And it is Leap Day!!!

And I either got through to Karl about what Leap Day is and why it exists (there's a saying that there is no man-made institution that doesn't have a purpose, and I have yet to figure one out that doesn't have a purpose), or he's tired of hearing me yap about it.

This is one of those fantastic things about homeschooling your kid - you can harp on something until they get it, which is not something they do in public school.

How I explained it to him was that the earth doesn't know our calendar, it is something we made up, and it's not perfectly lined up with the seasons. If we didn't do Leap Day, in a couple hundred years, we'd end up with Christmas in the Summer, like they have in Bolivia, and Bolivia would have Christmas in the Winter, like we do now. He understands their seasons are the opposite of ours, so I am hoping that he does understand, and not just telling me he gets it now.

Great Kids

Thanks for the post, Lorraine Gregory

We’ve got some really great kids. They do their homework like they’re supposed to and they spend time outdoors playing sports and they have a lot of great friends. I wish I could get through to them how proud I am of them and how much I think they’re doing to prepare themselves for their future. I recently got some DIRECTV Packages for home so we could institute a family togetherness night – I want to make sure we get to spend a lot of time with the kids before they go off to college in a few years. I can’t believe they’re that old or that things have to change because they’re getting older. I have so many friends whose kids are really getting attitude problems as they get older and I’m just thankful that’s not something we’re dealing with. I can’t believe we’ve been married for 20 years and that our kids are old enough to be out on their own soon. It’s been a whirlwind of a life!

Sisser's 19th Birthday, and She Came Over (With Visitors!)

Sisser is 19 today, and she came over. Dylan and his younger brother came over too. Seth is taller than Dylan, though, so now Karl is hoping he will be taller than Corey and Josh. I'm hoping he is as tall, but I doubt he will be taller.

Karl is still having trouble counting correctly to 20, he still jumps from 13 to 18, so I'm going to try something new, and that's to make a chart where he is 0, then 1, then 2, and so on up to now, where he's six. Then I'm going to put Sisser down, also, because she was almost 13 when he was born. I'm hoping that showing him that Sisser's age didn't jump from 12, almost 13, when he was born, to 18 (and now 19 - and next year, 20, when he will have already turned 7).

It'll look like something like this:

.......0.......1.......2.......3.......4.......5.......6.......7

12.....13.......14.....15......16.....17......18.....19

And, they said that they'd love to go camping with us, too, so the big camping trip is going to have even more people. Looking forward to it!!!

Camping Trip Being Planned

It's Theresa's birthday today and when we talked she told me she is wanting to go camping this summer, for at least a week, maybe even longer, and that she wants it to be a bigger event. So we're going to see ow many people we can get to go, even if they only stay a few days at a time. I love to go camping, and it's the tearing down of the site that I hate to do, unless I know I'm going to go again very soon. I told her since I work online, and she's not working right now, and she said they have wifi, and (yes, I'm rambling) that if she let me borrow her laptop, I could go for longer than a week. I'm shooting for a month. She's worried about her puppy, who can't go (breed isn't welcome at the location we're planning on going to) being let out, but she should be able to go home a couple times a day, or have Gene let him out, too. It's workable, I know it is.

With our two tents, and her two, and then one of the guys having a camper (he's wanting electric), we're pretty set. We already have all the cooking gear, and I told her I can bring the coffee maker, and the electric stove, so with a fire pit or two going, as well, we're set.

This should give Karl a good chance at checking out the nearby river (which is toxic and even has warning signs not to come into contact with the water, joy), ride his bike all over the place, and play on the playground equipment, and maybe, just maybe, get used to taking showers, lol. This is going to be a good field trip for his homeschool studies.

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

Karl has been practicing his artwork by drawing a bunch of hearts, in all different colors. As soon as I can get either a new camera, or the scanner up and working, I'll post some of his creations.

We've also been working on spirals, and not just drawing them, but also cutting them,and seeing what they do when they are held up in the air.

When we were looking on Youtube for spirals, well, he loves UFO's also, and we ended up looking at this video of a rendering of a spiraling rocket, and what it would do to clouds.

Ground Hog Day with Leap Day Soon to Be Here

Well, some say Ground Hog Day was yesterday, but I've always felt it was the second of the second, and that would be today. Then, 27 more days, and it will be Leap Day. Karl wants to catch a ground hog now (I should have known, right?) and we have plenty here. They are all over the place, even here in the city. These are some very large animals, too, for something that lives underground. I really need a camera! I don't care what the news people say, or even if they agree with me - I think we only have a very short time left before SPRING hits, and it's going to be a nice one, without any of the common floods we usually have here.

I think it's Karl's very young age that is making it so difficult to explain that we add a day every four years to the calendar. But, I have all month, so I'm going to try another approach and see if explaining it from a solar system and climate and seasons approach will work. Wish me luck!