Home Girl Blog

Decorate a Pumpkin Like A Storybook Character

One awesome thing that has occurred to me about being an ex homeschooler/current afterschooler, during this Halloween season, is all the crafting. So far this fall, thanks to my son's school, I have had not one, but two opportunities to make costumes for him to wear-- one for Superhero Day honoring neighborhood heroes, and one for an annual Halloween event. I shared the DIY Ben 10 Superhero costume I made with mostly duct tape already and will be sharing  my DIY Thriller Werewolf or Pre-tween Wolf costume tutorial(ish) and pics tomorrow. Anyway, I thought all the fun making was over, then Zack brought home an assignment to decorate a pumpkin as a character from a book he has read and bring the pumpkin and book to school to display all week long. I become drunk with crafty power whenever I have a reason to create things that my son will explode with excitement over, and that my friends and internet peeps will be at least marginally impressed by. 

Zack chose to decorate his pumpkin like one of the pandas from the cutest book we've run across in a while, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet The Pandas, by Fran Lebowitz. I decided I would not take over his project, much as I wanted to, but that I would be a proper parent and simply exist to be his gentle guide. Happy to say, I succeeded in that. His pumpkin was perfect panda imperfection. And I wanted to do one SO bad! Then I remembered the book a friend of mine wrote, Curilocks and the Three Pink Pandas, which features a panda family...that is pink...and the little panda's name IS PUMPKIN! This project was clearly meant to be. I planned to make it just to share on the blog, but then I asked Zack's teacher if I could send in my own creation to display alongside the kids' (and promote my friend's awesome book). I wasn't surprised when she was happy to let me play.  

I like making things, but they never turn out perfect. I'm not Martha Stewart, nowhere close, but I am an artsy mom and I freehand most things because I'm too impatient for stencils, and measuring tapes and things of that nature. I like the handmade look and feel of handmade things, so I become one with the paint strokes and asymmetry. 

Following are a bunch of pictures of my pumpkin creation coming together. Super easy and super cute! 

My First Day As An Ex Homeschooler in GIFs

Zack is seven. We pulled him out of Montessori preschool when he was three and a half years old to homeschool part time, which turned into homeschool full time. He is brilliant and came here with a few bells and whistles. Our homeschool years were fun and stressful and our school search was intense. He is the most social person I know and I am the most anti-social pro-solitude person I know, so we are all happy that he will get to go to an amazing school with amazing teachers and peers every day. His new daily social life as a second grader marks the beginning of my new daily early-morning life as an ex-homeschooler. I will now have to get up in the morning and function during a time when I am usually just getting into my REM sleep. I will have to change some of my nocturnal ways. In the meantime I will become one with my coffee beans. The first day of school is behind us and I must say, we kilt it. I was going to write all about it, but why write mere words when GIFs can say so much? 

Space Jam, Being Old and One-upping Siri

Seaux. I took Zack to see Space Jam eight weeks ago, according to my Instagram pic. I posted this on my personal Facebook page two weeks ago when it happened, but had to share it over here. So six weekd after watching Space Jam, why is he asking me a most random and a most awesome follow-up question so long after seeing the film?

Important: The movie website for Space Jam from 1996 is still up and has not been updated since 1996. If you're like me and were in college at the time when the Internet became a thing and you want to feel very old, take a look here.

Not sure why Warner Brothers allows this to stay online, but kinda happy they did. This is like a full-circle moment for me because my first website ever created, for a computer class in college, was "RAQUEL'S WORLD" (in all caps and so creative!) and featured Daffy Duck on my title page. It was complete with a rainbow sparkle background effect. I posted a throwback on Instagram just now as I'm writing this because I remembered that I had a photo! Also a full-circle moment because my husband, then boyfriend, is STILL helping me with my computer stuff 18 years later. 

#WaybackWendnesday because it's not #ThrowbackThursday and I want to post an old pic. The year is 1996. This is my boyfriend/husband (and his Bolivian roommates cigs) helping me with my first website, Raquel's World, for a class project because the Internet was just becoming a thing then and we we are old.

Anyway, so here's what happened...

Zack: Mom, what does diminutive (pronounced correctly) mean?

Me: How do you know that word?

Zack: Remember in Space Jam when those little aliens got off the ship and they showed his face and he said (doing a great Bugs Bunny impression), "Diminutive, ain't they?" What did that mean?

Me: (acting like this is a very normal thing to be happening right now) Yeah, I do remember that. He was making a comment about the aliens right?

Zack: Yeah.

Me: What do you think he meant? He saw them, and that was his first reaction. What do you think he could have meant just from looking at them the first time?

Zack: Well...they were really small...

Me: (hoping the used kids dictionary I bought contained the word because I NEEDED it to be in there to get my 6 year old to believe that this magic book of words is as awesome and more accessible than Siri) Hmmm. Let's look it up in the dictionary to see what diminutive means.

Zack gets dictionary, finds the D's, we figure out the spelling and eventually find it. He reads the definition, "very small", with so much excitement and I feed off it and fuel it with a high five and we talk about context clues and the awesomeness of the dictionary.

Buuuuuuut, we saw Space Jam a month and a half ago, and a grand total of one times. And this little boy gonna ask me about some diminutive, remember how it was used and gone pronounce it right on top of that? Whatever, Zack.

Also, naturally I'm going to try not to suck the fun out if his TV/movie watching by pulling out vocabulary words and incorporating them into his spelling and writing work for homeschool. I'll try not to suck the fun out of it, because it's totally happening.

Laguna Gloria Action Pack Adventures

Yesterday, Zack and I were invited to try out the Action Pack experience at Laguna Gloria. Laguna Gloria is an absoultely enchanting place, and now that the blue Action Packs are in the mix, kids who visit the grounds are in for an enriching adventure. I go into detail about our experience on the Do512Family blog here. Since you're here, enjoy our photos.

The villa.

I Heart Children's Theatre

One of the things I love about children's theatre is the learning opportunities it presents. I took Zack to see Stories of Frog & Toad at Scottish Rite Theatre Sunday. On the drive home from the show, my son had so many questions about frogs and toads, and so many guesses about ways they might be different and ways they might be alike. Taking him to the show was not only entertainng (we heart live theatre), but was a great springboard for our homeschool science lesson this week! I'm also going to sneakily move our copy of a collection of stories of frog and toad to the top of his bedroom book pile and coincidentally notice that 'hey, we just saw this play the other day--wouldn't it be fun to read some of these?' I bought the book years ago, and maybe finally he'll show interest in reading one of my favorite classic storybooks.

Continue reading for my review of the show...

Homeschool Cam: LEGO's Oy! And Also Yay!

My son has always tinkered, but has never been interested in building anything according to specs. He has built simple exact models maybe twice in his six years of life. He has gotten LEGO sets for his birthdays over the years and has always stacked them in his closet. Today he wanted to "engineer something" so we pulled out one of his sets.

I really want him to learn things on his own as much as possible. In Brain Blast Academy (our homeschool) I usually give him instructions and tools and allow him to struggle and explore and learn on his own, intervening only when he has exhausted his own efforts and resources. So when he asked to build, I knew it would require all the patience I have within me and all the class time we had scheduled today.

I had him sort the pieces out by color. While he did that, I said a little silent prayer for patience. For real.

I had him remove the instructions and explained how to read and follow them. I talked him through pulling out pieces for the first step and assembling the first unit and had him talk me through the process and assemble the next one. He finished the third set of instructions alone in private. The space vehicle will be complete in twelve steps, and the three he did today took almost two hours. His fine motor skills are not the greatest, but getting better, but I'm happy to report that there were no tears during this very long process today, both our attitudes remained positive and he worked with his body at the table the whole time! All this is kinda major, y'all. This is a kid who would melt down because the the G he just wrote looks like a 6...full meltdown. So my little perfectionist worked almost two full hours on something new, made a hundred mistakes along the way and zero tears, zero sackcloths, zero ashes. So yeah, major. 

He understands that this whole process may take a couple of weeks to complete. My wish is that he will ask to work on it again soon without me having to prompt him. Then I'll know we're really entering a stage where he looks forward to challenging himself. We power through my assignments, but he really shines when his own internal spark fires. My kid does his best work when it's his own decision to work on something. 

It's really important to me that my son find and follow internal motivation to navigate through his own educational process. The way he worked today gives me real hope.

So homeschool today was play. Zack was really happy to play on a school day. He proudly announced that he was using math to figure out where the bricks were supposed to go because he had to count spaces, so he was actually learning and playing. I told him that was a great observation and thought to myself, boy, you have no idea how much you're really learning today.  

Follow our Homeschool Cam photo album on Facebook. 

Totally Acceptable Alternative To Melt Downs

My five year old is very emotional. Sometimes when he gets upset, it is extremely difficult for him to stop crying or to calm down on his own. Over the years we have worked on calming methods that involve him recognizing when an episode is coming, acknowledging his feelings with specific words and beginning physical calming activities like hugging himself, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, changing his physical location by walking outside, etc. 

During one of his recent episodes he was upset and really didn't want to cry. So instead of crying, he Charlie Brown sad-walked away and layed upside down in the large chair and a half in his playroom with his back on the seat and legs on the back cushions and groaned. It was a terrible sound--kinda like wailing--like deep breathing really loudly, but I recognized that he was trying to rid himself of the negative feelings he was experiencing but didn't want to cry. After a few minutes of doing that, he called for me and told me he wasn't feeling very good and that he needed me. He was struggling to breathe normally and I could hear his voice cracking like he was fighting back an epic crying episode. But I'm trying to encourage him to manage his emotions without outside help, and told him very calmly that he would have to calm down on his own and that I knew he could do it. Again the wailing started and lasted about 5 minutes. I was glad to see him trying so hard, and it took a lot for me to listen to my kid in so much turmoil and not step in and fix it for him. Just as I was about to break down and go help him, the wailing stopped and he zoomed past me into his classroom (remember I homeschool). I heard him fidget with his pencil box. He draws all the time, and since I heard him singing and humming songs afer a while, I assumed he was drawing, but nope. 

About half an hour later he came and took my hand and pulled me in to where he had been working. On the way he said he felt much better and he figured out how to help himself. This is what he showed me... 

He's reading chapter books. He only recently started writing when I realized that phonics and spelling are two seperate skills, so I request a late-pass on the spelling lessons. 

Translation: Under a picture of himself on the couch moaning (see the "WAA" in the call out bubble) it says:

"I think there's something I can do and I've got it! That thing is writing. I love writing, yes I do. It is so much fun writing. Do you like to write?"

My boy is a happy child, but he also has a very complex and emotional inner world. I could not be happier that he openly seeks out ways to cope with the frustrations in his little life. I like that he expresses himself extremely well verbally, and by creating music and art--things that enhance the world around us and make life beautiful. That's way better than keeping all that stuff inside to become who knows what when it finally does comes out. 

This has only happened once. I hope we can skip all the wailing next time and just get right to the writing though. lol

I'm on the lookout now for an awesome journal for him. If Zack wants to write, then write he shall!

Inner Space Cavern Homeschool Tour Day

I'm loving all the daytime homeschool activities that Austin area companies host. We try to take advantage of as many of them as possible--Zack makes a special friend every time. So far, fortunately, their moms are cool too, so we can hang. I'm a really picky introvert so the hangability of the mom of kids drawn to Zack and vice versa matters. So far so good. Don't judge me. 

More photos of the cave are on my Facebook Album. 

Learning Enrichment-U.S. Geography at Home

I have only been on this homeschool adventure with my son for a few months. We took him out of his Montessori preschool this past spring and embarked on our new journey. He goes to a Spanish immersion school twice a week. He enjoyed summer camps there in the past so it was a natural choice for us when we brought him home. It's important that he still get a bit of classroom time. Although he will be homeschooled full time next year, hopefully he will re-enter school full time at an unschooly-school soon after that. I'm grateful to be able to homeschool him and thankful that I actually enjoy it.

These days we're talking about states that touch Texas and states that touch California. Breaking up the map using states he has been to has kept Zack interested and engaged as we move on to different regions. Hopefully that continues. We're learning about the flags, capitals, bodies of water, mountain ranges, interesting historical facts, attractions, myths and legends associated with each state as we go. Nevada has been particularly fun with all the mystery that surrounds Area 51. So far Zack's favorite part has been looking at pictures of the state birds (and their eggs) and flowers. Working roughly every other weekday on Geography, it works out to spending about 2-3 weeks per group of states like this:

• Week 1- States that touch Texas (where we live)
• Week 2-Continue with states that touch Texas, introducing states that touch California (where we vacationed once) mid-week.
• Week 3-Focus on states that touch California, revisiting states that touch Texas mid-week.
• Week 4-6- Cumulative reviews, games and projects to deepen knowledge in whatever area seems to peak his interest. Then it's on to the next two areas.

The goal is that by the end of first grade next summer (he skipped kindergarten), he will have a pretty neat breadth and depth of knowledge about all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since we'll be talking about history, historical figures and science (state birds and flowers, bodies of water and mountains), his knowledge will run pretty deep across those subject areas as well.  Not bad for first grade, eh? That "eh" was supposed to be an ironic nod to Canada, where we hope to go for vacation with family friends who are from there sooner or later. 

Following is roughly how our first lesson went, as well as some links and tools we're using  along the way. I'll show you items we actually use as well as a couple of fantasy items that are on my wishlist. I buy 80% of all non-food items in my life on Amazon.com and have provided links to the products I use in this lesson. See my Amazon Affiliate disclaimer in the sidebar. Both my son and I are enjoying exploring this subject. I really hope you find this helpful. 

Introducing the Map 

1. Start by identifying where you live, where relatives live or are from and where the White House is located on the map. Also note the symbols for the state capitols, the mountain ranges and the bodies of water as you make your observations. 

When talking about the map take your time and allow the child to explore and ask questions as you get familiar with the different parts of the map. Zack enjoyed tracing routes from our home to different destinations on the map and determining which trips would take longer to drive to. 

We started talking about geography as soon as he was old enough to realize we were traveling. I'd show him where his grandparents lived on maps and our globe before we traveled there. We always talk about the islands and bodies of water we cross when we go to the West Indies. When we traveled to Europe, we had a map and observed how we crossed the Atlantic by air and the English Channel by underwater train, as well as our route throughout Europe by train while we were there. So now at 5, when we sat down with the laminated map of the United States to talk about Geography, he is familiar with the concept. It is never too early to start learning about the world around us--he enjoys sketching maps of our neighborhood routes! 

Pictured above is the map we use. I prefer this one because it shows all the bodies of water, major cities, capitals and mountain ranges. We're learning about all these elements as we go, but even if we weren't, he'd be familiar with them when we returned. The reverse has no color or names, but shows the rivers and asterisks for state capitals. 

There are simpler maps that only show the state and capitals like the Mellisa & Doug U.S. map learning placemat pictured below, which might be good for parents wanting to begin geography more simply for very young children. 

2. Introduce the compass and play the Which State Is Where? game using the North, South, East and West as your prompts. 

We had a lot of  fun with this one. After we established where Texas was on the map, and had talked about the compass, I asked him to touch Texas. Then I asked him to touch the state that is directly west of Texas, and so on until he had touched all the states that touch Texas. Then it was his turn to direct me to the different states. After a couple of times taking turns, he had a pretty good idea of the names of the states and their locations before we even got into the specifics.

3. Introduce the capitals. 

This is when I brought out the flash cards. I only removed the ones I needed for that particular lesson--Texas and surrounding states from the U.S. States section of the box set. We noted the star on the front identifying the location of the capital and then turned the card over observing the state flag and exploring the facts. After we made it through all the cards once, I worked with him on classic flashcard drills to see if he could name the state and capital pictured on the card I held up. That was the first lesson. In subsequent lessons, after initial flash card review, we talked about the state birds. The cards from the Bird section of the box set were great here, because we played many variations of matching games with the state and bird cards. This was very helpful in him learning the state birds and we'll continue this way until we cover all 50 states. 

As pictured below, I also handed him the cards and asked him to arrange them according to their locations on the map for hands-on reinforcement of state locations. 

The Brighter Child Science and Social Studies flashcards box set is awesome. There are 324 cards total covering Birds (great for matching states to state bird games), US States, US Presidents (Obama is in there), Bugs, Reptiles & Spiders, Planets and Space, and Animals. There are pictures on one side, facts and info on the backs. We love 'em! They're only round $13, which is a steal for what you get. Here are some pics: 

IMPORTANT NOTE: This box set is kinda perfect for this lesson. So far, there has been only one state bird we weren't able to find--the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (state bird of OK), but fortunately, we found this awesome website that has cataloged all birds along with audio files of their songs! We spent a lot of time listening to the different birds guessing what they might sound like based on their pictures before pressing play. Fun! 

More Helpful Tools

Free Educational Videos and Games k-12 Science, Math, Social Studies and English: This site is basically a mecca of all things educational. My son uses up most of his screen time on this site. I could try to explain in words, but there aren't enough. I highly recommend this site for lesson reinforcement or just pure educational entertainment. There are aerospace, deep sea, germ, allergy and volcano documentary clips that my son has watched over and over again and they never get old. When I see my child actively seeking out real information and tuned in to documentary voice-overs and experts, my heart literally smiles, y'all. Check it out. 

Free Printable Numbered U.S. Map Worksheet: I found this great free, printable numbered U.S. map with separate answer sheet and answer key. For now, I use it as a quiet time activity and will list a few states that we covered and ask him to color the states on the list. Sometimes I'll make it more challenging by writing instructions based on direction for him to color. For example, color the state west of Texas, color the state south of Arkansas, and so on. It's a great free printable, and I highly recommend. Click here to get to it. 

Montessori U.S. Map Puzzle (with pegs on capitals): I don't have a puzzle yet, but when I get one, it'll be this one. We are having so much fun learning First Grade Geography, I'm pretty sure we will continue on to learn World Geography this way, which means I will likely collect this whole set of awesome, wooden, montessori puzzles of the world. This one comes with control maps for extra help or reinforcement. I want! 

I hope you have found this useful! I'm not an expert, but am learning how to guide my son through his education along the way. This lesson was inspired by the box set I purchased and I am so grateful for the spark. FYI, I post pictures from our homeschool adventures in the Homeschool Cam photo album on Facebook. 

And So The Student Becomes The Teacher

I currently homeschool and my 5 year old. He "taught" me all about stars and constellations today.

He decided he wanted to be the teacher and did all the reading (he's been reading since age 3) and I had to raise my hand to answer his questions. It was perfect. He was really into it. He read the whole chapter to me, pausing to ask the questions in the margins and at the end of chapter review. I raised my hand to answer his questions and asked a few of my own.  He asked follow-up questions until he understood whatever aspect of stars we were discussing. It was awesome. When we finished and were moving from the living room back into our "classroom" for his next subject, we had an awesome exchange that went like this:

Him: Mom? I never taught you anything like that before, right? I didn't even know I knew all that stuff. I just gotta teach you about something else in science next time. Maybe I'll teach you about habitats or animals or something. I know a LOT about animals. Or maybe speed and velocity! I know a LOT about speed and velocity.

Me: Zack, that's a great idea. 

Our follow-up project will be to make our own constellation by poking holes into the bottom of an empty cardboard oatmeal container and shining a flashlight throught it onto the wall in his darkened bedroom. I will spread out all the materials we need on the table and will casually say 'Gee, I sure wish we could make our own constellations--wouldn't that be neat' and see where we end up. 

He has totally created a monster. I'm all...

Boys and Cars

That moment when your five year old son picks up the remote in the hotel room, turns on the TV, flips through the channels until he finds Fast & Loud on Discovery Channel, pumps his fist and says "Yes!" and posts up on the couch for the marathon. 

"Zack loves cars" became an understatement a long-long time ago. When he was three, he pointed to a wall-mounted black and white photo of muscle cars from the fifties. He said, "Look mom. That's a Mustang." By that time, due to his endless questions and our answers about cars on the road and his toy cars, he knew the symbols of all American-made and popular European and Asian car models, so I assumed there was a Ford symbol on the car. However, when I looked at the picturenthere was no Ford symbol. So I asked him how he knew those were Mustangs. He said, "Because they have three lights." True, the brake lights on the back of the cars were in three sections. I congratulated him on making a good observation, but didn't know enough about cars to know that he was actually right. Mustangs tri-section brake lights are a trademark feature of the car. I had googled it when I got home to learn as much. Then there's that one time my husband asked Zack what he wanted to get Jesus for Christmas. He didn't say my heart, which is what my husband wanted to hear. Instead Zack said, "A race car." Because, clearly, if Jesus could have the awesomest Christmas gift ever, he'd want a race car. There were so many ealy signs that Zack was more than just into cars. Like this unexpected moment in one of his youtube videos where I was attempting to demonstrate his awesome ealry ability to spell and he had an Aha Moment about a new word he could spell.

S0 yeah. Zack has loved cars his whole little life. Now, I think he is officially a bonafide car enthusiast. If five year olds had little business cards, Car Enthusiast would be his title.

We ran across Fast & Loud one Saturday while my husband was flipping channels and it was love at first new-paint-job reveal for Zack. Fast & Loud is a reality show that follows business partners as they hunt down classic and rare cars from around the country, refurbish them and sale them for profit. The only down side of my son watching this show which is not intended for five year olds is the language. Those Grease Monkey Garage guys do use some colorful language on that show, but they're not dropping ef bombs and the cross language is never used in a negative way directed toward an actual person. Rather, the language is used to make their passionate expressions more colorful. Could be worse. I like the educational aspect of the show as well as how the guys use the same network of tradesmen (and a woman) to referb their cars. It's cool to see those partnerships and how they are necessary for the Grease Monkeys to accomplish their business goals. Not unawesome examples for a young, creative kid to witness. That and the quality production of the show is why I allow him to watch it most weekends. 

Their garage is located in Dallas and we plan to look into a "field trip" up the highway if they are game. We take him to car shows--the industry one that comes to town every year and pop-up classic shows that we happen upon--all the time. Now it's time for us to follow him deeper into his passion.

It's his passion and his journey. We're  just here to facilitate his moves and witness it all with a smile. 

Does your child have a passion for something? How old were they when you realized it was more than just a hobby?

Homeschool Cam: Awesome Vehicle

We'll just call Friday PJ Day.

After his school day was over today, instead of making a beeline to the iPad to see all the new apps I had told him about, he decided to go to his work table and draw an "awesome vehicle". To say he's a car enthusiast would be an understatement. His drawing became "blueprints" and now, he's building the "model" of his vehicle before building the actual thing. He announced that he would need a "lot of metal". :) I think learning in a home environment and enjoying more real-time entertainment (we live at children's theatre lately), he's less crazy about getting screen time. I'll take it. Even if it's temporary. 

Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest to keep up with my Homeschool Adventures through pictures. 

Homeschooling My Strong-Willed Child: Two Weeks Down

Raising a strong-willed child ain't no crystal stair. I imagine spanking some fear ino him might work to get him under control, but hitting just isn't a natural reaction for me so I don't do it. It's not deeper than that. Also, I'm sure I dont want a kid who governs himself based on fear. Now that I'm homeschooling Zack, I spend a lot more time googling for articles on how to manage. He is five now. I keep hearing that is a magical, transformative year for children. I'm seeing glimmers of him maturing, but we have about three quarters of a year left to see some magic and transformation. 

I ran across this great one by Dr. Laura Markham on how to raise a self-disciplined child called Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child. It's very informative and affirming to me. I particularly like what she says about obedience:

"Strong-willed kids feel their integrity is compromised if they're forced to submit to a parent's will.  And, really, you don't WANT to raise an obedient child. Morality is doing what's right, no matter what you're told. Obedience is doing what you're told, no matter what's right.

Of course you want your child to do what you say.  But not because he is obedient, meaning he always does what someone bigger tells him.  No, you want him to do what you say because he trusts YOU, because you are the parent and have his best interests at heart.  You want to raise a child who has self-discipline, takes responsibility, and is considerate -- and most important, has the discernment to figure out when to trust and be influenced by someone else."

Ephesians 6:1 was the first bible verse I memorized and it was read to me ceremoniously before I received a beating of love for being disobedient. Whether that is responsible for me being as close as you're gonna find to a "good girl" my whole childhood, or whether that's just who I am naturally, I'll never know. But I do know I felt then and now that that was some twisted stuff. I do know that I was and am loved beyond measure though, because of the words and everyday actions more that the hitting. Coming from a culture that sees corporal punishment as a natural and necessary and even biblically required part of parenting, articles like these, about positive outcomes of positive parenting, help assuage the guilt I have over not being a parent who spanks my kid. Yes, guilt. Spare the rod, spoil the child is not just a saying in my world. It is believed that discipline is synonymous with hitting, and if you don't hit your child, you don't love them. That message is such a part of my fiber that I do feel a bit of guilt. Don't I love my child? Does he know how much I love him? Will he resent me for not hitting him one day? My heart knows that it's the boundaries and discipline and loving treatment that convey how much I care, but because of where I'm from, my brain has questions. I digress.

It's week two of homeschooling! My son goes to Spanish Immersion school twice a week and is home the other three days. He still has soccer, swimming and piano and this is how things will be until second grade. By then, hopefully, we'll both be ready for him to move on to another full-time school environment. We're doing pretty good right now. Now that he can read his own books, I use losing bedtime reading time as leverage for good behavior and it's like his Super-Stubborn Boy kryptonite. I think he's starting to learn that it's a lot easier to just embrace his boundaries and enjoy his freedom-when he gets it. Today was the first day that we haven't clashed. Spending so much time together with so much to accomplish everyday, I think we're both learning how awesome our days can be when we practice patience and mutual respect. 

My adventures in homeschooling continue. We have another weekend of Austin theatre fun, and Monday, we're back to it.

We Named Our Homeschool!

Brain Blast Academy of Science & Art: Home of The Robots. Originally my son chose "Bones" (skeleton) as our mascot, but I helped him move away from that one and he chose robots instead. He told me how the robot should look and I sketched him. 

This happened a few days ago, but obviously I've been a little busy. My son has been in Montessori since he was 18 months old. Now that he's five he'll be schooled at home, going to a Spanish Immersion program twice a week until he's ready for second grade. It's only been three days and already we are having happier days. It will be a while before we catch a rhythm and fall into a real routine. These first few days have been great. Today we painted watercolor pictures and he he used brown and black almost exclusively and said his was a picture of a "zombie sun and zombies". He also asked to study "bones and meat" (meat =muscle). Ever since he saw the chart of the skeletal, muscular and nervous system at a specialists office when he was one and a half, he's been interested in what's going un under our skin. Human Anatomy. He learned about zombies from an older kid at school around Halloween and ever since he saw Micheal Jackson zombie-out on a clip from Thriller, when we were flipping channels one day, he's been all about zombies. I'm not making a big deal about the bones and the zombie thing yet, but I'm making mental notes. This particularly deep interest is not half as fun as his incredibly deep interest in cars. He has a superfluous amount of happiness and exuberance all the time. If he were more low key and didn't smile 98% of the day, I'd be concerned. Anyways...

I'm trying not to obsess too much over creating his school room, but it's impossible for me not to obsess over designing a new space in my house! I'm contemplating whether to share my Homeschooling journey here or start a separate blog space. I'm pretty sure I'll create a separate space.

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