(rain) + (sick children) + (general lack of planning) = (extremely irate mother) + (very little school work accomplished) + (strong smell of mildew in excessively messy house)
The good news is that the kids and I spent four days in Port Neches with the Grandparents Pate, which is always restorative. There was lots of good cousin time. The Nederland Heritage Festival was in full swing and Harper and Hudson both wedged into a single bumper car with Grandfather Pate (I really wish I had a picture) and it was almost worth the $12 in tickets it cost for approximately four minutes of bumping into cousins and aunts while squealing and giggling (mostly done by Grandfather Pate). Grandfather Pate then left us to go volunteer with his Sertoma buddies where he donned an apron and some rubber gloves and fried up some boudain egg rolls. Tempting, but no, I did not partake. I'm sure Cajun-Asian fusion is the next big food trend though. You heard it here first. Grandmother Pate stayed home with poor Helena, who had her first ever ear ache and was very pitiful for 2 entire days.
When we got home the Daddy had bought a Wii. He has been threatening to do so for several years now and I kept protesting because of my Generalized Technology Aversion Disorder. Then there was an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago titled, "When Gaming is Good for You," and it was chock full of studies and research and general statistics about how "gaming improves creativity, decision-making, and perception" and that was all he needed. So far the kids have just done a few sports games (Harper likes bowling and golf, Hudson LOVES boxing) and the boxing especially seems to be fairly decent exercise, based on the rosy cheeks that ensue. Hudson is MOST adorable while boxing. He moves his fists and feet at a very frenetic pace and lands about one punch out of a hundred:
I'm fairly certain there has been no enhancement of creativity, though I'm really sore from playing a match of tennis three days ago.
Today I decided it was high time we reviewed our history timeline from the beginning, which I've been avoiding because of the noisy protestations of my students and my subsequent inability to deal with whining as a result of the aforementioned Equation. Anyway, I got out the flash cards and Acted Excited and Purposeful and Harper started mumbling and pronounced that it was all SOOO EASY and she doesn't NEED to review because she knows EVERYTHING ALREADY and then she said she would participate, but only if she could recite the timeline backwards. I said, "That's very post-modern of you, but the whole POINT of the timeline is that it progresses FORWARD AND THAT IS HOW WE ARE GOING TO SAY IT." Then Hudson wants to know on every single card who the good guys are: Was Charlemagne a good guy? Who were the good guys in the War of 1812? What about the Alamo? Were the Mexicans the BAD guys?" It is exhausting. Sometimes it is easy. Nero was pretty much a bad guy. Abraham Lincoln was pretty much a good guy. But not as good as Jesus! All good, all the time. But what of Alexander the Great? (mostly good? Unless you were being conquered?) Henry VIII? (mostly bad?) Soldiers in the Confederate Army? (misguided but still brave?). The idea with this grammar portion of the trivium is that you don't focus on the why, just the who and the what and the when and the where. The why comes with the logic phase. Hudson refuses to accept this, no matter how chipper my tone when I try to put him off. How many millions of times will I have to say, "We'll get to that in six to seven years! Now, repeat after me: Justinian the Great, Mohammed and Islam! (Hudson: "Were they good or bad?")"
Helena was sifting through the flash cards and she asked about the picture of the Sistine Chapel that portrays God pointing from the clouds:
Helena: "Who is that?"
me: "Well, that is how an artist named Michelangelo thought God might have looked as He was creating the world. He made you, did you know that? He made you and He loves you!"
Helena: "He made Jesus!"
me: "Um, well."
Helena: "I don't like him. He is scary. I'm going to call him!" (she runs over and gets my cell phone. Harper and Hudson laugh and tell her she doesn't need a phone to call God.)
Helena: "I'm calling Jesus's daddy! (she gets the wooden phone from her play kitchen) God? God? Can you hear me?"
Harper has been outside collecting snails and slugs while I've been writing this. Probably teaching them that Ceasar Augustus actually reigned before Julius Caesar and not after.
4 comments:
pheww!! that history is very hard....why and how did you decide to teach them about history?! you are so good. I could not survive if my kids were in my house and with me all the time....you are a saint.
As for the wii well, we had it for about 3 years seldom used it until one day one of our friends with kids introduced Reuben to it now we have Thomas the Tank engine games, puzzles, mario cart wii and sonic and he is amazingly good at raceing and we are amazingly good at being roped into buying some very expensive games all the time. Still i think its much better than a 3D DES (the thing you hold in hand and makes eyes go loopy) as its on big screen and yes all family can part take in this one. We also have an IPAD (cause my husband is a crazy gadget man) and I cant stand it but guess who knows the password and who is very good on navigating youtube and all on it. (yes Reuben not me). I am amazed when i see Zac being able to tap on to it and in it and go through hundreds of photos, read stories, go CEBEEBIES (thats an english kids channel) do the unthinkable. It takes me ages to read through instructions and try and operate my TV remote controll which now has loads more channels than we need to know of and well I have to say i feel your pain but I share your joy! hudson should come to Uk and spend some time with reuben.....he would love Reuben he is a GOOD GUY!!! and we don;t do history lessons that much here its all about fun....loads of fun....(off course would be great to see you all). mx
I've searched the web to show you, but can't find it. My mom has the perfect time line for Hudson in her Sunday School room. It's the various kings of Israel and Judah with kind and mean faces, so you can remember which were relatively faithful and which abandoned God. If she remembers, she'll shoot me a picture of it for you.
Abby asks the same question when hearing Izzy and me read history lessons. Izzy's loving hearing about the Vikings and Romans from both their own stories and those of the British. You can imagine the variation. I suppose it's early lessons in propaganda and all that.
I had to explain to Abby that with a lot of history it's more like two teams competing (ignoring the death, pillaging, rape, oppression, and bloodshed). We also discussed how if she and Izzy had a fight, I'd hear two very different scenarios (then did a live performance of said situation). That is probably a less than satisfying explanation for a boy, but not so controversial.
I suffer from GTAD myself. I am considered old fashioned and quite out of touch with technology. The Grandparents Howell gave our children a Wii several years ago without letting us know. I was sad, very sad. But, the good news, much to my relief, is that it's been fun for them and us as well and it HAS NOT taken over our lives or kept my darling outdoor children from climbing trees, building ziplines, swinging on homemade rope swings, exploring the woods, playing hide and seek, pretending, riding bikes and all other manner of "real life" fun!! Here's to the same for your dear family!
Trying this again - inadvertently "escaped" and erased entire comment.
1)Am totally on board with your Law.
2)Congrats on the Wii - we're still resisting, even though the girls love, love, love their cousins'.
3)Also, while I fret about the computer games, I have learned they're not all "fun and games" of the Pac Man type. The physics and planning of some are fairly elaborate, and Wayne's pointed out E's naturally good at them.
4)I covet Joanna's mother's timeline and wish I had one for myself. I heard a sermon about Uzziah, and though I remembered him from Isaiah, had forgotten entirely about leprosy on the forehead. After all these years, it would be nice to know more Bible history than I do.
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