Soaring Mountains Academy

The cell phone got delivered today.  Tyler was totally surprised.  He called Trent and basically the conversation was “I got a new phone.  Yep, Mommy got it for me.  That’s all.  Bye.”  Well, we don’t have to worry about him using up minutes.  Then he had to get down to business.  Selecting ringtones and wallpaper is very serious and must be done correctly.  After listening to all his choices for ringtones about 3 or 4 times, he did decide on one.  Then luckily there is only 17 choices for wallpaper, so that didn’t take as long.  I got all the relevant numbers programmed in for him and I notified the people that are in the phone.  I also set up his voicemail.  Then I called him so he could see how the Caller ID shows up on his phone (Trent had called him back but it was while he was listening to the ringtones so he didn’t get to see the Caller ID).  And then I registered the number on the national and state Do Not Call lists because we do not want or need telemarketers calling.  And right now the new phone is charging.

He’s currently eating a late lunch since he has TKD testing tonight.  New cell phones must cause hunger because he is finishing off the leftovers from last night and that was 2 portions (good thing I grabbed mine before he did or I wouldn’t have anything to eat.)  I’ll have pics of testing to post tomorrow.

Tyler is at Art Kamp (and, no, I didn’t misspell Kamp - that’s the way they are spelling it) this week during the mornings, so I have free time.  So far I’ve been doing my normal chores, spoiling the dog by taking him on walks and trying to ignore the piles growing on my desk.  Nothing special, but that’s fine with me.

I ordered Tyler’s cell phone today - he doesn’t know it yet, so don’t spoil the surprise.  They had to check my credit because I had the America’s Choice Family Share Plan and now they call it something else (Nationwide or something like that), so it was like I was changing plans even though I really wasn’t.  Dumb, if you ask me, but whatever.  After they check my credit they will send me an email to let know everything is OK and the phone will be here in 1-2 days.  Weird to think that I didn’t even have a computer at his age and we had one landline phone in the house at his age.  Now he has his own computer and his own cell phone.  He won’t be able to call just anyone.  We are going to program numbers into the phone and those are the people he is allowed to talk to for now.  I’m sure that will change as he gets older.

Testing is tomorrow for TKD so that he can get his camo belt.  He’s excited because then his class times all change since he’s moving up.

I have been reading about unschooling so that I can feel comfortable about how Tyler wants to do things this year and came across this wonderful post that I had to share.  Kevin writes about his experience of going to high school his freshman year after being unschooled all his life.  Here’s the link: http://fivefreebirds.blogspot.com/2008/07/unschool-v-school.html

We’re coming to the end of another action packed weekend, so I must share. 

Friday, we did have the talk about school and Tyler has decided that he basically wants to be unschooled and that he will decide when he wants to do school.  He will get it all done before the end of the school year, but he wants it to be on his schedule.  Fine with me.  Anything that will keep him interested in learning is great.  And it was amazing because he did sit down and read a bunch of pages in his science book, then he came and told me all about it.  He was excited and that was wonderful to see.  In the afternoon, we headed over to Grams & Grandpa Randy’s for swimming in the pool with his cousins.  He had fun.  He was even trying to do flips off the ladder.  They were more like sit dives with a little somersault, but he says he was practicing for TKD.

Saturday morning we decided to get up a little early and go get the fishing boat from Grandpa Snyder.  We picked it up, got some gas and bait and headed to Paradise Lake in Michigan.  We were out on the lake for about 3 hours.  Tyler caught the first fish on about his first cast.  I was lucky because it threw the hook about the time it was back to the boat.  The lucky part is because it was too small to keep and I didn’t have to mess with it.  Then Tyler caught the next fish and it was a keeper.  It was a sun fish.  Then for a long time there was nothing but nibbles.  We moved to a different location and Tyler got a little bored so he and I started switching off on who was fishing.  I caught a little bluegill, but it was too small.  Then Trent switched rods to fish for bass since most of the fish were sticking to the bottom.  He did catch one, but it was only about 12 inches and it needed to be 14 to be a keeper.  Then on my last cast of the day (because we had run out of bait) I caught a bluegill that was a keeper.  So we brought home 2 fish.  Tyler did watch Trent clean them, which surprised me, but I guess it was fine.  He came to tell me that his fish moved after Trent had filleted it and he thought that was neat. 

This morning we headed to Potato Creek State Park.  I hadn’t been there since I was little, so things had changed some.  We drove around to see everything and then went to the Nature Center because it was feeding time.  The Naturalists have the kids help them feed the animals inside.  Tyler got to help with 3 animals.  First, he gave an apple and a worm to the Eastern Box Turtle.  Then, he gave worms and minnows to the Blanding’s Turtle.  Then, he gave worms and minnows to the Garter Snake.  He had great fun.  And we got to watch the animals eat their food.  The Blanding’s Turtle had his minnows gone in about 15 minutes and the Garter Snake had it’s minnows gone in about 20 minutes.  Then we went to go kayaking.  Now in the past, Trent & I have switched off kayaking because Tyler hasn’t been too interested and we took the bikes for when he became really bored.  Today was a different story.  Tyler started out kayaking some, then Trent took over and then Tyler kayaked some more before we broke for lunch.  After lunch, Tyler started kayaking again, then I had a turn, Tyler again, Trent got another turn and then Tyler finished up.  He was having so much fun.  He started the day by staying close to the shore and over the course of the day progressed to going pretty far out.  He wanted to go to the middle of the lake, but we could tell his arms were getting tired so we nixed that idea until next time.  Then we came home (never did get in a biek ride).  We have decided that next weekend we are going to look for a tandem kayak because then all 3 of us could be out together.  We could also switch off who got the single kayak as we go along.  Tyler says he really likes kayaking and wants to do it lots more.  We will just have to find more lakes around us to go to.  We did get some pics to share, so here they are:

2008 - Potato Creek State Park

This coming week, Tyler has Art Kamp in the mornings.  So we should have some new art work to share with you soon.

Remember that bike ride that we did way back in June?  That 15 mile one?  Well, they finally posted pictures of it.  So here we are and we’re putting next year’s date of June 20th on our calendar so we can do it again.

Since we are regularly looked at as overachievers because Tyler is above the grade level his age would indicate for public school, I found this post over at Red Sea School very refreshing.  Check it out here: http://redseahomeschool.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/what-is-overachieving-exactly/  For the record, I did not push Tyler to start school early.  He was the one that wanted to learn to read and I let him learn to read.  Why stifle that desire by telling a kid that he is too young to learn?  From there, we’ve just continued moving along.  If anything, I push Tyler to learn the things he doesn’t want to learn.  For instance, he hates spelling.  He just doesn’t understand why we have so many words that are not spelled like they sound.  Now I know some others will be upset by my pushing because they hold the philosophy that kids will learn it when they are ready, but I hold the philosophy that he also needs to be pushed out of his comfort zones and that we don’t always get to do only the things we want to do in life, so it’s a life lesson, as well.

Last week I had a big talk with Tyler about serious things in his life.  We talked about TKD in regard to Black Belt Club and Leadership Club.  He really wanted to do both (which we have now signed him up for), but he also really wants to do 4-H and art classes.  I totally understand, but Tyler needed to understand that by making these choices, that he was going to lose other choices.  Part of TKD is on Sat and art classes are on Sat, so he might not be able to do both if they are at the same time.  He got really upset about this and had to take some quiet time by himself.  But eventually he calmed down and thought it through and understood what I was telling him.  We have since talked about how he can do a lot of art here at home and that he doesn’t have to limit his art to only at the classes.  We talked about 4-H and how we will need to find a club for him to join, how animals is just not an option right now for him (big or little), and how he’s seriously going to have to think about his projects for the fair.  Some kids out there are just doing projects so they can get their families into the fair for free all week, and that’s fine for them.  We are not taking that approach.  These projects are to be done to the best of his ability.  These projects might also take more time and have multiple steps to them.  Tyler is not good about setting a project aside and coming back later to do more, he just likes to power through and get it done.  So this is a skill that we need to work on.  I’m hoping that we can find a club that has some older kids that can be like mentors to Tyler in regards to these skills (especially since he doesn’t always think that Mommy and Daddy know what they are talking about.)  I also tied the art piece of the TKD conversation back in because he could do art projects for 4-H so that he could combine 2 things he wants to do.  And I finished with regard to school.  As you know, I planned out the school year and now I’m getting resistance that what worked last year is not making him happy this year.  So we talked about what he thinks would make him happy, which he’s not totally sure.  I’ve set up that we have to complete the 4th grade curriculum that has been bought before the end of the school year (i.e. June 30, 2009), but that we can do it any way he wants.  He still didn’t know, so I set out some options.  I looped back the 4-H concept of doing it and setting it aside and coming back to it, so that maybe he could get used to that this year.  I’ve suggested that he progress through the subjects one at a time and switch off when he was done.  And I’ve suggested that instead of multiple subjects each day that Mon could be math day and Tues could be science day, etc.  I also pointed out that there are so many options available to him that I couldn’t list them all and that if he came up with something he should let me know.  I also expressed to him that just because he decides on one way, he doesn’t have to stick with it for the whole year if it isn’t working, he could decide to change again.  Well, today is the deadline for the school conversation to continue.  It should be interesting to see what he has come up with and what he decides.  I’ll have to post more on it later.

It turns out that I missed the 1st Annual International Learn Nothing Day.  It was held on July 24th.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for it next year.  It will be tough not learning for an entire day.  I don’t know what we could possibly do for an entire day that we would learn nothing new, but I have almost an entire year to try to figure that out.  Do you think you could learn nothing for an entire day?

And now for the TKD updates.  First, I have to say we have been noticing some changes in Tyler since he started TKD and we are extremely happy with them.  His self-confidence is growing, he’s talking with people instead of just having me answer them, his coordination is greatly improved… the list could go on.  Bottom line is that TKD has been a positive experience for him in lots of areas of his life.  Next week is testing and Tyler will be testing for his camo belt.  That means his beginner program is almost up.  Tyler really wants to be a Black Belt, but we told him that he had to prove to us that he was going to be dedicated to TKD before we invested in the Black Belt Club.  Well, he has shown his dedication and now it is time for us to reward him.

So, yesterday, I signed him up for Black Belt Club.  He got lots of great sparring gear (and I got him a bag to carry it all in), some new patches to put on his uniform, an awesome curriculum book that will help us keep track of requirements for each belt level, and a new class schedule that will start on the 11th (testing is on the 7th.)  His new regular class time is Mon & Wed 5-6pm.  There are also 2 classes on Sat mornings, when there isn’t a tournament.  Those classes are Forms & Weapons and Sparring & Board Breaking.  These classes provide extra assistance on learning the specific techniques.  Tyler is required to attend 2 classes a week, which are his regular classes and the Sat classes are strongly encouraged but optional.

He also signed up for Leadership Club.  Leadership Club will give him the skills needed to become an instructor, so things like public speaking, working with groups, teaching, etc. are taught.  Tyler says he really wants to train others and before class he has been talking with kids that are just starting out and showing them moves, so this is perfect for him.  Leadership Club has 2 classes during the week.  On Tues they have Instruction & XMA (Extreme Martial Arts) and Thurs is Gymnastics & XMA.  Leadership Club will also allow him to earn points at tournaments, which he really isn’t interested in right now, but his first tournament is at the end of Aug.  He might get really excited about tournaments after he’s been to one.  He always like to hang back and learn more about something first before he gets excited about it.  He also gets to learn another weapon and has to chose between 3 different ones.  I think he’s narrowed it down to the staff or the sword.  The gymnastics piece will teach him things that he can then incorporate into forms that he creates, and he’s excited because then he can be creative.  He also gets to have a new uniform with a different collar and his name on the back to signify that he is a leader.  We’ve decided that since this isn’t required right away, we’ll hold off until he grows out of his current uniform.

We are happy with both of these programs and we’ll be spending quite a bit of time at the TKD school over the next few years.  Tyler is happy and excited so I’m sure it will be worth it.

Fri - We started out early because Trent & I couldn’t sleep.  It was supposed to take 9 hours and 5 minutes according to MapQuest and it took us a little under 10 hours, so not bad.  We got to check in right away.  Then we headed down to the pool and hot tub so that we could unwind a little.  We decided to head over to Uncle Chad’s to see Grandma Blumeyer, Grandpa Blu before they went to the rehearsal dinner and Heifer (the kitty.)  Then we headed out for sushi.  Why sushi?, you ask.  Well, because the typical Midwest food consists of fatty, fried, starchy and sugary foods - need I say more? - and we don’t eat those types of food very much.  We found a great selection at Byerly’s, which is a grocery store.  We got a variety and shared.  Tyler likes the ones with shrimp and crab the most, but this time we also got one with eel and he really liked that as well.  We picked out some desserts and headed back to the hotel.  Mostly we let Tyler swim again, hung out, ate some of our desserts and went to bed early since it had been a long day for us.

Sat - We got up and headed to Panera.  The hotel didn’t have free WiFi, but Panera does.  Don’t ask me why a Marriott doesn’t have free WiFi, but I was not paying to have internet access.  Breakfast was good.  Panera now has breakfast sandwiches and I really like them.  Then we went back to the hotel to see what was going on - still no one around.  So Trent & I went for a walk while Tyler played in the room.  Then Uncle Todd, Uncle Chad & Grandpa Blu came to the hotel, so we sat around talking.  We went to lunch at Q Cumbers with Uncle Todd.  It was a really great salad bar that had local, organic produce.  Nothing wilting or bad looking.  Then, because I haven’t had one since Denver because there is none around here, I had a Jamba Juice.  We headed back to the hotel for more Tyler swimming before the wedding.  We got ready and headed out to the Arboretum.  The vistor’s center was great and we piled onto the shuttle bus to take us out to the shrub rose garden.  It was sunny and hot so we stood in the shade until it was almost time for the wedding.  The site was beautiful and the wedding was amazing.  Barry & Havalla looked so happy and in love.  Trent took pics.  Then we got back on a shuttle bus to take us back to the visitors center and headed back to the hotel for the reception.  The reception was fun.  We got to catch up with people and eat some great food.  Tyler & I left early because we promised him that he could go swimming if he was good and he was way beyond great the whole time.  Trent hung out with his family for a little while and then we all headed to bed.

2008 - Barry & Havalla’s Wedding

Sun - We went back to Panera again for breakfast and computer time.  Went back to the hotel, Trent & I walked while Tyler played in the room.  He was antsy to be going to LegoLand (this was his promised activity and he had been extremely good the entire weekend.)  Finally found out what everyone else was doing and we headed out to Mall of America.  First stop was LegoLand.  Trent took some pics of Tyler building stuff and then we did shopping.  We found out that ExoForce (Tyler’s favorite) is being discountinued, so everything was marked down.  We picked up all the ExoForce things that they had and then picked out some Mission Mars stuff as well.  He has plenty to keep him busy for a while.  Then we headed to lunch.  We decided to stay at MOA since they have plenty of restaurants.  We decided on more sushi, but this time it was fresh.  We ate at Tiger Sushi (http://www.tcfoodfinds.com/tigersushi.html) and if you are ever at MOA, you really should go there.  Of course, we all shared.  I had a Rainbow roll, which was a California Roll (with REAL crab, not imitation, avacado, and cucumber) with 7 different fish rolled around the outside.  Delicious.  Trent had a Flying Tiger Kick, which had shrimp tempura, smoked salmon, cream cheese, masago (smelt fish roe) and avacado.  The taste and texture combination was wonderful.  Tyler had the best one though.  He ordered the Scorpion Roll.  It had shrimp tempura in the roll with tobiko (flying fish roe) covering it, fried soft shell crab for the scorpion legs and a shrimp for the scorpion tail.  And the sauce, which was unagi (eel), was tasty.  Another great meal.  Back to the hotel for lots of Lego building and pool swimming.

2008 - LegoLand & Lego Creations

Mon - We drove back home.  It only took us 9 hours since there were less stops.  We went and got Hershey who was very excited to be home again.  Unloaded, unpacked, etc.  Tyler built more Lego things.  And we went to bed.  I stayed up later because Hershey was having some issues calming down and getting back into the flow of our household after being boarded.

Now I’m catching up on chores - laundry, groceries, cleaning, etc.  And trying to recover.  Overall it was a nice trip.

Well, we are thinking about it.  There are times now that we are leaving him home alone and we don’t have a home phone.  Trent has a cell and I have a cell.  So if Trent & I run to the grocery store and leave Tyler home, then we leave my cell and take Trent’s cell.  Numbers are programmed in speed dial and he knows how to use the phones so we are all good.  But the dilemma comes when Trent is at work (taking his cell with him) and I go somewhere and leave Tyler at home.  I generally leave my cell with him, but then he can’t get ahold of me.  He hasn’t ever called us (or anyone else) while we are gone because he is content to play by himself, but we leave it for emergencies.  And not that we want him to have any emergencies, but emergencies are called emergencies for a reason.  So the discussion is on the table.  It would be a phone that would mostly stay here at home for emergencies.  Right now we can’t think of a situation where he would need to take it with him somewhere, but he is getting older and will be doing more and more independently.  Besides it is cheaper for us to get him a cell phone and add a line to our cell plan than to get a landline home phone, so it’s cell or nothing.  I”m sure we will get him one sooner or later (but I have a feeling it will be sooner.)

We did head back to the fair yesterday evening.  We walked through the llamas and showed Trent the 984 lb pig on our way to dinner.  We decided to support the lamb club.  Tyler had a hot dog (it wasn’t lamb), I had a lamb burger with cheese and Trent had a kelly burger (lamb burger with lamb bbq on top.)  I’ve had better lamb other places.  My burger was bordering on being dry and they just used nacho chip cheese for the chip (not really my idea of cheese.)  We did a quick circuit of a couple things: we let Tyler build with legos at the Science Central Exhibit, showed Trent the baby animals (including what Tyler decided was the exact chick that he held - how do you tell them apart when they are only a couple days old?) and the miniature horses.  We also stopped by the Exhibit Hall to show Trent the Junior Achievement Record Book example so that he can help with it next year.  Then we headed to watch the Saddle Club.  Trent & Tyler got an elephant ear to share on the way.  The Saddle Club was doing an event where they ran their horses down, circled a cone and then ran them back and stopped them in a designated area.  I’m sure it has an official name for the event, but I don’t know what it is.  I love watching horses.  However, I’m very particular about how I view the riders handling the horses.  No, I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  But I do know what I like to see.  I like to see the riders who work with their horses and treat them nicely.  I understand making a horse that is acting up actually do what it is supposed to do.  But I will never like the riders who whip their horses or ride them really rough.  There was one guy last night that I hated watching ride.  He just handled and rode his horses roughly.  Those are the times I wish the horses would throw their riders, but I’m sure they’ve learned the hard way not to do that.  We finished up the evening by walking through the horse barns and looking at the ones that weren’t in the competition that was still going on.  We also got to listen to Kellie Pickler.  Now I was not a fan of Kellie’s before last night because we do not watch American Idol.  And I have to say that I am still not a fan of Kellie Pickler’s.  I don’t think she’s a very good singer, she is mostly just a yeller.  Again, I am only an expert on what I like, but it didn’t seem like she had much range and I didn’t enjoy listening to her.

We are done with our jaunts to the fair now, unless we decide to go listen to Hootie & the Blowfish tomorrow evening while watching the horses some more.  Some have asked if I was a fair junkie, but I am not.  See, we had a good reason for going to the fair so much.  Tyler is in regular 4-H next year and that includes the opportunities presented in all the livestock clubs.  I am livestock clueless except to know that it is just like having another baby or pet.  Trent is the expert since he showed dairy cows every year and pigs a few years.  With animals you basically have to live at the fair because you have to keep your animals clean, their pens clean, fresh food and water, etc, etc, etc and you have to be there to show them.  So even though Tyler thinks all these animal clubs sound exciting, we thought we’d show him what fair is really like for a few days.  He thinks each club is exciting when he first sees the animals, but usually he reconsiders.  Like he thought it would be neat to feed the baby goats from a bottle, but he doesn’t want to do any of the other work associated with taking care of goats.  Last night, he decided that horses looked really neat and that maybe he should do Saddle Club next year.  So when we took him into the barn area, we showed him the big poops, how he’d have to haul food and water, how they get surprise visits from the judges that grade how clean they are keeping their pens and their animals, how some horses wear things to protect their tails so the owners don’t have to brush their tails so often, etc.  I don’t know if we succeeded or not.  Time will tell.  There were times he was ready to leave the fair forever, but then there were times he was sad that we were leaving.  I guess we’ll find out when it’s time to sign up for projects and clubs.

We headed to the fair today because today was the day that Grandpa Randy wanted to take the grandkids to the fair.  So we met Grandpa Randy, Grams, Trenton & Taylor at the fair.  We walked around looking at the sheep and goats before I had to head over to the Exhibit Building for my volunteer time.  I was basically walking around the exhibits making sure people didn’t touch them.  Frankly, I never considered how many people would want to touch other people’s stuff.  Adults and kids alike.  Is the concept of “DO NOT TOUCH THE PROJECTS” (as was put on signs all over the place) so hard to understand?  Obviously, or else they wouldn’t need so many volunteers to watch over them.

While I was volunteering the rest of the group walked around looking at other animals and then met me at the Exhibit Building so they could look around.  It was perfect timing because it was just starting to rain.  So we wandered around for awhile.

Then we picked up Tyler’s ribbon.  It also included a comment card and a certificate.  I included pics of them here.  Remember, he’s in Exploring 4-H so everyone gets a participation ribbon.  They weren’t being judged like in real 4-H.

2008 - Fair (Tyler awards)

Then we headed to the commercial buildings to wait out the rain and the lunch rush.  We succeeded in both.  Then it was off the the Old MacDonald Farm where the baby animals were.  I LOVE baby animals.  The baby animals included a cow, rabbits, ducks and chickens.  Tyler & Taylor both got to hold a chick.  Tyler was excited because the feet of the chick left little (and I do mean little) scratch marks on his hand.  He was excited because then he could prove to his dad that he held a chick.  We also looked in on the miniature horses that were in the stalls under the reconstructed barn on the Old Homestead.  Taylor made a friend in Flash.

Next was the Marcan Tiger show.  It was GREAT!!!  We learned about the 4 different colors that Bengal tigers come in: orange with black stripes, white with black stripes, golden (orange with ruby stripes) and snow (white with light gray stripes).  Some tiger tidbits: there are only 30 tigers with the snow coloring in the world and we saw 3 of them today; there haven’t been any golden or snow ones seen in the wild in over 100 years; just because they are white does not mean they live in an area where it snows, they still live in India in the forests; being a white tiger does not make you a Siberian tiger; obviously, their populations are declining very rapidly due to habitat loss and poaching.  The tigers and trainers were amazing to watch.  They worked together so well.  I also loved how they tied all the educational stuff in with the program.  Tyler came away reciting lots of facts.  Gotta love hidden learning.

We stopped for snack of ice cream and elephant ears.  And then went to find the 900+ lb pig.  We found him and it is 984 lbs.  All it did while we were there is sleep, but what else does that big of a pig do.  Well, I suppose at some time it must eat or it wouldn’t have gotten that big.

Now we are home taking a short break.  Tyler & I are headed back to the fair in about an hour with Trent.  I still need to see the horses, poultry, llamas.  Not sure what all Trent wants to see and what Tyler wants to show Trent from today.  And Kellie Pickler is in concert in the Grandstand tonight.  Don’t really want to go to the Grandstand for it (even though it’s free), but we could head over to the Saddle Club Arena, watch the horses and listen to the music.  More later…..