Sunday Funny

We tried a year-round schedule this year, so we've been doing a rotation of 3 weeks of school/1 week of vacation, with a 3 week break at Christmas and another in July.

LMS and I have discussed it and agree that we really like this schedule.

However, LMS told me she'd prefer "three weeks of vacation and one week of school".

Hmmm, I don't know what kid wouldn't prefer that schedule.

But it's not going to happen :)

Raising A Cautious Child

LMS riding her bike at the park- doesn't she coordinate nicely? 

The shirt is a cute one from Crazy 8.

I've realized LMS is quite cautious. I'm not sure why it took so long for that to finally connect and make an impact in my consciousness, but it did. Once I acknowledged it, I started wandering why she's so cautious. We are always very encouraging and positive, especially when she tries new things. Shouldn't that give her the confidence she needs?

As I continued thinking about it, I sifted through memories from my childhood, and I realized that she gets it from me. As a child, I was also super-cautious.

I missed out on a trip to the corner market with my cousins while staying at the cabin at the lake because I was too scared to make the short trip (despite my mom giving me the ok). The cabin was sold not long after and I never had a similar opportunity.

I had a friend who lived a few houses down, and across the street, but I think I only went there once or twice because I was too scared to walk there.

My mom let us ride our bikes to the library, but I only went once or twice with my older brother, again because I was too scared.

Somewhere along the way I started overcoming the fear and in fourth and fifth grade I rode my bike the two miles to school every day with my sister and a couple friends we picked up along the way. (On the road- no sidewalks! but that's another post for another day- I've been working on it for awhile now.)

Junior high brought a lot of new experiences and I continued to gain confidence as I experienced new things in high school, college, on my mission, and beyond. Not to say they weren't still scary, but at least I did them instead of avoiding them like I did in elementary school.

***

There are still some things I'm cautious about (I don't love heights, for example), but I make the effort to try new things, even if they're out of my comfort zone.

LMS has shown a lot of caution when skiing, ice skating, swimming, and riding her bike.

We have pictures of her when she was about a year and a half old, being held by Mr M in the pool, and she's got a death grip around his neck. She's taken lessons every summer since she was 4, and can swim quite well, but it's taken a LOT of encouragement from her instructors and me and one-on-one time with me in the water for her to feel more confident.

She's taken ice skating lessons, but would rather hold on to one of us or a stack of buckets because  she's afraid of falling.

She's had two years of skiing lessons and has the skills, yet she just doesn't think she can do it- it's too scary and she doesn't want to fall.

She's been perfectly content to keep using her walking bike without the pedals, thankyouverymuch. We ride bikes with friends at the park and they all use pedals, but she did a pretty good job of keeping up with them and didn't think she needed the pedals.

***

I learned to ice skate as a teenager and I took ski classes in college, so I don't have a point of reference for learning those at a young age.

As I've recognized her reluctance to do things, I've tried not to push too much. We haven't done skating lessons again because she didn't truly enjoy it. She does like skiing and swimming once she gets out there, so we've continued taking lessons in those areas. And we waited till she said she was ready for pedals before putting them on (we bought her a walking bike two years ago specifically designed to be used with and without pedals). I kept asking her if she wanted them back on and she kept saying no. Then a couple weeks ago, she came to me and said she wanted to try the pedals. I asked if she was sure, because once I put them on, they weren't coming back off. She said ok, and on they went. It's taken a little practice, but now she's confident and ready for a bigger bike.

***

Are we truly encouraging her, or are we pushing her to try new things too soon? Are we causing more problems this way, or helping her overcome her cautiousness?

Thoughts?

Sunday Funny

At History Club the other week we were discussing ancient Chinese history and the kids did some related art projects. One was to paint a bookmark made of silk (they'd discussed silk worms and the process of making silk), using a special ink and Kool-Aid powder. Weird, but they turned out quite cool.

In any case, I was watching LMS as she worked on hers, and noticed she was holding her hair out of the way. It looked so funny I had to take a couple pictures :)

Ski Class

first morning of class

Today was the last day of LMS' ski class. She was just young enough to take the same class she took last year (it's for 3-6 year olds, and she doesn't turn 7 for 2 more months). {read about last year's class here and here}

last morning of class

I debated about signing her up since I needed to do that right about when I found out I was pregnant. I wasn't sure I'd have the energy. I definitely took it easier this year, and we didn't do any skiing together after her class- I was more concerned about being able to stay awake on the trip home.

out on the slopes with her class

I was taking these pics from the other side of the slope- we're not supposed to interfere with the class :)

wheeee!

I'm glad we did the class one more time. If I'd been further along, I might have been hesitant to get out and ski, but as it was, I didn't have any problems. The snow was a lot better this year- the resort put in new snow machines and the weather cooperated a lot more. We got a good snow storm just last week, and today the skiing was still pretty good and the runs were all open. Last year this time the snow was crappy, there were lots of bare patches, and several runs were closed completely.

an arial shot as I rode the lift over LMS and her class- she's the middle one in the yellow bib in the group of three

I'm not sure if we'll try for lessons next year or not. We wouldn't be able to do the same class since she'll be too old, but there are other options. The challenge would be bringing along a 4 month old. A couple weeks ago I saw a lady skiing with her baby strapped to her chest, but her baby was probably 10  months old at least. I don't feel I'm a strong enough skier to attempt that, especially if I had LMS in tow. Maybe if the baby was a bit older, but I think 4 months is too young. So we'd end up in the coffee house seating area, which is drafty and usually chilly, and not the best alternative. We'll see- there's lots of time before we need to make that decision.

I managed to ride the lift in the chair behind LMS's class and took this pic just as my turn came up

Did you do any skiing this year?

Sunday Funny

picture found on Amazon

We bought No Stress Chess for Christmas so LMS and I can learn to play chess. For some reason, I never learned when I was younger. I think keeping the rules and movements of each piece straight never made sense to me.

No Stress Chess is finally changing all that. There's several levels of play to get you familiar with the rules. In the first level, you pick a card from the stack, and it tells you which piece to move, and how to move it. Obviously, you miss a lot of opportunities to capture your opponent's pieces because you didn't get the card to move a certain piece, but it reinforces names, movements, and strategy.

In the 2nd level each player draws 3 cards to start, then another on their turn. You then play one of the cards in your hand.

The 3rd level is similar to the 2nd, except you draw 5 cards to start. I think having more and more options of pieces to play helps you consider which one would be the best to move, and where.

From there, you move on to standard chess rules.

Honestly, those cards make it so much easier to figure it all out. Having a visual aid to tell what each piece is allowed to do is just what I needed.

It's helped LMS, too. She keeps asking to play it, but she asks to play "Stress Chess"- which is exactly what it's not :)

The other day she played a game with a friend at our homeschool play group, and they were discussing the rules as they played. Too cute!

Sunday Funny

Our homeschool play group went to a children's museum awhile ago and I took this picture of them playing on the giant sand worm. It's Dune, the kids' version! 

(ignore the smiling gingerbread man in the background- he rather spoils the effect)

Cotter Tens Fractal

Looks kind of like a Christmas tree...

This is something LMS and I did in math (we're using RightStart Math Level B), and is a great way to visualize numbers.

The huge triangle is made of 10 smaller triangles.

Those triangles are in turn made of 10 smaller triangles, and those triangles are also made of 10 smaller triangles.

Confused yet?

We glued 10 small triangles onto a medium triangle and repeated for a total of 100 medium triangles. The small triangles represent ones, so if there's 10 ones in a medium triangle, a medium triangle represents 10.

We then glued 10 medium triangles onto a large triangle and repeated for a total of 10 large triangles. Since there's 10 ones in a medium triangle and 10 medium triangles in a large triangle, a large triangle represents 100.

We then glued 10 large triangles onto a giant triangle. Since there's 10 of them and each one represents 100, the giant triangle represents 1000.

1000 small triangles = 100 medium triangles = 10 large triangles = 1 giant triangle

If I'd thought about it ahead of time, I'd have used a different paper for all the small triangles, which would have made it easier to see each individual triangle.

This took a lot of time and a lot of glue sticks, but was pretty interesting. I will admit that this is the first time I'd heard of a Cotter Tens Fractal (at least that I remember), so I'm already learning new things!

Have you heard of a Cotter Tens Fractal?