I would like to introduce...

Gunny, Rosie, and Gene.

J.T. did all the naming. Gunny is after R. Lee Ermey (J.T.'s a huge Mail Call fan) and Rosie as in Rosie the Riveter. Gene is the canary and we don't know what sex it is. For now, "he's" Gene as in Gene Simmons (yep, J.T.'s a KISS fan too lol) but if he turns out to be a she, we'll switch it to Jean.

Poodle Vs. Bigfoot

Thought I might have a really amazing YouTube video to support my title? Nah. Not really.

This afternoon, we were supposed to go to the library to learn about Bigfoot. Well we showed up, but he didn't. He had strep throat. Okay, not really. But the members of the Ohio Bigfoot Research Team had strep throat so they couldn't come do their presentation. I really hope they reschedule. They're supposed to bring some slides and maybe video and footprint casts. Should be fun. And a bit nightmare inducing for me. Since they couldn't be there, the library gave us bigfoot souvenirs. Which were simply a square of faux fur material.

J.T. and I brought ours in and Baby fell in love! She HAD to have the bigfoot fur. Had to!

She didn't want to play with it like a stuffed toy. She wanted to lay and chew on it and threaten to kill anyone that came near her. It's not real animal fur, I swear. I don't know what her fascination is.

In other news...when we picked up J.T.'s PS3, I told him he couldn't play it until he let me take a picture of him with it. This is what he gave me.


Praying to the Sony gods. Yes, he thought he was hilarious.

Another Library Essay Update

Tonight was the award ceremony/pizza party for the winners and honorable mentions (that sounds like underwear for some reason) from the local library's essay contest.

They had a dorky dude dressed funny to sing some songs while everyone came in and sat down. I'm sure he amused the younger children. My 13 year old? Not so much :-p J.T. said he felt embarassed like he was the oldest kid there (he wasn't, actually, he just LOOKS it). I told him not to worry. One of the first place winners (there were two) was a woman who wrote her essay about her grandchildren. I'm sure she loves her library card and all and it's great she raised her family to value the library. Also, there was no age restriction on the contest. Still when the only adult wins one of the spiffy new blue bikes? Okay, whatever, I'm sure it was very fair.

Anyhow, before I get too snarky ;-)



This is J.T. after recieving his award. Being a kid, he didn't realize that when it was handed to him, he needed to be facing me so I can snap a pic.

And this is the award he received. They even framed it :)

That's all for tonight...not feeling great. Will post more when I get some sleep ;-)

Back to Curriculum ~ Math

Okay, the kiddo is home so it's time for my lazy non-blogging to stop!

Back to curriculum. More specifically, this year's curriculum.

Let's start with Math. Yuck! Okay, as "mom-teacher" I'm not supposed to say that! But Math has always been a problem for me and, so, not an easy subject for me to know how to help J.T. learn.

Last year, we tried the public school math book. What a joke! I've never been so confused. Especially without a teacher's manual to go with it. Technically, we're "supposed" to be provided with all books and workbooks that the public school kids have...so the parents should have access to the teacher's manuals. But, they always say there isn't enough and it's best to leave the public school alone as much as possible in hopes that they return the favor. Plus, I've had enough experience with my son in public schools to know that given other options, their textbooks aren't the best learning tools.

This year, after asking around for what other homeschooling families liked most, we decided to go with Saxon Math. Version 7/6 to be exact. With J.T.'s almost-month-long trip, we haven't gotten as far into the book as I would have expected so I can't make any hard judgements just yet. So far though, I like the repetition that some other families don't like. But I still feel like in the very beginning they don't provide enough instruction and explanation as to WHY you are doing things a certain way and HOW to make sure you're doing that correctly. Lots of practice problems are great for making sure J.T. grasped the concept, but do no good if the explanation isn't clear enough for you to even move onto the first practice problem.

I'd love to hear any and all math programs/curriculum/websites/computer games/etc. your family uses and what you do and don't like about those you've tried.

Another quick math issue...

J.T. has always gotten good grades in math, tested highly on math standardized tests, and never seemed to have any problems. But, I found out that his last year in school...EVEN THOUGH HE MADE THE HONOR ROLL EVERY SIX WEEKS...he was struggling all year long! He never "got" multiplying double and triple digits and being the shy boy he was, didn't ask for extra help. How he was able to move beyond that baffles me...not to mention still getting good grades. The best I can figure is that he would add, add, add, add numbers until he got an answer. How frustrating that must have been! As someone who still has fraction nightmares, I feel it is extremely important for J.T. to have complete confidence in the basics before moving on to harder concepts; so that is definitely what I'm trying to stress. And we will never, ever move on to the next concept until I'm sure he understood the last one. Just another frustrating discovery of what the public school *didn't* do for him.

J.T.'s October Trip

I know my posts just completely stalled after my last curriculum one, but that is because I haven't been an active part of J.T.'s schooling this month.

On Sept. 28, J.T. left with my mom's husband, Greg, to travel with him while Greg buys and sells used buses all over the U.S.

Since they left, they have been in OH, IN, IL, MI, KY, TN, AR, TX...and a few of those more than once. They are in OH right now. The main goal J.T. has before coming home is to be able to visit with my mom in FL for a few days. As of last night, it looked like first they might need to pick a bus in VA and take it to NJ before they can head down to FL.

Being the single mom of an only child...yeah...it's been pretty hard for me to have J.T. gone for so long. But, I'm trying to be *good mom* and not deny him such an awesome experience.

Gosh, what could J.T. possibly be learning while on such a trip? If traveling the country (well at least a small part of it LOL) and learning about buying and selling used school buses isn't real life learning, I don't guess I know what is. But, of course, the school board will insist on each little experience getting pigeon-holed into one of the 5 "big" subjects. I think having to assign every learning experience a specific subject is probably my least favorite part of homeschooling. (makes the LOSER sign at public schools)

But, anyhow, here's a rundown of some of the stuff that's J.T.'s doing while on the trip...I should have been posting this all along, because I need to remember it come portfolio time!

Naturally, J.T. has been learning U.S. Geography! He's studied at an atlas to help figure out how to get...for example...from Lima, OH to Peoria, IL. He is the navigator while traveling.

At some point during travels, Greg thought it would be good to give J.T. some agriculture facts about all the cultivated fields they were seeing along the way. J.T. called me one night and informed me of the three different types of fertilizer and how each one works differently in a field.

When J.T. and Greg go to OH, it's to a big bus yard there where Greg buys a large number of the buses he sells. J.T.'s job is to look at each bus for sale and take notes about it...the manufacturer, year, mileage, type of fuel, type of brakes, condition of tires, amount of rust, etc. He has to do this in a way that Greg can actually read his notes...which means while he's been gone, his handwriting must have improved 100% ;-) Then, when Greg gets a call from someone looking to purchase a bus, J.T. gets to go over his notes and figure out what's available that fits the needs of that particular customer.

The last time J.T. was with Greg (he's traveled with him before...just never for so long) he learned how to hook car to a tow bar to be towed behind a bus. He's expanded that now to also learn how to hook the lights up on the car. He's also learned all kinds of mechanical aspects of the buses...checking fluid levels, etc. And, last weekend, he helped fix a fan on Greg's daughter-in-law's van.

While in Indiana, Greg and J.T. visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum...full of vintage cars.

Last night, when J.T. phoned he was in the process of organizing around 400 receipts for Greg. "In chronological order" he informed me.

So, for the past month, I've had a break from schooling...but J.T. sure hasn't stopped learning!

J.T.'s Library Essay

I know I said I'd talk next about our curriculum, but first I figured I'd share the essay J.T. wrote.

Our local library is having an essay contest. Their motto is something to the effect of "We'll Show You the World" and the title of the essay contest is: What My Library Card Means To Me. Anyone can enter and there's a 250 word maximum. This essay is all J.T. I helped by going over his first draft and finding misspelled words for him to look up and by, while he was writing the second draft, saying "write neater" every so often ;-)

What My Library Card Means To Me

My library card means many things to me. It allows me to get books I need to be home schooled. It also allows me to read about fictional universes, and I can learn about other countries that I'm interested in. I can also learn about ancient history and what life was like back then.

Thanks to my library card, I enjoy learning about ancient history. Like how Hannibal crossed the Alps into Italy to try to capture Rome. I also learned about the mighty 300. Only 300 Spartans defended Greece at the Battle of Thermopylae. They stood ground against over 1 million Persians. It was also fun to read about how Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire.

My library card means many things. I most enjoy using it to travel through ancient time periods.