6th game vs the Cowboys

Today the Spring Lake Tar Heels faced the Cowboys. We had a scrimmage against them earlier in the season and won. Today we fought hard to win our game with a final score of 19-13. It was a stressful game for the players, coaches, and parents. After all there is a Championship on the line. Before the game the Tar Heels were tied for first place with three other teams. The Spring Lake Tar Heels have not won a Championship since 1983. (Yep you saw correctly 1-9-8-3.) There’s a lot of pressure on both the players and the coaches as we are the only football team in the age group of 11-12 representing Spring Lake North Carolina. Next week is our final game of the season. Pray for a win…then we’ll deal with the playoff later.

JD’s position today was one the kickoff return team. So here’s my favorite player (#53) hard at work.

A good half day

Today was a half day of sorts. We did realize until ½ the day was gone that public school had a teacher’s workday and the neighborhood kids were not in school. JD was out playing in the yard when a friend of his came by with her dogs. She told JD that they were out of school today. JD promptly found me while wiping the dirt off his shirt and bare chest saying, “She’s out of school today so we can stop our school too.” (He actually TOLD me this….he didn’t ASK.) But, JD did so good with all his lessons this week that I had planned today to be only a half day anyway.

The devotion today had to do with Xerox copies and then moved to the next step of copying a person or cloning. But even identical twins do not have the same DNA. The devotion quickly transitioned into God making us as a one-of-a-kind. AND we don’t have to change our looks or personality to please God. It’s our thoughts and actions that need changed.

JD took his normal thirty minutes to read book number six of this school year. It’s and Odyssey fiction book called Behind the Locked Door. I love that he loves reading now. He even reads in bed…when he’s suppose to be asleep. (smile)

Today in math we learned problem solving. The lesson was called “Guess & Check, Reasonableness.” There was a lot of charting to do in order see if our guess was correct or if it needed another chance on the drawing board. But we did have fun problem solving together. Here’s one of the questions…Joe owns 14 animals total. He owns both horses and chickens. There are 46 legs total. How many horses does Joe own? (Seriously? Just look out in your barn Joe!) Ok, how about this one…Your parents ages have a 2 year difference. The sum of their ages is 84. The product of their ages is 1763. How old is the oldest parent? (I say snoop for a birth certificate.)

We had a fun time making up stories on Wacky Web Tales today for language arts. We put in the needed verbs, nouns, adjectives etc for a story called The Great Dough Disaster. It was a cute story about JD making bread for a lady named Mary. The tale asked for a large number in one of the blanks and JD said, “eight million.” So when the story was completed it read, “I think Mary said to put in eight million packages of yeast.” Well you can just imagine what happened. Yep, the bread kept rising, JD was let go, and he never made bread again. I had JD scribe this out on paper once I printed it. Here’s another positive thing about home school. JD NEVER would have scribed this story in one sitting. He sat right there in his chair and scribed the entire story and it took up the whole front page of paper. AND the penmanship is GREAT! (I love it when I see growth.)

Because JD worked his tail off this week in science and social studies I opted to drop these two lessons.

A good day

It was another good day. It started out snuggling on the couch (as usual) to do our devotion. Today’s devotion was “enlightening.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” (John 8 12, 9:5) and he said, “his followers should be light to a dark world.” (Matthew 5:14-16) But, today’s bible verse in 1 John 1:7 adds a different perspective to this light thing. Jesus says, “walk in the light.” This means to closely follow Jesus’ ways and obey him. This sounds easy, but in reality it is extremely difficult.

JD continued reading the book Behind the Locked Door and then pressed onto math. I thought yesterday’s math was challenging, but today left me feeling like a kindergarten student in a 6th grade math class. We learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals with an algebraic missing value. (Ah, duh?) In most cases you do the opposite of what the problem is to solve it but it depends on where the “minuend” is in subtraction or if the missing value is in the numerator or denominator in division. (Are you confused yet?)

We got less accomplished in science today than I had hoped we would, but we learned some interesting stuff. (I hope it comes in handy when he becomes whatever it is God has planned for him…Dr. Hyder I hope.) Today we learned about the periodic table and what all those numbers mean on each element. We labeled an element from page 257 in his science workbook. Then we learned a couple of sentences courtesy of a lady named Ming on U-Tube. The sentences helped us to memorize the first 20 elements on the table. (Yes I said twenty!) They were…Harry he likes beer bottled cold not over frothy…AND…Nelly Nanny might although silly person she climbs, around kinky caves. By taking the first letter or two of each word JD now knows: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon, (Hey wake up! I’m not done yet) Potassium, and Calcium.

I had JD take notes today on the history of South America. He learned about the Turks takeover and the necessary route change to reach the Orient. Then he learned about Christopher Columbus finding the Indies. When he returned home to Spain there was a land dispute. Pope Alexander VI decided a line should be drawn. The land given was later changed to South America or Brazil.

Today I had JD rewrite the two columns of words I wrote to memorize the periodic tables. His penmanship is getting so much better.

A good school day

It was a good day today. We were once again “compatible” and that makes for a fun day. Did you know today is Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Day? The devotion today talked about being in school five days a week and then attending Sunday School. Most kids will say, Awe…” It’s ever so important to have a positive attitude when you‘re at Sunday School. And this Sunday remember the real reason you are there (God) and thank the teacher that volunteers his or her time.

JD is still enjoying the newest Odyssey book called Behind the Locked Door. After he read for thirty minutes we went into math.

Today’s math lesson will be hard to explain but I can tell you nit was comparing decimals with the <, >, and  = signs. Then the lesson went deeper and we had to compare decimals with whole numbers and exponents. (It really is a wonder that I’m not squatting in a corner somewhere, drooling, rocking, and pounding my head with all this math.).

Today in social studies we looked at the different patterns of economic development in South America. They included: agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacturing, energy uses, transportation, and trade. We pulled lots of pictures from the internet dealing with the agriculture. One of the pictures was “cacao.” JD figured it out before me that cacao is cocoa (chocolate!) I want to live in South America for the following reasons: coffee, chocolate, scenery, and low cost of living.

For language arts today we went to the website that had the Wacky Web Tales. We added verbs, adjective, nouns, etc and came up with a real funny story about the sky falling. Then, I had JD complete the re-writing assignment from yesterday. It was the personal letter to Hank Keirsey. His penmanship was so much better today than yesterday. I asked him about it. I said, “You were mad yesterday and I can tell. Your penmanship is improved and you wrote it out in record time. I’m proud of you.” We still have not heard from the contributor (writer) of the article for AOL. (How disappointing.) Any suggestions on how to get this letter to Hank would be greatly appreciated.

We did not do science today because we spent so much time on the social studies lesson.

A good day for the birds (and the bees)

On this day in 1781 the American Revolutionary war ended. Wars always end with one side giving up, calling it quits, or surrendering. The war between God and Satan for control of our hearts and the universe is all around us. Good thing I already know the outcome. (See the hard to read book of Revelation.) As a soldier in God’s army, I must dress out in my armor (Ephesians 6) and stand ready to fight daily. But there can be only one commander and He is God. Eleven years ago I asked to be “saved” but now I have to surrender to God and stop resisting his direction in my life. There’s a HUGE difference there. One is salvation from an eternity spend away from God in Hell and the other is simple obedience. God doesn’t want “Good people” in His army. He wants His obedient children. Unless you have personally asked Jesus into your heart you are not a child of God, you are not in God’s army, you are fighting a losing battle, and you will lose your life. **Okay, I’m down off my soap box. **No wait** So many people cry out about the blood being shed in our present war. I am one of those people. But the blood being spilled out is not in vain. It has a purpose…for our freedom. And yet one man (Jesus) shed his blood for our freedom from eternal separation from our CREATOR and…are you one of those people crying out? What Jesus did wasn’t in vain either…

JD has pushed through almost four out of the eleven chapters of Behind the Locked Door. It’s another Odyssey book he started yesterday. He took a five minute break after reading and we went straight into math.

Today in math we learned about dividing decimals. Today’s lesson went much better than yesterday’s. We worked diligently together to figure out the answers to the questions. For the quiz they kept telling us one number divided by (blank) equals the answer. Then we had 4 possible answers to choose from. The problem with that was we had to figure out A, B, C, and sometimes D for the answer. JD took answers A, and B and figured them out on a calculator while I took answers C and D and figured them out on a calculator. Then, when one of us found out the answer we called out “I got it.” I then wrote the problem with the missing factor on graph paper and we did that problem together. He actually recognized when I missed a step and politely corrected me. I of course thanked him and praised him.

We continued with the reproductive study in science today. It was actually more like we had the real “Birds and Bees” conversation. We also learned about fetal development and the delivery of a baby. I do not want my child thinking girls get pregnant by kissing and babies come through the pee hole. Today’s lesson garnered more blushes than yesterday. Especially when I talked about puberty for boys when they become interested in girls. I offered a few tips of my own, told him it was completely natural, and finally told him that anytime he has questions to feel free to ask his dad or me. He agreed he would, but that may have been just to shut me up. I asked if he had any questions at this time and he asked some off the wall question about some war. (Um, what does that have to do with THIS topic.) We also completed a quick Human Body review today. We accomplished page 100 and 101 in his workbook. Those two pages included everything we have done so far on the body systems. He recalled much of the important information. I was proud of him. I’m not exactly sure what will be the next science block. I guess I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

Today for language arts I pulled up a news article from Fox News, which led me to AOL news. It was an article called “The Real Story Behind The ‘Call of Duty’ games” It told of Retired Lt. Col. Hank Keirsey’s role in advising military strategies for the six games produced thus far. JD probably has four or five of them so far. He loves those games. I started the lesson by reading the article to JD and then I had him highlight some of the adjectives, verbs, nouns, adverbs, and conjunctions in the article. Then, came the hard part…writing. I wanted JD to actually write Mr. Keisley a letter with changes or additions he would like to see in the next game produced. It was difficult at first to get JD started and I finally took the driver’s seat and dictated a letter for him to re-write on paper. I know he was dreading writing this letter, because he gave me very short sentences. I know he HATES writing, but he’s got to get over that, suck it up, and write. JD asked if we were going to actually send this letter and I said, “Yes.” He asked me to put a P.S. on the bottom. It reads, “P.S. If you read this, do you think you could possibly give me a copy of the next game?” We looked up the contributor to the article and emailed him asking him for contact information for Mr. Keisley. I hope someone emails us back or JD will be so discouraged.

We waited until after football practice to do our social studies lesson. The other night we rented the movie John Adams. It’s a three disc set all about who else but John Adams. We are re-learning what was already learned in the DVD America: The Story of Us but in MUCH more detail. The language they use during that time period is big flowery words that are kind of over my head. I have to ask JD if he’s following what’s happening and most times he’s right on target. Most of the conversations are in the continental congress meetings. It’s kind of a dull movie but JD likes it. (Hey, whatever floats his boat.)

A tough math day

It was a tough math day, but a productive day otherwise. I taught JD his lessons, did my part-time job for 2 1/2 hours, nuked dinner in the microwave, cleaned up, made brownies for us, and baked a cake for the Associational meeting that will be held at our church on Tuesday.

We read Saturday’s devotion today instead of the one dated 18 Oct. Saturday was National Dictionary Day. Of course we all know the importance of meaning what we say. But have you given any thought to meaning what you say? (It’s deep…I know.) James 5:12 says, “…let your yes be yes, and your no be no…“ I referred to Jeff-a-pedia because when I read James 5:7-12 for the whole story I read that James was telling folks to be patient and persevere, and I still didn’t understand “Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.” Jeff said, “Basically, don’t cross your fingers and say yes, or swear on the bible and then lie.” For the most part, I have always been a firm believer in telling the truth. (**side story** Does anyone want to go back in time to say the early 1800’s where your word was as good as money?)

Today in math we re-learned multiplying decimals. In a perfect world, the TV would be on cartoons in the background while we diligently learn our newest math concept. As we all know this is a less than perfect world and the TV was requested to be off BEFORE our devotion. JD obeyed turning the TV off but held some pent up anger through the devotion and it spewed all over our math time. During the beginning of our lesson I requested an attitude change, not once, but twice. I was being talked to like a disliked “classmate.” The momma-has-had-enough-button was flashing on the back of my head but before I had a chance to turn so JD could see for himself I exploded. I picked up my clipboard and pounded it on the computer table. I gave JD enough warning to get to his room before my head spun around on my shoulders. After a short break I called him back. He crept into his seat and only 1/3rd cheeked it. I got mad again and said, “Go back to your room. You look like I’m getting ready to throw you through the wall.” I called him back again and apologized for losing my temper THAT bad. He eventually apologized to me for treating me like a former classmate. We eventually “got over it” and pressed on through our lesson

Today in science we did the dreaded tape-the-paper-on-the-window lesson. The one where the boys go in one room and the girls go in another. We learned about both the boy’s and girl’s reproductive organs and their functions. That covered: sperm, eggs, testes, ovaries, and ovulation. Then, we talked about puberty and the expected change for both boys and girls. The last topic we covered was acne. OK, so I know everyone wants to ask, “How’d that go for ya?” It actually went well. There was the initial giggles, hiding of the face, and blushing but he composed himself and actually learned.

I tried to make language arts fun today . My grandmother recently had a fall that landed her in the hospital and ultimately scored her a hip surgery. I asked JD to compose a letter to her. I was dictating while he spoke. JD at one point recognized that she had only broken one bone in her life. He said, “Guess that makes her a tough old bird.” He really meant no disrespect, and the truth is SHE IS! (Nana and mom, if you’re reading this…I am proud to be part of a tough old bird family.) After we wrote that letter and drew a “Get Well” message I had him write to our child from Africa that we sponsor monthly. Occasionally the organization sends a card for us to sign and send. I had JD write the message to Happy this year. Maybe one day we’ll meet him.

I had my cleaning job to do today so I had JD do his 30 minute reading at the house I clean. We did not do a social studies today because I took that extra time to talk about the reproductive system and answer any questions.

5th Game vs the Trojans

Sat 16 Oct - The Tar Heels beat the Trojans by a score of 34-7.  JD is starting to get a head cold and was not feeling well Friday night and this morning so he just put on his jersey and became a coach for the day.  I couldn't resist this father-son picture.