Tuesday, February 23, 2010

News of the G

A few stories and happening in the life of our G-man.

We introduced sport that seems to fit our son's intense desire to perfectly follow instructions. His intense nature seems to fit quite well with martial arts.
Other things didn't seem to quite fit or hold his interest. He lost interest in soccer once he started getting kicked in the shins. We signed him up for a baseball class that actually made him worse at baseball than he was before. He was so intent on following the coaches exact explanation of proper throwing form he could no longer actually throw a ball. Or hit a ball. And since G seriously dislikes being bad at things, we haven't pursued it.
At this point we've only tried Parks and Rec classes, but this is the first class he's taken that he's actually cared to repeat. And this sport doesn't require Saturday games (at least at this point).





We bought a desk for the G to do his homework on. It seems he works much better when there are no siblings pestering him or mom critiquing him while he works. He loves that he has a computer in his room too. We may have him guest blog this summer to build up those typing skills.










The boys working together to get the job done. This is probably the first time I decided to spend more money on the desk I liked the most instead of the cheapest one I could find. I think the red is fun.









We had our first Science Project. I learned a lot. I don't know how much he learned. I let him choose his topic, which involved watering bean seeds with distilled water or tap water. I am a firm believer in letting a child do their own homework. He was in charge of watering, measuring, and recording his findings.
Unfortunately when we reviewed the data at the end I found multiple days where his plants had actually shrunk between measurements. He had no idea what to do with the data he had collected. I felt like I got way more involved than I wanted to.
In the end we were able to put it together in a way that he understood, instead of the way I thought it should be. It was really hard to let his first grade brain come to it's own conclusions when my college educated brain wants to tell him everything I know so he gets the answer exactly right! I wish he had picked the M&M counting experiment. At least he would have known what he was doing.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Out on the Town, Part S

For Christmas we gave our kids the gift of time and a special outing. Each was promised a date with mom and dad, all on their own. I remember doing this once when I was little. I was the 3rd of five, and one on one time with my parents was really hard to come by. Especially both of them. It obviously meant a lot to me because it's something my parents did for me that I've always wanted to do for my own kids.

Mr. S was up first, and he will probably be the cheapest date by far. We rode a little train around the park, went to the zoo, fed the giraffes, and had a treat on the way home. He fell asleep as we drove home, so obviously he had a great time. Here are a few pics.