Adrian's After-Bath Musings

Happy To Not Be Homeschooling...

for a week. :) We need the break. It's so nice to just be. To not plan. To let a sense of joyful nothingness wash over us.

We are spending time cleaning (without an agenda), reading (without a plan), cooking (without worrying about being done by a certain time), baking (for the fun of it), and tickling Adrian (he's just so cute in his winter clothes!). And making movies with toys around the house. Kiddo has a little homework for the week but nothing he cannot finish in about an hour a day.

I am thankful for the little bursts of just-warm-enough and not-too-hot sunlight. And snippets of Bomb Girls whenever I can catch it on Netfllix betwixt laundry and vacuuming. Unfortunately, those two necessary evils must go on.

Some of the books we have read or are reading just before and during our Thanksgiving break:

 

Happy Thanksgiving dear reader and may you have the best one yet!

The Lone Wolf

Kiddo wrote a story about Adrian (again, lol) for his charter school writing assignment. The assignment needs some editing but I am posting it anyway. :) Please feel free to give him some constructive criticism if you can! He hopes to expand the story some day and maybe publish it on his blog.

The Lone Wolf

The Lone Wolf stalked the streets of Bellyrub. His silver, six-pointed badge, dirty and tarnished, hung loosely on his gray sheriff’s vest, which was riddled with bullet holes. His taupe Stetson hat was five sizes too large for his head, but he still looked formidable (at least from his point of view). His leather gun holster lay far outside of his arm reach, but that was no problem. He could just lift his hind leg and scratch and the gun would fall right out. Of course, he might get a little carried away with the scratching, but still...

Randomly Recent

Our first month of Year 6 is over. It went by in a flash and a blur. Sometimes I wish I had Hiro Nakamura's ability to freeze time.
  
LEARNING UPDATE

Math, physics and German have become staple subjects here since approx. Year 4.5. He is using the same math mentor that he had in Year 3, but this time is taking both a group class and a solo class with him. This means much more homework than usual as well.

Most Miserably Mournful Mutt Mug Medal

SAN FRANCISCO, October 2, 2013 -- The organizers of The 5M Medal for Marvelous Mutts and Miraculous Mongrels have unanimously decided to award this year's 5M Medal to Mr Adrian Neville of Tailwag, CA.

Adrian beat 6, 174 other miserable contestants with his melancholic countenance. "We looked hard," said Bernard Belly Rub, Vice-President of Belly Rub Inc., "but couldn't find a single contestant to rival Adrian's despondent mien.

Apart from his medal, Adrian wins a lifetime supply of scary toothpaste to ensure that he remains maniacally mournful for many years to come.

"We are also proud to announce that Adrian has been selected to represent Belly Rub Inc. in all of our Dog Eggs commercials," Bernard added, wolfishly.

Randomly Recent

Swimming! The weather is super hot here these days, sometimes hitting triple digits. The advantage is that I am able to sneak in some swim practice for kiddo in our pool every week.This is one of those things I have to "push" and "nudge" him about or he will just let the sunny day go to waste, preferring instead to curl up with a book indoors. Once a week isn't often enough in my opinion, but hey, I'll take it!

Reading! There's been tons of that going on here lately. Kiddo loves to read but he sure does it in seasons. Whole weeks sometimes go by without him touching a lit or non-fiction book but when he picks one up again, he always makes up for lost time. He read 30 books in the last three plus weeks alone. That's more than one book a day! Almost all were re-reads of well-loved novels but a few were new like this biography of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Netflix Marathon: This time, it's The 4400 and Heroes. Hiro's Great-o Scott-o is a favorite expression around here now.

Pulling Teeth!

Literally! For poor Adrian.

The little guy had a lump under his eye when I came down to let him out last Saturday morning. We knew from the initial vet visits when we adopted him in December 2012 that he had a tooth problem. His left carnassial tooth was in the beginning stages of rotting. Since then, I have brushed his teeth whenever I could but that probably wasn't often enough or helpful enough. I took him to the pet clinic and according to the vet, the damage had already been done way back in December. So I made the appointment to have his tooth extracted. (Note: it's very, very expensive -- I shelled out $800 --  to do canine teeth extractions in the US and possibly, more so in California! Try to prevent it if you can!)

Poor little guy looking miserable in this shot. His cheek swelled up to golf ball size the next day and he was obviously in pain from the abscess and swollen glands in the neck area. He could barely open that left eye. We administered the medicines religiously and hoped for the best. I was particularly worried as I had read that because of the facial structure of small dogs, tooth abscesses can sometimes lead to blindness. It was an anxious time for all three of us. I know it's just teeth but we are so used to him being frisky and bouncy and crazy. It was hard to see him feeling quiet and sad, and worse, unable to tell us how to make him feel better. Luckily, the meds kicked in and his swelling reduced considerably the next day and even more the next. The extraction appointment was for yesterday, Wednesday the 21st, so I had to just wait and hope he would feel well enough for it.

2013-14 Learning Room Update

I initially wrote this post in April and decided to update it with more photos of our living room, dining room and garage/ learning lab areas. The changes are fairly significant from this post (2011) and this (my first school room post back in 2009).

When you enter our home, you'll see the main hall and formal dining room. I covered the dining table with a vinyl tablecloth for easy clean up when we use it for crafts and easy labs. I like storing things in wicker baskets and trays because they are easy to lift and stow away when we have guests. Then all I have to do is throw a nice tablecloth over the vinyl one and hopefully, no one will notice that the table is a little scratched and bumped. :)

From the dining area, you can enter our kitchen. The layout includes an alcove with a study desk and cabinets. The study desk is my central admin area where I store the printer, paper, binders. The cabinets above it keep my homeschooling manuals and miscellaneous guide books, unused curriculum and so on. Opposite this desk is the treadmill, a dinette table and Adrian's crate.

Our family room--our main learning area--faces the kitchen. It's where we spend the majority of our time at home.

Last December, we started looking for furniture to update and redecorate this room. Previously, we did a lot of our learning sitting on the floor with a coffee-table as a study/ laptop desk. Since kiddo started a few online and distance education classes last year, it became obvious that he needed a centrally-placed sturdy, large desk and more space to organize folders, books and various stationery.

Cousins and Other Things

The Funschoolers have just had the wonderful honor of hosting my brother and his delightful family who were visiting us for the very first time from the UK. Bro has been living there ever since he left home (Malaysia) to study and I must admit I (and I think kiddo too, Anglophiles and Cadbury lovers that we are) envy him the opportunity. :) Kiddo had a great time entertaining and being entertained by his three British cousins. And I had a lovely moment or two to catch up with bro and my beautiful sister-in-law.

While they were here, we watched the delightful Epic and ate lots and lots and lots and shopped together too.

Their visit also gave us the opportunity to tour some cities around the Bay Area that we haven't been to in a while, namely, San Francisco, Napa Valley, Gilroy, Monterey (we finally took the 17 Mile Drive!), Carmel and Big Sur.

The kids, sans the littlest, worked on some rocketry together and went kayaking all by themselves!

Don't they look like pros? :) I love this snapshot. I was quite worried by the time this photo was taken...it wasn't easy for me watching them moving further and further away from the shore, especially over a wide and deep (gulp!) body of water. Thankfully, all was well. Sure hope they built memories to last a lifetime!

We miss them so much. I think Adrian misses them a ton too. While they were here, he received hugs and belly rubs galore as well as very thorough petting and loving cuddles from brother's littlest one. I would miss something like that too, wouldn't you? You can see him drowning his sorrow in sleep, all mournful (but obviously comfy) on his new Molly Mutt bed! (hee hee).

Speaking of cousins, we were extremely happy to welcome my newborn niece (my sister's firstborn) in May. Yup, it was definitely a time to celebrate family! :)
 
On the learning front, kiddo and I are having a terrific time digging deeper into J.R.R. Tolkien's works through Mythgard Institute's Beyond Middle Earth summer class. If he continues to enjoy it, I hope to use other audit-friendly Mythgard options in the future.

Can't believe I have a rising 6th grader on my hands. Learning with the boy as always, continues to be an amazing, eye-opening journey for me.

Wishing you a happy summer dear reader!

Randomly Recent

It's been a while since I've written one of these. Gee, it's been a while since I've written anything here lol! What we've been learning about, playing with, reading, eating, watching, discussing, repeating, trying to remember to, asking, contemplating, etc. in no-particular-order:

KIDDO: Simple calligraphy, Calvin and Hobbes, cells, harder algebra problems, Avatar (with Aang and gang, not the blue people), gravity, Courage the Cowardly Dog, gas laws, area of spheres proofs, The Hobbit (movie), drying and combing hair before breakfast, Feynman and his safe-cracking ways, reviewing gender in German nouns and articles, "is Tolkien supportive of women's rights or not?", 5th grade STAR testing (fun!), tautologies, enzymes, "is it scrumptious, is it juicy?", summarizing an essay, LaTeX, ice cream (lots of it! maybe too much?!), swimming (if you can call it that), Life of Pi (movie, only half though, couldn't summon the courage to watch it all).

Tin Tin, cannon-balling, Downton Abbey theme, Japanese mealtime etiquette, stick swinging and air jabbing (during walks), why do we need literary analysis?, complex numbers, Dexter's Lab, assembling a DIY model tank, disliking the Samsas (poor Gregor!), the science of color, logic puzzles, leaf burning, the courage of hobbits, proteins, Three Men in a Boat, "must I use a writing curriculum?".

ADRIAN: Chewing, looking cute, getting into trouble, wagging, halitosis 401, lack of math skills and what it means in his world, best positions for curling up to sleep without losing sight of Mom and Big Bro, fetching, looking cuter, sighing, being walked without sniffing at weeds every other second.

Eating cherries without Mom's knowledge, finding good spots around the yard to you know what (and knowing what "not in our pond area you don't!" means), shedding, ear-flopping, toe-nipping.

March Daybook - A Day in the Life

Awake at 7.30am: My Pre-Adrian self would have still been in dreamland (or nightmare-land or some super-convoluted, quest-themed fantasy scape)! A little bleary-eyed, I stumble downstairs. A fellow-bleary-eyed, black and tan canine greets me in his crate. We walk to the yard for his nature-call, head back in and he gets his treat and a chance to continue his snooze if he wants to (lucky dog!). I head for the shower.

8.00am: Back downstairs, I set out the breakfast things and put clothes in the washer, unload the dishwasher then make my coffee. Mug in hand I have about an hour to check email and take a quick read of my favorite homeschooling forums. I love how quiet it is. Around 8.45am, I wake kiddo up through the intercom. We exchange morning greetings before he heads for the shower.

9.15am: Kiddo is downstairs for hugs and breakfast (usually either eggs, toast or oatmeal and a beverage like chocolate milk or almond/ soy milk and often, more coffee for me). Adrian exits his crate, then usually heads outside for his morning sun-worshiping. Kiddo eats breakfast while watching CNN Student News. We take a short moment to discuss the news while I prepare Adrian's food. I switched to raw feeding on March 1 so Adrian's food prep now takes slightly longer than dumping kibble in the bowl. 

A Quick Dog Unit Study

After reading a thread on a homeschooling forum, I've decided to bookmark a bunch of dog-related resources to watch, learn from and simply, delight in. :)

I used to read tons on dog-care when I was younger and am, as a consequence, much more confident about having to make decisions on the fly concerning Adrian's health. But kiddo is still very new to pet care. I think there's so much we can learn about being better caregivers for our little guy by dedicating some specific time to watching tons of dog videos and reading books about dogs (don't you love homeschooling?).

A few resources on my wishlist:

    

A previous blogpost on Little Lions, Bull Baiters and Hunting Hounds: A History of Dog Breeds by Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson here.

More Videos (please preview if viewing with sensitive children):
Through A Dog's Eyes (PBS)
And Man Created Dog
The Science of Dogs (NG)
Living With Wolves

Will update as I find more!

I wasn't sure whether or not to bookmark dog-centered movies/ movies starring cute dogs because I inevitably find so many of them too sad. :P Here are the ones I generally liked anyway:
The Magic of Bell Isle (2012)
Red Dog (2011)
Beginners (2010)
Marley and Me (2008)
Homeward Bound (1993)
and this one I just refuse to watch (I'm a wimp!): Hachi (2009)

Ending the post with this cool link from Houzz -- eye candy for me mostly. Gotta see it to believe the lengths some people go to pamper their pooches!

January 2013 Daybook

Our new addition

Having Adrian has added a fullness to my day that I've missed. It almost feels as if there's another person in the house. He's almost human in some of the things he does and just watching him, taking him out on walks or nature calls, playing with him...these activities are really helping me to feel less stressed.

With Adrian here, our schedule has also changed. It turned the first month almost topsy-turvy but after five weeks, I've hit a routine that I'm comfortable with. I now have to wake up earlier which in turn is helping me to sleep better because I'm both more tired and more sleepy when it's time to head to bed. I wake up less often in the middle of the night. He has finally settled into a routine himself and is more comfortable with his crate and sleeping arrangements. He's definitely one sly little fella when it comes to comfortable sleeping arrangements.

Homeschooling and parenting...

...is going as well as it can although I'm still hit by periods of self-doubt. What I worry about most now is giving kiddo more group opportunities, especially since he's an only child and is very, very people-oriented. It might be easier with an introvert but that's something he obviously is not.

Studies-wise, he works completely independently now but I do help out with little things like suggesting better sentence construction if he needs to email an instructor and also keeping general track of his work through my master binder of all his syllabi. I'm still managing schedules and hope to hand that over to him one of these days. To be honest though, I enjoy managing schedules lol. I'm not as regular as I used to be with read-alouds but I'm trying to sneak it in whenever I can. Mostly though I'm just chauffeur, cook, book provider and an occasional discussion buddy right now.

2012: Counting My Blessings

2012. I can't wrap my head around how every year appears on my horizon, all tantalizing with possibilities, and then it's over as if only seconds have passed. That 2012 is doing the same, that I've seen my wonderful, amazing kiddo turn 10 and lived watching him blossom into this cool kid that he is, I am just so thankful for this. I am not a religious woman but I feel blessed nevertheless.

Frequent readers will know how I try to write a post to commemorate each homeschooling year. I usually do that every summer. But I have some time on my hands today and the thoughts are pouring forth.

So here goes. These are my key memories of 2012.

1. Tinkering, building, taking things apart. What began as a fun autonomous vehicle project has now morphed into a true-blue crazy science experiment. You may remember me posting about the rover in January. It started off looking innocent (R). In summer, the boys built a special control station (tray for iPad, linked to backpack containing power source - L) so that kiddo can easily maneuver the car around the neighborhood. During the Christmas break, hubby and kiddo have further transformed the car into a part-autonomous vehicle, part-Lego Mindstorms monster, part mini missile launcher (for want of a better word). With an ominous name like The Black Death, I'm guessing we're in for some pretty interesting special effects in the coming weeks. :) Yes, I have courageous neighbors lol.

I'll post pix of the new machine when I can or better still, have kiddo explain it on his blog (but hedgehogs may croon Auld Lang Syne before that happens!).

Given hubby's busy travel schedule, kiddo isn't able to spend as much time with his Dad as most boys do. But when he does, they get up to some pretty cool hijinks together.

The boys finished the backyard pond project this year and kiddo added basic furniture assembly to his repertoire of skills. To top it off, kiddo and his buddy also built a Rube Goldberg machine!

2. Learning adventures. 2012 was a fantastic year in terms of homeschool resource choices. This is how we homeschool: kiddo tells me what he wants to learn at what challenge level and I go seek tutors/ online courses and relevant books. His Dad and I may make adjustments to his wishes if deemed necessary but about 90% of the time, this is how we go about it. It's nice to see him being in the driver's seat. I occasionally still suggest courses or books because I can't imagine not ever doing that lol. I keep an eye out for sagging enthusiasm and sudden roadblocks just to make sure he knows why it's happening but most days, he's able to identify and solve the issues himself. As a result, this year he is almost completely an independent learner. I don't know whether it's good for him to be 100% independent but I do know that if for some reason I am unable to oversee things, he will know how to carry on and that's definitely a big load off my frequently anxious shoulders.

Kiddo's math lessons are progressing swimmingly. His tutor is such a blessing to our family. I love watching kiddo interact with his tutor and have the time of his life every week. I will say this over and over again. If your kid is passionate about something and you can't help him with this passion, find him someone who can (and who won't take monetary advantage of you for it).

We are really happy to see kiddo satisfied with the level of math challenge he's getting. He is certainly developing a good bit of stamina with those harder problems too. Kiddo also had a very busy but definitely invigorating summer filled with math camps: one was a research-style camp aimed at working on unsolved math problems and the other, a cryptology-themed math class with his tutor. He came away with much-improved ability to express his mathematical thinking in words.

The boy also made it through one half of a challenging Coursera course (took notes too!). He is ready to move on to year two of German and might be trying AP-level science courses next year, but without any expectations to actually take the AP exams.

As I am starting to outsource even more than we usual do, I no longer schedule literature or history studies for now but that hasn't stopped him from voraciously finishing a significant number of well-written classics and enjoying my cobbled-together survey course in Shakespeare every morning during breakfast. Using an animated core program definitely has its advantages! :)

Yes, I still complain that he doesn't write enough and writes his n's like h's and vice versa or forgets to put the date on his homework and leaves his study table in a mess no matter how many times I upsize the space. But blessing #2 is about celebrating how far the boy has come after all. ;)

3. Friends, family, good health. This year has also been a great time for nurturing friendships. I remember when kiddo was six and practically friendless because he was either "too friendly" or "too young" or "too chatty" or "too curious" for other kids in our area and "too physically awkward" for me to allow him to participate in some of the more sports-oriented friend-making avenues. Time has helped so much with finding friends who accept him for who he is and for me to realize that physical awkwardness is a normal part of child development, especially in boys. I am trying to accept that he might never take to martial arts or swimming like I'd hoped, but he is showing a lot of fondness for brisk walking and some interest in basketball and kayaking. And I am making him work on reaching 20 daily pushups by the end of January 2013. Let's hope he gets there with a good attitude!

Our trip home to Malaysia this year was very well-timed too. Kiddo had a good time bonding with his grandparents and aunts and uncles. We had a blast devouring the seasonal fruits and the delicious food. It just felt so good to be surrounded by so much love when we are both home alone most of the time.

With Adrian joining us this year, we are benefiting tremendously. From our "pack walks", from the general well-being that comes from having a pet, and just the idea that there's one more little fella in the house who needs our love and generously returns it, no questions asked.

2012 isn't all roses and rainbows. I grieve for the lives lost, both from natural disasters and from personal tragedies of minds gone wrong. I worry about what the future will be like both on a personal level and for the nation and the world as a whole. I just visited my family but I also miss them terribly. But I know how lucky I am to have what I have. To be able to watch my child grow healthy, happy and strong. To have a comfortable home and access to good food and books and safety. To have my parents and in-laws, my siblings and their own families. To have a furry friend who shows me unconditional trust. To have really, really good friends, both IRL and online, after spending the first 15 years of my life with only three, scruffy four-legged ones. I am blessed. And I am fortunate that I can realize this and appreciate it because I know it can be taken from me in a heartbeat.

I guess after all these years of trying to figure out parenting and homeschooling and worrying about books and curriculum and where we are headed, I think I might be getting the point. We can learn to learn anytime. It's learning to live that's truly precious.

Have a blessed, beautiful 2013 everyone!

I'm a Dog. And I'm Hot!

Greetings worthy humans. My new Mom thought I should introduce myself. Apparently she's a little too sleep-deprived to write. Excuses. Excuses.

I'm rather ambivalent about writing...I mean why on earth...ooooh, mmmm, oooh, chomp, chomp, gulp. Man, those liver treats are good. I love writing. Seriously. Did I say ambivalent? Nah. I'd LOVE to tell you more about myself. Love putting paw on keyboard so to speak. zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Uh? Oops, licked that key a little too hard. No Mom, I swear I was only licking it!

So whadd'ya want to know?

I guess my name is a good place to start. I'm Adrian. Apparently my new Big Brother likes this TV series called Monk? Monk...Monk! Hey, I don't want to be a monk. No way. But I guess I don't have much of a chance at a love life anymore after some wise guy cut off...ooooh, oooh, she's giving me one more...chomp, gulp. Yum! They go down too fast. OK, sorry people. I guess Mom doesn't want me sharing too much.

I'm named after Adrian Monk. And Mom, well she likes English things and reading about wizards and all. And she says there's this wizard whose first name is really British-like and that his last name suits my err...profile...really well and that he was really scared like me at one time but faced his fears and all that and cut off some serpent's head and...wait! Serpents! Those guys are nasty. I don't want to fight serpents, no sir...aaah, chin scratch...heeee heeee that tickles. Right there. Right there. That's the spot. Oh, that's so gooooooood.

Anyways, she added Neville to Adrian and now I have a middle name! You can call me Adrian. Or Adrian Neville. Or 'Drian for short like Mom does. Or Cute Little Mango Sausage like my Big Bro (brothers!). I don't mind. Just keep throwing those treats at me lady and you can even call me Wienerschnitzel.

Ja...one of my folks was a Dachshund and the other was a Miniature Pinscher. I'm kinda proud of my German heritage if you don't mind. Verflixt! She's not giving me another belly rub till I write more. This nice man yesterday (*he* gave me a belly rub) poked into my teeth and told Mom I'm four to five years old. I could have told her that! Would have only cost her a chicken treat. Not an arm and half a leg!

Um...well, treats. Yeah. I love liver. And I love salmon biscuits. And I love chicken treats and carrots and eggs. Oh I'm drooling already. Yeah, I love food. Mom makes me run around the house and then she'd abruptly ask me to Sit. Just for one measly little nibble. I don't get it. She says this will wear me out and let her sleep better at night. I'm confused. I thought if it wears *me* out, *I* should sleep better at night. Thought mothers weren't supposed to sleep so much?

Oi! More chin scratch! Ok, ok. I'll strike out that last line. I promise. 

I'll paw more on this keyboard another day. Really need a shuteye. The last time I had one was all of 10 minutes ago! They work me hard over here. I tried to grab a siesta on Mom's plush new recliner today and she shooed me off to write this post instead. How about that?! You'd think she'd have learned to share by now.  

Hey! Come back with my blanket!

Guess Who's Coming For Christmas?

We can't wait! We are so excited! He's a rescue that we fell in love with at first sight. He's joining us soon, before Christmas actually. And he'll be a gift none of us will forget.



:) Signing off tongue in cheek...