My boys have started blogging… Yup, thats right…   They are now part of the blogging community.  Each boy approached me and asked if he too could have a blog.  I have had one for several months and it has become a sort of family “joke” .  “Tracy did not tell you what was going on?  Didn’t you read the blog?”  The boys have heard and seen the blog for a while and have decided that they wanted one.   I could not hold them off any longer.  I wanted to wait until t4l got a blog for kids but this is going to work fine now.

I told them it was their responsibility and that they would have to keep it up and they would have to  post often if they wanted comments and they wanted people to keep going back to it.

Quentin surprised me first when I went to put photos on that he asked me to put on.  I saw that he wrote something about T4L on his site.  Zachary followed with putting a poem that he said is now his “favorite” on the site.  I encourage originality but am happy that Zachary is at least posting something and keeping up with it!  Zachary is all about the poems on the T4L site and he has to read me each one that he comes across.  He has a few printed off and they are hanging on the wall next to his computer.

I hope that their blogging helps with their grammar, punctuation, spelling, and writing.  In Zach’s case I hope that it helps with his self confidence.  It will be interesting to see where they go with it and how much T4L is mentioned and how many references is made to T4L.

And a side note…. Quentin informed me today that he wants to go to S. America.  Why you ask?  from him: “It sounds like a neat place and I was learning about it on T4L.”

I just never imagined getting so much from a curriculum!  Thanks again guys!

Two weeks ago the boys had their first boys scout camp out.  Kat’s family and our family joined to get some projects done and to camp.  My dad helped the boys with all their flag requirements and with their tool assignments. (my father is a master craftsman)  I had printed out the tools that they boys had to learn and given it to my father in advance.  I thought that he would pull out all the tools and have them lined up but I was wrong.  He made a game out of it and had them each read a tool and then the boys had to “find” the tool in his shop. (he has multiple tools, in multiple sizes in his very disorganized shop).  It was kind of neat to watch them “hunt” for the tool and each time they found the one on the list they would cross it off and then learn how to use it properly.

It was then time for them to build their bookends and my dad pulled tools down one by one and asked “Do you know what this is?”  You know, for the most part it was pretty easy, screw gun, screw driver, nails, hammer. etc.  Then he pulled down a shiny silver clamp and asked “Do you know what this is?”  Kat’s son shouted out “It’s a Caliper!”  My dad laughed and said “No, it is a clamp and this is how it works”.

I don’t know if Kat knew what a caliper was but she gave her son the funniest look.  I knew what a caliper was because I was (pre-children) an Inventory Control Specialist and occasionally I would have to measure parts in the field.  Everything went fine and we never re-visited the caliper thing and I don’t even know if Kat remembers the conversation.

It was not until earlier this week that the whole thing came back to me.  Zach was having some issues on T4L so I told him to skip the lesson and I would help him with it when I was done doing what I was in the middle of.  Later that morning when I went through the lesson with him I was surprised to see that part of the lesson was dealing with measurement and a Caliper is not only explained but it is one of the questions they ask in the lesson.  To my surprise the photo on the lesson looked JUST like the clamp that my father had pulled down. I now knew where Kat’s son had heard the word and he really thought that the clamp was the caliper that he had learned about in his T4L lesson!

Here are the 3 boys in their tool lesson.. the little head you see is  Kat’s youngest who joined right in “learning about tools”

We had company this weekend.  Our company are “online” friends who have become very close to us.  Q and Z absolutely love these two people and look forward to their visits.  Explaining the impact that these two people have had on the boys would take forever but simply stated the boys would be lost without them in their lives.

I say that just to give you background.  This past weekend, while our friends were here, they showed the boys a new on line game.  Each boy was so excited to get home and download it so that they could play.  Our friends emailed both boys the website as well as some quick instructions on playing.  The excitement of getting home last night to begin the large download was just to much!  Both boys ran into the house, getting to their computers to check their email and begin the download. 

I did not think that either would sleep knowing that when they got up this morning they could play the game.  Just before I said goodnight to them I said “You know that you can not play until after your schoolwork is done.”  That statement was not met with moans or groans but with a nod and agreement.  

Getting to my point.  My 6 year old is very active; bouncing all over the place with what we jokingly (affectionately) call “the attention span of a gnat”.  The boys got up and raced to their computers to make sure that the download worked and then immediately signed on to T4L.  I was surprised by not having to “remind” them to first do their schoolwork and sat at my computer listening to them each doing their lessons for the day.

Zman is doing both 2nd and 3rd grade work and although he jiggs and moves the whole time he is working, he pays close attention and does very well on his tests and quizzes.  Neither boy “rushed” through their lessons and I was surprised by that, setting myself up very early for the “fight” to slow down that I knew was coming.  The game that they were so looking forward to was hanging over their heads but they both did their work like any other day.

Q finished his work first and started playing his game.  Zman had issues in math and has himself convinced of not being able to do it but finally got it done and started on his LA Extensions; zipping through like normal. (any type of English is his most enjoyable area)   School work was finally over and Z was able to sign on, create his character and start playing for the first time.

That is when it hit me…  Within about 10 minutes Z signed off the game and was heading to his room for something.  I turned to ask him what he was doing and he said that he did not want to play anymore.  I was amazed several times today but that was the biggest shocker.  T4L can hold his interest for as long as 2 hours at a time but this new, anticipated game only held his interest for 10 or 15 minutes the first time he played it.  I wondered if it was the repetition of the game or maybe the complex ideas of it that he got tired of so quickly.  I asked him the difference but gave me his 6 year old answer of “I don’t know”….  The biggest threat that I could ever make would be to switch back to traditional book work solely for school work.  I find myself pondering the difference in him between his ability to sit and pay attention and keep at each lesson every day and him playing an online game with his brother.

Today showed me many things. My boys can be responsible for making the right choices, they possess the maturity of realizing that their schoolwork is very important and needs to be done well, and Zman truly does enjoy learning more than playing a game.  I already knew that T4L was working for us but it was so evident today that we had made the right choice in this year’s curriculum.

Tomorrow might be different, you never know.  Each day represents something new learned, some new realization on my part or a new discussion about something learned.  Today was a good day and opened my eyes about my 6 year old and more importantly that my 9 year old is taking school work seriously.

This morning I was in making my coffee and I heard a squeal.  Not so much a squeal from being upset, nor one of sheer delight; more like a squeal from just amazement…….  After the hour long (every few minutes) of me prodding the boys to “start” something to do with school…. (Yes, even HS’ers hate Mondays)…. They finally signed on and got to work.

We had a very long and exciting weekend.  Usually we do something “school” worthy over the weekend or at least they read every night before bed.  This weekend was one of our two fall Boy Scout camp weekends and needless to say that Monday and school came way to fast for them.  They sure did “learn” a great deal over the weekend but did not read or do any formal schoolwork like normal so it was much harder to get them started this morning.

Back to the squeal…..   Today I learned that not only could you stretch the Great Wall from the East Coast to the West Coast but that people were removing bricks to build houses……..   There is now a picture of The Great Wall pinned in our office.  My youngest found the facts surrounding the Great Wall so very exciting and the squeal came in the manner of instant “Mom!! You know what??”….  Followed by a talking a million miles an hour.

My eldest was clapping madly by the end of his work today because he had gotten 100% on some part of LA Extensions.

For all the dragging that was done at the very beginning,  schoolwork actually was okay.  I enjoy when the boys start telling me something and have a hard time speaking as quickly as the thoughts are trying to come out.