Pumpkin Patch Tour

So typical of me. I'm late in posting and not a single picture of a pumpkin on our pumpkin patch tour! But we did go on a pumpkin patch tour the week before last with some other homeschoolers from our area. It was really fun. I only wish we didn't have to rush off for baseball practice. 

When we arrived there were lots of younglings there filing out with with the handlers...I mean teachers, sorry. They were adorable all dressed in the same t-shirt with their name badges hanging off them, an adult leading, and adult in the middle, and an adult at the end of the row keeping the stragglers from falling behind. Here's a picture of our class. I didn't get a picture of the rest of our crew. I was severely lacking in photography sense that day!

There was a tractor ride around the corn field and pumpkin patch and they told us all about the farm and what they do there. It was all stuff the boys had heard before but we had fun. Our guide tried to educate our younglings about growing pumpkins, but most of our had done that themselves. They were pretty fascinated by all the different kinds of pumpkins these guys had on their farm. And the cross pollinated ones that were freaky looking!

Then we got to pet the goats (there were babies!) and see some other animals. I tried to get the boys to chant "bah ram ewe" with me but they refused...whatever. There were emus and Jake asked our guide if they were "emo emus". I we found out they make a noise and now I have added emu to my repertoire of animal and bird sounds, much to my sons' dismay.

When our guide asked the kids what kind of wild animals they might find around the corn field and pumpkin patch, Jake shouted out "monkeys". She said no, she didn't think so and moved on. But then later we found out that they have an organ grinder with a monkey there on the weekends, so we think she lied. :))

This guy was one of my favorites. He just stood up there hollering at everyone the whole time we were there. He's an angry old goat!

Children of the Corn!

At the end of the tour, we got to pick out a small sugar pumpkin to take home and then we went to the corn maze. This was where it would have been nice not to have to rush off. We didn't get to complete it because it  would have taken us hours. It was fun though and I'm totally going again next year. We got some lunch and some big pumpkins. Tom got a gourd to make into a drinking thing. And we headed home for baseball practice.

Teaching Cursive

I found this on my bedroom door this morning.

It may not be exciting to anyone else, but it has a story behind it that I have to share. 

Tom does not like to write. He was a kid who did not color in coloring books. Never held a pencil or crayon for anything but a little scribbling and then walked away. When we experimented with Kindergarten at a local charter, he cried and screamed that if they wanted the page in color they should have printed it that way. It was one of those pages that you add the numbers to know what color each piece should be. When presented with birthday cards to sign, he only put a T because writing three letters in a row was exhausting and you know there is only one person in this family with a name that starts with T.

What to do? My Mother-in-Law was an elementary school teacher when my husband was growing up. She has beautiful handwriting. My husband does not. It's pretty bad. And so is my Step-daughter's. She finished her career in public school. Both were cajoled and held captive to practice printing and then cursive until it looked right and it finally did, but when the pressure stopped, they stopped writing and it returned to the scrawl they both use now. 

So we decided to experiment with Tom and not make him write anything. That doesn't mean he didn't write stories. He used to dictate stories I would write out for him, until he learned to type. He's written stories, book, game, and purchase reviews, and a journal. All of them were written on the computer and printed out.

Last spring something changed. He was 11 and half and taking a weekend blacksmith class. He had to sign in on a sheet of paper with the adults taking the class. It looked pretty bad. That week he came in and asked me how he would learn to write in cursive. I looked up some pages you can print on the Internet and told him that cursive was one of those things that if you just take a couple minutes a day to practice, it starts to come naturally. He put these pages in his Latin notebook and added it to his daily study time. Yes, he has chosen to study Latin and has been progressing through the lessons every day for months now. He started with tracing and copying letters and then his name, address, and other things like "My brother is a nerd." Then he had a place mat with the cursive letters that he could look at if he couldn't remember the shape. 

Here we are, about six months later and he writes notes. He writes all his Latin pages in cursive. It takes him longer but it's getting faster every day. I could have been fighting him all this time to practice and learn to write with pen and paper, but what good would it have done? I needed to trust that he would learn something when he was good and ready and if he needed the skill. He found a need for it, found a way to learn it, and went ahead. 

What's my point? Kids do this for just about any subject. What about science, fractions, sentence structure?! When they need it, they will learn it. When my son decides he wants to be a pilot and finds that he is not ready to take the classes required to get there, he will look it up, learn the skills, prepare for the next step, and move on, just like other adults do.

There is nothing that if you don't learn now, you can't learn later, except maybe self-respect and confidence. I feel like we gave him those things by not forcing him to learn something he found no need for yet. We respected his perceptions and let him go with that. We did not ridicule him for not having the skill and so when he found the need to know, he was comfortable coming to us for help learning it. 

Trust the kids!

Baseball, Respect, and Life Lessons

Well, it finally came to a head tonight. Tom and this coach are not getting along. The problem is that this guy is the type that expects children to be obedient and a "do as I say, not as I do" person. That's my opinion of course. I'm not a fan of the guy. He pouts and stomps when the kids don't make the plays he wants and then expects them to not act like that. At the beginning of the season he told me that he would be at practice early and the boys were welcome to come early for extra help. We did, consistently, for several weeks and all they did is warm up longer. The boys on the team are rude and crude, worse than us and that's pretty hard to believe. They make really disgusting comments and suggestions and even my boys were embarrassed. It's that bad. This coach has all the players in the same positions for every game and Tom and Jake rotate at right field. This is supposed to be a learning season and no real scores or standings are being kept, so you'd think it would be different, less importance put on winning. Can you tell I'm disgusted?

So what happened tonight? The coach came to me at the beginning and told me that Tom argues with him about everything. I know my son. That is true, but he isn't arguing, he's asking why and how. He needs to know the reason behind things or he is not happy. I asked him what specifically and maybe I could help. He said he was arguing about being in the visitors dugout when they were the home team. Somehow I doubt that was really the problem. I've heard him tell Tom he doesn't like kids who ask questions. I've seen him get irritated and angry when Tom asked why the outfield should shift left for left hitters. I'm sitting there watching all the practices and the games. So I told him I'd talk to him about it but that Tom is going to keep asking him why, it's not disrespectful, it's interest.

The practice went on. As they were coming in I watched one boy repeatedly bat at Tom with his glove. He's wasn't being funny. He knew he was bothering Tom. Tom asked him to quit several times. He just kept doing it. When they got to the dug out another boy (the coaches son) and this boy through their gloves at him. Tom yelled and pushed the boy away from him. That's when the coach started yelling at Tom to quit. Tom was cornered in the dug out when this man came charging up. Tom walked away from him and got his bat. This guy continued to yell that he was "tired of Tom's mouth" and Tom continued to pack his gear and told him he didn't really care. That was the wrong thing to say. That's when I walked up and called the coach to talk to him.

I told him what had been happening and he assured me that it didn't matter, Tom should show some respect. The problem is Tom isn't going to do that. There is nothing to respect and I agree. We stood and talked a long time. I wasn't mad, I was just trying to explain what is going on. He has 12 boys out there and I understand he can't see everything that is going on all the time. These boys all know each other and are acting like an animal pack instead of young men and there is no one there to help them. There is no one there making sure that people are respecting each other. The coaches demand respect and don't deserve it. I don't  like their behavior at all. If I were on that team, I'd just leave.

Ahh! I can't even write it all out right. Tom wants to stay on the team. He says he will tell the coach that he is sorry he was disrespectful in the dugout, but he felt attacked and he didn't think the coach had all the facts. He just charged in attacking instead of finding out what happened. Tom also says he will continue to be himself and he will be kind and respectful, but he will not "put up with" being treated that way. I don't think you can make someone respect you. I say forget it. I don't know what to do. I'm proud that he wants to keep trying but I don't want to watch him fight through all this. 

Hiking Season is Back!

It was 80 degrees today! And the evenings are so cool. I need a blanket on me in the morning! So my thoughts turn to wandering the desert again. Last spring, the boys and I had Dad drop us off way back in the hills by our camping spot and we walked back to camp through all the washes and hills. It was great, but I thought it would be more fun if we could read topographic maps like in "Our Side of the Mountain". So today we went over to Joshua Tree National Park and got a few maps and a book about reading them. Then we went up to Keys View because it was so clear and that is the one quadrangle map they had. 

Here's Palm Springs from Keys' View! Gorgeous, isn't it? You can see the Salton Sea in the east, all the way to the Morongo Casino in the west. And the fault lines and hills. And San Jacinto. Very cool.

So we messed around up there awhile and looked at our map. We were trying to find a way down into Palm Springs from the spot. It would be quite a walk!

Then we went to Cap Rock and climbed around a bit. Really, the boys did. I walked around it and then sat in the shade with my map and new book. They were out there for about an hour. Tom brought a whistle along just in case there was an accident. He's had to leave his brother stranded before to come and get me and it wasn't fun. So this time he could just blow his whistle and I would find them. 

They were gone so long that I went to look for them and couldn't find them. When I walked, I swore I could hear them in the rocks, but then when I stopped I couldn't hear them. I would wait, hear them talking or rustling around and call them, but then it would stop again. Funny game. Not so much. But I wasn't worried. We were all alone out there and I've been all over those rocks. There are big open spots inside, like caves. It was just too irresistible not to try and hide there.

After a bit they came out. Tom said I didn't find them, he "revealed himself". "You can't find what isn't revealed." The Beatles again. So we headed home for lunch with a plan to learn more about the maps and to come back for some longer hikes when it cools off more. 80 is still hot when there is not shade to hide in. 

This is a rock I found on my walk. I think it looks like a giant sperm whale coming out of the rocks!

Happy Birthday to Tom!

Here he is being awesome, studying Latin on a Sunday! I can't get over the fact that he is twelve. TWELVE! He says next year he will be man...in most ancient cultures. He is pretty manly...most of the time. I'm not quite ready for him to grow up yet though. 

We've had two festivities so far. The day before his birthday, we had a whole bunch of our local homeschool friends over for pizza and ice cream. That was a blast. The boys love to have people over, so the more parties the better and this one was much needed for myself as well. A house full of people running around having a good time is pretty much the best day ever for me.

Grandma and Grandpa had a surprise for him on his birthday but it involved getting up early and being in Big Bear by 9:30. Usually that is rough for us, but this was for a good cause and I did not get a single complaint. I packed a breakfast for them both since they won't eat right when the get up and we had an hour and a half drive ahead of us. Here's what we did...

          ZIP-LINE!!

  

Not sure how they are going to ever top this! They've been begging me to do that for years and now they can't wait to go again. They're saving up for another go, but they'll have to find another adult to go with them because it's not going to be me. I prefer the ground!





My Step-Mom and I spent the morning shopping, eating, and talking while they played and then we met up for pizza at the Village. Then we came home and had corned beef and potatoes for dinner, per Tom's request. The boys loves salty stuff. We had a big pan of brownies for dessert, too! Pretty much the best day ever.

One more party for us though. Next Saturday, my brother and I are combining two of his boys' birthday parties with Tom's. Should be fun and I can't wait!