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!

I have started blogging.  I am hooked.  It has become the family joke really….  “Tracy not giving you all the information? Check the blog!”…….  Last night we said good bye to some friends and I said something to Q (my oldest son) about blogging about his weekend. 

The boys were going outside with their Godfather and our friend to learn basic “knife throwing”. (Our friends are Martial Arts black belts)   As they were heading out the door I heard my Z, my youngest (who was so excited he did not know what to do with himself) turn to Q and say “it’s really time for learnin’ now!”…….  It was an exciting weekend for them (and us)

I thought how cool would it be for the boys to have included in their “assignments” to be blogging once in a while.  I was going to set one up for the boys but if the plan is for you guys to do it…..  That would be to much and I think that would be cool…  They could talk to other kids, read about other kids and make comments?

I would like input with the blog for kids.  I’m sure my kids would like input as well.

My two boys are learning about vikings.  For a couple days now they have been rushing to get to their social studies so that they can find out more.  Vikings were warriors, traders and pirates.  Are they cool? You betcha!  Now they are cool.. Not so much back then!  For two little boys Vikings are cool to learn about.

So, it is 4pm and each boy, with a paper printed off the T4L site from today’s lesson in hand, left to go “make” something at their grandfather’s house….  I imagine that it will be some kind of weapon because that is just who my boys are.  I always enjoy the little bit of quiet time that I get when they are gone but look forward to the excited chatter of what they have “made”.

It has been brought to my attention that “chain mail” is in their future….  “Chain mail” is not something that they are unfamiliar with and have seen it for many years at the convention that we go to, however, it is now become an interest for them with the “Viking” lessons and I see myself, my boys and my husband with pliers and little pieces of chain for hours on end making something that they want.  (Little do they know that I have a small kit that we can work on when the issue really gets pushed on me… just to show them how difficult it is)

Each day that goes by is a new and learning experience.  I can’t tell you how great it is to have the boys enjoying their lessons and sharing discussions about their lessons.

On a different note….. Math today was a challenge….  With them both.  What is the deal?  Gosh they are both good in math and if I stand over them they whip right through it but once I walk away the complaining and moans start….  Oh well…   I guess they can’t be perfect….  

Part of it was my fault but I was still mad. Friday we were in a rush for time. Life was calling and I could not focus on my kids in the morning. When they signed on to do school work they got the msg that their accounts were inactive. Of course my youngest one got the msg because he is always the first to sign on and do his schooling and get it over with. I told him quickly as I was flying around cleaning my house, getting ready for company, that I knew there was a problem and I would take care of it later in the day but now we were out of time anyway.

We got through company and then had some fun. I managed the call at 4:45pm. Of course, nothing can work out like I plan and on Sunday night when my oldest tried to sign on to do his work, the account was still inactive. I told him that I was sorry but he would have to double up on Monday and he seemed fine with that.

Because I am getting a house ready for sale for a friend, my boys stayed at their grandmother’s house. Me giving instructions that they needed to do their school work before their father picked them up. My oldest child got up late on Monday and tried to sign on again but I had not emailed T4L at that point so told him to try back in an hour. I emailed and everything was fixed and fine and we were good to go.

Here is where it all fell apart. It seems that my children “just forgot” that they needed to do anything. By the time I was done with the house for the day, home and trucking them all over the county for Soccer, eating and Karate, I found out that they both had lost their minds. DS1 burst out crying in the car saying that he felt bad enough about not doing his school work and they both said they would triple up on Tuesday.

I guess that I can give them the benefit of the doubt in that they honestly tried to do it on a couple occasions but I was pretty mad at them for “forgetting” all day on Monday! Life is not all peaches and cream, sometimes they loose their minds…. Hopefully when I get this house done and ready for sale, things will calm down and get back to somewhat normal.

We shall see how this morning goes. I won’t have any problems with my youngest getting him to triple up on work but the oldest will try to get out of it…. I’m sure of it.. it is just who he is…

The happy point to this email that It is much easier for them to “triple” up on the T4L curriculum than it would be for them to do so in traditional book work. It is just one more benefit to an on-line, point and click curriculum. I will have to get back into routine with their writing program and spelling but at least I know that they will do their schooling and “catch up” with out much fuss. Or at least I hope not to much fuss!

John asked so I thought I would sit down and kind of explain our “methods”.  We are a very eclectic family when it comes from home schooling.  We believe in hands on, life learning lessons for the most part.  Being from a family that “does for themselves” and does not “hire out”, our boys know that they have years to look forward to very hard physical work.    They have both been involved in many of our remodeling projects and are about to take on a small addition to their room.  They both cook and bake so they get plenty of reading with that and they are both into an online game so they type to their friends on that.

Time4Learning has helped me be a little more organized and focused on keeping everything together.  We worked out of Modern Curriculum Press for the last several years and love them for traditional book work but because of issues with both boys, T4L is a much better program for us right now.

Our family uses a lot of School Zone products for different things and have been able to incorporate so much into learning maps, states and areas using the Highlights Which Way USA books that my parents got for them.  I struggle with spelling lists and would be Oh’-so-grateful to see spelling added to T4L.  For some of our writing projects we use McDonald Creative Thinking “Write-Abouts”.  McDonald also puts out “Silly Starters” and “Story Starters” which we have used.

For the most part we have our oldest draw his own comics and add story lines to that when he gets really frustrated.  They also have a program that their godfather has them on which requires writing every week.   Boy Scouts has helped them with some writing projects.

Like I said though, we are kind of all over the place and take one day at a time.  At least now there is one part that they don’t complain about so it makes all the rest so much easier.