• Got ADHD?

    theresa


    Theresa Lode or, simply “T”, had her world turned upside down and inside out when her son was diagnosed with ADHD and a few other goodies. Her choice- follow the doctor's orders....or trust her heart and delve into the world of Free Range Education. She chose the latter...

    Curious? Want to know more? Read on ...

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 190 other followers

  • Your email is safe with me. No exceptions!

  • Blog Stats

    • 37,690 hits

  • Meta

So how’s YOUR history?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by therealmotherlode

I had a discussion with a mom last night who is considering homeschooling one of her kids next year. She asked me the usual questions but the one that made me wince was “What do you do for history?”

I talked about Beautiful Feet for American History….Story of the World for ancient history….museums….blah, blah. Little did she know I was squirming a little inside because I haven’t been “up” in history this year.

Fast forward to today. Molly and Caleb are firing questions at me and my friend, Miss Laurel….who happens to be the wife of Daniel’s telephone expert friend, Mr. Jim. The questions were around World War II and then morphed into questions about the Berlin Wall.

I went prattling on about the Communist and how the Wall went up after WWII. I knew I was on some shaky ground, so Miss Laurel grabbed an encyclopedia and read to a spellbound Caleb about the construction of the Berlin Wall….and the four sectors….and the time that it was constructed… in 1961. Ahem. Good Lawd. I’m sure glad I didn’t spout off more ignorance before she rescued my dignity with the World Book.

Boy oh boy were my facts off! Even Miss Laurel said she didn’t know some of this stuff.

So, why do we homeschool mom’s feel insecure when your kid isn’t a history encyclopedia? Or flip out because he’s a little slow in figuring out the area of a trapezoid like my kids where last week. (Like THAT’S a make or break life skill?)

As we were leaving their house, (a weekly appointment that we all greatly enjoy) Mr. Jim smiled and said, “That’s one smart boy there. He showed me what he rigged up and it’s pretty amazing.” If you remember me talking about Mr. Jim before and his telephone mentorship of Daniel….this is the guy with 60+ years experience in telephones. As is SOP (standard operation procedure), Daniel had brought a box of gadgets and gizmos of his latest invention and then he and Mr. Jim embark into another world. It’s fascinating to watch them. It is not an exchange between a 14-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man but rather a two individuals sharing a fascination for phones. It is a not a gift I regard lightly.

As we were leaving, Jim told me he asked Daniel if he wrote down the schematics for his invention and Daniel merely shrugged his shoulders and said, “It’s in my head.”

Probably sitting in the spot that I was insisting should be filled with random facts of no interest to him.

Filed under: family life, homeschooling, Individuality, parenting | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The messiness of genius

Posted on March 4, 2009 by therealmotherlode

The other day I asked Daniel to straighten out the tangle of chords that threatened to take over the living room.  The DSL line, the phone line, the extra length of the phone line, the lamp, the……

And in typical Daniel fashion, he attacked the task with gusto.  “Here ya go, mom!” he announced later with his charming smile.

I came over and glanced downed.  I decided to sit down….I could feel some mild vertigo coming on.

I have no idea how he did it but the tangle of chords had morphed into an even bigger tangle.  Chords were hobbled together with rubber bands and other chords.  Red, yellow and green rubber bands festooned the pile like a bizarre Christmas decoration.  Throw in a few blinking lights and there you have it, I thought.

I picked up one of the more nasty looking knots to try to understand what he had down.  Okay….here was the DSL line with the phone line.  I think.  And instead of wrapping ONE rubber band around a ONE neatly folded cord, he had strung THREE rubber bands intertwined with one another and joined groupings of the chords.

Daniel continued beaming at his handiwork.

“Uh, WHAT exactly did you do here honey?”

“I cleaned up the mess!”  He beamed some more.

“Let me show you what I had in mind….” I was trying to untangled the tangle that was supposedly already untangled.

15 minutes later….

“OH!  That’s what you meant…..”

Later I groused to Jay about it and he only chuckled.

“Did you see what he hooked up in his room?”

Jay went on to explain how he set up a diode to light up in case someone was on the phone so he’d know not to pick up the phone.  He had also set up a system so that if he answers the phone in his room and it’s for him…he does something to make it ring again in the house.

And I’m not going to even TRY to explain the independent phone network he set up.  From SCRATCH. (If these afternoon visits with Mr. Jim, our telephone expert friend, keep up…WHO knows what this kid will do.)

“I don’t know how he did it,” Jay said, laughing.  Jay….the man with an electronics background.  Jay, the man who aced Calculus in College and is a CPA.

I’m not even going to attempt to try to figure this one out.  If I did….my brain would resemble that previous pile of cords.

And I don’t think anyone could untangle that mess.

theresa_sig

Filed under: ADD/ADHD, homeschooling, humor, Individuality, Labels are for Soup Cans | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 190 other followers