Why, Hello 2015!

You sort of snuck up on me didn't you? 2014 was such a bittersweet year. Worldwide, there was so much sadness and fear and tragedy, but also little pockets of joy and recovery. For us personally, 2014 was a year of growth for kiddo, a year of shedding skin for me, and general mayhem and mischief overall. :)

I've been planning to write an update of our journey but just haven't found the mood (time was not the issue). Hopefully, soon. Till then...my thanks to everyone who comes here to read my few posts. I wish you all the very best life has to offer in the new year!

Happy Birthday 12-year-old!

I don't know what I've done to deserve you and I'm always grateful for it. You are the most precious thing that has ever happened to me.

And of course...Adrian doing what he does best. :)

Randomly Recent

It has been so long...apologies dear readers! I have often thought about writing an update but was too lazy. :P

I don't have a lot to report. Kiddo won second place for his recital of Pyramus and Thisbe. It was such a fun experience for him and I am hoping to include memorizing passages/ poetry as a yearly elocution exercise somehow since he enjoys it so much.

Other than this, we were ill with the flu and had little energy to achieve much other than what kiddo usually does (which is math and more math!). We did catch up with reading and made one interesting change to our homeschooling journey as explained below.

Books we enjoyed this past month: 

Kiddo discovered a love of Dickens and John Connolly's young adult novels. And I'm absolutely in love with Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series (thanks P!).

 

Malaysia Trip (Dec 2013)

This time, unlike all of my previous trips, my semi-annual trip back to Kuala Lumpur was a solo effort and a short one too, spanning a little over a week. I left SFO on Dec 23rd, arrived in Changi a little past midnight on Christmas day (due to the 20-hour flight time plus time zone difference), then flew to KL the same day. I returned to SFO on January 1, so both my Christmas and New Year's were spent on the plane.

Kiddo remained home here in CA for two main reasons: to help me take care of Adrian (didn't want to leave the little guy--what with his sensitive stomach and all--in a dog hotel) and to spend some quality time with his Dad.

Changi's eye-catching Orchid Garden display

It was also a chance for him to exercise his newfound sense of responsibility. I am glad to report that he took really good care of Adrian and followed almost all my instructions on pet-care and household-care faithfully. I did come back to a slightly messy house as I had feared but it was nothing I couldn't clean up in a day (phew!).
 
Despite being away for only a week, I couldn't resist calling daily to check up on the boys. I missed kiddo terribly. It was my very first time away from him for over a day!

It was a short trip and without kiddo, I wasn't in the photo-taking mood so I don't have many shots to share. Including only the ones that might be of interest here:

A Time to Be Merry...

The very best wishes from our family to yours!

Linus and Lucy Again!

Regular readers might remember that kiddo has been working on perfecting this Peanuts theme track over the years (three and a half years to be exact!).

Kiddo started with the simplified version found in most children's piano books. About a year later, he worked with his teacher to come up with a slightly more complicated variation. About three months ago, his teacher decided to graduate him to the original Vince Guaraldi score, arranged for a piano solo.

This is kiddo playing Linus and Lucy (in his own unique, shoulder swaying way) at his music school's Christmas recital in our local mall. :)

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!

October 28, 2013 Daybook

I turned 40 today. When I was a child, I considered 40 old. Not just old, but O-O-O-O-L-L-D-D!! Ancient. Stone age! Lol. I do feel elderly and aged some days. I wonder how I will feel 10 years from now.

This (at right) was me at approx. 2 years and 9 months old. I'd like to think I was a bit of a tomboy firecracker but more than anything I remember being shy and wary and feeling as if I was always doing the wrong things. I look at this photo and think, "Oh, the stories I would tell you if I could, kid."

Unlike my younger self, I am less apologetic these days. Age does have its advantages ya?

We celebrated my birthday a day early with lunch yesterday at a local Asian fusion restaurant. Cake was tiramisu from my favorite grocery store. My gift: cash for new clothes. I like practical gifts.

Recording for posterity:

A habit I've picked up from nowhere: Fresh flowers every few days for my kitchen countertop. Wasn't much of a flower lover previously.
Reading: William Buck's Mahabharata.
TV series I'm addicted to: ABC's Revenge with Emily VanCamp and CW's Beauty and the Beast with Kristin Kreuk.
Surprise, surprise: My chocaholic tendencies have diminished somewhat. Ten years ago, I would never have believed this could happen.
Songs I currently enjoy: Barfi! tracks and light rock tunes by The Kinks (e.g. Lola and Sunny Afternoon).


Some inspiration old and new:

• Alicia's Homesteading 101 post -- homeschooling wisdom in addition to homesteading tips.
• Happy Birthday, Brain Pickings
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush. It never fails to pick me up, even during my darkest hours.

How I'm spending my day so far:

• Blogging (lol)
• Cursing and then fixing my printer's network connection: it suddenly stopped working this morning!
• Clearing up yard debris from last night's winds. There's almost always crazy weather during my birthday, no matter where I've lived! Kiddo thinks it's only because I'm more observant of the weather every birthday lol.

Happy Birthday 11-year-old!

Eleven years ago, on October 1 at 4:08am Singapore time, I became a mom. I am so fortunate to have him. I'm not the praying kind but I feel just so darn blessed. Happy Birthday kiddo. I love you with all my heart.

Wonderful Wednesdays

Reading while waiting for math class to start.

"It's such a great day today, Mom!"

At first I thought he was referring to the weather (it IS a lovely day today). But no. He was referring to having his favorite classes on today. Math and music. His two favorite teachers. It's a lovely coincidence that we have scheduled to meet both on Wednesdays, smack in the middle of the week.

Funschooling is 5 ... and Year 6 Begins!

Can't believe the blog is five years old! What began as an experimental log of our homeschooling journey in August 2008 (when kiddo was in Year 1 or first grade) has evolved into an obvious part of my life now. I might not update the blog as often as I used to but I do look forward to posting when I can and am thankful I started it when I did. I can't rely on memory alone much these days. I've made so many wonderful online friends through the blog too...a most unexpected and valuable experience! :D

So kiddo is now in Year 6. Sixth grade. Almost 11 years old! Wowzers!

Time is really flying and I am trying to hold on and slow it down but to no avail. I miss those chubby little fingers and toothless grins of the earlier years. :) He used to be so little! When we kept him from preschool in 2006, instead of sending him to an expensive half day arrangement, I had no idea at that time that we would be continuing this up to middle school age! For now, we are very sure, unless kiddo changes his mind, that we'll homeschool through high school too.

To give the new school year a little oomph, I surprised him with a "Welcome to Sixth Grade" package. Notice that big grin? That's exactly what I was hoping to see. :) He opened his gifts and then we headed out for Asian food and ice cream afterwards. It was the first time we had made a bigger deal of it than usual and I think it was a good idea. In case you are curious about the gifts, this is what I chose:

All That Is Dear To Me

The boys my world revolves around. :) Wishing you a warm, fuzzy Valentine's Day dear reader!

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!

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...

A Celebration...And Time To Pause

Kiddo turns 10 today. Double digits! I can't believe that 10 years have flown this quickly...but they have and I guess I have to come to terms with it although I long for him to remain a young child always. My baby. 10 years old. Wow.

We celebrated yesterday with our friends who drove from afar just to be with us. I just can't thank them all enough. Hubby and I planned for it to be a surprise and looks like we managed to pull it off! The weather was searing hot but it turned out to be a great accompaniment to the ginormous water slide we rented. I also had squirt guns available for the kids! Have you watched a bunch of kids running around with squirt guns on a hot day? Then you know what fun it was! I couldn't have asked for a better day.

I hope kiddo grows up remembering this day...I hope it will bring a smile to his face every time he thinks about it and also gratitude that he has such great friends (of all ages too!). Childhood is just so fleeting. I hope he has had an amazing 10 years and will have many more decades of fun days and delightful adventures to enjoy. His cake, Star Trek-themed for our young Data (another nickname!), read "Live Long and Prosper" and I hope that message holds true. I hope he knows how much he is loved and that he's the most precious thing in the world to his father and me. He is such a good kid. And we are so proud of him.

This post is also my opportunity to say that I am so grateful to all my blog readers for following my blog and for all the thoughtful comments and offlist notes I've received from you all over the years. Funschooling.net is four years old! That's not very old but if you know me, you'd know how surprised I am that I've actually kept a project going for four years.

I made a decision a while ago to minimize the amount of time I spend online because I have realized how quickly childhood flies and how valuable is the time that I get to spend with my child before he's all grown up and has his own life to lead. And I feel this pressing need to give him more privacy. Yes, I have to say this out loud...I have decided to blog much less, or possibly, even stop blogging about academics and homeschooling.

It's not goodbye...but it is a farewell of sorts. Perhaps you could call it hitting the pause button for a bit till I figure out what else I want to do with this blog?

Be well, stay well and the best of fortune always, dear friends...especially in this amazing journey called parenting!

Year 5 Begins...

...right after Labor Day. Our charter school year began well nigh three weeks ago but I resisted the impulse to dive in then. A number of kiddo's classes began only in January so it felt premature (is there such a thing as post-mature?) to declare August 13 the beginning of Year 5. But it's starting to get confusing calling every January the beginning of a new school year so I decided oh well, why not just go with the charter school designation. I refuse to call him a 5th grader on this blog though (although in real life I don't nitpick) so here we go. Year 5. Begins.

We tend to be loosey-goosey somedays and highly structured on others. There's nothing like the start of a school year to make me feel insecure and bring out all the pro-structure parts of me. Oh yeah, of course I know that things will fall apart around October or November and that we'll go back to our wicked ways...but while I'm still feeling pro-structure, I thought I'd whip up a new strategy to help kiddo decompress between scheduled learning times (apart from reading or walking on the treadmill or running out to the backyard to burn leaves).

The flip side has details of what to do.

I found this at the TeachNet.com site (I've lost the actual link to the article). The idea is to make fun in-between lesson activity cues or even start-of-the-day warm up cues. I wrote these out on craft sticks, stuck them into a little glass jar that sits in our supplies tray and they are now ready to go. I've seen ideas like this on other homeschooling blogs but we never used them then for reasons I can't remember.

I ran this idea by kiddo today and he likes it. Some of the prompts are directly copied (and reworded) from TeachNet. I added a couple of my own for skills I thought he will like to learn (e.g. learning to use chopsticks).

Here they are for anyone who wants to follow suit:

• Practice Chopsticks - Pick up the silly putty ball
• Brain Binder Activity -  I print 'em, you fold 'em!
• Story Cubes - The crazier the tale, the better!
• Draw mom in 30 seconds - (I strike a funny pose) Capture the essence. No need to be perfect! (details would have really worried him 2-3 years ago)
• Complete The Story - I'll give you 2-3 lines, you finish the tale!
• Make the correct change - Match coins correctly to amount given
• Alternative Archaeology - (I lay out a few objects, he has to pretend to be an archaeologist who unearthed them, and make up some funny uses) Describe who might have used these and how
• Make A Timeline! (I lay out a few every day objects or I list a few key events on the whiteboard) - Arrange these in correct historical order
• Find This River/ Mountain/ Place - Unscramble the name and find it on the world map!

I might come up with new cues every few months to keep it fresh but I enjoy doing this and it's not too difficult. Photo above shows where I keep the sticks. On our coffee-table (where most of our learning takes place), together with chopsticks, coins (in bottom of jar) etc within reach.

If it doesn't work as planned, I'll throw them into a little bag and we'll use them in the car when traveling or while waiting for an outside class to begin so it's not a waste.

Well, wish me luck! And have a wonderful new school year!

Summer 2012

Some of us read, and read.

One of us traveled a lot and worked crazy hours. Some of us played.
One of us built and crashed stuff. Loudly.
Some of us read some more.
One of us moved up a level in piano lessons.
One of us rearranged the living room furniture (yet again).

Some of us did math (and love our Expo Magnetic Dry Erase Easel Board).

One of us went anagram-crazy.

One of us blogged. One of us didn't as much.

Some of us tried a science experiment or two. And revived our love for all things David Attenborough.

One of us worked out. One of us didn't (ack!).
Some of us kayaked and went paddle boarding too (one of us didn't tag along due to the heat).
One of us complained a lot about the heat and may have glared angrily at the sun several times.

One of us thought some more about math and typed some of it up for a summer class (hurray!).

One of us is loving cheesy vocabulary videos (and happily rushing through the program because another one of us is too cheap to upgrade past the free trial period).

Some of us allowed our yard to become overgrown with grass, weeds and ivy. Some of us are upset about a pesky yard-invading ground squirrel.

Some of us tried hard to resist ice cream and succeeded for about a week.

One of us liberally copied Sheila's blogging style.

Hooray for Higgs...and the Bose in Boson

As delighted and fascinated as I am by the rapid succession of amazing scientific discoveries during my lifetime, I find it hard to wrap my head around some of this stuff. The following is a round up of videos I'm watching to try to understand it better!

ETA: How Could I Forget to link Satyendranath Bose?
The Bose behind Boson  

More links:
What the 'Rock Star' Discovery of the Higgs Boson Means for Science (hat tip to Christine K)
From Minute Physics
Is it the Higgs Boson? 
Higgs boson Science explained using sugar and ping-pong balls 
Michio Kaku on CNN

And some whimsical info too! :)
Sonnet on a Higgs-like Particle (Vi Hart)

The Backyard Pond Project Part III

It's about done now. A few more bags of pebbles for the back and we'll have a completed kiddo-inspired water feature. I love this pond. Just completely big, slushy red heart this pond. And I finally have a Japanese maple tree. I big, slushy red heart the tree too!

The Backyard Pond Project series of posts: Part I, Part II and Part III.

Spring Is Here Again!

Stepping briefly out of my self-imposed time off to wish you all a happy spring.

Spring is my favorite season, followed closely by fall. Spring gives me a literal spring in my step. It's a time of healing and joy and all things bright and beautiful for very visual ol' me. I love the colors of spring. How everything pops with vibrancy, squealing for attention (look at me, look at me!), begging to be admired. I love the hummingbirds buzzing around in our backyard. The glint of sunlight sparkling off the water in our outdoor fountain. The rich emerald green of the grass. Shadows traced from our various shade structures and yard furniture. Everything seems fresher somehow.

This year, I'm so happy about our blood orange harvest. And I'm so glad my favorite grocer is selling red, ripe mangoes again. I'm happy for the books dotting our tables and carpet and the games kiddo is rediscovering.

I cleaned out his drawers some time back and put all his little toys he used to play with when younger in a hurricane jar (I call it his jar of curiosities). He is having fun playing with his Boggle hour glass and whistle and top, tangram, geoboards and other toys again.

I was also inspired by spring to change the blog's look a little. I hope you like the new header. I wanted something very simple this time. Kiddo says the banner only represents us if you think of it as a metaphor. LOL, pure honesty from the mouth of babes.

I'm not as much of a green thumb as the blog banner suggests. Neither does his Dad come home bearing boxes of books but if you look at it symbolically, it is the truth in its own way. :)

Nothing hidden about this photo (except parts of his textbook and notebook but that was not intentional lol). After a particularly difficult few sections in math, he is flashing happy smiles again. So in a sense, I also want to celebrate the fact that he was persistent enough to work on the problems, despite the frustration.

Back to my break now. Happy Spring everyone!

ETA: Header has been changed again. Now you know what I like to do during blogging breaks. :)