Back in the saddle

Last week was just crazy and we barely got any homeschooling done each day. Of course the kids are always learning no matter what I do to/with them, but it's nice that this week we're able to get back into focusing on learning.

Big plans are afoot in the Berry Patch. The boys are planning some backyard camping trips and, if all goes well, possibly one at an actual campground. Noodle is absolutely over the moon about being able to camp outside; I've decided not to mention the ratio of bugs-to-Noodle in the great outdoors and just dip him in DEET before they go out. ;-) Tex was really hoping for a "Man vs. Wild" style drop-off and survival marathon, but as Mommy doesn't have access to a helicopter or parachute, we had to put the kibosh on that one.

For Table Time today Tex decided he wanted to play Battleship for math practice. Can't wait to get that kid into doing graphs and such, he already loves grids and code-breaking and all that sort of stuff. And he cheated, but he didn't win even then, so I'm hoping he'll get the idea that cheating sours the game without any guarantee that it will pay off. Teaching ethics is tricky to a kid who cares more about winning than about being fair! But I'll keep at it with the attitude that I still love him even though he's a big fat cheater ;-P, and that it's only going to hurt him in the long run anyway.

Oh, and Tex is also designing a "blaster" to go with his Megatron costume. He drew up a couple of designs, drew each design from 3 different angles (!) so I could see which I thought might be easier, and now he's planning to start small-scale mock-ups with toilet paper or paper towel rolls before we move on to the full-size model using a mailing tube. Y'all watch out, if this is where we're at at age 7, I don't even want to think about what he'll be building at 16! I might go out in the garage one day and it will be like a scene from The Explorers (y'all remember that one, with River Phoenix and the singing alien?). Twenty bucks says Noodle's the test pilot...