catching up

I keep track of what the boys and I are doing as we go through the day, and am going to use those notes to form a slightly more coherent post every couple or three days. So, for the most recent few days of note:

9/10/09:
Erika and I encourage the boys to use their homeschool time for creative play, including toys and on the computer. They are both really into LEGOs, both IRL and in LEGO's software program called Digital Designer. LEGO has a Bionicle-creating contest coming up, and Adon has been working on some models to submit. Working on Bionicles led to working in SPORE, which has a very robust yet intuitive creature-creating system. You can see some of his creations here (click the side-scrolling arrows to see more):



Check out his public SPORE profile here.

Zander and I went on a millipede hunt this morning, based on Zander's interest in the book Millipedeology. We looked and looked, but didn't find any. It led to a discussion about good habitats for millipedes and other insects, and the difference between "rolie polies" and insects. Rolie polies (or wood louse) are actually crustaceans!

We decided that doing a couple of worksheets a day of math and writing would be a good way to keep our hand in the "basics." Adon has been practicing writing, and Zander has focused mostly on addition and subtraction.

Zander finished Harry Potter Book 1, so I told him he deserved the Reading Ranger award. He got very excited and asked what form said award would take! I said, "Uh...", thinking "whoops! Now I have to make him an actual medal or certificate or something!" Zander quickly proclaimed a trophy his favorite kind of award, and it gave me a good idea. I found one of my old Batman figurines and shaved off his Bat-ears, then spray painted it gold and fashioned a tiny little book to put in his hand:



I need to stencil "Reading Ranger" on it, then we'll present it to him.

9/11/09:
Adon continues to read about insects, working on the pile of books we got at the library the other day, and is also getting into snails right at the moment. Erika is home for furlough Friday, so she worked on long division with Adon. He got it quickly, kind of doing it his own way; Erika and I are happy with his grasp of the basics. We'll keep doing this kind of thing for practice, or if he really gets into some form of math that leads to one of his other interests (astronomy, robotics, physics)!

Zander turned on the juice and turned a big cardboard box into a time machine, using a calculator and an old toggle switch borrowed from Dad.

Dad did lots of homework too -- my reading assignments were piling up, so I took 4 or 5 hours and plowed through. I am excited about the subject matter (cultural studies as they pertain to popular culture), so it was actually very energizing and fulfilling, not a drain at all!

9/14/09:
This morning the boys were a little wound up, so we did P.E. We went outside and played Three Flies Up, Freeze tag, and played catch with a frisbee. Worked out some of the craziness.

When we came in we did some research and discussion on lasers; the boys knew a bit about it already but we talked more specifically about wavelengths of light and how lasers are different from normal visible white light. We have a little laser pointer, so after a bit of safety instruction, Zander had fun bouncing it and refracting it around the house.