Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Incredible Lizard Hunters




Jarek and William have been terrorizing the local lizard population these days. In Jarek's defense, I think William is the driving force behind their recent activities. Last Friday they captured 5 geckos, which they were allowed to keep for a couple hours, then had to release. Then on Sunday we enjoyed a San Antonio special--late September swimming--and they found several anoles. They were so happy with their catches that they even willingly consented to pose for pictures with them.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Responding to comments

I never know how to respond to comments. Do you answer in your own comment section? Do people come back and check the comments for a response? Do you go comment on the other person's blog? I don't know the etiquette, not being a frequent commenter myself.

So...

To Summer: William is 8.

To Stacey: The boys miss you too in case you couldn't tell by their response to my yelling "Hi Stacey" last night. They were playing legos in Jarek's room and came running when they heard me so that they could tell you hi too. :)

To Anyone: Feel free to educate me on proper comment-response procedure.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Overheard

William: "You're a pretty good artist. It would be neat if you became famous. Then you could make the whole family famous. Did you know our family is already sort of famous?"
Jarek: "Yeah. From Bryce Canyon!"

William: If you get the yogurts with the pink lids they send 10 cents to these guys who are trying to stop breast cancer. You know why the lids are pink? Because only women get breast cancer. You know why only women get breast cancer? Because only women can make babies. Men can't make babies.
Jarek: Yeaaaaaaa! Whack!
(I can't explain the whack, but that's what he said. I also promise that I explained breast cancer more accurately to William than what he seems to remember.)

Life is never dull around these two.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Busy days

One of the touted advantages of homeschooling is the flexibility of your schedule. You can do school in your pajamas! You can sleep in and start school at noon then stay up late and...I don't know...whatever people do when they stay up late.

One of the purported disadvantages of homeschooling is the lack of "socialization" which I think people use to mean a lack of interaction with people outside of their family, even though in my college anthropology course I was taught that the family is the primary agent of socialization. But that's another story.

Somehow my homeschooling story is turning out be to scripted a bit differently than the sterotype.

The flexibility of my schedule has made it possible for me to sign William up for two gymnastics classes, a flag football class and a boy scouts type group, plus speech therapy. None of which are attended in pajamas. Sadly. And all of which involve interaction with people outside of our family. And all of which significantly reduce the flexibility of my schedule.

But it's good. I like our days. We're out of the house pretty much every single day, and the anti-social part of me gets tired of that sometimes. But I like what we do. I like watching William learn things I don't have the energy or equipment to teach him. I like having deep talks while we drive to activities. I like squeezing in a trip to the library every time we go in that direction.

I think one of the biggest advantages of homeschooling is flexibility. Flexibility to find what works for your kid and your family. Flexibility to change your mind about what works--day to day, or year to year, or on the spur of the moment. Flexibility to make education and learning a continual process that is a part of all aspects of life. Flexibility to make your schedule as busy or laid back as you and your kid need it to be.

Right now, we're choosing busy days.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Not the vegetable

William came and flopped on me today and told me, "You'd make a good balance bean."