Holes

I am growing increasingly aware of holes in James' knowledge. He has had some holes in education, and he also has difficulty retaining some things, so he has more holes than I like to think of.
I discovered yesterday one of his holes. Something I thought he would have naturally picked up on. A subject so common in our life and everybody's life it seemed like he would have grasped it along the way from being around it for 12 years. My newest discovery has taught me something.

1) Never assume they know

2) Free Range Parenting needs to be monitored more closely (as to what they ARE learning vs. what they are not)

3) Unschooling should not be allowed to be used on children unless they are absolutely hungry for knowledge, which my son is not.

This new realization for me is great, but it also means I have a lot of work to do.
I have more holes to fill in than I thought.
This means though Zane and Jonah will benefit from learning at an early age what James missed, again and again.

What I really want to know is how such a bright boy can be so damn forgetful about so many everyday subjects and know things that are not mainstream? He knows about so many things, but not things he needs to know about living in the world.

I will not fret. I have 6 years to whip him in shape and fill in those holes!

Off to school now!

Challenge Air

This past weekend my children were part of the volunteer family at Challenge Air.

What is Challenge Air?

Challenge Air is a place where kids with disabilities, mental or physical, and any other medical condition that is chronic, may come to the airport and literally fly planes. The pilot gets the plane to 2,500 feet in the air and lets the kids take the controls for a bit. It's a blast. My children waited around all day while Sam and I loaded kids into the planes and back out. At the end of the day one of the pilots let my kids go up. My oldest was allowed to fly the plane. He was so happy.
Austen, the pilot, is way cool. He's great with kids. I sure hope he comes back next year. He was much loved. He was one of two pilots that stayed the longest. Tom, from Minnesota, was probably the last pilot to take a Challenge child up.
I went up but have decided that I prefer the Earth and my feet upon her :)
Besides, my when James banked it to the left, my body felt very ill after that! LOL!!
I was ready to come down to the ground then.

I will work this event next year, and take my kids with me.
It is a good education for them!

Break time.............

The kids are busy with lunch and French lesson. Since I do not know French we invested in Muzzy. The kids love Muzzy, but they found out they could watch movies in French and learn a few things or two along with their other French studies. They are watch an early 90's movie about some men that kidnap a rich family's baby for ransom. I remember the movie, but cannot remember the English title.

I thought I would slip away and have my lunch also. It seems Sam left me mostly tofu and he ran off with all the yummy veggies from our stir fry last night.

We are plugging right along with school. James was struggling big time with his spelling so I dropped him down a grade level and now he is getting it quite well. This is a child from his father's father side of the family. Where someone there spells Lettuce (letus). He will get it. I have him also using a program from All About Spelling. It goes through all the different phonic combinations. I think this school year will prove to be his turn around. He's moving along in math. He would rather do French and geometry all day.

Jonah is beginning to remember what he did last year. He's upset with me when we go over it again. I laugh, I remind him that 2 days before he did not remember it. That is why I am teaching it again. We are going through these areas quickly, as not to bog him down and bore him.

Zane is disgusted that I am not teaching him to read yet. With the Waldorf process you wait. The point is they do get disgusted and bored then they WANT to learn it. He's almost ready. We are finishing up our form drawing this week. He's totally ready to move on into learning letters and numbers next week.

Jonah brought home a necklace he made with a knitting mushroom in his enrichment class. While we were there Zane was proud to show me the one he's working on.

James leaves tonight for his friends house to learn how to build a shed. The Hindu Priest that was going to teach him while he's there on Friday's has decided to go on the road for 6 weeks playing drums in a Kirtan band with a monk. James in the meantime will learn building with his friend's dad, an ex-monk. James is very excited.

OK, I must take care of my duties. I need to grind some corn and feed the chickens, AGAIN.
I must figure out how to make the burnt taste leave the beans we have for super.....someone turned the knob to high. I need to switch out my laundry and finish the cleaning I began before lunch.

Tootles.