Today's Events

Tom and Jake spend hours on this.

Jake builds great ships, boats, space ships, and airplanes. Tom takes them and they make up games and stories about them, usually revolving around some war they thought up. I'm trying to direct them when they fight. You know, the usual, use your words, what will make your brother happy, how can you get what you both want, etc. It is tedious. And I realize how many times I am rude to them and they are only parroting my remarks.

The Squirrel Hole In Question

I took the boys to the Santa Ana Zoo this morning. I love that place! On the way in they found some squirrels and checked out all the holes (this isn't the one). They found back doors, trap doors, and front doors. They started to kick dirt in one and I told them not to because it was mean. The poor squirrels work so hard! No big deal, moving right along, we went into the zoo. 

A few minutes later we come to a place to climb and play. Jake sees two boys and immediately starts yelling at them about something. I didn't see what the problem was at first but the two older boys explained to Jake that these were snake holes and snakes were bad guys so they were filling the hole. Tom and Jake freak! Not if it is a king snake, etc. They all need food. They are all just trying to live! I call Jake away because he looks like he is getting pretty upset. There was no real fighting going on, just heated debate, so I wanted to see if they would work it out. Jake wasn't going to let up though. I told him it was no big deal and to stop fighting with the boys and then Tom distracted us with some other animal. Jake is still angry. Walking around with his hands on his hips, huffing around. I ask him about the wallaby we see and he snaps at me "Yeah, I know!". I kneel down. Don't talk to me like that. I know you are angry, but what did I do? He falls apart crying on my shoulder! He is still so upset about the boys kicking dirt in the holes. I realize why he is upset and hold him for a minute. I ask him to talk. He says he doesn't want to right now. We cuddle and talk, look for the wallaby and the emu. Then he smiles and wipes his tears. "It's ok now, I thought of something. They always have back doors so they can get out." He hops down off the railing where he was sitting and wants to go play again. That kids is so sweet sometimes! 

We talked about it later. That if someone was making him that angry that he needed to walk away and think about what to do. You can't think straight when you are angry. I know that he was trying to be valiant and take care of the defenseless squirrels. But even when you are trying to be the hero you still need time to think. So cute!

Just thought I'd ramble on...

So...
 

Two more days until Tom's birthday party. I've been trying to clean and prepare for a big party and that usually makes me pretty grumpy. My adorable husband stayed home from work today and mowed the lawn and went to Costco with me to get food. He commented as we drove by the elementary school on the corner, "Thanks for liberating us from that, hun." To think that if we had gone the school route with our boys we wouldn't be able to take a family shopping trip to Costco in the middle of the day on a weekday! You would think that wouldn't be important to him, but it is. He loves going places with the boys, even if it is just to the hardware store. Sad to think that some people don't like to spend that kind of time with their kids.

What else can I write about? It is hot today. At least it is to me! It seems muggy to me. I spent some quality time with girlfriends last night. Super fun! Picked up some books at Borders. Plato's Republic, To Kill a Mockingbird, and another one I cannot recall at the moment. I like to add to my "I'm going to read this" collection regularly, even if I'm not reading that fast. That way I always have something good to read.

Today I have gorged on cookies and I feel yucky about it. I'm trying to lose this weight (again) and I have to say that any kind of cookie or cake is not allowed to be in our house on a regular basis. It is my weak spot and I cannot resist. I even tried to get the boys to eat them all today so I wouldn't but they cannot even eat as many as I can!

Today also marks the end of the first month that I have not been taking antidepressants. I'm sad! HA! Actually, dealing with stress is very difficult for me. I get angry easy and I tend not to like people A LOT! I say things I shouldn't before I have the chance to stop myself and end up driving people crazy. I'm working on it though. But that makes me sad too. When you are on the medicine you convince yourself you don't need it, that it was a temporary insanity, but then you come off it and realize there is nothing temporary about it!

I have to go...my chili is simmering and I need to stir, besides, my husband and boys are being WAY to quiet in the garage. They went out there looking for a microphone and amplifier!

God Help Us Now!

The electic guitar has been brought out from the garage!

Now the playing will never cease!

Tom Builds a Truck

A while back we found a couple of Home Depot toy construction kits on clearance. They built one and I put one away for another time. Today was that time. I gave it to Tom to build and he said "By myself!?".

Here it is an hour and a half later! He built it all by himself. He says he had help but all I did was turn a screw that was being stubborn. There was one part that he asked me about and when I looked at it I told him it looked like he was doing it right to me. He had to modify it a bit because a piece wasn't made right, I think.

So here it is! He is pretty darn proud of himself.

"A Thomas Jefferson Education" By Oliver DeMille

I'm still loving this book and I have found a new time to listen to it. I got the book on CD thinking I would have more time to listen than to read but found that the book is so full of information that I have to really sit and listen not just passively.

So here is what I have this time!

My favorite attribute of Oliver and Rachel DeMille is that they are not condemning of any system of learning. They only state plainly what each system sets out to achieve and how it is applied. You are asked to make your own decisions as to what you want for yourself and your children. You are asked to research systems and people yourself and decide for yourself. Other books I have read have only tried to convince you to see things their way. They set out to blame everyone else for being wrong and to tell you that you need to be doing things their way or you will be horribly wrong with the rest. That is just not true in this book. There is no conspiracy theory or blame in this book.

Chapter Five

     "All learning is an extension of the same principles of learning to walk."

The student observes others and identifies something they would like to have for themselves (here, the ability to walk). They try it and have many successful attempts. They totter and look alarmed, run into difficulties and look worried. They fall, cry, fail, and feel bad. They start over. Their drive to walk is not squashed by the difficulty of the task because they see others they love and trust doing it so they assume they will learn too.

The teacher smiles throughout the day (here, while they are walking) showing that the task they are doing is pleasurable. They shower advice on the student. They warn of the difficulties and bumps ahead. They encourage when the student totters or fails. They praise the effort. And they set an example.

Throughout the next chapters he talks about specific subjects available to learn and shows exactly how learning to walk is just like like learning to read and write, etc. And when he says it in context, I'm amazed that it really is that easy.

For my life, reading to my boys came naturally. My boys had books since they were born. Ones they could flip through and taste. Tom's books were well worn by the time he was two years old! Both of them would sit in may lap and listen to me read. I would read in a corner of the room while they went to sleep at night. Still we read several books together every day. Not because it is part of any curriculum but because there are stories that they need to hear. We bring home at least 20 books a week from the library. I pick books about people or stories that I have wanted to read and read to them while they eat their lunch. No wonder they are voracious learners! Just like seeing their parents walking around the room and how it made them want to make their legs work like that too, they see us reading constantly and then talking about what we have read and want to do that too. When you see someone doing something that makes them so happy and interesting, don't you want to try it and see if it does the same for you?

You MUST read this book!

Tom Sawyer's Island

Sure there is the obvious talk about the novel while we are there but there IS more!

    

We traveled Tom Sawyer's Island in a little more detail. We brought along a piece of paper and a pencil and mapped the place as we traveled. We had recently read a book about Lewis & Clark and how they mapped the western United States so we did the same thing here. We wrote down landmarks and arrows for where we had been, directions, and a compass rose. Serious fun. And the best part was that it was completely unplanned. I always have stuff in my bag like paper, pens, pencils, a book, cards, water, and the like. It started because the boys wanted to find the tree house and I refused to tell them where it was. Then I told them they could create a map on the way there so they could find it again. They took the bait and ran with it. I had to do the drawing and writing since they are so little, but they pointed things to add to the map and reminded me what direction we were going in.

The other spontaneous learning done today was while we were at the tree house. There is water coming out from under the tree. Tom asks where the water comes from. I tell him go figure it out. He walks round and round, inside and out. Jake has a light come on (seriously) and runs to the other side of the tree where there is more water but when he gets there stops dead, like what he assumed would be there was not and then he is confused again. He remembered that there was water on the other side of the tree, assumed that it would be flowing into the tree and then out where we were standing but then when he got there it was coming out there too. They could see no place where the water was going in so how could it be coming out. Is it a real tree? No, touch tells them it is concrete or rock. Then Tom stops, it's a fountain! They figured it out. A pump must bring the water up to the bottom of the tree and then it spills out.

 How is that for an education? If I had showed them in a book or spelled it all out for them, they would have lost interest or been completely confused as to why I was telling them these things.

Constitution Day!

We went to Knott's Independence Hall today for a Constitution Day Celebration! I had been looking forward to this for weeks so I was happy to be there even if it was pretty hot. Can you see how excited the boys were?! HA!

They were mad because it was hot and nothing exciting was happening. But they were troopers anyway. They sat nicely and listened. Tom was interested in what was happening, but Jake wanted to go home. He laid under my chair for shade!

We're here for YOU Mom!

I love this part of Knott's! Actually, it is the only part I like now. I worked there for 9 years and have a pretty bad taste still about the place. But this part is always special to me. The boys and I spend a decent amount of time here.

This is the boys' favorite part of the whole thing. The Color Gaurd, Pledge of Allegience, and National Anthem!

Other Recent Events

Dan found out that you can separate H2O with an AC adapter in a soda bottle of salt water. What they really wanted to do was fill a balloon with Hydrogen but that didn't work out. I did get to light it with a match as it came to the surface though. THAT was fun!

The boys were helping Dad create new (and easier) ways to get our tent trailer in the back yard from the alley. So far there hasn't been any luck. But there was a lesson to be had about how a come-along works!

Sharing My Space with YOU!

I was sitting here thinking, "Hmm, I wonder what other people's desk looks like?" and so I thought I would share mine! :)) I hope you enjoy it! Remember that the room you are looking at is at my front door. This is the room you first see when you walk into my house. And it is about 14 feet by 14 feet square!

This is my computer and YES this is pretty cleaned up!
 

This is my computer desk from a little farther away.   
 

This is the Northwest facing wall. The stairs go up to our bedrooms and the door is a mini door to the bathroom. The door is barely 6 feet tall!

This is our South facing front door. Notice the sun? I love the brightness in the morning! Oops! I haven't put out the flag this morning!

  

And this is the kids' desk. Jake is playing with Legos and Tom is playing Battlefront II on the Xbox in the background. Notice the railing missing from the stairs behind the desk? That is because over the weekend we got new (to us) captains beds for the boys and they wouldn't go around the corner or over the railing and they wouldn't come apart either. So my husband and I looked at each other and said "Get the sawsall!" We planned on refinishing or replacing the railing anyway, so now...there it will sit until the day comes to finish that project! HA! 

 

The Day After Labor Day

My step-daughter goes back to public school on Wednesday this year instead of Tuesday, so we had one more day to play with her before dooms day. So we went to Disneyland even though it was supposed to be SO HOT!

This is a picture of Tom and Nikki going on Indiana Jones. 

My baby is growing up! Two things are great about this. One, Tom was tall enough. Two, Nikki was there to take him on the ride while I watched the poor littlest brother that wanted to go SO bad. This is the first time I have ever let the kids go on a ride without an adult so it was pretty stressful for me. On top of everything else, I took Jake on Space Mountain while they went on Indy and told them to meet us at the Pizza Port when they were done. AHHH! I asked Nikki, "Do you think you could find your way to Space Mountain afterwards?". She paused for a second and Tom pipes up, "I'll show her!". Nikki gives him the death look and then Tom says, "It's in Fantasyland, right?". I'm thinking I'm crazy to let them go off alone! But I did it anyway. I'm nuts. Jake and I went on Space Mountain and sat in the front row. Jake put his hands up the whole time. He is a very brave four year old!

The next thing we saw was this sign right above the sinks in the Fantasyland bathrooms by small world.

It disgusted us to think that someone might need instructions for washing their hands or really what kind of company assumes that its patrons are complete idiots. Or even better! If you haven't figured out how to wash your hands yet, how could you possibly figure out how to read

Next stop Toon Town! Tom has been begging to go on Gadget's Go-Coaster and I never want to go. It is the world's shortest ride with the world's longest line. Yuck! But today it had NO LINE. Perfect!

The Jolly Trolley is not running anymore, but they have this dead car sitting at the trolley stop. The kids decided to do some staged tricks for me while I took picutres. Jake takes this driving stuff very seriously.
 

Another first! Tom has been going on Casey Jr.'s Circus Train since he was tiny. He used to like it but would cover his ears and shake the whole time he was on it. He would sing the song over and over at home. "Casey Jr comin' down the track wit a mokey dack!" and then beg to go on it again only to cower behind me shaking like a leaf while he rode. One time we went the train slipped on the lift and gave us a good jolt and a loud clank. That was it. He was in tears when we got off. The next time we went we got in line just like any other time and he held onto the turnstile screaming "No Mommy!". We didn't get back on for a year! Then when he was five he would go back on but still cower behind me with his fingers in his ears.

 

This time he wants to sit across from me and he doesn't cover his ears! He is yelling, "Go faster!" as we go around the corners. Who is this child? Is his sixth year really going to be that much different? What happened to my baby?!

Well, it was too stinkin' hot to walk home, so Grandma rescued us with her car. We came home and relaxed and then headed off for our first 4H meeting. Boy was that fun! Nikki is signed up for computers with my uncle (who just happens to be a leader, who knew?). Tom is signed up for an introduction to 4H. And they are both signed up for Guinea Pigs much to Dad's despair. Jake is too little this year (gosh it feels like he is too little for everything!) so he is just riding along with us, but he will join up next year if we like it still.

And the very next day?

Nikki's first day of 7th grade!

Civil War Reenactment

Today we went to see Uncle Kirk at the Civil War in Huntington Beach! I don't even want to get into the weirdness of a bunch of grown men and women playing dress up and war for the entire weekend. We had fun. This is our third one though so we knew what to expect. The boys love it and so does Dad.

We came in on the battle this time. Next time we will make sure we are not there during the battle. Tom is just a nervous wreck. He hates the noise and the complete randomness of the firing. He doesn't know when to expect loud shots and while carrying him around I realized the poor things heart was just racing the entire time we were there!

Tom's favorite part is the music. He would stand there and listen to them play all day! Jake's favorite is the shops full of dress up and war stuff. I've never seen so many costumes. The boys want a couple of uniforms so bad. I'm thinking we might try to get some for Christmas. I want to get one of those straw hats with the flowers and a ribbon to tie around your neck!

 
We caught up with Uncle Kirk's regiment and he showed us around the camp. This is his lean to. He is just a common foot soldier. He showed us all their gear and let the kids eat hard tack. Yuck! These guys actually camp out here like this. He said tonight they are going to have a dance.

 
It was a good day. Pretty hot. Fun to try to explain why there aren't any "bad guys", both sides were Americans and both thought they were fighting for the right. We got the boys a rebel flag for their fort at home.