A Day At Home

10:00 am:

3:00 pm:

The boys were thrilled to get a few runs down the backyard hill. But of course they were disappointed it didn't last longer. Poor school kids didn't get to enjoy it at all.

Today was spent at home. I love days at home. We need more of them. Time to be bored and find new things to do. You can't get bored enough in just a few hours every day. You need loooong stretches, and we don't get those often enough.

Today I utilized a Teaching Tolerance kit, which a fellow homeschooler lent me. I didn't utilize the whole kit; we just watched the video. The description from Amazon: "A Time For Justice is the story of the American civil rights movement as told by those who fought the battle for the right to vote during the 1950's and 1960's. It depicts the struggle through the experiences of its foot soldiers: the men and women who rode where they weren't supposed to ride; walked where weren't supposed to walk; sat where they were not supposed to sit. And who stood their ground until they won their freedom. A Time for Justice uses the first-hand testimony of participants and stunning archival footage to present a concise and compelling look at the grass-rots movement that sought to extend the fruits of democracy and basic human dignity to all of the nation's people."

I've been wanting to start talking about Martin Luther King Jr. with R, and then this fell in my lap. It was a very good documentary. The violence was a little upsetting, but it prompted a good conversation afterwards. We talked about people being treated differently because of the color of their skin. We talked about how peaceful resistance really can change things. We noticed that the black people never used violence, but continually had violence used against them. We also talked about how fear (ie the police in this video) can prompt people to be violent.

We talked about racial profiling (Islamists today) and about civil liberties. We discussed how some people still do not have them; the lack of gay rights in this country and our hope that the laws would soon be changed.

It's amazing that I decided R was ready to learn about the not-so-nicer aspects of life, and all this stuff drops in my lap. E did not appear to be interested in the video, but did participate in the conversation.

The video we watched today was a good introduction on the issue. I have also ordered a documentary on the life of MLK from Netflix. The boys were wondering why we celebrate him, and videos keep their attention longer than non-fiction books. We can only skim the surface with the books before they want to move on to other things.

Yesterday the boys had a fabulous time with their friends B and S. They hadn't had a playdate with them in months, and were thrilled that their mom agreed to let them come over for a couple of hours before they all took Craft and Swim together. After Craft and Swim I dropped their friends off at home and we all visited at their house for another hour or so. A very, very good day.

R just called me upstairs - 8:30 pm - and asked me to take a photo of this:
Only good things can happen when Klutz teams up with Lego. That Santa is a cool guy.

Pequot Museum

B had off from work so we all headed out to spend the day together. We went to the Pequot Museum, which we had never been to before. Overall a nice museum; very well put together. However I wish they had not bothered with the ice age stuff. It's stuff which is so easily found elsewhere, and took time away from the Pequot specific exhibits at the end. No, the four hours we spent didn't get us through the whole thing. And I really am quite frustrated that all the Pequot stuff was the stuff we missed. However, it doesn't change the fact that what they had was very well done. Unfortunately no photos were allowed though, and I actually followed the rules.

We did get to see a film about how they lost most of their population in a war with the English. Afterward, R asked me if I had known it was going to be so violent. He was very disturbed by all the shooting and killing, and the giant fire which killed so many people. He really is a pacifist at heart.

Anyhow, after the movie we pretty much got kicked out. The boys had had enough by that point anyway, I suppose. R's favorite part was the Indian Village. They had portable listening devices and you were supposed to press the number which was shown on each scene to hear about what you were looking at. It even kept E busy.

E actually did well the whole day. The exhibits were interesting enough to keep him focused. But if you were to ask him what his favorite part was, he'd emphatically tell you it was the buffet dinner at Foxwoods afterwards.

R and I had been to Mohegan Sun to see Def Leppard a year or so ago. He really liked the interior of the casino and was insistent that we return at some point. Well, Foxwoods seems to have been an acceptable alternative. We walked around enjoying the sites for a while before we ended up at Festival Buffet, which we all enjoyed very much. Especially E.

We got home around 9:30. It was a very enjoyable day, and we were all sad when it was over.

The making of a Conscientious Objector

This morning R came into my room as I was watching This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and started watching with me. There were no images of war, so I allowed him to stay and listen. He watched for a few minutes, left, and returned during The Chris Matthews Show, which seemed to keep his attention more.

This led to a 10 minute conversation about sending more troops to Iraq, how Bush hoodwinked the country into the war in the first place, how the Patriot Act is turning him into a dictator, whether Iraq would be better off with us forcing our view of a good government on them vs. leaving now and letting them fall into civil war, how we can get Bush out of office, and whether or not U.S. citizens can be dragged into fighting in the war if they don't want to go. He was full of intelligent questions; I was, quite frankly, surprised.

I have been wanting to start taking him to rallies, and talking to him about the realities of war, so that I can start making a Conscientious Objector file for him. I think it's really important that I start doing that soon, but I've been concerned about exposing him to the stress of war. I know for myself that keeping up on it often makes me feel powerless, and I've been concerned about how it would effect his psyche. So I've been dragging my feet on it. But today convinced me it's time to get moving. I'm going to pick up some of the age appropriate books out there about war to read with him, and maybe I'll check out what Netflix has to offer on the subject too. I'll definitely be starting to document conversations like the one we had today.

R feels that we should definitely not be sending more troops to Iraq. Especially more men than those that live in the whole town of Cheshire. He also feels that we should totally withdraw from Iraq and let the people fall into a civil war. He believes that we should not be dictating to anyone how they should run their country, and we should let the Iraqis fight for the government they want to have, themselves. He thinks that we should get rid of the Patriot Act, and that George Bush is dangerous, and we should try to get rid of him too.

I am very proud of R for seeing things the way he does. When I was answering all of his questions, I was careful to give both points of view (McCain was being interviewed on TV at the time we were speaking) to make sure he would formulate his own opinions, and not just accept mine as his own. He is a bright boy and understands how wrong war is. If anyone would actually show the realities of the war on TV, I'd probably let him watch. He is getting old enough to understand the world beyond his up-till-now small one.

My creative kid

"This guy is so special,
he has an invisible head."

Swimming

Here are the boys at the Cheshire pool with one of their friends from the Greater New Haven Homeschool Group. We spent four hours there and all had a fun time. I was the only mom who swam, but still had the opportunity to connect with a mom from the Valley Central Homeschool Group who has a boy of 7. E was happy to proclaim "I just made a new friend!". We are going to try to get out with them this week.

The boys have really been missing all of their old playgroup friends. Everyone is so busy these days it's difficult to get us all together. Even just one family at a time. I'm glad I made the effort to find more friends for us, because they are turning out to be the only friends we actually get to see. R is really looking forward to his birthday so he can have all his old friends over. I hope we end up choosing a day when everyone can make it!

Snow at last...

but does it really count?
Despite the fact that R ran out in his pajamas this morning to eat some, it only really snowed for about 20 minutes. It stuck well on the grass, but never to the pavement. It was a joyous moment followed by a big let-down, for all of us.

We had playgroup today though, and had lots of fun. During the drive there E and I had a conversation about the earth's atmosphere, space, and clouds. He was disappointed to hear that clouds are not fluffy when you touch them. He was kind of young when he touched them through the window when Uncle Roberto gave us an airplane ride, but the memory of touching clouds is one I thought he'd never forget. We'll have to arrange to do it again to jog his memory.

R is very proud of the progress he is making in reading. We've been working on groups of sounds. He's covered "ay", "eigh" and many others. So I made a list of review words on our dry erase board, and he was able to sound them all out. He prefers doing it this way to reading books, because sounding out the words in books interrupts the flow of the story. So although his vocabulary is quite large, and his ability to read somewhat large words is really increasing, he still resists picking up books unless I insist. He probably won't read a book for enjoyment for himself though until he can do so without having to pause over hardly any words at all. We are getting there...

Between this page of anagrams and this page for puzzlemaking, I was able to make another crossword puzzle for him, which I'll give him tomorrow morning. What did homeschoolers ever do without the internet?

The Have Kids Will Travel book I ordered arrived yesterday. I'm kind of disappointed in it. I'll have to read it more closely, but so far it's all pretty obvious information. It does have some websites listed in it though, so we'll see how those are.

I received an email with a link for a very moving video today. Check it out if you can spare four minutes and want to see some truth...

Flippin' Families

I don't recall if I've ever blogged about Flippin' Families before. The Southington YMCA has a gymnastics center and every Tuesday they open it up for free play from 12:30 pm till 2 pm. We went quite a few times last year, but this year have not gone too often, since many of our friends are involved in a yoga class on Tuesdays now. Last time we went R said it was no fun without friends, but today he asked if we could go.

We went out for lunch first, so only had 45 minutes to play once we got there, which was really perfect, actually. It was crowded today; lots of toddlers and preschoolers. We were the only homeschoolers. But the boys had lots of fun and were glad we went. I think 45 minutes was just enough time to have fun without needing someone else involved. Plus they've been getting stir crazy at home so any outing was welcome.

We did a bunch of chores afterwards. In the car E asked me how much 10 take away 5 is, and that led to about 15 minutes of him happily working on math problems I gave him. "E, I don't know why you think you are not good at math, every time we do it together you are excellent." That prompted a BIG smile.

R was lost in an audiobook as usual. I don't know how he's not sick of Harry Potter yet.

More fun with the giant box once we got home. Today it was an amusement park ride. They took turns setting themselves up inside with the two beanbag chairs while the other pushed the box over and shook it up all over the kitchen. It made it hard to get the groceries put away, but I stayed out of the way as long as I could.

Days at home

Lots of fun things get done on the boring days at home. Here are the shields I made last week to go with the really cool swords we got at the Renaissance Festival in October. The boys had really been admiring the shields along with the swords, but I insisted they'd be easy enough to make for ourselves, and they were. Now all they need is a coat of paint. R is still deciding on a cool dragon for me to paint on his.

R and E have been having fun with the giant box my treadmill came in. It's got great windows in it now and a good-sized door. It also makes a good cave (?) for matchbox cars.

Today R was complaining about being bored. Then he found something to to do; Izzi. I was happy to see him working hard on it while listening to Harry Potter. Today he also spent some time working on a crossword puzzle. The clues were simple anagrams, and he really enjoyed them. I've got to see if I can find more, or at least try to make some with puzzlemaker and this anagram page.