Homeschooling with the Tube
Posted in Homeschooling on Dec 5th, 2007 2 Comments »
I’m not certain what’s wrong with me. For the past week, I’ve been waking up from sleep every hour and a half or so. Shifting positions, shifting positions, shifting positions. There hasn’t been one night when I’ve knocked out, then come to consciousness one time when the sun’s up.
A couple bad dreams here and there, but nothing extraordinary or memorable. What could it possibly be? Stress? Some physiological change? Am I just getting older? Is my brain chemistry off?
I consider I may have some deep anxiety going on. Certainly makes sense with Christmas right around the corner. We’re in no shape for the holiday. In no way prepared. Egads, I don’t even want to think about it.
Seems the past month has been nothing but a big escape mode. And then I end up feeling worse about myself.
To my credit, Rocky’s homeschooling is going swimmingly. He has so much more confidence than he did last year. I gave him the “Pixar Pep Talk” night before last. Well…not actually a talk, but a letter. And then a talk. He’s inspired, motivated, aimed. And I feel the pressure off. We’re going to prepare him for the animation industry, because that’s what he wants. We’re shrugging off the “state standards mind set” and focusing on developing his strengths.
Not that we’re neglecting core subjects. I borrowed the Standard Deviants DVD on cells and DNA, and we watched it in the van today during our cross-metro activity stops. I got it for Rocky, but of course, the girls watched it, too, while we waited for Squeak to get out of ballet. Heh heh…the things one can impart to a captive audience!
Well, now that Rocky and I are watching the Lost DVDs from the first season, exchanging one Blockbuster-by-Mail envelope for a new DVD from Blockbuster every night, it gives me some leverage. If he doesn’t consume the “educational” material, we have no DVD to exchange, which means–No Lost. Great incentive to get those videos out of the way so we can both watch the good stuff.
Tomorrow, we’re watching an early filming of The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes story). He read the book a couple weeks ago, so now he can see the movie.
Got 12 Angry Men, just because Rocky’s never seen it, and it’s a Classic.
He’s also reading Romeo and Juliet now. Of course he’ll have to see the first film. And I’m sure he’ll want to see the Dhanes-DiCaprio version, too, just to see if his generation bettered or butchered it.
Shakespeare’s tough. But on the suggestion of another homeschooling mom, we picked up No Fear Shakespeare. Wow. English-to-English translations. Wish we’d had that when I was in high school.
