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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Day Forty Four


I like to play with food.  I like to futz with recipes and I really like to get a hankering in my and then spend time trying to create it in life.

I made hot cross buns, out of my head, I just made 'em up.  They were perfect.  They smelled, looked ad tasted exactly like hot cross buns.  I was delighted with myself.  OH, we're supposed to be talking home school aren't we? 

Sometimes, in case you haven't noticed...I digress.


I had a dream The Banker came to me sobbing that I'd ruined his life.  Nice.  I don't actually think I've ruined his life.  I think he's learning more than ever.  I think he's learning faster.  I think he's learning better.  The insane machine that is the local public school system cannot possibly be better than the work we are doing here. That being said, I still had a dream he was wrecked.  


We had another testing moment today... it was his DNA course today and he was supposed to read a section, 21 pages long.  He put the iPad away after 6 saying he already knew about it.  Really?  So we had a chat about finishing entire sections/videos/chapters and working through to the ends of things.  The rest of the day was pretty smooth. 


Some of my friends talked about only having their kids do one subject per day. I couldn't figure out how that would work, in my head.  Do they just do math for hours and hours?  How many hours is the school day?  Do you work one subject one day then don't see it again for a week or more? 


Banker and I discussed the one subject/day thing.  He would hate that because he has 7 courses/subjects that he loves right now.  He asked if that meant he would be more than a week away from the last time he looked into a subject?  He also said he couldn't imagine studying one subject for 4+ hours a day (our current school day length).  I think it's cool in theory but has a feeling (to me) of leaning way more toward un-school.  We can't un-school, our heads would blow off.  As straight a line as Banker is, and as much of a hippie I am, neither one of us could slow down that far. Banker said he doesn't want to try it, even down to 2-3 subjects/day he said would leave gaps for him too long between.  I sort of agree with him but maybe that is just because I can't see the logistics in my head of a one subject day.  It was an interesting conversation in any event.  I really like his opinions and perspective. 


When I was a kid, my Nana would play Spite and Malice (card game) with her friend, Bertha, while their hair dried.  It was cut throat action.  The best way to describe the game is sort of competitive solitaire, you both build on the piles in the middle while maintaining stacks of your own cards all the while keeping track of your own and your opponents card stacks.  My Nana finally taught my mother and then me how to play.  When Nana died, mum and I found it important to keep playing.  We play whenever I go to Canada.  It's cut throat, intense and not for the faint of heart!  Unfortunately due to money and other social constraints, I haven't been in a few years so I haven't been able to play (I have no card playing friends here). 


I taught husband how to play but he's (almost) always too busy, too angry or too engrossed in his iPad to engage with me.  On the few times we did play here at the house, Banker watched and asked to be taught how to play.  I thought it was too detailed for him. I waited until this past week in New Mexico to teach him how to play.  Wow.  He plays well, uses pretty horrifyingly successful strategies.  He caught on really fast, understood the intricacies of the game almost immediately and for a week has beaten me regularly.  We are playing daily now.  I like that we have this time.  When he was in school, we had enormous amounts of time in the car together to connect, chat, think and plan... since the car is taken out of the equation I need to be sure we don't lose the 'us' time.  Being in the same house, doing school, and working chores doesn't count as the same kind of time we've had up to last month.  I like that we have an activity that we can do without anything else barging in and interrupting our time to talk, laugh, visit and simply pay attention to the task at hand, kind of like sitting in a car after school.


Even though I dream I've broken him, I think we're doing just fine.


/Tracy

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