Clue #1

The first clue you might not make as much progress as you'd hoped with grammar today:

"Thinking is my arch nemesis." --Nicholas

Thought From the 8 Year Old

Me:  "What are you thinking about?"
Nicholas:  "I know what I'm going to say if I ever lose a limb."
Me:  "What?"
Nicholas:  "'Tis a mere flesh wound."

Okay, then.

Bacon is Beautiful

Nicholas (8), while sitting at the counter watching me cook dinner:  "I think I'll skip eating eggs and just sit here and admire this pan of bacon."

Things That Make You Wonder

"Dad?  This is on the topic of random and off topic.". --Nicholas

Just a Few Snips...

Before



After

Packing Lists

Both Micah and Nicholas came home from Sunday School with a list of ten items they would take on a long trip.  It's interesting to see how the young male mind works.

Micah's List:

1. Clothes/Food & Drink
2. Computer
3. Crapple (Craig's Chromebook)
4. Stuffed Animal/Horse
5. Punching Bag
6. Bow and Arrow/Armor
7. Duck Tape
8. Sword
9. Pillow
10. Blanket/Tent

Nicholas:

1. Clothes
2. Crapple book (Craig's Chromebook)
3. Tent
4. Food
5. Punching Bag
6. Bible
7. Wallet
8. Pillow
9. Blanket
10. Car

They both plan on stealing Craig's Chromebook.  It also looks like they both plan on spending time getting out pent-up aggression with the inclusion of a punching bag.  I'm impressed they both remembered to pack clothes, and from the look of Micah's weapons cache, he expects some trouble along the way and Nicholas remembered he'd need money.

They make me smile!

No Help Needed

Last night, Micah & Nicholas were wrestling.  Micah came into the kitchen to get a kleenex because he had a cut inside his nose.

Micah:  "He cut the inside of my nose!"
Me:  "How'd he do that?"
Micah:  "He stuck his finger up my nose!"
Me (teasing Nick):  "Nicholas, why were you picking your bother's nose?"
Nicholas:  "It was an accident!"
Me:  "How do you accidentally stick your finger up someone's nose?"
Nicholas:  "I don't know!"
Me:  "Don't pick your bother's nose."
Micah:  "Yeah, I can do it myself!!!"

Nicholas Turns 8

Minecraft Cake

I can't believe the Baby is 8! 

Opening presents with flair...

It's a pity he didn't have fun ;).

Mummy?

I was the first one in bed several nights ago.  I thought the boys were getting ready for bed, but instead Luke did this to Nicholas.  I'd call it a tie in to history, but we did Ancients last year; this year is American history.  If you look closely at the face, you can tell Nicholas is smiling. Also, you know you've got a lot of boys when you have enough Ace bandages to mummify a 7 year old*.  

*No Nicholases were harmed in the making of this photo

No Pity

Nick was sitting on the couch with a pouty look on his face.

Craig:  "What's wrong?"
Nick (7):  "I'm bored."
Micah (9) walked by at that moment and replied: "That's a spiritual problem."

On Becoming an Author

We're on break this week, and Nicholas has decided to write a book.

Nicholas: "Guess what. My book's only going to have words, no pictures. That's what's taking so long. That's the hard part, thinking of chapters and thinking of words."

That's always been my problem, too.

Unlikely Science

Nick's hair is long (it's wavy/curly, so it appears a bit longer than shoulder length, but when you stretch the curls out it's not quite mid-back length).  We've been fighting a lot of tangles lately, and I asked for advice from some friends and one recommended the Wet Brush and a spray bottle of water with some conditioner added.

We tried it, and it worked great. The tangles are removed easily and there is no pulling or tugging to get them out.

But I didn't know it would turn into a science experiment.

Nick:  "Mom.  It took me 4 minutes 21 seconds to brush my hair this morning."
Me:  "You timed it?"
Nick:  "Yes, I did.  And tomorrow I'm going to use the blue comb and water and time it to see how much faster this way is."

I'm resisting the urge to have him make a graph.

O for Old or D for Dinosaur?

I took Nicholas out to lunch today.  We ate and played Zeus on the Loose, and had a great time.  He won our little tournament and ice cream.

On the way home he started quizzing me on things that were/were not around when I was little.  I shocked him into total laughter with an answer.  How?

By telling him:  "We didn't even have internet when I was growing up.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go over to the bookshelf, pull an encyclopedia off, and look it up."

He was equally as shocked when I told him I remembered getting our first microwave and VCR.

I wonder if I should look for my picture in the O for Old or D for Dinosaur encyclopedia.  Sigh.

Homeschool Humor, Monday Edition

Micah's been learning about apostrophes in grammar.  He's gone from calling them "the line that hangs in the air" to calling them "assTROphies".  Can I count that as progress?


One of the words on Nicholas's spelling list this week is "but". He doesn't understand that it is the conjunction, not the body part.  So far he's tried to use it to answer the question "What is the opposite of bottom?" and to fill in the blank in the sentence "Joseph feeds _____ dog every day."




While discussing the difference between fatalism and predestination with Luke and Ezekiel, Ezekiel piped up with "That reminds me of a Calvin & Hobbes strip."  At least we've moved on from relating these discussions  to Phineas and Ferb.


We moved along to discussing paragraph unity.  During this discussion, Ezekiel told me he had a 10 watt idea to unify his paragraph.  A bit later he told me he's going to write a book titled Thirty Watt Thoughts.  Finally, he told me that he's considered his audience and he shouldn't write using any of his 50 watt ideas if he wanted anyone to understand him.

/ow/

I couldn't figure out why Micah & Nicholas were in hysterics over a phonics notecard I'd made for Nick covering the one of the /ow/ sounds.

Then I took time to read the card.

Notice the blurred spot?  That's where a tear fell from Micah because he was laughing so hard.

Since Nicholas is the 5th boy I've taught to read, I can't even say it was a rookie mistake.

A Nick-ism

The boys recently got new shoes.  Nicholas wore his to church on Sunday, and while we were waiting for service to start, he requested that I "unloosen" them.

"Tighten them, you mean?," I asked.

"No, I don't want them tight.  I want them unloosened."

I guess there's a difference when you're 6.

Faith Like a Child

We were recently evacuated due to the Waldo Canyon fire. We had wonderful friends that took us in at 10:00 PM after we received the reverse 911 call, and they graciously housed the 8 of us (yes, they generously allowed us to bring our dog, Jed, along) for 2 days. Before we were evacuated, we watched the flames rush down the hill toward the neighborhood that lost 346 homes, and we stood on our hill and watched these homes burn and listened to small explosions.  We figured out that these explosions must've been propane tanks that belonged to gas grills, and we knew from the amount we heard that the devastation was going to be horrible.  We were fairly certain that our home would be safe due to the terrain, but after the activity on that night (fires simply don't behave the way this one behaved that night), we realized anything could happen.

About 36 hours into our evacuation, Nicholas walked up to me, looking just the tiniest bit down.  He looked at me and said "I'm kind of sad that our house burned down."  I quickly explained that our house was still  standing, gave him a hug, and he went happily on his way.

Since that day, I've been thinking about his reaction.  In his 6.5 year old mind, his house was gone.  His toys were gone, his roller skates were gone, his hamster was gone.  Everything he owned was gone.  Yet, he wasn't distraught.  He wasn't weeping (though at one point the day before he cried when he realized we didn't bring his skates--we'd had plans for going skating for Jacob's 10th birthday).  He was merely a bit sad.  

He never doubted that Craig and I would take care of him.  He never doubted that his needs (and even some of his wants) would be met.  That is faith like a child.  Do I have that much faith in my heavenly Father?

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10:29-31 ESV)

Falling Down

Nicholas is one of the happiest kids I've ever met.  He's always got a smile on  his face, and he laughs quite a bit.  Even tears often end with a smile or a laugh.

He went roller skating with Craig 2 weeks ago.  After they finished, he quite joyfully told Craig, "I went around 29 times and only fell 20!"  Instead of focusing on the 20 times he did fall, he was absolutely thrilled that there were 9 times he didn't fall.

I think there's a lesson for me in there somewhere.