Back to School

Backyard Academy started back to school yesterday after a long hiatus. We all really needed the break. I was a bit naive. I assumed that the reason the kids and I were not "getting on" was that I was too frustrated, too tired, and too burnt out. Uhhh,, no. First day back to school and it's the same 'ol same 'ol.

Me- "T, correct your punctuation and capitalization in this sentence please"

::::T2 wanders away with notebook and pencil. Wanders back in like 5 minutes later:::::

Me- "This is a totally different sentence! And the capitalization and punctuation still stinks! Not only that,, this sentence doesn't even make sense!" "Write your original sentence with correct punc. and cap." "repeat back to me what I want you to do"

T2- "rewrite the sentence"

Me- "AND....."

:::::blank stare::::::

What in the world is wrong with this kid?

I tell you what he wants,, he wants me to get so frustrated that I tell him exactly what to write. He puts SO much energy into getting people to do everything FOR him. That does NOT fly with me. Every time he has to do something his first thought is "how can I get out of this". It makes me very bitter.

vent over.

On other fronts, we got (and are currently getting) snow. It's not suitable for snowmen but the flakes are beautiful! I love trying to take pictures of snowflakes. I know,, I should get a hobby eh? My camera doesn't zoom well without the flash but here's a few that I thought were nice.

I'm happy to say that the kids retained a lot of the information that we learned a few weeks ago on the life cycle of an ice crystal. Seeing the shapes of these flakes and making note of the unusually low temps outside really re-enforced the lesson.

I took this one with the flash. It's kinda cool to see how the light reflected back off of that center flake. It's a shame tho because that was the ONE flake that I was trying to get a picture of! It was so intricate!

Our current unit is on time. Sounds lame doesn't it? Well we're really getting into it. We started with the Sumerian, Babylonian, Mayan, and Egyptian calendars yesterday. Today we'll read about sun clocks and water clocks. There will be a lesson on the upcoming leap year and we'll finish up with the Atomic age and the Automated Computer Time Service. It's very interesting and the boys are really into it. They made flipbooks with the information they learned yesterday. Each panel opens to reveal the info about each culture's calendar.

Yep, I realize that Calendar is spelled wrong. T2 actually spelled it correctly on his. Will miracles ever cease?

I'll post all the links and books that we used soon.