two blocks over with a Unschooled child). But they were out there on their own making friends with the same kids that go to church nearby, that would all be in the same school if they did go to school (we have about 25% of these kids are unschooled or home schooled or charter schooled).

so it is possible that there are some kids in your neighborhood that she could locate and hang with, but I warn you, the cell minutes might start adding up :-) and oh do not get me started on the texting thumbs. (DS#1 had 612 text's this month)

blah blah blah

my children are typical kids.

they do not want to go to B&M school

they do not want to log into TXVA and go to school

they do want to play video games online all day and read graphic novels all night.

anytime I suggest that they complete a lesson, they have some bodily function that must be attended to immediately,

I am hungry

I am thirsty

I have to go pee

I am tired

blah blah blah

no, they are not motivated, no threats do not make them do a good job

I have put restrictions on them, on their electronics, on their activities.

I even resorted to changing locations on Friday, first at the Library at a table

then at home at the table

finally after 8 hours, I gave up and let them be free.

If and when I find an answer I will take out an ad in the Washington Post or the Chicago Tribune, or the New York Times.

I did pay off the 5th grader for completing 7 hours of hard core nuclear science on Saturday with a Shonen Jump magazine yesterday.

First Month's Progress

An excellent first month of progress, we are finding our way, Erik's learning style has definitely been influenced by the brick and mortar patterns of education.

He prefers the workbook method of learning instead of online interactive adventure and enrichment.

Math Monday

Math+ Yellow Path

Unit number: Unit Name

1. Whole number and Powers
17. Fraction Operations
18. Decimals and Equality
19. Algebra Thinking
20. Mathematical Reasoning
2. Geometry
4. Problems involving fractions
5. Decimals: Addition and Subtraction
9. Percents and probability
12. Perimeter, Area, and Volume
15. Data Analysis and Representation
14. Math Reasoning: Solutions
7. Integers
11. Coordinate Graphs

Kingwood Triathlon

Kingwood Triathlon... 100 M Swim: 3.2 K Bike: .8 K Run: 00:18:24

Today will be Fun, Right?

Today's To Do List:
Food:
Breakfast
House:
Fly lady
Scripture:

D&C 88: 78, 118, 127

78 Teach ye diligently and my ^agrace shall attend you, that you may be ^binstructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

• • •

118 And as all have not ^afaith, seek ye diligently and ^bteach one another words of ^cwisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best ^dbooks words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

Today's enrichment
Math: went to the bank, asked to make change for a hundred (paying for piano lessons)
he was to get 10 Ones, 6 Fives, 6 Tens and I asked him if that was going to equal $100.
her first question to him was why aren't you in school? and I said HE IS. she said, but he is right... oh, okay.. I have friends, they have six kids, they home school..... btw, he could open an account... HE ALREADY HAS ONE HERE, why we are HERE... it was definitely a good experience for him and she learned some stuff too. ;-)
Social Studies
Engineer
Art
Geology
Reading
Bridge

Training for Triathlon: 5 miles

Piano Lessons

Teen: Club Otaku

Scantron - Educational Performance Test

Before we completed the scantron for the second time I would have sworn that I had a gifted child, now I am just as sure that my child is perfectly normal, and my being here is more of a wishful thinking, and voyeurism. So be warned, I am really just a peeping tom.

I was sure that since he was so brilliant, that he had to be like really really gifted smart. A/B honor roll his whole life, and I mean every single quarter. above commendable performance on all those state mandated tests. Just brilliant I tell you, just brilliant. but the scan tron kicked his little 10 year old tush all over the house. (he tried in the school room, he retook it in the dining room. no joy.)

So instead of the nature arguement, I am going to have to put my poker chips down on the nurture and try to have him rise to the level of expectations, because otherwise he is going to be down there at Tacobell asking "do you want queso with that ma'am".

I am not so sure how I feel about giving birth to 5 normal children. I was just so sure that the first ones were brilliant (IQ of 142 and 143) but nope, they were just normal. nothing unusual, no nobel in our future.

I think he is pretty amazing, even if it is just that he was reading 8th grade books in the 3rd grade. Today he can read Twilight in Norwegian, for fun. see... there are these little sparks that keep my on the edge of the illusion, just enough to say, just wait, he will get his powers, he is a late bloomer.

science

taxonomy lessons

Reading is Fun

My Side of the Mountain
Author: George, Jean Craighead
810L

Pages: 177

Charlotte's Web
Author: White, E.B.

680L
Pages: 184

Twilight
Author: Meyer, Stephenie

720L
Pages: 498

Homemade Sweet Cinnamon Rolls

Soft , Tasty and Delicious

Warm and Fresh
Homemade and really really good.

New School Year

Report Card

Memorial city ice skating

Txva kickoff fun