On Friday, Tyler got all caught up with his school work. The previous Thurs & Fri he did no school work because it took him all that time to clean up downstairs. But with that accomplished, he could return to his regular schedule. He’s doing really well with his school work. He’s started checking his answers, which is teaching him a new skill. It’s easy to check his answers for problems that have a specific answer, like in Math. However, it gets a little tricky when it comes to Reading Comprehension. For example, he read a paragraph on what to do when you get gum stuck in your hair (i.e. ways to remove it – ice, oil, peanut butter.) The question was “What was this paragraph about?” He wrote, “gum”. But the answer key says “Ways to remove gum stuck in your hair.” He asked me if “gum” was also an answer. So we talked about how, yes, it was about gum, but it was about a specific aspect of gum, so that there were better answers than just “gum.” He understood, but then asked “So I have to write all of that?” “Yes, it would be a good habit to get in because as you go through school, things are going to get more focused on details.” Then he wanted to know how that works. So I used the concept of building a house, starting with a foundation and going through deciding on where the walls will go, to where the windows will go, to where the light switches and lights will be placed. He right away picked up on how things got smaller the more things we put in the house, which I thought was a great way for him to understand. He still doesn’t think that it’s fair that he has to write all that down and would rather tell me orally, which is what we’ve done in the past. But this year we’re working on our communication skills both written and oral, so I’m having him write it down. I went back to the house example and compared it to putting the walls in the right spots, but he’s really sure that the walls can be moved around and that he wants a house like he saw in a magazine where the walls do move around to create different rooms at different times and that the outside walls move so that then the whole house is open to the outside, so he’s pretty sure that he shouldn’t have to write the whole answer.
Saturday morning was TKD. This was the first time he’s gone to the Sat classes because we were out of town and then there were tournaments. The first class is on forms and weapons. The second class is on sparring and board breaking. He got lots of great instruction during those 2 hours and he was wore out by the end of it.
We ate a quick lunch and then headed over to Maumee Bay State Park in OH. The drive was really easy since it is straight east of here. We went over there to visit a good friend from CO who was there on a business trip. She is also a former co-worker of Trent’s and since she wasn’t the only one there on the trip, we ran into other former co-workers, as well. It was so much fun catching up with her! Theresa – hope the rest of your trip to OH goes well!! We miss you!! Then we came home. We were a little worried because we left Hershey for 14 hours – the longest he’s ever been left. But he was a great dog and had no issues. I’m sure he slept most of the time.
Sunday was filled with chores – laundry, mowing the yard, etc. I’ve been feeling antsy lately. This is the longest we’ve stayed in one place. So, of course, I’ve been talking about moving, though it isn’t going to happen for years. I want somewhere urban with lots of recreation close by, where I can walk or ride my bike most places, where mass transit is readily available, where people are environmentally aware, etc. Trent hates it when neighbors are too close and even now in our suburban neighborhood, the neighbors are too close. Hmmm… how am I going to find a compromise that we can both agree on? I have no idea, but I have years to figure it out. In the meantime, I’ve decided that those boxes downstairs that haven’t been unpacked in numerous moves probably should be gone through and something should be done with them. I’ve also decided that our office space isn’t very efficient. So I’ve started a massive organization project that will take a while to complete. Hopefully, that will keep me occupied and a little less antsy.
We also went for a walk yesterday on the Pumpkinvine Trail. We hadn’t been walking much because Hershey has been suffering from what we think is allergies. But he is feeling better now, so off we went for our Sunday Family Together Activity. The trail was great. There was lots for Hershey to smell. There were leaves and rocks for Tyler to collect (FYI- he thinks he’s doing a rock collection for 4-H next year so he’s collecting interesting rocks that he finds.) No pics because I had dog duty. Two cool things happened. The first is that a little (Trent says not so little because it was about 2 feet long) garter snake crossed the path in front of us. Hershey was great! He just stood there and watched it with us. No barking, no trying to get it, and he didn’t even want to follow it off the path. It turns out that it was a Plains Garter Snake and they are 20-40 inches long, so I was right in saying that this was was just a little one. The second is that we came across a skeleton of some animal. We haven’t identified it since it was just bones, but I’m pretty sure after looking around online at pictures of jaw bones that it was something in the marten, weasel, fisher family. We only did 2 miles yesterday because of Hershey, but I’m sure we’ll be going back to that trail again and doing more. We can also start biking from there and get to lots of trails in the area so it is a good starting point all around.
