March Homeschooling Miscellany
March was kind of insane like February was as 12yo started doing FreeG and we started vaguely prepping for our somewhat unexpected April trip to Christmas Island and 8yo had diagonistic-related appointments, and it was crazy to the point where I didn't take notes on our random interesting conversations for this thing like I usually do, so it's just photos.
12yo made himself a riot shield type affair out of a box and almost an entire spool of twine (which 10yo was rather unimpressed about as it was her twine and she didn't realise he was going to use the whole thing):
The kids decided they wanted to spend some Habitica gold on a trip to Bounce. After an hour there I decided we should check out the bushland at the back. It was a nice little walk (there was a part that had been well paved for ease of accessibility by small wheeled things). We discussed how this part of the river looks compared with the bit up near our place, and the wildlife we could see as well as what we couldn't see or see easily. There were information signs but they were only read briefly.
Magic was played. Lots of games (different types, normal, commando and draft) and much trading went on. JJ has created little Magic playing monsters out of the boys.
While at a family gathering up near the inlaws' place we found an exuvium.
All the kids (including their younger cousins) were fascinated by it and spent a long time staring at it.
10yo finally managed to save up enough gold to purchase her Copic markers reward and they arrived in time to be taken to Christmas Island with us. As soon as she got them she lost no time in practising on a colouring page downloaded from the internet.
She loves them and is already planning saving up for another set that has skin tones and contains a blending marker as well as looking at one that can be used for lineart so that she can colour her own drawings. Currently all the markers that she has tried for lineart has smudged.
My sister sent up a box full of art stuff that she either thought the kids would like or had found from our childhood and never used while doing a cleanout. One of the cool things was a knotted hemp set that 10yo quickly claimed and got right into. I had to help her start off as she had a bit of trouble understanding the instructions for the starting loop (in fairness it took me a couple of goes to get it too), but once she got going she kept going until she'd produced this thing:
10yo also accidentally made some iPod speakers. I think she was trying to fashion a stand for her iPod out of some of the stuff we have lying around the house, and came to me telling me she'd made some speakers, and put it together to demonstrate.
There's no volume control but they worked surprisingly well. We had a quick chat about why the cups amplified the sound before she took off back to her room to continue whatever it is she gets up to in there.
And to finish off, apparently adding an olive on a toothpick makes any sandwich gourmet. I believe this one was peanut butter.
This post also appears on my blog.
You can tell when I'm overtired when I have to edit the post to tack on the sig! XD
And again to link the other misc, I'm doing well today :S
AHAHA! NICE! This was a spectacular post, my friend! Great recap of the month. FreeG looks like a gateway to Parkour, so I'm all for it. It's great that he's taking an interest at such a young age. He's going to find it easy since his body is still malleable.
I don't know why I keep thinking about the moai, but I remembered they were in Easter island. Different one!
Funny story about the riot shield haha I would imagine 10yo is none too happy that her twine would be all but spent. What's the use of twine in a riot shield anyway?! I remember how I used to invent stuff when I was younger haha Good times.
Ohhh I didn't know that Habitica had gold to spend now. I would definitely apply that when I have kids. I have been mulling about creating a mobile app to monetize chores, but I see that it has already been added to HabitRPG *cough * excuse me, Habitica. I tried out a trampoline park with my girlfriend 6 months ago, and let's just say I would've had more fun when I was younger and more flexible haha!
Oooohhhhh do I see Type 1 Magic cards in there?? haha! Cool looking knotted hemp choker! And, hahaha I laughed so hard at the accidental speakers story. Great inventions do come out of accidents. It's awesome that she arrived with a much better result than intended. She learned from the process, too! Reminds me of this:
Same concept anyway. Noted on olives on toothpicks, I shall gourmet-ify all the sandwiches I make from now on! Great monthly recap!
Parkour is supposed to get you from A to B in as straight a line as possible in as little time as possible, FreeG/free running is purely showoff XD He's having a blast, at the last session he got his backflip (though still trying to land it). 8yo is spewing that he has to wait til next year :) They said they were going to slowly expand the classes to cover more age ranges though, this is the first time they're running so they decided to start small with an age-range that they knew would be able to handle it/would want to do the insane flippy stuff XD
The twine was the handle and also used to hold odds and sods on as 12yo weaponised the shield, because he does things like that.
Yeh Habitica has "drops" where after you defeat a monster...er...complete a task it drops gold, xp and food/egg/hatching potion. You can buy in-game equipment upgrades with the gold as well as set your own rewards, so the kids have set various rewards for themselves (all approved by me and I have to watch them claim it). Been a pretty good motivator.
Yep JJ has been playing MTG forever (well before I met him) and has a lot of cards from then til now with a gap somewhere in the middle from when the kids were tiny.
I'm glad you enjoy these occasional glimpses into the chaos we pass off as a life XD Though this entry was a bit abrupt as there was so much stuff going on right now it's insane. I'm not nearly as excited about my holiday as I should be as I don't have the brainspace but I'm going to be so glad to be chilling out over there XD
I like how you used "weaponize" reminds me of how Ledd views the world :)
Man, those are a lot of improvements since I used the service. Would definitely just use that instead of developing my own.
Now, I don't play as much, but I'm hoping that my collection would yield some monetary compensation in the future haha
Abrupt? I wouldn't say that. It feels like it's just the right length. Increasing it further might make it seem too overstuffed. Chill out and just take the temporary reprieve in. Have fun you guys! :D
It's an awkward balance between "enough to keep people interested without being too much" and "needs to be detailed enough for the moderator" as these double as my record keeping notes. And it felt abrupt to me as I'm used to putting in a lot more stuff as most of their learning happens conversationally and practically so it needs to be recorded :)
ps - my 12yo just likes completely over-engineering things XD
I think you should create a separate, more detailed documentation, then just post whatever you like here. It's definitely hard to find a balance. Even I have yet to figure it out. But, definitely just keep the two records separate, I think. There are definitely more interesting details to keep track off, but it's going to be too hefty for a post, unless you divide it into parts.
HAHA! I was (hmm, still am?) the same way in terms of over-engineering. I thought that studying engineering in college would somehow correct it, but it just made it worse >.<
I'm not separating out the documentation again, it's more work than I have time for! I could just stop posting homeschooling stuff if it's going to be too hefty for steemit. This month's post is probably going to be pretty heavy (and definitely picture heavy).
12yo is seriously considering going into engineering. I don't know what he's going to end up doing in the future but it will probably be entertaining XD
Oh, yeah, don't get wrong. Just keep posting it even if it's hefty. Who cares what others think, right? All I am saying are just suggestions to get more readers, but since the priority is to document then heft away! :D
Also, pictures perform really nicely here, so that's a plus.
Urge him to enroll in the more bleeding edge fields so that he could get ahead of the trend :D
I care about what others think to some value of care :D And it will have to be heft as the other option is not cross post those XD
I don't think he can officially enrol in too many things til he's 15 or so. He's bouncing around anyway, he was pretty set on engineering but is now keeping an eye on things as he's realised that the thing that he ends up doing that ignites his passion might not even have been invented yet, or might be waiting for him to invent it :D
I would have loved something like FreeG when I was young, but it hadn't been invented yet! Thanks for sharing this.
Did you do it anyway except in a much less constrained and more hazardous fashion? :D
Oh yes I did! I actually practiced jumping off of the roof of my house, and scaling chain-link fences in a single move. Maybe I invented it, now that I think it over ;)
Seems legit XD
Ah, another homeschooler...though I call myself an unschooler, lol.
You have been visited by droomits
^_^
We're apparently unschoolers as well (I'm not very good at labels XD) :)
No wonder we met. I don't even comprehend labels. Definitely don't understand them...(stand under..lol)
nice post
Thanks :)