Cleaning & TKD Tournament

We have spent the last few days cleaning.  Tyler had a huge mess in his playroom downstairs and it had spilled over into bringing excessive toys upstairs so that he would have room to play.  While we are not worried about him keeping his playroom totally clean because we understand the need/desire to keep out things that he will continuously play with, we draw the line at it exploding into the rest of the house.  So we are making him clean up his downstairs in an attempt to start again with a clean slate.  So far it has been a total battle getting him to do it because along the way he finds toys that he has forgotten about and wants to play with them.  So my job is a supervisor so that he stays on task.  Not the best job in the world, but a necessary one.  I’ve also been trying to set a good example by cleaning off my desk.  And today I can see desktop.  Now in my defense, not everything on my desk is mine.  It is the catch-all area of the office, but I have made great progress.

The other reason for the big clean-up downstairs (and Tyler doesn’t know this, so no sharing with him) is that Trent & I are talking about setting up an area down there for him to practice his TKD.  Right now he’s using the exercise mat in out workout area.  The exercise mat is just those rubber squares that hook together that provide a little padding while I do my video workouts.  They’re not really good for martial arts.  So once we get it clean down there, then we can take a look at the area and decide a good place for his TKD practice.  Then at Christmas time, more than likely his gifts from us will be TKD related.

Tomorrow is Tyler’s first big TKD tournament.  It is being held at the Century Center in South Bend.  Here’s the link: http://www.startkd.org/tourney/  We are excited for Mr. Birky because he is one of the youngest tournament hosts in ATA history.  And since I am now a Black Belt Club & Leadership Club parent, I volunteered to help out with the raffle ticket selling during the tournament.  It’s only an hour and I’m doing it first thing tomorrow morning so that I won’t miss any of Tyler’s events.  He is doing Forms & Sparring again.  I’ll make sure to take pictures to share.

Trent’s New Job & Schedules

As many of you know, since we’ve been here in Indiana, Trent has been working contract jobs.  While we are grateful that he’s been kept busy, Trent has wanted a permanent job with benefits.  He finally got one and now that it has been announced at work, I can now announce it here (you never know who might be reading my blog.)  So starting soon, Trent will be the new Senior Financial Analyst at Truck Accessories Group.  Congratulations, honey!!!  I’m happy for you!!!

What does that mean for us here at school?  Only that we are still wonderfully blessed that we can continue on with what we are doing.

Speaking of what we are doing.  I’m almost done updating Tyler’s planner with all of his school stuff.  So far this week it has gone well.  Here is what Tyler needs to accomplish each day: Brush Teeth (Morning & Night), Shower (Night – night because he gets so sweaty at TKD class that he just needs a shower), Practice TKD – 1 hr (class time doesn’t count), Practice Art – 1/2 hr, Free Reading – 1 hr, Outside Time – 1 hr (the fresh air does him good), School (depends on the day what we are doing), and sometimes there is “Other” things, like cleaning up his playroom downstairs or working on various projects.  So far he is still working through how to handle this new schedule.  Obviously brushing teeth and showering are priorities, but after that is school and TKD.  Then he gets to decide what to do.  With this new schedule he has a pretty full day and yet yesterday he tried to take an hour to decide what he wanted to do next.  Then he didn’t get everything done though it was more than what he got done on Monday.  I’m hoping today goes even better.

Big Weekend

The weekend started off on Friday.  Tyler & I had to have some big discussions about responsibility.  The first part centered around school.  As you know, Tyler had wanted to unschool instead of my version of school-at-home.  I allowed him the freedom as long as he continued doing the school work.  Well, it had been awhile and no school books had been opened and nothing had been worked on.  So I questioned him on it.  It turns out that the reason he wanted to unschool and why he hasn’t done anything since, is because there are some topics that he just doesn’t like learning (spelling and spanish were the examples given.)  Really not good enough reason for me.  Summary is that we talked about how we don’t always get to do exactly what we want to do and that there are times when we have to learn things we don’t want to.  And now I’m back planning out his school for him though it is in a modified format from what I planned out earlier because he would rather do huge chunks of a subject instead of a little bit each day.

The other topic was taekwondo.  He didn’t know his whole form for the tournament on Sat (which I’ll give an update on later.)  He had been practicing what he had learned in class, but it wasn’t the whole thing.  Part of it is our fault because we were gone for a week to Nashville and part of it was his fault because he has a video of his form and a book that tells him every move that he has to do for his form.  Summary of this one is that he is now in Black Belt Club and Leadership Club and that he has to take responsibility for knowing the things he needs to know.  We spent the rest of the day and some Sat morning going over his whole form so that he would know it for tournment.  We also talked about how practice just isn’t a few times and applied the practice concept to other things, like his school work and art.  I’ve now created a planner for him that has reminders of things he has to do every day and his school work.

Saturday was his 1st TKD Tournament.  It was held at his TKD school and was mostly a preperation for the big tournament this coming weekend.  Tyler signed up for Forms and Sparring.  He could have also signed up for Weapons (but he isn’t comfortable with his nunchucks yet and he doesn’t know the form yet – and I don’t think it’s on the video or in the book), XMA form (which he has only gotten about 10 moves created, so it’s not complete) and XMA weapons (which he hasn’t even started learning yet because he’s still working on an XMA form.)  He did make a few mistakes in his form, mostly because he spun the wrong way (we had been working on the spinning at home a lot and he is getting better at it.)  He even had to do his form again to break the tie for 2nd/3rd place.  He ended up in 3rd place in Forms.  Then he had a break while others did their weapons.  Then it was time for Sparring.  He did good, but needs to work on not doing the same move again and again (changing it up would be much better.)  He ended up in 3rd place in Sparring as well.  At the end Ms. Birky told him that he needs to work on the spinning in his form and kicking higher.  Overall, he had fun and is looking forward to this next tournament.  He also wants to sign up for more tournaments.  So we are discussing the tournaments in our region so that we aren’t traveling too far.  Here are some of the pics that I took:

2008 – Tyler’s 1st Taekwondo Tournament

On Sunday, we all slept in.  Then we headed to Simonton Lake for some kayaking.  This lake is nice and clean.  It also has some really shallow spots so we could switch off who was in the single kayak.  It took us about 1 1/2 hour to circle the big side of the lake.  Then we came home and did lots chores.  Trent & I started working on the trim project on the shed.  We got all the trim around the windows replaced.  Now we have to sand the bonder that was used in the joints and to fill the nail holes, put on another coat of paint and caulk around the window.  We are using a recycled plastic product instead of wood, so some things are a little different, but I’d say it is an easy product to use.  Then we have to do around the doors (regular and garage.)  The garage door has lots of angle cuts, so it will take more time.

Brillante Weblog Award – My First One

My friend, Liese, over at The Colorado Adventure nominated me for my first Blog Award.  I want to thank Liese.  I miss you and the kids – maybe some day we’ll get back out to Colorado for a visit.  In the meantime, we’ll keep up with one another through various other means.  And now, I have to spread the love by naming 7 other people’s blogs that I read and find interesting.  They were extremely hard to narrow down and they are in no particular order.

Just Enough, and Nothing More  Tammy’s blog is my information source.  She seems to always have the latest information on what is going on in the homeschooling community at large.  She also does a great job translating what it actually means to me.

Life Without School  Helps keep me sane on those days when homeschooling seems to be too much.  Great articles and great insight!

On Living By Learning  Sandra has great posts.  I’m always learning something new.  I also love all the links she includes in her posts – it’s no wonder my favorites list is filling up quickly!

Rational Jenn  Jenn just makes me laugh, no matter the topic.

the parenting pit  Arun is the only homeschooling dad that I have on my list.  It’s great to have his perspective on things.

Throwing Marshmallows  Stephanie has a wonderful way with words, so it is no surprise that she is also an author over at Life Without School.  However, my favorite part of her blog is her pictures.

Day by Day Discoveries  Dawn & I share an addiction to curriculum.  Of course, right now I have a kid who wants to stay as far away from curriculum as he can get, so I get to enjoy Dawn’s stories.  She also has great links to resources.

So there you have it.  Go read these blog and enjoy!

Catch up

We have come home from our trip to Nashville.  We had lots of fun and spent lots of time with family.  It was great to see everyone, but it is nice to be home.  And now I have to catch up on all that piled up while I was gone.

While in Nashville, there were lots of Olympic competitions going on: cannonball, swimming, basketball and volleyball in the pool, diving for things underwater, etc.  We even had an awards ceremony and handed out medals.  It was great fun and it kept the kids entertained (my 1 and my cousin’s 5.)

Our good friend, at whose house we stayed even though she was in Australia for most of our visit down there, brought Tyler home a returnable boomerang.  He was so excited and we tried it out after the rest of the families went home.  It was interesting to try to learn how to throw it so it would come back – coming back being the hardest part.  Unfortunately, the only tree in the park, with the help of the wind, ate the boomerang.  So all I have are the pictures of some of our attempts.

2008 – Boomerang

The Secular Homeschooling Magazine has “The Overachieving Homeschooler’s Quiz” here: http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/003/quiz.php  I took it and got a score of 25.  Here is the meaning of the score to answer the question “Are you one of those overachiever homeschooling types that make the rest of us look bad?”: Not even close! Your fellow homeschoolers adore you. We all need to know that, at the end of the day, we could have done a lot worse.

And last, but not least, Natalie over at “Ramblings, Rants & Remedies” posted I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling).  It’s great, so check it out!

TKD pics & trip to Nashville

I got those pics of Tyler with his new TKD belt since yesterday was the first class.

This first one is Tyler with his new camo belt.

This one is the wall display with all the belts that he’s earned so far.

This one is Tyler with all his sparring gear on.

 

Now Tyler & I will be leaving for Nashville early tomorrow morning for about a week.  So even though I’ll post when I get back, I’ll give you a brief look at what we’ll be doing so that you won’t miss me too much.  This trip is a mini-family reunion.  And in our family that generally leads to lots of talking and eating.  And since we’ll be at my aunt’s house, there will be plenty of swimming and playing in the pool.  Some of us will probably get in some walks since we’ll be feeling guilty about all that eating we’re doing.  And that is a quick look at what we’ll be up to.

Art Work & New Schedule

OK, as promised, here are the pictures of Tyler’s art work from his Art Kamp last week.  I think he did an incredible job and it’s fun to see the progress that he’s made in his skills and creativity.  The teacher, Jeff, was very impressed with his focus.  This is the first time Tyler has had Jeff as a teacher.  I do have 1 funny story from the art show.  When we were getting ready to leave, Jeff asked Tyler if he was excited for school to be starting.  Tyler said “Yes!”  Jeff was surprised and told Tyler he was the only kid he knew that was excited about school.  I had Tyler explain that he was homeschooled.  Then Jeff had an “Ah Ha!” moment, he told us his cousin had homeschooled their 4 kids all the way through and that the one thing he always noticed about them, that now he realized he noticed about Tyler, was their manners.  He told us that Tyler was always nice and polite, he always was the first to volunteer to help, and he was always helping the other kids in class who needed it without being asked.  I was proud of Tyler, as I always am when someone points out how wonderful he is.  As his mom, I already know these things, but it’s always nice to have outside positive reinforcement.

2008 – Tyler Art from Art Kamp (Aug)

And now about our new schedule.  Tyler starts his new TKD classes today.  That means he has classes Mon-Thurs in the evening and on Sat morning.  So that leaves Fri, Sat afternoon (if he doesn’t decide to do art classes) and Sun as our free times.  Since we will be sticking close to home on our TKD days, we are going places on Fri.  Not sure where yet, but I do have some things on the list (Fort Wayne Zoo, Wolf Park, etc).  And our big plans for Sundays are trading off between kayaking, biking and hiking as a family.  We’re also going to use the biking times as a way to get Tyler off the trailer bike and riding his own bike for farther distances because he is outgrowing the trailer bike quickly.  I’m excited about our Sundays.  These activities are ones that we can continue throughout Tyler’s life as ways to reconnect with each other and as he gets older he can use them as his way to get away and have personal time.  Win-win for everyone.  Besides, we’ll be having lots of fun doing them.

Kayaks

I know I promised art show pics, but this art show was different than the rest.  The art work wasn’t hanging up, it was just on the table for us to browse through.  So I have to take a little time and take good pictures of it for all to see.  But we’ve been busy with other things – kayaks!!!  Yesterday we went kayak shopping and came home with 2 new kayaks.  One is a sit-on-top tandem and the other one is a single that you sit down in.  Now all 3 of us can go, or 2 of us can go tandem or separate, or we could go by ourselves.  So, of course, we went kayaking this morning to try out the new ones.  We had fun at the Goshen Dam Pond.  Not the cleanest water, but it was a good place to go because it was close.  I got before pics but no during pics since I’m not quite ready to risk my camera to the water.  Enjoy and I will get the artwork pics posted tomorrow.

2008 – Kayaking at Goshen Dam Pond

TKD Testing for Camo Belt

He got it!!!  He got his camo belt last night.  I’m sharing some pics here, but not a lot of time to post since he has an art show this afternoon.  So I’ll catch up with everything when I post the pics from the art show.  Oh, and I know there’s no pic of him at the end with his belt like we usually do, but he wants to do that pic and the pic with all his gear for Black Belt Club at the same time, so that should be in the next couple days.

2008 – Tyler TKD testing for his camo belt

Cell phone

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.