2. School's going OK for the boys. Mosey's been good about getting up early and blowing through his lessons! Yay for him! (Except for Monday when I woke him up 1/2 an hour late and he was MAD. I went into his room an hour later, and he was laying on his bed, not having done anything, extremely indignant that I had messed up his entire schedule by waking him up late. It was a tough morning, but at least we got to talk about cutting your losses, and not making a bad situation worse, and taking responsibility for your own actions and a lot of other things that nine year olds really like to hear lectures about from their moms...) Brigham and Joseph are working on a research report and it is causing much struggle and strife. Who knew that writing notecards could cause such existential angst in preteen boys? They've both struggled in different ways. Joseph hates being constrained in these sorts of assignments, having to write on a certain topic, having to organize things and write notes and outlines an rough drafts in particular ways. I try to give him a lot of flexibility, but there are some things that really just need to be done a certain way. They're writing a compare/contrast essay on three different aspects of two different cultures we've studied so far this year (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Russia, and India). So there is a fair bit of choice!! They can choose any three topics, and any two countries. But Joseph doesn't want to do that. He wants to compare and contrast animals or military machinery, or really anything but the topic assigned. And he hates writing note cards. I know it's a pain, and this is a short essay, and he could easily write his notes on a sheet of paper and it would be easy enough to organize, but I keep telling him that's not what this assignment is even about! It's not really about comparing and contrasting two cultures, but it's mostly about learning these writing/organizational skills that will be necessary for much longer, more involved papers later on... And Brigham just wants to get it done fast. Which is great, but it means he doesn't pay close attention to instructions, and so when he writes his notecards, they are not done right and I make him do them over again and honestly, I may as well be pulling out his toenails one at a time. Oh well, we will get through this, right?
3. On the other hand, my boys are pretty delightful, too. They learned how to make hexaflexagons last week (do a google search-- they are fun!), and have been making them and coming up with games using them. They all three work together coming up with rules for the games, making the hexaflexagons, and decorating them, and it's wonderful. Why can't they get along like that all the time? :-)
4. Here is a flag that Brigham designed. It is the flag the boys are going to use for the "forest" next to our house. He's getting good at Photoshop! I should look into graphic design classes for kids.
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