Catapults and presidents

Brigham spent Saturday morning perfecting his trebuchet catapult that he rigged together using a handweight, various wooden blocks, and duct tape.  I thought it was really ingenious, and it worked!  He and his brothers built castles and fortresses and set up armies of soldiers, all of which were blasted away by the trebuchet.  Cool!

Here is Joseph this morning.  Guess what he's reading?  A MATH book.  This is during his "free reading" period, and he chose to read a math book.  Really!  I never thought I'd see the day.  :-)  This is an awful picture, but before I could adjust the settings for another shot, he curled up like a snail and refused to let me take another one.  I have to be stealthy with the camera!  :-)

The math book is called "Life of Fred" and it's the first of a series of clever math books that teach math from fractions all the way through calculus via a series of funny, weird little stories about a boy named Fred.  It's not going to replace his regular math (mastery requires repetition), but at least it has caught his interest, and gives real life scenarios of how all these math concepts are used.  And it pokes fun at traditional math textbooks.

And here is Mosey this morning, trying to wake up enough to eat breakfast and do scripture study.  We've had a few too many late nights, and he is dragging. 

Things are otherwise going all right.  I've pulled out all of my parenting books and I'm reading them all over again as fast as I can, and I think it's helping. 
I don't think my parenting strategies are going to change my kids' innate personalities in any way.  Brigham will always be a pleaser.  Joseph will always be strong-willed.  Mosey will always be... Well, I can't quite define what he will always be, but he will always be Mosey!  :-)  But, as a parent I can teach my kids strategies for helping them through various situations that will come up over and over again in life.  And I can teach myself strategies for how best to navigate tricky conflicts and discipline issues in a more effective way.  That's what I'm hoping for.  Not to change my child, but to teach us both how to handle situations better. 
My favorite parenting book (it was my favorite when I read it 4 years ago, and it's still my favorite) is called "The Everything Parents Guide to the Strong-Willed Child."  I can clearly see some benefits even after just a few days of conscious application.
Today for the boys' grammar/writing lesson, we were learning about the correct form for writing a letter.  I asked both of them to then write a letter.  It could be to anyone and about anything, but it had to have the correct form, and be well-written.  I was fully expecting moans and groans from my somewhat writing-phobic boys, but to my surprise, both of them totally took to it!  Joseph decided to write a letter to Barack Obama.  He got really excited!  He wrote a rough-draft and checked spelling and grammar, and then re-wrote it (by HAND), folded it, put it in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and put it in the mail!  I was so impressed.  His handwriting was neat!  We've had some conflicts recently about neatness, and I'm glad to see that he can be neat when he wants to be.
This is what he wrote:
Dear Mr. President,
Are there any amendments to the Constitution you would like to make?  If so, what are they and are you going to try to pass them?  If not, do you think the Health Care Bill Congress is passing is constitutional?
I would appreciate if you would answer these questions.
Sincerely,
Joseph Turner
Joseph is very excited to see if he gets a letter back from the White House.  I hope he'll at least get a form letter back, but we'll see.
If only all my writing lessons was met with such enthusiasm!  :-)