One of my goals, purposes, benefits, see it as you may, in homeschooling is getting out there, in the world, real life experiences. This year, so far, I have been particularly successful (with enormous gratitude to the leaders of James’ Roots and Shoots group). So, roughly categorized, the field trips we have taken since August (some are a bit of a stretch to call field trips, but they do fit the kind of experiences I want him to have, so work with me ):

Museums:

Santa Ana Discovery Museum (3 times, once for a class, and 1 more time on December 31st, when our passes will expire)

San Diego Aerospace Museum (mainly for a special exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci)

Plimouth Plantation

Animal Related:

San Diego Wild Animal Park & Beckman Center

Local Animal Shelter (after doing a toy making craft so we could donate)

Mystic Aquarium

Community Service Related:

Grocery Store Food Drive

Beach Clean up

Theater:

Mary Poppins

If I Gave a Mouse a Cookie

The Velveteen Rabbit

A Christmas Carol

Just for Fun

Legoland (and not as often as James would like )

All and all, I’m happy with the frequency, although I would like more museums. It’s one of the reasons we didn’t renew our membership, although we love the museum. We want to try a variety this year, as opposed to one museum repeatedly. I didn’t include hikes, although we do them.

Any categories of field trips you do I’m missing? Places you and your kids love to visit I’m missing out on?

1. Sew. Right now, that means finish James Halloween costume (a scary tree), hem multiple pants, and make some dog toys. A treasure bag from James. I plan to that today, time or no.

2. Read. Whatever. Just read.

3. Go outside. It’s actually cool here.

4. Change the garden. It’s time.

5. Plant a hillside.

6. Decide with Darren: Christmas cards or not?

7. Buy dry ice (we needed it for an experiment 4 days ago).

8. Breathe.

9. Curl up in bed and watch some movie I could care less about just to make James happy.

10. Find out what Penny has in front of her right now. I think I’ll make time for that right now.

What do you wish you had time for?

Wendy at Athena Academy posed this question the other day: “When it comes to life, apart from academics, what are you teaching?” It seemed too big a question to answer in a comment, so I half promised a post. One post to sum up a life philosophy. No problem.

1. Value yourself and others. Treat kindly, but don’t be a doormat.

2. Be confident. Think for yourself, even when it drives me up the wall.

3. Use humor. And joy.

4. Curiosity and creativity are good. But it’s o.k. to be angry. And sad. Frustrated. Confused. Scared. It’s life.

5.  Find a balance, physical, mental, play, work, giving, receiving, that works for you.

James is feeling better (and ornery at being home so long). We’re currently on the “24 hours of no fever you must stay home” part of the illness. I’m not sure which of us is climbing the walls more. If it was a lovely autumn day, we would go for the walk. Unfortunately, in classic southern California style, it’s over 100 and the air quality is awful from the ever present fires, so we’re sticking with driving each other crazy.

Sunday, we celebrated International Peace Day with our Roots and Shoots group by going to Santa Monica Pier (a crazy long drive from where I live in case anyone was wondering. I’ve actually never been before. So cross that off the list) and participating in a parade with a giant peace dove (participating in a parade, another new one, unless you count the parades put on by my me, my siblings and neighbor kids after decorating our bikes. No? O.k., then cross it off the list too).

The pictures I put on flickr are either from far away or only of James to protect the privacy of the other kids.   However, here’s an idea of what the group of doves looked like.

There were tons of things to do at the parade/festival and we had a blast. Here’s James giving an “interview” to a local reporter. He went back and forth on wanting to do it, ended up looking miserable, and got the biggest applause; nothing cuter than pulling to together, mostly. Although there’s a supposedly a way to add the video to my blog, I am not getting it to work. So, here’s the link if you want to see it.http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=57872247-86a1-4e79-a44e-c76dc99ceb25&src=front .  It’s only 26 seconds long (if anyone’s counting).

Speaking of counting (checking to see if anyone is still reading ), this is my 500th post. People pay attention to these things, you know. And they give things away. And what do I always give away on this here blog? that’s right, books. So, here’s what I have for you. A couple of vintage books (vintage sounds so much nicer than old). And I actually have five, 1 for each 100 posts I guess.

1. The Pooh Get Well Book Alright, apparently it’s only worth $.01 on Amazon. It’s free here, shipping included. Whatever. Amazon’s raining on my parade.

2. McBroom and the Big Wind Ha! We’re up to $1.72 now!

3. Sprout and the Helicopter $4.99 if you have the 1974 edition, which I do. $.01 if you have the 1977 edition. I don’t know the difference, except I look cheaper in my giveaway with the 1977 edition.

4. Newberry: The Life and Times of a Maine Clam $9.23 Holy Moly! I don’t know. Let me see what other $.01 books I have. Some of you may remember (because you hang on every word I say) we read this book prior to going to Maine. I referenced it in this post; it’s a great book.

5. The Canterbury Tales: Special Edition for Young Readers and $8.65 (a de Luxe Golden book – got that de Luxe)

That’s right readers, I think you are de Luxe. Not just regular Luxe, de Luxe.

So, with 5 books and 4 commenters, you should be a shoo in to win something. Put what you would like to win. We’ll have the contest end on . . . October 1st. Someone remind me, o.k.?

I had a post about what we did on Sunday (Peace parade in Santa Monica, great pictures I’m sure, off the camera sometime). But in the meantime, James has gotten the flu. So rarely sick. Colds. Sure, but sick sick. No.

So, we have hunkered down. He’s sleeping fitfully. And so am I. Only, I’m not doing as well with the sleeping in the day part. I’m working on it.

I made a hug pot of chicken soup and gatorade popsicles.

We’re reading, watching movies, sleeping, disinfecting. All those things you do for the flu. Our flu shots are scheduled for Oct. 3rd. And, with the two flu strains this year, we’ll still have to get them. No fair.

I’ll leave you with a random quote of the week (from James): “Is the government stupid or what?”

Yesterday, we went to the Discover Science Museum (it’s homeschool week and member days – or week?, anyway, we qualify for both). James took a class on Astronomy, a current love. I had told him about it, but hadn’t talked about it much. It was his first solo class. For many of you, this would be no big deal, but James has always been fearful of being without me in a class. He does sports, but my presence is there, on the sidelines, available, I could have registered with him, but I didn’t.

Waiting he immediately made a friend (he makes friends everywhere). He also had friends coming but they were late. When they called the class, he didn’t even say good bye. I was so proud – no fear at all. I’m sure the friend and the young, cute teacher helped.

At the end, I had been told to meet him at the entrance. Unfortunately, the woman at the front was wrong, and by the time I got him, he (and his two friends) were the last kids. I thought I had ruined him good time. But no, he wasn’t at all upset and happily told me what he learned (so he even paid attention ).

And, to top all it off, he laid on a bed of nails!

 Something he has been eyeing for years, but hasn’t quite gotten his courage up. So, it was a good day.

 In the afternoon, we went to Roots and Shoots. And to answer Chelle’s question, Roots and Shoots is not Boy Scouts (or Girl Scouts). How’s that for an answer? Defining by the negative. Oh, wait, that doesn’t work. Try again. Roots and Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, it’s a co-ed, multi-age organization focusing on encouraging kids towards making changes in their communities while having fun (slipped into teacher talk for a minute there). There are three main focuses each group is supposed to have: environment, animals, and community. So, James’ group is doing projects for all three areas. Let’s see, one example of each. Make cat toys and deliver to an animal shelter (animal), deliver meals to the elderly (community), clean up the beach (environment). So far, the people who are doing it, so far , have been really organized, read a picture book, have a craft (or course, we bring some supplies), make it really fun. James has really been looking forward to going.

And, for Ami, a larger picture of the volcano cake:

Finally, I’ve added to my sidebar a link to secularhomeschool.com. I must admit, since I’ve cutback on on-line time, I don’t spend much any time there. But, I encourage you to. It’s a good resource. If you have time. I also added a couple “new” blogs, new as in I started reading them this year. If you would like to be added, if I missed you, please let me know. I update all the time.

Darren’s birthday is Saturday. I’ve have multiple plans all of which have fallen to his surgery. He’s turning 40, so I would have like to have done something more than usual, but in the end, once he gets final word today about the details, we’ll most likely do our usual quiet family observance. Since he got a car, even my thunder of a great gift is gone (well, there’s the car) and I was left kind of befuddled on what to do at all. I finally decided on a family picture, something we have very few of, not professionally done, but just set up the tripod and take a few shots.

Here’s his favorite:

But here’s mine:

In case anyone is wondering, my hair is constantly getting into my face, James always had his “kitties” pestering, and that dog is always underfoot. Put Darren in jeans and a t-shirt, James in shorts and no shirt, my shoes off,  and you have a true family portrait.

But, Darren likes the image of a composed family better and it is his present. I’m looking to get a print and have it framed.

In other news, the skirt is done.

I’m quite happy with it. It did used to be my favorite tablecloth. As such, there are a few small stains, but they seem to be well hidden. The pattern is from the Sew Everything Workshop
; it was easy to follow, easy to do. I added a pocket on the side, just the right size for an iTouch (a gift from Darren). I find myself easily annoyed by clothes with no pockets. As I was adding this one, it occurred to me that I could add pockets willy nilly. I didn’t have to sew the whole item to add a pocket.

And, for those who are interested, here is my car organizer.

For a really nice one, plus the tutorial I used, go here.

And then will probably be all for a while. With Darren’s surgery on Thursday, I’ll probably pop to twitter to say he’s o.k. and do blog visits, but I’m doubting I’ll have a lot of time to come post here for a time. Not that I am the world’s most regular blogger anyway.

Take care everyone.

The lessons I learn from James are the same I learned when he was 3. Slow learner I guess. Is it his personality, mine, or a combination of the 2?

He, always pushing the boundaries, testing new waters, me having to learn not to instantly say no, to decide, why say no, is this o.k., safe, think before speaking, glad he’s independent, wanting him to be safe.

When he’s 30, will I still feel like a tight rope walker, over Nigara Falls?

When we built our house, at the very end, we were supposed to pick colors. And we were so done. And it was more expensive to have more than one color. And we had spent so much money. So, somehow we ended up with this cream color. As it turns out, it’s exactly the same color as the walls in the school I used to teach in, just a wee bit institutional.

So, we have been slowly painting, James’ room, our room, our bathroom, and now the laundry room/ school room. James and I spend quite a bit of time in there, it need some organizing, and I simply couldn’t stand the color anymore.

James actually chose the color – mossy green. He’s pretty good at color choice. The back windows have over the door shoe organizers on them. I saw the idea on flickr. The ones I got didn’t have measurements on the bad and they don’t fit quite properly, but I’m o.k. with it. The world rug I got on clearance and is prefect for playing on, legos (as you can see), board games, cards. And the locker looking thing on the back wall is for my computer.

I’m sure it says something about us that the only rooms we have painted so far are the private ones. I’ll let you ponder that.

Allow me to just get out of the way the two things I always say on birthdays: 1) the time has gone so fast and 2) he has changed so much this year. O.k., there, that’s out of the way . Here are some required pictures.

At 19 months, when we first adopted him, the first night, note the split pants .

Last week, a couple weeks ago?, after painting the fort. He still has paint in his hair.

It’s so amazing to watch him develop, to see him becoming a young man before my eyes. I would have more to say, but he has a tin can robot to build and I promised to take him both to the library and the bookstore today. It’s good to have a birthday.