Lots of Activities

We started back to school about a month ago, after taking July off. We had too much going on in July so we put all the school work aside. All of the boys are making significant progress as they start the next year of school (including Caden). We also have a busy calendar of extra-curricular activities.

Russell is off to another exciting year of football. Although his team has made some improvement over last year, they don't stand to win much more than they did last year. He is not really bothered by that because he really just loves to play football. He has started his school work for 7th grade. It has been a bit of a shock to him. The 7th grade material has less pictures and smaller writing and MORE reading. There are more practice math problems and less pretty color pictures. There are more essay questions in the reading comprehension and more questions in the history and science books that require him to think through things and not just regurgitate. We are working through the growing pains and he is doing his best to resist. LOL. Last year it was teaching him how to study on his own, now it is teaching him to think and analyze on his own. So far it has been a bit of a struggle, but I think he will come around. Right now he is working on a project about France. He could have done any country but he chose France -- Don't ask me why. He is really getting the hang of searching the internet and using the computer to save and print information and pictures. I am offering assistance and guiding him through this project, but after this he has to do a presentation on Canada -- all by himself.

Ezekiel is also playing football. As some of you know he has always loved to run and swim. I never really thought he would enjoy football so I resisted for the first two years that he was eligible. I finally gave in last year and let him play. He also played soccer last year. Here is what we observed. He seems to be a natural at playing soccer. However, when playing football it seems to be more about socializing than playing football. He would swim all day everyday if you gave him the pool and the weather to do it, but would not play football unless it is football season and required. As a matter of fact, football only started 3 weeks ago and he has already asked to skip practise. He wrote a paper, about himself, for school and named soccer as his favorite team sport. Hmmm. After much thought Chris and I decided to talk to Zeke about football. We pulled him aside one night and he finally admitted that although he likes football, he really doesn't love it and really only plays because Russell does. So, he says he would rather race motorcycles or swim. Both of these are things he has loved since he was 2. It is fortunate for us that we live close to MD and VA since WV does not have much in the line of either of these sports. He has been doing really good on his motorcycle but needs the next size up before he actually gets out on a real dirt track. New motorcycles cost more money than we have right now, so the plan is to go with swimming. He is so excited. After this football season Zeke will hang up his football cleats and put on his swim gear. He will start private swim lessons in January. Hopefully after a year of private lessons his stroke will be good enough to start on the team. He is so happy about being able to swim. I am glad we finally got him to admit he would rather not play football. I just want all our kids to do what they enjoy. As far as school is going, Zeke is doing well. He has finished the first month of 3rd grade and is excited to be a third grader. I have noticed the more solid his fundamentals get the faster his learning progresses. It is really great to hear him say that math is his favorite subject. Last year at the beginning of the year he would cry over math almost every day. His other favorite is History. He devours books about history, wars, biographies etc. . .

Caden is starting Preschool work. He wants so badly to be just like the bigger boys. We are working on his colors, his numbers 1-10, his basic shapes, and recognizing the letters in his Name. He is doing very well. He dresses himself, uses the bathroom by himself and is even wearing big boy underwear to bed. We are to the point of only having the occasional accident and usually that is after a long day out of our routine.

This year since I am not pregnant and we are a little more familiar with the area, we are getting into doing a lot more than we did last year. In addition to the boys regular school work and football we are also signed up for lots of other stuff. Every Tuesday and Thursday from the start of September until the week before Thanksgiving, the boys will be going to a Homeschool PE class at the local University. At last count there were over 50 homeschoolers signed up. Also at Shepherd University, starting in October, they will be taking Monday morning swim classes for 8 weeks. Both of these courses are free.

Of course Russell is still taking guitar lessons and Zeke is still taking drum lessons at the local music store. They are both doing great and Zeke actually would like to start taking piano as well. He will take at least one more year of drums before we add any instruments. I did tell him I am going to get my clarinet re corked and I would teach him a little on that. That made him really excited. He loves music.

Another thing the boys are excited to get into is ice skating. They went every year in Florida when the skate rink would open for 2 weeks during the holiday.Of course up here they have ice skating rinks as much as roller skating and they are open year round. So, starting next week for eight weeks they will be taking skate lessons in a homeschool skating class. They are not looking to become competitive skaters or hockey players just competent enough to enjoy skating a few times a year.

After all the skating and swimming and music lessons, w still had room to squeeze in a little science. The Maryland Science Center is a little over an hour from our house (of course everything is around here), and they offer homeschool science classes during September. The classes are only $5 a piece. The boys picked out the ones they likes and we actually called and registered early enough to get all but one of the classes we wanted. They will be going to 7 classes at the Science center through out September.