OMG – It’s been a week already?!?

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last posted.  Where did the time go?  Well, I guess I better start on Friday and do a recap.  Last Friday we took the day off due to my not feeling like getting out of bed due to my Chronic Fatigue stuff.  The symptoms had been there for about a week, but I was trying to ignore them.  It didn’t work.  So Tyler played around most of the day and created a bunch more Pokemon cards for himself.  Saturday was art class and luckily for me it was Trent’s turn to go so that they could paint their masks.  Sunday was nice outside so we finally took our Christmas lights down.  I know it’s the end of Feb, but it has either been snowing, melting, icy or a combination of those when we had free time.

Monday brought the first day that Trent worked from home using my computer.  He’s doing contract work still and is creating a financial model for this company.  I don’t mind him being home, even though it throws our routine off, but it is weird not having access to my computer.  The company bought a computer for him to use, but it’s still not here yet.  Tyler played catch up with school by doing Friday & Monday work.  We are doing school at the dining table since Trent is in our office/schoolroom.  Tuesday Tyler read an entire Magic Tree House book during school.  He still likes them.  It also snowed so he played outside in the morning.  Wednesday brought the first day that Tyler complained about having to do school not at his desk.  I’m sure he will survive.  Today Tyler is totally out of sorts about everything, but he is determined to read another Magic Tree House book.

I’m doing better.  I even did my exercise today with little pain, which is good because I was getting upset about not getting to exercise.  Next week starts my running and I’ve been trying really hard to get in good shape before I start that.  Of course, I probably should be glad that I recovered as quickly as I did because most of the time it takes weeks to recover.

Lunar Eclipse, Art Gallery, Cutting Down Trees

Last night we did go out a few times to see the lunar eclipse.  I was worried that it would be cloudy, but it was perfectly clear.  Unfortunately, it didn’t start until 10 PM our time, and it was just a little cold out.  Like single digits cold.  So we had to go inside to warm up between viewings.  I thought it was really cool to see.  Tyler liked it as well.  We also tied in some talk about constellations and about the satellite that they were going to blow up (news today says that they did blow it up.)  Satellite is a tricky word, see the resources that we’ve been using to study the planets uses the term to describe things like moons.  So Tyler wanted to know why they were blowing up a moon.  After the clarification on what a satellite is, then there was the discussion on why they were blowing it up – it doesn’t work anymore any they don’t want it crashing back down to Earth and hurting people.  That lead to a little talk about meteors and meteorites, but for the most part he was OK with them blowing it up.  We all hope that the next lunar eclipse in 2010 is in the summer so that we can be outside for the entire event.

We did make it to the art gallery this afternoon.  It was interesting.  First, I’ll tell you that we made a stop at Michaels this morning and picked up some smaller sketch pads and sketching graphite pencils for our coming art field trips.  The thought was that if something caught our eye, then we could sketch while we are there.  However, this did not happen today.  The art gallery was only a little warmer than outside and the only reason it was a little warmer is because you were out of the wind when inside.  We did look around the entire gallery.  The current main display was by an artist who decided to photograph Potato Creek State Park for the entire year.  She had some wonderful shots and they were great to look at.  The rest of the artwork was by other artists.  There were oil paintings, watercolors, acrylics, etc.  These ones that Tyler liked best were totally abstract and were done with automotive paints.  They were like swirls of colors.  To me they looked like melted glass that had been pulled and stretched.  We’ll go back there again, as they have a new main display every month, but here’s hoping that next month it is warmer in there.

Now for the cutting down trees.  I find that I have a hard time choosing sides on this one.  Here is the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-redwoods21feb21,0,3506781.story  It is about 2 neighbors that are waging a legal battle over one neighbor’s trees blocking the sun from the other neighbor’s solar panels.  On one side you have people who have planted redwoods on their property (and these were planted before the solar panels were installed.)  No one can argue that planting trees is a good thing when it comes to helping the environment.  On the other side you have people who have spent $70,000 to install solar panels that are now not getting any sun and therefore aren’t working.  And no one can argue that solar panels are good for the environment as well.  And CA has thrown in some laws that protect people who install solar panels to make sure that they don’t lose their investment, and I can see this.  So right now, as I understand the one neighbors have to cut down 2 of their trees so they aren’t blocking the sun from the solar panels.  Here’s what I don’t understand, those trees were there before the panels were installed and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that redwoods grow very tall, so why would you spend $70K to install solar panels that are going to be blocked at some point in time, to then spend 6 more years and who knows how much money fighting your neighbor about cutting down their trees in court.  Like I said before, I don’t know who’s “right” in this case, but it’s something to think about because it could pave the way for “I’m more environmental than you are” type lawsuits.  And I don’t think that will be good for anyone.

53 Things List

Stolen from Renee, because it looked like a lot of fun!  I know it isn’t homeschool related, but there really isn’t anything new to report.  We’re going to try to go to an artist studio tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll tell you about that.

53 Things You Possibly Didn’t Know About Me (or maybe you did, but I’m telling ya anyway )
 

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?    Nothing.  I try to keep a really clean car.

2. When was the last time you threw up?    I’m sure it was the last time I had the flu, but don’t have an exact date on that for you.

3. What’s your favorite curse word?    Shit.  I really try to substitute “shoot”, but it doesn’t always happen.

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?    Trent – we always tease one another in the morning; Tyler – he’s in a cuddle mood today; Hershey – he’s laying upside down in the sun 

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?    Finishing up my exercise for today.  I did a yoga video today.

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?    Finishing up our taxes.  We have to file in 2 states for last year.  I love that CO lets us efile, but IN won’t let you efile unless you’ve filed a return with them before.  Stupid!!! because then I have to fill out the paper forms. 

7. What will you be doing 3 hours from now?    Finishing up school with Tyler or if that’s done, then I’ll be doing chores.

8. Have you ever been to a strip club?    No.

9. What is the last thing you said aloud?    Reminded Tyler to eat lunch before we start school.

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?    Chocolate Peanut Butter

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?    Water

12. What are you wearing right now?    Blue fleece top, blue jeans

13. What was the last thing you ate?    Oatmeal

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?    No

15. When was the last time you ran?    No idea, but I am starting to run in 1 1/2 weeks to kick off the start of my marathon training.

16. What’s the last sporting event you watched?    My nephew’s basketball game.

17. Who is the last person you emailed?    A cousin about a family reunion.

18. Ever go camping?    Of course, lots!!!

19. Do you have a tan?    I live in the Midwest and it is winter, so no.

20. Do you drink your soda from a straw?    Not unless one is provided, like at a restaurant.

21. What did your last IM say?    I don’t IM.

22. Are you someone’s best friend?    I would say that I’m Trent’s best friend.

23. What are you doing tomorrow?    Exercise, school with Tyler, artist studio with Tyler, chores (laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning)

24. Where is your mom right now?    About 2 miles away from me.

25. Look to your left, what do you see?   The printer, my cell phone charging and paperwork

26. What color is your watch?    Navy blue band, black framing the face, digital face

27. What do you think of when you think of Australia ?    Aborigines, Big Red rocks, cool animals, Crocodile Hunter

28. Would you consider plastic surgery?   No

29. What is your birthstone?    Emerald

30. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?    Drive thru as much as possible.

31. How many kids do you want?    One is just fine with me.

32. Do you have a dog?   Just Hershey.

33. Last person you talked to on the phone?   Trent – last night to let me know he was on his way home (he worked late yesterday)

34. Have you met anyone famous?   I’ve shaken hands with former President Clinton, met some other reps from Congress & the House of Representatives; I’ve met a few authors over the years

35. Any plans today?   None that require my leaving the house; mostly just chores and school.

36. How many states have you lived in? IN, IL, CO, TN = 4

37. Ever go to college?   Yes, got that piece of paper to prove it.

38. Where are you right now?   In our office/school room.

39. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?   Well, I just got done with the taxes, so I’d say dealing with that.

40. Last song listened to?   Home by Daughtry

41. Are you allergic to anything?    Milk (the protein, not the sugar in it); Latex

42. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?   Don’t really have a favorite pair, but I’d rather wear tennis shoes than anything else.

43. Are you jealous of anyone?   No.

44. Is anyone jealous of you?   I don’t know.

45. What time is it?    1:37 PM

46. Do any of your friends have children?   Most of them.

47. Do you eat healthy?   Yes, I make sure that we do.

48. What do you usually do during the day?    Depends on the day, but there never seems to be enough time for it all.

49. Do you hate anyone right now?    No.

50. Do you use the word ‘hello’ daily?    I prefer “Hi”.

51. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?   33

52. Have you ever been to Six Flags?    Yes, but I don’t like rollercoasters.

53. How did you get one of your scars?   Cut myself with the bread knife.  I didn’t realize the bread was still frozen and the blade slipped.

Spreading our wings

Contrary to popular opinion on last week’s spelling words (and that opinion would have been that I was being mean by putting plurals during the same week as possessives – although for the record Tyler didn’t hold this opinion), Tyler got 14 out of 15 correct.  He really had to listen to the sentences to figure out which one I was talking about and that was a good exercise for his paying attention skills.  He’s done a couple more madlibs.  I think I’m going to have to look for these at the store so he can have a book of them to work on.

In art class on Sat, we finished up our oil paintings.  Although I enjoyed doing the painting, I think I need to stay away from oil painting.  I had such a headache from all those toxic fumes.  Tyler says that even though he enjoys painting, he likes drawing better.  Next week Trent goes again so that they can paint their masks.  Then I go for one more week and then the following week is the art show.

When we went to pick up Tyler’s art from the art contest that he was in at the start of the year, we found out that the local Parks Department is now having Science Sleuths programming for 6-9 year olds.  I was excited about that since that age generally gets left out of things.  I was even more excited to see that they are going to be on Mons during the day.  Then I did a quick check of the local school calendars, hoping that the kids were in school during those Mons and it turns out that they are.  So then I got even more excited since that means that there will only be homeschool kids at these.  This is the first time they are being offered so I quickly signed him up.  I hope that there is a good turn out so that they keep doing them.  So here are the themes:  March – Making Maple Syrup; April – The Water Cycle; and May – Tornadoes.

That got me thinking about what other new things are available that I don’t know about, so I went back and checked all the local attractions again to see if anything new had been added.  There had been.  Guess that goes to show you what can happen in a year.  So now he’s signed up for a few classes at a local history museum.  I have some classes put on the calendar at a local nature center.  I researched the free days and exhibits at some local art museums that I now need to put on the calendar.  I checked the local library and now they are offering a homeschool class once a month.  So I’ll probably sign him up for those as well.

I know we’ve become hermits since we moved, but it was good for us during all that transition.  Now we’ll spread our wings again and become social.

Sun and Mad Libs

I saw the sun yesterday for about an hour!!!  I know my friends in CO are laughing at me for being excited for seeing the sun for an hour, but I don’t get to see it every day like them.  Today I’ll be seeing it more, but then I won’t be seeing it for a week due to a huge snow system heading our way.  I try to take advantage of seeing the sun by sitting in the southern facing windows to get my Vitamin D.

 I found some Mad Libs at www.wordlibs.com.  Tyler thinks they are great because they are funny.  Here’s his first one.  The italiacs are the words that he came up with.

Extinction of Dinosaurs

The sudden mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, an event that occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is one of the most red(adjective) mysteries in paleontology.  Many other groups of animals also became extinct at this time, including boys (plural nouns), herbivorous turtles and crocodiles, most girls (plural nouns), and many groups of mammals.  The nature of the event that caused this big(adjective) extinction has been extensively studied since the 1970s; at present, several related theories are supported by paleontologists.  Though the general consensus is that an boy(noun) was the primary cause of dinosaur extinction, some scientists cite other causes, or support the idea that a confluence of several factors was responsible for the small (adjective) playing(verb ending in ing) of dinosaurs from the colorful (adjective) record.

Well, I guess I need to get to school so that we can get it done before we run our errands.  I want to run our errands today when there will be no snow flying.

Winter, winter and more winter

Will it ever stop????  I’m missing seeing the sun.  It feels like I haven’t seen the sun in months, though I’m sure I saw it for a few minutes a few days ago.  Yesterday our 1-2 inches of snow was more like 5-6 inches.  I went out around 4 PM to shovel before Trent got home and there was about 3-4 inches then.  I got done shoveling around 4:40 PM, went inside to cool off because I was sweating from all the work.  I happened to look outside again around 5:15 PM and saw that there was about another inch, so I shoveled again.  I finished up about 5 minutes before Trent got home.  A little later Trent commented that there seemed to be another inch out there.  He shoveled that after his workout last night, hoping it wouldn’t snow overnight and he wouldn’t have to get up early to shovel – it worked.  Today we are only supposed to have a 30% chance of snow, but it’s been snowing since before I took the dog out around 6 AM this morning.  So maybe I’m supposed to read that as it will only snow 30% of the day.  We’ve got another inch + out there, but I’m waiting until later to see if the snow actually will stop.  I will say that this snow is the big fluffy stuff so it isn’t as heavy, but since our snow piles beside the sidewalk and driveway are around 3+ feet tall, I can’t let too much snow pile up or I won’t be able to lift it enough to get it up onto the piles.  We are supposed to warm up to 34 tomorrow so maybe at least the driveway will melt.  Then we cool back off for snow Fri, a break Sat, and then snow Sun-Thurs (according to weather.com)  We will be back in the 30s at the end of next week.  Where am I going to put all that snow?  We need at good 4 days in the 40s to melt all the snow we’ve already got.

Well, I’m off to go find some resources for Mad Libs.  Tyler seems to think that really silly things (like Tom & Jerry) are funny, so I thought it might be a good time to introduce Mad Libs.  I’m also hoping that it will help him with parts of speech (like nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc), but I’m not telling him that so don’t rat me out on it.

Weekend update and off to a start

Saturday found Tyler and Trent at Lowe’s for the Kid workshop building a Valentine Mailbox.  At the same time, I was attending a seminar on the history of chocolate at a local garden centre (yes, I spelled that correctly, they are going for that French spelling.)  And the reason for the chocolate theme at a garden center is because they have a small area of chocolates from The South Bend Chocolate Company in their gift shoppe (the French thing again) and Valentine’s Day is coming up.  The talk was good, they handed out free samples, I won a gift basket of chocolate treats for asking the best question and I bought some other chocolates because if you bought a pound you got a quarter pound free.  So we are set for chocolates for Valentine’s Day (if they last that long.)

Sat afternoon found Tyler and I at art class.  We worked on our oil paintings!!!  First, we, as a family, had to choose a painting that we are going to recreate.  Tyler decided on “Horizontal Tree” by Piet Mondrain.  It is an abstract – Tyler’s favorite.  I tried to find a picture online of it, but I couldn’t so you’ll have to wait until the art show pics are posted.  We first practiced drawing it on paper to warm ourselves up and then we sketched it on the canvas board.  We then got one color to use as the background color.  It is only the first of many layer of paint we will be using to make our picture.  We’ll continue next week.

Sun we went to my nephew’s basketball games.  He hasn’t played for about 3 weeks so the team was out of sync at the beginning.  I also had a real problem with the 2 games that we saw that I didn’t the last time I watched a game of his.  This problem had to do with the refs.  My nephew is 11 years old and I would consider this to still be in the developmental stage – i.e. the stage where they are still learning the skills needed to play the game.  Most of them at this stage are coordinated enough to not double dribble or travel and they are all smart enough to know the rules of the game.  Now I understand that knowing the rules of the game and following the rules of the game are 2 different things.  However, this is not the playground where no one is watching.  This is in an environment where there are coaches, assistance coaches, score keepers, refs, etc.  I feel that the refs should be keeping tight control on these games and not letting the kids get away with crappy play.  These refs yesterday did not do that at all.  They hardly ever called traveling (even when it was very obvious), they never called over the back on rebounds (instead they would let the ball get tied up and then call a jump ball), and the fouls were called based on the size of the kid ( the bigger the kid, the more fouls.)  My other issue was that the ref that was closest to the play was never the one calling anything, it was the one away that was calling something.  These were just a few of my issues with these refs.  The parents on the sidelines were all complaining, but I wonder how many of them actually complained to the people who run the facility and hire the refs.  I have a problem when my nephew comes over after the game showing us his injuries since he got elbowed in the face twice and scratched up and I know that no fouls were called when these things happen.  I’ve played basketball and I know that there is some contact, but this is not football and we should be teaching these kids that contact like that is not acceptable.  I also know that there were times when my nephew was called for fouls just because he was the bigger (as in taller), stronger, quicker kid on the court.  Now I know I’m biased because he is my nephew, but, seriously, yesterday he could have been dribbling the ball down the court and a guy from the other team could have tackled him football style and they probably would have called the foul on my nephew.  That was how bad it was.

Now for school since it is a new week.  This week in spelling is possessive words, plural words and plural possessive, such as girl’s, girls, and girls’.  So it might be a little tricky for him because he has to concentrate on what the word means in the sentence that I give him, but on the other hand, the base words are words he already knows how to spell and they are used more than once, so less words to remember overall.  We are starting plants in science and finishing up Uranus in order to learn about Neptune next.  Still doing reading comprehension in Reading.  In Math, he’s learning about map skills this week.

This week’s weather is going to be interesting again.  My sister-in-law told me yesterday that my nephew and niece already have extra days at the end of school to make up for all the snow days and 2 hour delays that they’ve had so far.  They had another 2 hour delay today and I’m pretty sure they will have at least that tomorrow since we are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow overnight and 2-4 inches tomorrow morning.  Right now it’s now so much the snow but the layer of ice that will be under the snow that is the issue.  Today might have also been the extreme cold since it was -18 this morning when I got up (that was with wind chill.)  Yes, that means it is warming up in order for us to get snow tonight.  We might even reach 32 on Thursday which will be really warm.  Unfortunately for Tyler, there are no 2 hour delays or snow days for him since his commute from his bedroom to the office (right next door) isn’t affected by the weather.

Easy week

It’s been a real easy week here.  Tyler got his spelling words right on Wed’s pretest so he doesn’t have to take the test today.  His reading comprehension is going great, even with the switch from concrete things like dates to more abstract things like themes.  He’s started geometry in Math so he finally put to good use that information he learned about angles.  In science, he’s learning about nutrition.  One day this week he was labeling what vitamins are from what foods, it turns out that spinach has lots of vitamins.  He’s not happy about that because he’s decided that he doesn’t like the taste of it and I still make him eat it, but now he understands why I make him eat it.  He’s also been learning what foods are carbs, proteins, or fats; where foods come from (plant or animal); and what foods aren’t good for you (the sugary kind tops the list.)  The food pyramid is a sticking point for me though since I believe that the USDA does not have my best interest at heart and that the food pyramid reflects the ability of certain industries to buy the right to “influence” the general public.  So we had a talk about how that it represents one belief on a balanced diet, but that it wasn’t the only way and that there were many beliefs out there on what is a balanced diet.  He’s cool with that since it isn’t the first time that Mommy has explained that there is more out there than just what he’s learning in his books.  He also finished up learning about Saturn and started learning about Uranus.  And in Top Secret Adventures, he’s finished with Italy and is starting France today.  He doesn’t know that the next one is France yet, but he’s going to be excited when he finds out since he knows people who have been there and sent him emails and pictures from there.

He’s decided to go ahead and sign up for 4-H.  At his age/grade level (i.e. the age determines the grade level, not what level he is actually doing in school, which can be an issue for him sometimes), they do Exploring 4-H (this is the title for the ones in 1st and 2nd grade).  So he has project choices: arts & crafts, bicycle, bugs, collections, dinosaurs, farm animals, foods, forestry, garden, models, pets, sewing, tractor, and wildlife.  He gets to choose 1 project only and from what we could tell from last year’s fair, they learn about the topic and then do a poster reflecting what they have learned.  He doesn’t go to regular meetings yet, but they have a meeting where all the Exploring 4-H kids can go and see examples of the projects so they can decide which one they want to do and get ideas of good posters, another where the kids can do work on their projects and another where the kids have fun while the parents have a meeting.  The brochure says that every kid who completes a project and exhibits it at the fair gets the same blue ribbon, certificate and 4-H pin.  I’m hoping this turns out to be something fun for him this year because part of the reason that we want him to do 4-H is because Trent was in 4-H and it will be good for them to share something.  Yes, I realize that the chances of Tyler showing animals like Trent did are highly unlikely, but Trent did other activities as well so those are the ones we are concentrating on.

We’ve been homebodies lately with just running a few errands.  The weather has been tricky this week: snow, fog, sleet, rain, flooding, ice, etc.  I’d much rather stay home than worry about things out on the roads.  Besides, I’m of the philosophy that since we don’t have to be somewhere we should just stay out of the way of the people who do have to be somewhere.  We did have our furnace checked this week and it is good.  Today we should be getting our exercise bike fixed finally.  We did go and get the car (new to us) registered and titled, so it has a new license plate.

Tyler has found old Tom & Jerry cartoons on our On Demand (from Comcast.)  He loves these things.  He will spend the entire cartoon laughing.  He’s been playing games on his computer that have Tom chasing Jerry and he’s been designing his own trap systems to help Tom catch Jerry.  Maybe we need to introduce him to the Road Runner and the Coyote (and Acme, of course.)  I’m sure would laugh as much with those as well.

Art Class is Awesome!

I have now been to my 2nd art class with Tyler and I have to say that it is totally awesome!  Now as some of you know, I have a hard time sending my child to an activity where I haven’t observed the environment and/or met the teachers before hand, but I took a chance on these art class last April.  I have since met the teachers and they are wonderful people who really do care about the kids and are very encouraging.  But Tyler has been going to these classes and I never really knew what it was like during class.  Ben, the teacher, is so great.  He takes the time to explain things so well.

Yesterday, we started by painting the masks (basically priming them) that were made the last class.  Now I didn’t make the mask because that was the class that Tyler wanted Trent to attend, but this painting was prep work for the final coat of paint.  Ben talked about the importance of prep work and how by painting them white at this point that it would make the colors that they chose to paint them later really look good (especially since the clay is like a light peach color.)  These masks are an interesting project.  The parent and kid had to make similar masks to show that they were part of the same tribe.  Later, when they get painted, they get 4 colors to paint them and, obviously, they should be painted similarly.

We then moved on to canvas boards.  Ben showed us some canvas boards that we there and talked about how canvas is a natural material.  He explained that if you are going to paint canvas with oil paints that there are chemicals that are used that are caustic to the canvas and so there are things that must be done to protect the canvas.  We used Gesso yesterday, but he said in the past that they used rabbit skin glue.  So, in keeping with our prep work theme, we “painted” a bunch of canvas boards with the Gesso to protect them.  Some of these boards we are going to be using in the upcoming classes since we are going to be doing an oil painting.

We then started our last project of the day, color wheel.  We were just using tempura paints (or as Ben called them, poster board paints.)  But we learned about mixing the primary colors to make lots of other colors and then we had to creatively come up with a way to display our color wheels in a non-wheel fashion.  Tyler made a squiggly line and I did mine in a square mosaic.  It was fun!!

There are things about the class that bother me and I now understand why Tyler comes home wore out from being in class.  And, personally, I don’t know how Ben deals with everything that he does and still stays sane.  Yesterday, I watched one of the kids, after he was done painting his mask, paint both of his hands.  Seriously, this was acrylic paint like you would use to paint your walls and his mom was right there and didn’t say anything.  Another kid, whom I’ve met before because his mom goes with him to classes to make sure that he pays attention, doesn’t listen to his mom even when she tries to keep him focused and does his own thing.  There were lots of distractions and I can see why all that bothers Tyler because it bothers me as well.

I’ve also gotten to see Tyler in an environment where learning is supposed to be taking place and in an environment where he has established himself without my presence.  He sits in the back row because if he sits in the front he feels like someone is looking over his shoulder and he doesn’t like that.  He also sits to one sit or the other because then other people’s energies are only coming from one direction and since he still has to work hard at blocking it is easier for him that way.  Both classes I’ve been to he’s wanted me to sit between him and everyone else, so I’m some sort of shield, which is fine with me because I can expand my blocking to include him (been doing that for years now) so he gets a break.  He also has problems with others being in what he considers his personal space and if I’m there at the same table, then he doesn’t have another kid in his space.

Tyler says that he likes me being there with him and that he hopes that they do this type of class again so that we can do it again.  I’m glad because I was worried that he wouldn’t like me there because of his independence.  It probably helps that we are both doing our own projects so that he doesn’t feel he needs to share too much with me.

I can thank Pokemon

Yes, you heard right.  I can thank Pokemon, and here’s the reason why.

Last night as Tyler & I were coming home from Grams & Grandpa Randy’s, he announced that there are angles all around us.  Considering we hadn’t talked about angles yet, I was intrigued.  So I agreed with him.  He then told me that even the road is an angle.  OK, now we are getting really deep, so I asked if he knew how many degrees of an angle it was.  Picture an eyeroll, and big sigh and an “Of course, it is 0 to 180.”  I told him he was right.  Then he told me that he knew how much a right angle was.  OK, how much?  He says, “It’s 1/4 of a circle.”  He is, of course, correct, so I asked where he learned this.  He told me that some of the Pokemon videos he’s been watching on his computer aren’t the story ones, they are ones that teach things so I shouldn’t be so upset when he wants to watch Pokemon videos all day.  Smelling a set up in that one, I agreed that watching some videos during the day is acceptable, but that I didn’t think he needed to watch them all day.  I also told him that I was glad he was learning new things.  By this time we were home and he switched to talking about something else.

Later that night, Trent told me that after we had come home and while Tyler was watching tv with him that Tyler had told him something very interesting.  I asked what it was, thinking it would have to do with motorcycles because they were watching OCC (Tyler loves all the art work that goes into the bikes.)  I was wrong.  Tyler told Trent that even if there were Pokemon instead of animals living here that they would be becoming extinct just like our animals because Pokemon live in the forests and we are cutting down all our forests.  Wow!

So now I know he’s been watching a math video and a science/ecology/environmental video.  Who knew.  I just thought he was out there watching the ones we either can’t get at the library or that we can but that the tape is too damaged to watch.  Well, there’s no telling what we will learn next.