5 posts tagged “nm”

I'm posting here, but NM will likely do the same on his blog soon (I'll ask him to tomorrow). They won two of the four games they played in this weekend's tournament.

Our boys played hard, and they played fairly. All week, NM prayed for the games and practice times (I'm so proud!). He did a great job and was the goal tender for at least the first half of each game if not longer. He volunteers for this job and in today's game, coach told him he's the most dependable for that position so that's why he got the job (I'm so proud!).

Today's game loss was tough on the boys. They played very well and they showed good sportsmanship, playing hard to the end.

Unfortunately, two of the goals that the other side made weren't done fairly. They were kicked out of NM's hands when he'd already pinned the ball down but the ref never saw that happen so they counted anyway. Yes, our boys would have won if they weren't counted.

Can you tell I'm proud of my boy? I can tell you I wouldn't want to be goalie knowing, going in, that cleats inches from my nose would be involved. He still wants to do it. In the Fall, we may consider upping the ante a bit and putting him in the more competitive part of the league. He loves the competition, it's what gets him going. The coach made a huge point of making sure he knew he did a great job in the game today which was nice because he knew NM was upset. Several of the parents told him the same thing, too.

Next Sunday, we have our post-season party, most likely at the pool. I'm going to be on the hunt for good martial arts classes for both boys to attend along with, hopefully, one of NM's team mates and his brothers. They're a great family. Yeah, I'm a little biased because they homeschool, too, and their mom plays WoW. Actually, she works there, too, but I'm not biased towards her because she's a GM. Not in the least. Really.

Here's a beef that I have with *some* of the schooling NM has gotten so far: it has made learning a chore, a burden, an amazing hurdle he'd rather turn away from rather than tackle. Coming to the decision to homeschool, for this reason, was a "no brainer." We've tried to spend the last week just getting to know each other again, in terms of learning and hanging out. We've had a couple of rough days, but that's no surprise really.

One thing I am emphasizing to him, with the materials we are using so far, is that I really don't care if he gets it right or not. If he misspells "beginning" that's ok. I'm not grading him, I'm not going to test him. If he doesn't get 432-287=___ then that's fine. What we're after, I told him, is the attitude. If he makes a mistake, it's ok. "Use your eraser. Cross it off. Let's figure out how to get to the answer." It's more about developing a good attitude towards his mistakes, profiting from them and learning in general.

He's enrolled in a robotics class that uses Legos (no surprise?). A homeschooling mom and her teen aged boys are teaching the kids how to do it. I asked NM yesterday what they did in class and he enthusiastically explained to me that they were going to break into teams and build robots to compete against each other then the whole class would be involved in competitions. His voice, as he spoke, had a decidedly upbeat tone to it, unlike earlier in the day.

I told him something that I thought was a minor revelation to him, but it turned out to be a huge one: "You know that's your science class, don't you?"

"Huh? What kind of a science class is that?"

"Robotics! That's a major deal."

"What?"

He was just confused. "I don't know what you mean. You're confusing me."

I have to admit to being a tiny bit sad that he didn't consider what he was doing in that class to be of much importance. But I just told him that robotics is branch of science and it involves physics and engineering. He said it was too easy to be science so I told him he is just good at it so it's just that easy :D

I'm not sure he was convinced. But I hope we've gone back down the path of "learning really is fun" and not "learning is frustrating."

Unbelievable! I have no idea how it happened so quickly.

My baby, he's nine.

Nine years ago today, I was in a hospital room holding my swaddle baby burrito and wondering how someone could be so precious. It wasn't long after that my baby was talking and pointing to body parts when I ask him to (9 months). Then he was walking and then jamming to music then making music then obsessed with Hotwheels then Legos and going to school.

Where did the time go and how did it go by so quickly? Happy birthday to my big boy! I love you so much!

(((hugs)))

Dear Abba Father,

Guide my baby's heart and mind. Like Your Son, may he grow in wisdom and stature and favor with you and those he meets on the journey you have ahead for him.

Today, our NM received an award at school! They hand out awards at the end of each trimester. He got it for reading lots and lots of minutes each week, for being an excellent reader, for working very hard on controlling his "wiggle body" and for being extremely knowledgeable about so many different things (he always has something to contribute to class).

He's done so well and we couldn't be more proud!