It's Not Just About the Math

Whew, it has been a long 3 weeks. M has been in and out, but mostly out due to work/military related excursions. That means the full load of daily responsibilities has rested squarely on my shoulders. For the most part all has gone well, but sometimes it all feels utterly exhausting.

Between shuttling kids to various activities A had a math book from this previous school year to complete. For the last two, maybe three school years, we have stopped his math books before completing them. There came a point when the difficulty level of the lessons increased and continuing on became less and less productive. Since we use Saxon math, there is a great deal of review in each book. When we begin the new book in the Fall there is so much review that any concepts not covered the year before were retaught. It worked well to quit before the book was finished.

This year, though, math clicked for A. It ceased to be the struggle that it had previously been. There were challenges, but they were no longer insurmountable. This year we would finish the math book! He was capable of it and for the most part he was enjoying the math. This year the main struggle was with finishing math lessons with a good attitude when other activities seemed more appealing.

My goal for him to finish the math book was not entirely driven by a desire to see him learn all the concepts that Saxon 54 had to teach, it was driven equally, if not more, by a desire help him know the satisfaction of completing something in its entirety. A large part of my motivation was to help him push through the whining and complaining that can come when standing at the base of a task that looks as tall as a mountain.

This week has been the home stretch. The week of completion. He has done it. Most important of all is that he has done it with minimal complaining. This growth in his life is exciting. It is a step toward maturity. It feels huge to me and I have been so proud of him. This week consisted of late nights doing math and missing out on fun activities in order to complete math lessons.

Each day, needed reminders to myself that this was not just about the math. This was about character. As a bonus he was also learning a good deal of math. But the main lesson was to work hard without complaining or arguing. It is about living out Philippians 2:14 "Do all things jwithout grumbling or kdisputing," And that is a tough concept to remember, let alone live out in a consistent manner.

Today on the way to the 5-Day club that friends are hosting this week, we had a discussion about all this math work. At one point I said, "You know, A, this hasn't been just about the math, do you know that?" To which he replied, "Yeah Mom, I know. It is really about doing something that is hard and sticking with it even when you don't want to. Dad talks to me about that."

His response thrilled me more than any completed school book ever could. He got it! He understood something that really matters. Something that matters more than fractions! Education isn't about simply completing subjects or books.

Education is about pursuing wisdom and a knowledge of God. It is about practicing living in a way that glorifies God and honors other people. On this journey of parenting, I am so thankful for the grace of God and for M, my partner in all this. Even when physically absent, M is here through moments like today when A understood and communicated that all this math isn't really about the math. It is about character.

On My Nightstand

Think it is possible for me to get through all of these this summer? I am pretty confident it won't happen. And that is okay. Little by little progress will be made. Part of the problem is that sometimes it is just so hard to sit still and read. Moving around and doing feels better right now. That is why audio books are so wonderful.

With audio books I can move around and do other things and still finish books. Like the one being currently listened to. Truly, it is such a delicious story, I can't stop myself. Since the normal routine is to listen in the bathroom while getting ready in the morning and while getting ready for bed in the evening, I am finding all sorts of excuses to hang out in that general area. My bathroom has rarely been cleaner or my closet more organized. Meanwhile the stack of books on my nightstand sits gathering dust.

Summer Grammar Lessons

I have blogged about this book before. My boys think it is hilarious. So do I.
Recently we found two similar books at the library.
More grammar, more laughs. Does summer grammar get any better than this? I think not.

The Beauty of Legos

Since marrying my husband and having two sons, it has been revealed to me that Lego creations are art. Lest I doubt, this definition clarifies things :

Art: 1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

2. Works produced by such skill and imagination.

Yet, no definition is needed when my son brings me the above pictured creation. It is indeed art. It is a creation, using skill and imagination, of something important. My son used a medium that is familiar and enjoyable to him. He used it to express his faith in a visual way. When I saw this, Legos had never looked more beautiful to me.

Tastes Like Chicken

Here is one of our roosters, after being processed. Gross. There were 3 of them that were processed. In all honesty, it is good to have those roosters gone, but my stomach still turned when M walked in the door three weeks ago with 3 packages like the one in the photo above. I put them in the freezer and waited to get over my feelings of being grossed out.

It took almost 3 weeks. Then on Sunday, a rooster was pulled out of the freezer, placed in the fridge to thaw and was on the menu for dinner Monday night.

Not super attractive, I know, but it makes me laugh. This looks like dinner as opposed to looking like something that was recently running around our backyard.

The meat was super lean and a difference between this bird and a store bought bird was visible. There was virtually no fat on this one. I cooked it slowly at 300 degrees. Low and slow is the key for cooking grass fed animals.

The kids thought the chicken was delicious. I won't argue with their assessment, but I will acknowledge that it was overcooked. And I will acknowledge that that was completely my fault.

The bird was also small. See the small pile of meat from it? Not much there. Of course the kids had nibbled on it a little before this pictures was taken, but there just was not much meat.

Here is what our dinner ended up being. A delicious salad topped with our own, backyard raised rooster. Now that is local eating.

Would I do it again? Yes. I think the gross out factor has subsided. And it is a good thing because I have 2 more of our chickens in the freezer. Plus, it is great to know this rooster lived a thoroughly happy life, was not given any chemicals or additives. This guy was not even vaccinated, not that I am opposed to vaccines in chickens, but he just happened to not have been vaccinated.

As I write this the carcass of last night's dinner is simmering into a lovely broth on the stove-top. As I was writing this, I also burned 2 quesadillas, but that is off the subject. Even though the bird was small, it still made a decent dinner, will make a nice amount of broth and that makes raising our own birds the most cost effective way to have quality meat.

Do I now have an interest in butchering, ummm, I mean processing our own chickens? No.

Oh, and how did it taste? Well, it tasted like chicken.

Tennis Lessons

Yup, that is one of my boys in the cowboy boots. I had to laugh. I didn't even notice his footwear until we were at tennis and I was watching them play.

On the last day of tennis they had a contest involving skills,manners and other tennis related things. He won first place and the biggest cookie. I think it was the goggles that snagged him the win.

Some Books to Inspire Adventure and Creativity

An adventure story that is sure to capture the interest of young readers. The true, amazing and dangerous journey of Daniel Hall. My boys loved this story! As a mother I love that they don't have the option of joining a whaling ship crew at age 14. It is much nicer to read of the feats of others from the safety and comfort of our oversized reading chair.
I had never heard of Gaudi before reading this book. It is a wonderful story with beautiful illustrations. Learning how Gaudi blended nature into his creations is inspiring. This is a lovely story of a young boy who delights in nature and then uses that delight and his talent to create variety of unique works of architecture.

If you want to learn more, go to youtube.com and type in "Gaudi." There is a seven part (each part is only about 10 minutes) BBC documentary on him called, Antonio Gaudi: God's Architect. We just started watching it and have only gotten through the first 2 parts. I will give a warning that there is one scene of modern day Spain that is not for young eyes. It fits the context of what is being discussed, but just be aware of that before showing young ones.
Another wonderful adventure story, this one of young boys discovering a cave that is full of ancient art. Fantastic story and a true story. If you do plan to read this book, you may find this site helpful. I sure did. I used it to learn the pronunciation of a couple of words in the book.

If you have read this story, then your children will have an understanding of people leaving Paris during the Nazi occupation of World War II and that will be helpful historical background to this story, but not at all essential to enjoying this book . The Secret Cave shows some positive happenings that occurred in the midst of the terrors of World War II. This book only lightly mentions the war so it can be enjoyed as part of further learning about World War II or totally separate from that.

Day Hike

Yes, that is a butterfly net on his head. All good hikes begin with wearing a butterfly net, don't they? We caught one butterfly with the net and it promptly flew out of the net. How does one keep the butterfly in there long enough to look at it?

The last time we did this hike, A was about 4 months old and was in a stroller. While this hike is not overly difficult, it is far easier to do with 4 walking children than with a baby in a stroller. Still, it was fun to point out the very spot where we had to do an emergency diaper and clothing change years ago.

We wrapped up the day with ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. A had won or been given several gift cards to that and he wanted to "take the family out for ice cream." Very nice.

The Month of July

July has been a good month thus far. A relaxing month. And I hope to keep it that way. June was fun and full of swimming and tennis lessons and various other activities. All great things, but things that kept us hopping from place to place and activity to activity. My June calendar was packed full of all sorts of events. And it was fun. But, it is nice to look over the pages of July in my calendar. There is a good amount of empty space on the pages and much of what is written in is flexible. It is stuff that can be done or...not done.

I, of course, have a list of projects and things that I want to get done, but it is so nice to not HAVE to be on a specified schedule. That makes it really feel like summer to me!

My "to do" list (or part of it anyway):

• Finish math books with boys. They are each at a fine stopping place, but I'd like them to finish their books.
• Work on reading, writing, spelling with the boys. We need to progress more in these areas and summer is a good time for practice.
• Work on reading with L.
• Peek though the new school books for the school year. I have two boxes of books that I need to look though.
• Organize the storage cubbie that houses past school work, Sunday school papers and various projects that the kids have done over the years. It is out of control and needs to be reigned in.
• Set aside items for garage sale. A friend is doing a garage sale as a fund raiser and asked if I had anything to contribute. This really motivates me to clean out-someone else is doing the work and it goes to a good cause, what is not to love about that?
• Pick raspberries and make jam. I should do an entire post on my new love of freezer jam.
• Write post on my love of freezer jam. :)
• Organize the pantry.
• Now that we have a new mud room, I need to rearrange the laundry room and move some stuff out of there and into the mud room. This is also should be another post.
• Write post on the new mud room.
• Read! There is a stack of wonderful books sitting on my nightstand just waiting for me to devour them.
• Hang out and enjoy a slower pace.
• Also, "write a post with titles from your stack of good books to read."
  ;)-Thanks Carole, for this suggestion!
• Update homeschool info on my sidebar links.