Homeschooling Happiness

Homeschooling: This morning Motocross Boy had one assignment left to do. He needed to read for 15 minutes. He happened to be sitting in the office with me since he had just finished an assignment on the computer so he reached over to a stack of homeschooling stuff I had sitting on my desk for inspiration and grabbed a book called, "A Little Child's 50 States of America". While the pages are those thick cardboard baby book pages, the content really isn't all that juvenile.

Here's a sample:

Have you ever eaten a slice of fresh, juicy pineapple? If you have, it probably was shipped from Hawaii to your grocery store.

Motocross Boy started with Alabama and was on Hawaii when he told me he had just watched some car show on the Speed Channel that was filmed in Hawaii. Then as he read the little list of the capital, state nickname, state flower and state bird, he started laughing. Hawaii's state bird is the Hawaiian Goose! And here's what's cool...he spun around in his chair and googled "Hawaiian Goose". Before I could spin around too, he had a picture of one on the screen and was reading about Hawaiian Geese even though his 15 minute timer had gone off!!

Yesterday we skipped his math lesson. Why? Because Dad wanted to put new siding on the side of the garage. Major LIFE math lesson in the works here!! First he had to measure the side of the garage. Then they had to figure out how many 4'x10' sheets of T1Eleven were needed and how much would be left over. Then how much trim wood was needed. And finally, multiply all those numbers to figure out the cost! It was all real, it all made sense and he did it all perfectly. If I had put all those individual math problems (same everything) on a piece of paper he probably would have gotten at least half of them wrong.

THESE are the reasons why I love homeschooling so much. We can let the kids explore what they find interesting and use REAL LIFE for learning.

Equestrian Girl went shopping on line at Aeropostale. She figured out everything she wanted, added it all up and got the tax and shipping. Then she got a coupon that gave $10 off for every $40 spent but it was only good in the stores and not online. Then she figured out what it would cost to buy the same stuff at the store using the coupon plus tax but no shipping. The store was the way to go saving over $30. I couldn't help but take her today to buy a few of the things that she wanted so bad!

Horses: It's like old home week at the barn. Another old friend that we used to board and ride with has moved into our barn with her QH. That now makes 4 of us that came from that barn...and all of our horse share a paddock.

The odd man out in that paddock is a 3 year old draft cross. He's been more or less left on his own for a very long time with absent owners. Equestrian Girl needed a "project" for the winter and asked if she could teach him some ground manners and showmanship. Our barn owner checked with the horse's owners who were reluctant at first but agreed when he told them we do know what we are doing. Last night Equestrian Girl had her first session with him. She started out just walking him on his lead and asking him to stop on command. The first few times when she would stop he would wrap his head around in front of her invading her space in a bad way. Very gently she told him that this wasn't acceptable. Two more tries and he was stopping when told and keeping his head straight ahead. Before long he was doing that so good that she added in backing after a good stop. She would turn and ask him to back. The first few tries she had to really pull on the lead rope down towards his chest while making her back sound. By the fourth try he was doing it just by her sound! I'm sure she is thinking this is all way too easy but the darn horse didn't help that thought by learning how to "set up" in about six tries!

The horse's name is Hidalgo and he does indeed look like the movie star horse. His ears were all donkey-ish the whole time! He was listening and trying soooooo hard and just LOVING all the attention! We stopped after about 20 minutes not wanting to over do it and then spent a little time on grooming - something that he badly needs. This is going to be a fun project and I'm hopeful that someone will pick up where we leave off in the spring and get him started riding. We just aren't qualified to go that far...

Motocross: Sunday is the banquet for the MPX series of races. I think Motocross Boy gets a trophy...or two...or maybe even 3!!