September Updates

James is back into the swing of things with homeschool, which we're sort-of unofficially calling 2nd grade. I've thought about writing an extensive blog about his homeschool program for this year, but he's getting to an age where he might very soon be reading the sorts of things I write about him, and I'm a little conflicted about publicizing exactly how he "measures up" according to the universal standard 2nd grader. On the one hand, he's doing great work with reading--and he doesn't even realize it's great work. He just loves reading, and he's really good at it. And on the other hand, he has abysmal penmanship and spelling. As far as I can tell he's doing fine with everything else--math, science, history, and whatnot. He knows (I think) his last name and his address, which is also an improvement from a few years ago, though he probably wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do in a fire drill.

Owen is doing a much better job in James' school this year. Despite school taking almost an hour longer each day (we're really buckling down on those handwriting exercises) almost-four-year-old Owen is a lot easier to deal with than almost-three-year-old Owen. He's more than happy to play LEGOs alone in his room for at least some chunk of the morning, and when he comes downstairs to listen to James' read-aloud book or to do his history and science projects alongside him he's actually a constructive participating instead of a force of destruction.

Felix is the force of destruction. Felix is curious about everything, but mostly about the sorts of things that we put in trash cans. If it's in a garbage can, Felix wants to pull it out and examine, and then to move it somewhere else. And Felix likes to give non-garbage can items (like important documents, dishtowels, and his brother's toys) a chance to experience the garbage for themselves. He also pulls napkins out of the pantry by the handful and sweeps armloads of books off of the shelves. He is, frankly, an armful.

Some nuggets from the past few days:

Owen: Don't tell me anything, because I already know everything. I know about the Titanic, and the Bismarck, and dinosaurs, and Mount Vesuvius.

Owen: Jesus told me I don't need to clean my room.

Me: I think maybe the Bills are playing the Chiefs next week.
James: Are the Chiefs a good team?
Me: I don't know. I think they were pretty good last year, but maybe they didn't make the playoffs?
James: Oh, yes they did. They did make the playoffs, and they played the Titans.
Me: Oh, okay. If you say so.
James: It seems to me that kids are actually smarter than grown-ups.