What is it about Mondays?

Today’s devotion was about “Running the Race.” Hebrews 12:1 says “let us run with endurance thee race that God has set before us.” Some people approach life like a sprint. They go as fast as they can. But we need to understand we can’t keep that pace up. So we need to prepare to run at a long distance. When I was ten years old I never thought ahead. I could imagine looking ahead even one decade let alone seven or eight. We need to listen to God, our coach, and run our race according to His plan.

Today in the bible we read Genesis 18-20. At the end of reading JD said, “I thought the bible was suppose to be a clean book to read.” Chapter 18 talked about the son promised to Sarah and when Abraham interceded for Sodom. JD cracked up, “Please do not get angry with me but would you destroy the city for ten righteous people.” Then, Chapter 19 was where Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed and Lot‘s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. JD also had something to say about this. He said, “Why did she turn around?” Well the answer is she is just like us. It‘s hard to let go of the world and follow God‘s instructions. Then, there was the story of Lot and his daughters pining for the family tree to be restored. Finally, in Chapter 20 Abraham deceived King Abimelech by saying Sarah was his sister again. Really? Cause you didn’t learn from the first time just a couple of chapters ago? Oh who am I kidding. I mess up daily. Do you?

We are doing data analysis in math. We’ve looking and analyzing graphs. Today it was line graphs. He learned about where to put the data and how to read the data. It was frustrating for me because he started the lesson with a bad mood because of the type of lesson it was. Like I have said before, “Some of the lessons are fun and some are not as fun.” We struggled through the lesson and started working on the very confusing quiz. That’s when I lost it with JD because I was struggling with question one and two so I took the quiz myself answering all the questions “A” instead of B, C, or D. I told JD that I wouldn’t count this quiz. My plan…which I failed to explain to JD…was to take the test and figure out how they got the answers and then go back and re-take the quiz. Once I finished the quiz with all my “A” answers he popped out of the chair like years of kids had cranked the Jack-in-the-box crank. I quickly said, “Whoa, where are you going?” He said, “Well, we’re done with math aren’t we?” Um, no. So when I called him back I got nothing but anger and frustration. I tried to help him understand how they got their answers in question one and two but he was uncooperative. So I said, “Fine, take this quiz on your own.” I left the room with “When you have a crappy attitude, it rubs off on those people around you.“ He did take the quiz on his own and he scored a 70%. After this episode I talked with him and told him that he has full control of his attitude. Not everything in life is fun. And an apology is in order.

I hoped after a long break that JD would be in a better mood. He was until I caught him looking at the keyboard during his keyboarding lesson. And of course when I called him out. I’m trying to instill in him to do the right thing when no one is looking. It’s a tough lesson for him to understand.

While we were on break from our last lesson JD became fixated on communication with the ants. He even tried to look it up on the internet. I think the idea comes from a game he has where “Pikmin” kill bugs and return them to a UFO ship for points. Then seeds pop out from the ship and you have to pick the Pikmin from the ground. The whole point of the game is to collect certain UFO ship parts and return them to the ship too. But the bugs get in the way. I actually like playing the game myself. So I suggested he use his imagination for his journal lesson. This automatically shut him down. He started naming all the bugs he would have to mention and the jobs he would assign to each one. I offered to dictate for him. I did prompt him with a few questions but most of this is from JD’s mind. If humans could communicate with insects I would like it. I would assign jobs to each one. The main mission here would be defending our house from the pesky termites. The ants would be my elite army. They would be fighting the termites in mouth to mouth combat. The worms would guard the wood that is underneath the house. The dragon flies would be the airplanes for ants to parachute off of. Each ant would carry onboard a dandelion puff for their parachute. The butterflies would be the scouts. They’d fly around and occasionally swoop up a termite to be a POW in the spider web. The rolly polly insects could be catapulted by the spiders single web silk. They would pull the silk back and an ant could cut the silk with their mouths. The rolly pollies would be instructed to roll into a tight ball for the launch. Once launched they’d stay in position until they hit the ground. They should keep rolling into the middle of a battle. Once there they would unroll and start fighting termites. The stink bugs job would be to back into a termite hole to release the secret chemical weapon. For tanks I would enlist the help of the centipede. They have good traction and can maneuver through tight spaces. The pool bugs could be used for underwater missions for cases where termites live near water sources.
The on-line art lesson worked today so he learned how we got each of our colors and how they made them all the way back in caveman times. He also learned they type of surfaces they used to paint on and what paints were good for art and what ones would fade in time. I actually had to tell him the 45 minutes allotted for art was up and that I didn’t require him to stay at the computer. But he stayed and played with the on-line lesson for a while longer.

JD has ten new spelling words for this week. They all start out the same again like the words country and county. This time before he “leaves school” for the day I will have him study his words.