The Book of Three

I have been reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander to my son at night. He has to listen to it for his homeschooling book club. I tried getting him to read it earlier this year, but he said it was boring. Now that I am reading it out loud, he is really enjoying it. It is very easy to read and the characters are quite funny. Inevitably while I am reading the chapter he will laugh at one of the characters. Afterward, he will quote his favourite funny line(s). Bruce has been listening, too, since he is the one teaching Brendan and needs to know the story for when the book club gets together. He has said he thinks Lloyd Alexander drew heavily from Celtic mythology in the writing.

The story is about an Assistant Pig-Keeper (Taryn), who has fantastical ideas of what a hero is until he is plunged into an adventure of his own. His companions are a scruffy creature who loves his crunchings and munchings (Gurgi), a young girl with attitude (Eilonwy), and a king turned bard who can't keep his enchanted harp strings from breaking because of his tendency to stretch the truth (Fflewdddur Fflam). It is a story about true courage, camaraderie and growing up.

Sometimes I find the world has a sense of humour. I was reading an article about Why McDonald's Happy Meal hamburgers won't decompose. On the left side beside the article is an Ads by Google.


Do you find this as funny as I do?

Obsessed About Time

It's hard to believe I am already half way through first semester of law school. I remember being a kid and thinking how slowly time went by. I would hear the adults complain about how quickly time flew. I wonder what changes our persepctive. The amount of stuff we have to do in a day? Having more responsibilities? Age?

When I started school one of the profs mentioned that if we didn't come into law school with time management skills, we would have to learn them quickly. I also heard that as adult learners we attach our new knowledge to what we already know.

So if I know there are only 24 hours in a day and I need at least eight hours of sleep a night to function well, getting ready for the day and getting ready for bed takes up about three hours a day, and classes and work are about seven or eight hours a day, that leaves five hours a day for homework, church, family and free time.

Hmmmmm....... I need to ponder that. Oh. Wait a minute. I better not take too long, or I won't have time to eat!

Homeschooling

Last year Bruce and I jumped into homeschooling our son. (Okay, well Bruce does the homeschooling more than I do.) It has been great. Our son changed from being a walking time bomb to a confident kid. Reading an article called Experiences of ADHD-Labeled Kids Who Switch from Conventional Schooling to Homeschooling or Unschooling by Peter Gray in Psychology Today back in September was enlightening. We could really relate to this article with our son.

Today we were talking with another parent who is thinking of homeschooling. I am not against traditional schooling methods (our daughter is in the school system), but traditional methods are definitely not for everyone. I encouraged her to look into what homeschooling is about, do some research on the different methods and talk with other parents who are homeschooling their kids. And I also said to keep in mind that the first year is not one to expect to get places fast. It is a year of de-stressing for the student and learning for the parent. We had a plan when we started (okay, Bruce had the plan), and some of it happened and some of it didn't. But it was still a great year.

Mostly we just keep in mind that our son is smart and loves to learn. As long as we keep educational material on hand, he learns. He even learns when he isn't "doing school." Sneaky, huh? Just don't tell him that he really never stops learning!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few days ago I realized I had forgotten that it is Thanksgiving this weekend. Bruce suggested that was okay because we could just have a quiet dinner with just us. That way I could get all my homework done. I had intended to do my reading for this upcoming week and work on briefing the cases in my text books. At work on Friday I mentioned that I was afraid I’d end up wasting the whole weekend away because I’m so tired.

Well, I haven’t really done any school work yet. I spent Friday evening with my kids watching Monsters Inc. My daughter asked who we are going to have over for Thanksgiving and we said no one. She said we had to have SOMEone, so I thought I’d see if my brother wanted to come over. Then we thought of Bruce’s cousin who is in town. Well, it turns out he has two cousins in town this weekend, and they would love to come over. So our dinner by ourselves has turned into seven adults and three kids. We spent Saturday baking bread and getting stuff ready for supper on Sunday.

I’m really excited because it really doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving unless you spend it with others. And I haven’t wasted the weekend away.

Time Management

I only have so much time and about a gazillion things I want to do in it. Didn't someone somewhere say that we would have more time with all the time-saving devices we have in our lives? I think maybe our expectations of what we can accomplish must have risen with all those devices.

My time now is under strict management. I thought I had very little time before. Now I find that I need to master my time before it masters me. My days are full with school, work, family and church. Unfortunately, in that order. And then I desperately try to squeeze in computer (Neopets and Facebook mostly) and Lost (we are on Season 3. Don't spoil it for me, I don't know what happens).

I was reading a friend's blog and realized I haven't been around here for a while. I'd like to start writing again. I missed posting things like:
* worrying about whether or not I'd get into Law School,
*vibrating when I received my letter of offer from the College of Law,
*planting our garden,
*neglecting our garden,
*camping for 4 weeks this summer,
*coming home with ice cream to make shakes and nachos for supper,
*etc., etc.

I'm sure I can be the time master and blog again. Do you think I can find a time-turner like in Harry Potter?