Hmmm should the blog name change?

I am still knitting. Just not much right now since I'm fighting with the boy about phonics. Phonics sucks, there is nothing interesting about phonics. It is just practicing saying words over and over and over again. The boy doesn't actually seem to hate everything about phonics, it is decidedly his least favorite subject but what he seems to actually hate is writing sentences. I don't know why. He will write the 6 or so words I dictate to him just fine but if I give him a 6 word sentence you would think I had asked him to read Hamlet and write a 30 page paper explaining how it is relevant to the modern world. Not 'The bug was on his leg.'

Later that day as we are snuggled up on the couch reading silly poems for Language Arts I get him to read one, it only had words he either knows or can easily decode. Then the next one is a little harder but I wanted us to read it together. He was done. Wanted only to have to fight to read words during phonics. LA is suppose to be fun where we read fun stories and poems and then maybe talk about them some. This is when I discovered just how passionate I am about reading. (If you know me in real life you know that for most of my life I have always, always had a book with me)

I started telling him that the whole reason we work on phonics is so that we can learn to read things like these poems. To read things that make us laugh, or cry, to get angry or happy. We read so we can experience the joys of the world no matter where we are in the moment or what is happening in the moment.

He looked at me as though I was speaking another language and looked very, ummm, let's just call it firm. (I have never enjoyed the word stubborn) I read the rest of the poems but it has me thinking about this approach and if it is the right one for my boy.

Knitting, what am I working on? Well here is a picture of the sweater I'm making for my boy.

I have started on the stripes, can't you tell? Yeah me either. Actually neither can the boy. Well no matter it is his sweater for the year and maybe next year he will pick colors that contrast a bit more.

Yeah, hi there!

So the summer is officially over and school has started. We survived the first week of school at home (since I'm not an official homeschooler, we use a virtual charter school that is a public school). It got easier as the week went on but Monday I thought I was going to collapse by the time we finished all the lessons (4 of them) The worst was Art. The boy might be a perfectionist, maybe. He did not want to make a piece of art that was an animal because it would never look right. I understand his angst, I had it myself. I never took Art classes in Middle School & High School because I felt like I didn't know enough going in to be able to do them. (Yes I see that makes no sense now but at the time I really and truly believed it.

Here are some pictures of him working...

First 2 are during math. He is very happy during math. Easy Peasy and doesn't take too long to do.

This is during Phonics and it was during one of the few times he was somewhat happy, or at least not completely pissed to be working at this.

I'm working on a sweater for the boy. The Tidewater has been put to bed for awhile. It was too complicated for me to do during vacation. We didn't just sit and hang much. So a top down raglan for the boy was started. He is pleased. I can't tell the difference in the colors he picked but he likes them so I don't really care.

Also have a spinning wheel that a friend gave me to use. I'm very excited and can't wait to get started playing with it. I'm sure my first yarn will look like shit but I don't care. I will have made it with my own hands!!!! So excited.