A Blustery Day






Denver quickly demonstrates how to count, add,

and subtract by tens.



Spencer enjoys creating optical illusions.





Some days we are caught off guard and carried away by laughing winds. Today is such a day.

This morning while I drove to the library with Spencer, Denver, and textbooks in tow; John Robert stayed home to work on chores, algebra, and SAT prep. "Yeah, sure," I thought. More likely, he'll go back to bed. Spencer was in a foul mood and Denver took every opportunity to announce that he "hated homeschool." Grumble . . . sigh . . . and just keep going.

At the library, we managed to turn things around. Denver did his homeschool easily and well. He told me he would prefer to learn to read on his own and that he was sure he could do it. I agreed, but insisted that he show me a bit of his skill. He read five sentences and then announced, "That's enough. I love it, Mom, really. It's fine; but I'm done." He gathered his work, handed it to me, and walked off to see the librarian about a computer.

Spencer had been looking and thinking about optical illusions. I brought a book from home for him. It was filled with projects for making your own optical illusions. He took to it like a fish in water. Following complicated directions for over 30 minutes, he created a labyrinth within a piece of folded paper. He was so overjoyed by his success that he remained happy and carefree for most of the day. He did his math effortlessly and then read books.

Arriving home for a late lunch, I was surprised to see John Robert's SAT book open. He had been working on the math portion of the exam. On the office computer, I saw that he had been reading about Pythagoras' theorum. To top it off, he had managed to do three loads of laundry.

After lunch, the boys surprised me by wanting to play outside with John Robert's new kite. They were very excited by the 20+ mile an hour winds. I was less thrilled; it was below freezing outside.

To everyone's mutual delight, the boys went to the horse pasture and flew John Robert's seven foot shark kite for over an hour and a half. By all accounts, the endeavor was a huge success. When they finally came home red-cheeked and smiling, I got to hear all about it over hot chocolate and snacks.

A blustery day. Laughter in the wind.