Walkway Over The Hudson

Took a field trip today to The Walkway Over The Hudson (http://www.walkway.org).  It is an old train trestle that was converted into a pedestrian bridge.  Chock full of history and a beautiful walk.

The views were stunning.  We learned a little about the history of trains in the area.  This used to be the only bridge connecting across the Hudson.  The bridge was used to transport troops, supplies, coal, etc. but the interstate severely diminished use of the trestle.  In 1974 there was a large fire and the property was sold to a private owner.  Eventually the funds were raised to convert the trestle into a pedestrian bridge that opened a few years ago.

The weather was great and the walk is a bit over 1 mile in each direction.  After our walk we enjoyed a picnic lunch.

It was an enjoyable day.

April is almost over! Oh my!

I am sorry that I have been so neglectful of my blog.  We are counting down the weeks until Little Miss M's Bat Mitzvah and buried under all the last details.  Lessons with the Cantor, practice your Torah and Haftorah, and don't forget to practice your speech, dress fittings, finalizing the menu, suits, ties, centerpieces, place cards, candle lighting, oh my!  And somewhere in all of this there is some schoolwork getting done.

The swim season ended-The club team they swim on-another undefeated season.  The high school team was undefeated until the last meet.  Still a great year for them, too.  Now they are both enjoying Spring Training.  Need to stay in shape for summer swim team.  Plus, Mister B is taking the American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification class.  My baby is going to be a lifeguard this summer.   My baby will be responsible for other peoples safety!  I know he can do it and he is looking forward to earning his own spending money.  But, sometimes I look at my boy and think "What a derp."  He is so smart in so many ways and so clueless in others.

Today we are heading out to see the movie 42 with our discussion group.  It is the wrap up to our stereotype unit.  We spent a few weeks talking about stereotypes and assumptions. We talked about stereotypes about homeschoolers, schoolers, religious groups, athletes, ethnic groups, and anything else we could think of.  We listed different stereotypes we had heard about different groups or people and ones we experienced personally. The following meeting we listened to a poem and listened to a song.  Then asked the group what they thought they were talking about.  They were about love.  At the end after they assumed that the lovers were heterosexual we enlightened them that they were written for same sex loves.  The lesson here was even though you are aware of stereotypes it is still very easy to make assumptions that are incorrect.  We thought a wrap up with the Jackie Robinson story would be fitting.

They continue to enjoy philosophy.  Lots of ethics and figuring out what is truth.

Music class ended early this year because the teacher is having another baby soon.  They miss music but what are you going to do.

All I will say about math is that I now know how to convert slope intercept to standard line equation.  As I wondered back in 9th grade, I still don't know when this will ever be used in my daily life.  And Mister B can do this, too. Little Miss is mastering probability.  I like that one.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Birthday!

Mister B is 15!

This year he wanted pie for his birthday breakfast!

My baby boy!  He is 15 today.  15!  I am the mom of a 15 year old.  How can this be?  I am still just a kid myself.  What was that line from Steel Magnolias....Time marches on and one day you realize it is marching right across your face.  Or something like that.

In a few short months Little Miss M will officially be a teenager.  I won't have any kids.  Just teenagers.  Maybe I should run for the hills now while i have the chance.

Parenting a teen is so very different from parenting a child.  They are starting to spread their wings to fly.  You are trying to remember what it felt like to be so sure you knew everything and be ready for anything but those fond memories struggle with the responsibility of wanting to protect them and keep them safe from everything and anything.

Eee Gad! It is almost the Ides of March!

Tomorrow morning I will wake up the mom of a 15 year old.  15!  Where has the time gone?  Since I am only 27 myself it is quite the miracle that my first born is going to be so old.

As I was mildly freaking out over the fact that my baby boy will be 15 tomorrow I also realized that the school year is more over then beginning.  More panic!  I have not done all I wanted to do.  I won't get done all I want to do.  What am I doing?

We have been spending some extra time on linear equations this week.  Mister B is having some difficulty with converting slope intercept to standard line and vice versa.  I can honestly say I had absolutely no idea how to do this.  Algebra was really not my forte.  My algebra teacher was The Dean of Detention, an Ex-Marine, and coach of the wrestling team and he gave the impression that if you were not on his team or really smart he wanted nothing to do with you.  He was scary and when you told him you didn't understand he would come over to your desk.  Point at your paper and say "You do this, this, and this.  Understand?"  "Yeah, sure" you would say even though you had no clue.  Lets just say I had a lot of math tutors in my day and I still only squeaked by with barely passing grades. But now, thanks to the internet and www.kahnacademy.org, and some other math resources I found online I have mastered this skill.  And more importantly, Mister B has started mastering this skill. 

Little Miss M has quickly mastered median, mean, and mode and is now starting a unit on probability. 

In Biology we took a step back and now Mister B has a better grasp on the material.  Little Miss M is working on a sky journal and is learning about the stars.

History and English are moving along nicely as is Spanish for Mister B.

I can not wait to see what tomorrow brings....

I am mom to a Letterman!

Here he is, Mister B with his First Varsity Letter.  So proud of him.  After the hoops I jumped through to get my homeschooler on the high school team I feel pretty darn good.  All his hard work swimming for two teams has certainly paid off.  Freshman and a Letterman, so very cool!

Musings

Just the other day I got to take advantage of one of the many educational homeschooling perks.  Mister B was struggling with the lesson we were on in Biology so I decided we should go back a few chapters and start over.  Perk.  In school if you are lost it is more of a too bad try to keep up come in for tutoring kind of thing.  In going back those few chapters we discovered there was a whole section we skipped in one of the chapters.  Ooops.  Guess what was covered in that chapter-the stuff he was having a difficult time with.  Needless to say, it is all making a bit more sense now.

High School swimming is over for the season.  Almost undefeated.  They lost to the last team they swam against.  So close. But overall it was a great season.  The club team they both swim on had its second undefeated season.  I don't know how the kids who swim for their high schools and a club team manage to fit school and homework into their day.  I found the experience extremely challenging and was exhausted.

Little Miss and I have taken to working out together before school starts.  It has been a couple of weeks now and I have to admit (as much as I hate to admit it) but I really do have more energy and a lot more patience then usual.  Who knew (ok, everyone knew, but I didn't want to believe it).

I am beginning to think that this half of the year is going to go better then the first half in terms of finding our groove.  For certain I feel like a finally have a handle on the high school scheduling of work.  Little Miss is so going to benefit from it when she gets to high school.  Poor Mister B has been my experiment.

Another Day Completed

Sometimes it just feels good to have completed a day without steam pouring from ears and flames shooting from eyes. These past couple of days have actually gone fairly smoothly (as smooth as a day with a teenager and soon to be teenager can go)

Today they had discussion group and it was our turn to lead.  We did The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber.  I have always liked that story and now seemed a good time to follow up the last meetings satire discussion.  Who knew there were so many themes to discuss (http://www.shmoop.com/walter-mitty/table-of-contents.html).  It was quite eye opening to see how they view *cough* middle aged to old people (it seems there is a point where you can no longer change your life) and marriage.  They all thought it was funny that if the wife was wearing the pants the husband was wearing the skirt (side bar-kilts).  A nice discussion on what it means to be a man and not letting those around you define who you are.  And, disappearing into a fantasy world is probably not the best way to deal with your life.  People will think you are nuts.