Noah spent most of Sunday on the computer with friends and in his room, fiddling with Audacity. (I.T., music) I desperately wish I could afford to give him the equipment he needs to really record his music, but hey -- many a musician has made due with less, right? I mean, at least he's not growing up in the projects. And if he's truly motivated, he'll find creative solutions.

So I keep telling myself.

Anyway, he also mowed the lawn this weekend, which he absolutely hates, but I find it to be a good character-building endeavor. (life skills) Besides, he gets paid to do it. But I don't think I'd hire him next year: his attention to detail sucks. Aengus won't be old enough to use the riding mower yet, though, so I might have to {gasp!} do it myself for a season or two. Blech.

Aengus and I played a lot of different games yesterday, something we haven't done as much since the XBox entered our lives. We played outside for a while, including a variation of baseball; threw the ball to the dogs; and played Tickle Monster. (P.E.) He was going to help make funnel cake, but mysteriously disappeared when it was time to do so. He showed up in time to eat it, of course.

(Noah's assessment of the funnel cake: "Meh. Not as good as at the carnival." My assessment of Noah's assessment: "Fuck you. Cover anything in powdered sugar ftw!")

Aengus also worked on his reading, which has seen marked improvement. I've found another difference in the way unschoolers learn: while Aengus remembers every sound each of the letters makes, including the exceptions to rules, he still can't remember what some of the letters are. For example, I have to sometimes tell him, "That's an 'H'," but then he remembers just fine the sound it makes. Completely the opposite of how Noah learned. I also remember when I was learning to read that it was difficult for me to make that transition from individual sounds to understanding what the whole word is. Aengus has no problems with that.

Me (when I was five, people!): "Huh. Aaaa. Tuh. Huhaaa. Tuh. Huhaaatuh. What's a huhaaatuh?"

Aengus: "What's that letter again? Oh, okay. Huh. Aaaa. Tuh. Hat."

I must take a minute here to admit something: I did a bad, bad thing. Please don't tell SandramotherfuckingDodd, lest I be kicked out of the Unschoolers Club, but I ... bribed Aengus.

In addition to the video games (about $200 worth for Aengus), recording equipment (about $500 worth for Noah) and the drumset ($300), they now both want netbooks for Xmas. They're like, $300 each! The boys know we can't afford that, but they both reallyreallyreally want one.

With that knowledge in the back of my brain, I may have -- accidentally -- promised to buy Aengus a netbook when he learns to read.

That Bad Mother of the Year trophy WILL be mine!!!

He has not forgotten this promise and has been diligent in his reading practice ever since. I feel like a shit for resorting to bribery, and with the way he's working at it, I might have to get a second job here soon to pay up.

Silver lining: it's working!

Theme for last night: Fluid Dynamics!

First, on Mythbusters, a little aerodynamic study: from dirt's effect on the fuel efficiency of a car to the "golf ball effect."





Then, which will give you a worse hangover: beer or liquor?




Family viewing of the best kind: learning science while laughing our asses off!

After Mythbusters (and continuing our liquid dynamics theme for the evening) came an all-new episode of Time Warp.




Check out this video, too (sorry I couldn't find a code to embed it here). What a great night for physics. I love TV!

Starting over... again...

Sunday, Aengus went to a friend's house for a sleepover while I took Noah and a bunch of teens to see Zombieland (which was terrific, btw) (survival skills ). After the movie, we met up with the other moms at IHOP, and we had a blast there (socialization). Just some teens (and their moms), getting goofy over pancakes. Every teenager needs that experience, right? For me and my friends, it was Denny's, but as this is the ass-crack of Virginia, there's not a Denny's or Bob's Big Boy to be found here.

IHOP, it is.

Noah went home with a friend after our little adventure, so Sunday night and most of Monday was pretty quiet around here. I didn't get the boys back home until almost eight on Monday night. Aengus had played a bunch of video games with James (duh -- strategic/dynamic thinking, socialization, cooperative play), and I think Noah went out to eat with Shelby (life skills) and fooled around on the internet (information technology) and with her camera (photography). We all crashed early.

It was a quiet day here on Tuesday: we simply hung out at home. Aengus levelled up on Call of Duty (Prestige 7, Level 8 bitches!) and we played outside in the leaves and with the dogs (nature studies, P.E.). We also watched a couple of Military Channel shows: one about booby traps, and one about the top ten sniper rifles (ummm... social studies?).

I crashed really early last night, so I'm not entirely sure what the boys did. Noah played a lot of Halo with his friends (socialization, strategic/dynamic thinking, cooperative play), which Aengus enjoyed watching. And Aengus discovered that he likes strawberry cream cheese on celery -- though I found many half-eaten stalks licked clean this morning.