A tough morning

It was a tough morning. JD and I made a phone contract after he lost and recovered his cell phone after a month of searching. If JD breaks one of the rules on the contract he gets a strike. If he gets only two strikes in a day I take his phone for one day. JD got strike one this morning after I attempted to wake him up three times. And he got the second strike during breakfast. Then during a “life skills” moment he simply would not tell me what he would thank God for in a prayer.

I had JD read the devotion today and he went a bit out of order. The devotion for 5 Dec is called National Bathtub Day. It talked about being dirty on the outside until we shower or bathe. Then it talked about being “dirty” on the inside. You know those things like: envy, pride, greed, deceit, anger, and hate. To clean this up we need to place ourselves in the shower of God’s grace. He promises that when we confess our sins, he’ll cleanse us, forgiving us completely. Once we’re clean God can use us to do his work. Think of this devotion like a dirty glass. What good would it do to wipe the outside of a glass?

Math was confusing and JD was distracted by the happenings of our home. Today we learned how to add and subtract integers. It’s all very confusing and I’m wondering what we need this for. It seems like a bunch of nonsense rules to memorize for an assessment. We’re going to be in trouble when we have to decipher what process to use on word problems.

We did not do science today because I got tripped up on multiple social studies lessons. I let JD watch the program called “Blackbeard” that was showing on the History Channel. Then we looked up facts for Argentina and printed them up for the brochure. Most interesting was the name Argentina means “Land of Silver.”

For language arts I was going to have JD write some facts about Blackbeard when he suddenly volunteered to write five things to thank God for. He thanked God for letting him live another day, saving him and loving him, for giving him two great parents, and for helping him today. This was from the heart and I did not tell him anything to write. This life skills lesson came up because of our conversation about repetitious praying. He says the same prayer about cousins and dogs and I was trying to tell him to expand his thankfulness.

JD gave up on reading Iwo Jima and started reading a Star Wars Jedi Apprentice The followers. He read for more than thirty minutes this time. Yippie.

A "bonding" day

It was a bonding day. (I love those kind of days.)

The devotion today was about Napoleon. He of course was a short man that was a ruthless dictator. Short men these days who are overly aggressive are said to have a Napoleon complex. The bible tells us about a man that probably had that complex. His name was Zacchaeus. In his job as tax collector he was mean and dishonest. That was until he met Jesus. He became an honest man and humbly submitted to the Lord. So if you have a “Napoleon complex” change it to a Zacchaeus complex. Come down from your tree and meet the Savior who will accept you as you are and change you from the inside out.

Today was more of that “when will I ever use this kind of math day.“ It was about absolute values; that is the distance the number is from zero on the number line. It will always be a positive number and equal to itself and has an opposite number. (What?) It was an easy lesson and a short lesson so we didn’t argue much.

For science today we started out trying to identify JD’s rock collection. (A boy’s childhood cannot be counted complete without a rock collection.) He got most of them from “Science Days” at public school. As a matter of fact those were the only days he didn’t get a note home saying he made bad choices. (Tee/hee) I realized it was EXTREMELY difficult to label each rock with it’s name because so many of them looked alike enough yet different enough to be another type. Just a refresher, there are three type of rocks: metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous. While it was fun to try this task with JD I halted the “name game” after trying to identify only three rocks. We then learned how metamorphic and sedimentary rocks are formed. After that we looked at the five different types of mountains. (Yep, there are five.) Let’s see are they the Rockies, the Appalachians…big, little? No they are classified on how they were formed; whether they were formed from magma below the surface, cooled lava above the surface, from plate tectonics, or caused by faults or erosion. (I know you can’t sleep without all this information. You’re welcome)

We also had fun during the social studies lesson. We started neatly cutting and pasting the pictures we pulled out of the magazines yesterday. We completed the cover, the contents page, and started the “recommended places to visit” page. We talked the whole time about going here or going there. It was a bonding time.

I was in a rush to get out of the house to clean my client’s house and we forgot a book to read and a language arts lesson. So I pulled the Diary of a Wimpy Kid from the backseat of my car and had him read that for thirty minutes.

Even when we skip lesson while I clean I guess I don’t get too frustrated with myself because he plays with my client’s 12 year old son. They get along so well. I call that a “socialization lesson.”

A productive day

Today was a very productive day (and a good one too.) The devotion today was about Sherlock Holmes and his mysteries. It transitioned into the “great mystery of our faith.” People wonder how Jesus could be fully God and fully human. This mystery is unsolvable because God is way beyond our ability to think and figure out. Some people think that because they can’t see God, and certainly can’t understand everything about him, they find it difficult to believe in him at all. (The way I see it, like Jeff, if I could understand our God then he’s not much of a God.) The mystery to me is Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth, died on the cross for me, rose again three days later, and now lives in Heaven and in us through the Holy Spirit. Thank God for this “great mystery of faith.” All I can say is BELIEVE!

As promised yesterday we did not do a math lesson today. I think Lyndell typed the comment “Maybe construction will be complete soon” because of that stupid math wall we hit. JD didn’t exactly jump for joy over the lack of math but he didn’t cry either. (Anyway, it was a nice break for me.)

Today in science we learned mostly about the earth and it’s four layers. We learned the crust its on 5-20 miles thick. (I really would have thought it would have been deeper. Our question after this study was how does anyone know how thick the other layers are and how do they know how hot each levels. There are no drills that would go 4, 020 miles down to the very center. Then we learned about igneous rocks and its two subcategories of intrusive and extrusive.

In social studies we looked through the travel brochures and cut out anything related to Argentina. We found an excellent map in one of them and used that as a reference when scouring every page. We became intimately familiar with other “must see” travels destinations that were not in Argentina and began to memorize what other country it was in. We had a lot of fun doing this task and we had a bonding moment. (I was scared those moments would be few and far between.)

For language arts today I had JD do two worksheets on language usage. One worksheet was on comparing adjectives like: great, greater, greatest and important, more important, and most important. He had to write the correct usage. The second worksheet was using the words: good, better, best and bad worse, and worst.

JD read Iwo Jima for thirty minutes today. Maybe because I don’t care about history, but how can THAT book interest him?

A good short day

These short days are really starting to add up. I took another “sleep recovery nap” again today. I was up late last night with Suri so Daniel and Sarah would be somewhat rested for their short visit to Tennessee.  Suri does a real good impression of a possum.  Just when you think she's asleep and attempt to get up and walk away, she'll get up and follow you saying, "Hey."

The devotion today was about the McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. Some people are obsessed about getting all the toys in a collection and will go to multiple restaurants to finish a collection. Some people think that collecting toys will bring them happiness. For others its clothes or a fun afternoon with friends. Whatever it might be, we need to remember that true happiness comes from only one source. That’s a rock steady relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s this type of joy that helps us through the tough times when friends aren’t there, clothes wear out, and toys break down.

I counted JD's AWANA book time both as language arts and reading time.  He had to memorize a total of eight bible verses to complete discovery 8:7.  It was a general review of the whole book.  I wished my memory worked as well as JD's does. 

The math lesson today expanded on yesterdays lesson on integers. Today we had to compare decimals, fractions, positive numbers, and negative numbers on a number line to see which one was greater. It got a bit tougher for us today. For example is : - 2/3 (neg) or 1.2 greater? That’s my whole argument about math. When will we ever use some of this stuff?

I think tomorrow I'll just skip math and concentrate on social studies and science since we didn‘t do either today. Seems we've been overlooking those two subjects more and more.

Another short school day

It was a LONG weekend. We kept thinking every day off was Saturday. We loved the extra days off and found it hard to wake up. As a matter of fact I woke up late this morning because I accidentally set my alarm for PM not AM. So I finally woke up at 10:00am and we didn’t get started until 10:30am.

We read our devotion on C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia tales. It took him until his thirties to become a Christian and a strong defender of the faith. The good news for Lewis and for other with doubts about God is that God is patient with us and is eager for all of us to come to the same conclusion of faith that Lewis did.

Next we worked on the AWANA book. I counted that as language arts. He did discovery 8:4 which had him read 1 Thessalonians 4 about getting ready for Jesus’ return. Then, he did discovery 8:6 where he read the story of Paul and Silas and the Philippian jailer and reenacted it with his Lego guys. I would have made a movie of it but our computer movie maker is messing up.

We did a short and easy math lesson on integers (positive and negative #'s). The lesson refreshed our memories for word problems when it uses words like gain/loss, ascend/descend, rise/fall and has the student figure out if they add or subtract. JD scored a 100% on quiz.

I attempted science but I think I bit off more than I could chew. It was a lesson on light (or radiant) energy, which includes: infrared rays, radio waves, ultraviolet rays, and X-rays. I can usually hunt and find kid friendly resources on the internet to teach JD. But I was running out of time before I cleaned today so I just scraped science. I’ll have to switch lessons until I myself can learn about “light energy.”

I had JD read for 30 minutes before we left. He actually started one of Jeff’s books about Iwo Jima. I think its above his level, but he seems interested in it.

Because I woke up late I didn't have time to even try to do a social studies lesson today.

JD and I left the house at 7:30pm to go get his school pictures. My goodness how quick our child is growing. I put his new 8x10 in the frame on the wall and reminisced about his 4th and 5th grade pictures that were still in the frame behind the current picture.