Day 11 / 102 - Yellow Jackets

When we moved in, our one acre backyard came fully equipped with pesky, aggressive yellow jackets.  These wasps are a serious nuisance because they are territorial, and they search for food people eat or discarded food. We assigned our son the job of investigating the best way to rid your yard of the colony as quickly and as painlessly as possible.  After a little research on the internet, he discovered the best way is to set the hive on fire.  (Okay....really the best way is to call an exterminator, but we didn't want to go that route).  At first we were under the impression that we would 'smoke out' the wasps.  But, our son was able to explain to us that because three elements are needed for fire (heat, fuel, and oxygen), the fire itself would draw the oxygen out of the hive making it necessary for the bees to escape.  After one decent-sized fire, and a few traps for the stragglers, we've solved our yellow jacket problem.  For this year, anyway.

I love real-life-backyard science!

Day 10 / 102 - And...Rock Jumping

We found this excellent swimming hole in the Meadow River yesterday.  These gems are hidden all over the area, and we've discovered you need to know who to ask in order to find them.  This one was a good 30 minute hike in, all downhill.  Which meant it took longer as we tackled the uphill trail to return to our vehicle after the fun.  We're loving wild and wonderful West Virginia.

Day 9 / 102 - Rock Climbing

In my husband's former life (before children) he was was an avid rock climber.  Then we moved to locations that weren't ideal for his hobby.  Now that we're a mere 20 minutes from the New River Gorge, and the children are old enough to accompany him, we have participated in this sport every weekend we've lived here.  Seriously.  I'll try not to post about it daily.

Day 8 / 102 - Bitty Baby's New Crib

Because anything can be made out of empty moving boxes, left over packaging tape, and a pair of scissors.  This crib even has a mobile.  My daughter is a creative genius.

Day 7 / 102 - Moving Day!

We headed out of Cleveland, Ohio on July 27th and relocated to Beckley, West Virginia. 

I believe teaching children early on that change and transition can be positive and desirable will only benefit them in the future.  Also, I believe in helping them to learn that opportunities await them wherever they are, especially if they are willing to take a step of faith and go where no one else is willing to go.  Of course, moving is a great amount of work.  It's not easy.  And, leaving friends and family make it that much more difficult.  But, we're excited for our family to grow closer and learn more about one another by embracing the change together.

We involved our children in the planning as much as possible to help them feel like participants in the process rather than forcing the change/move upon them.  And now that we're here, they're excited for the adventure, history, and learning experiences that West Virgina has to offer.

I took a picture of my children in front of our house before we left town.  They were antsy and ready to leave, so the photo isn't of the highest quality because they were having trouble remaining still.  However, I loved comparing it to the photo of them on the front porch of our Vancouver, Washington house the day we left for Cleveland, June 27, 2008.

Day 6 / 102 - Akron Aeros Demo

In July, my children were part of a taekwondo demonstration at an Akron Aeros baseball game.  They enjoyed being on the field prior to the start of the game breaking boards, demonstrating kicks, and fighting off Ninja Turtles.  We stayed for the game following their demo.  For my son, it was a perfect evening with his teammates following his disappointment from a few weeks earlier.

Day 5 / 102 - Pottery Camp

Now back to 'showing off' more fun activities and accomplishments!

Our last week in Cleveland, my daughter attended a summer camp at Hand's On Pottery.  Of all the activities I've invested money in, this one far exceeded my expectations and was worth every penny!  My daughter made a different project each day and was able to bring home all her designs at the end of the week.  The studio provided the project, instruction, and an atmosphere that allowed her to express herself creatively.  She is already trying to arrange a week in Cleveland next summer so she can attend the camp again.

Day 4 / 102 - AAU Taekwondo Nationals

To be honest, this blog was on somewhat of a hiatus this summer, because I was trying to figure out how to pen this post.  I've noticed that this blog has become a display of accomplishments, which for the most part I'm fine with, because I do want to 'show off' what we've done and what we've accomplished through our home education experiences.  But, part of life, and learning, is responding to disappointment, and embarrassment, and failure.  To leave that out would be leaving out an entire element of the learning process.  So, I have a disappointment to share.  A big one.

The first week of July we traveled to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, so my son could compete in the AAU Taekwondo National Championships.  He had been looking forward to this tournament since he competed in it the previous summer.  We arranged our school year (and life) around this tournament, because it was 'the one thing' he wanted to do all year.  He practiced.  He trained.  He prepared.  He qualified for the tournament.  He took instruction.  He practiced and trained and prepared some more.  We delayed our move for this tournament.  The month prior to the tournament he eliminated all sugar from his diet, so he could make his weight division.  He lost four pounds.  He's ten.  I never had to make him attend a class or a practice.  He was motivated and determined.  We could not have been more proud.

His division fought on the last day of the tournament.  For two days we watched his teammates, friends, and coaches win.  It was exciting.  He was getting even more motivated.  We could not wait to see him compete.  Our prayer for him the morning of his competition was, "God lead him to victory.  If not, we ask that it will be a character building experience."  The second part of that prayer was answered.

I'm sure you can see where this story is going, and I won't drag it out any further.  He lost got destroyed in his first round.  Honestly, we didn't expect him to win, but we thought that he would last more than one round.  He was ill-prepared for his division (it was almost TEN times bigger than his 2011 division) and the competitors were older (10/11 vs. 8/9 the year before).  He became extremely nervous and froze as soon as he got in the ring.  For all his months of practice and preparation, he didn't do one thing he was coached or trained to do.  As soon as it ended, it was one of those moments where I thought: Can't we just hit the rewind button on life and make the last few minutes turn out differently?  As we shared in his pain, it was disappointing, sad, humiliating, and embarrassing for all of us.

Our prayer was answered, not only for our son, but also for us.  As we stood there in the midst of disappointment and loss, we realized our attitudes, actions, and responses would affect his.  Would we blame someone else or some other situation for the loss (rather than having him own it himself)?  Would we say, hang up your belt and never participate in taekwondo again?  Would we tell him, just move on and don't be disappointed?  Would we say, you deserved to win (even though he clearly didn't)?  Would we claim something about this wasn't fair (one of our least favorite phrases)?

Naturally, character building is a process and doesn't happen overnight.  G. K. Chesteron has a quote that reads, How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.  Since my son is only ten, I'm not sure he has right thinking on any subject (do any of us?).  However, as we've helped him to process through this, we've heard him say phrases like, 'You can't compete, if you're not prepared to lose', or 'A loss doesn't define your career'.  Perhaps they're just catch phrases he's grabbed from Sports Illustrated for Kids, but nonetheless, it reveals to us that his character building is in process.

One last thought before I sign off this rather lengthy post.  Upon his loss, we all felt like bursting into tears.  To keep my husband from doing so, he left the Convention Center and walked several miles around Ft. Lauderdale.  While walking, he found on a sidewalk the giant purple superball in the photo above.  Our son loves superballs and can entertain himself for hours with one.  It seemed like quite the Divine gift that day and helped us all to remember that life is much bigger than one taekwondo loss.

Day 3 / 102 - More Life on the Prairie

My daughter's obsession with Little House on the Prairie has continued well into the summer.  She has read books, watched episodes, and helped her grandmother sew this pioneer dress, which is her new favorite item of clothing.  Since it's completion, she has worn it nearly everyday!

Day 2 / 102 - Wildwater Kingdom

Because what child doesn't want to spend a summer day at a water park?

Day 1 / 102 - Akron Zoo

For the 2012 - 2013 school year, I've decided I'm publishing 102 days of activities.  Because, why not?

And, as any good educator will tell you, even though school ends for the summer, learning never ceases.  So, I have a few updates from some summer excursions and learning experiences to post.

Earlier this summer, we used the benefits of our Cleveland Zoo reciprocity agreement to make an outing to the Akron Zoo.  My kids had wanted to visit for awhile because the Akron Zoo is home to a male Komodo Dragon named TnT.  He was wide awake and quite active during our afternoon visit.

Update

Did you know it's August 15th?  Surely you do, because chances are you've looked at a calendar more than I have in the past several weeks.  We've had a busy summer, and I won't bore you with all the details in this one post.  What I wanted to say was that I loved keeping a blog for the school year.  And I'm planning on continuing it for the future.  With the assistance of Blurb, I made a fantastic book for our Year End Assessment, which took place the same week we moved (more on that in a later post).  Yet again, we had a wonderful evaluation (although at the moment I cannot tell you where our evaluation paperwork is...or the book), and I'm surely going to miss our Cleveland assessor.  She has developed a great relationship with my children, and I hope to work with her again in the future.

Below I've posted some pictures of the book, which I managed to take before it was boxed up.