Day Eighty-Four: Expletives

One of Weston's (and my) favorite things to do in Grammar class is to "stump the teacher" by coming up with the wackiest, most verbose sentences he can think of and then have me parse and diagram them. Sometimes he'll have a very wordy, but not overly complicated, sentence that I can work through quickly, and this is disappointing to him because "there were so many words." But sometimes, he comes up with a doozy, and I truly have to work my tail off and employ all kinds of online and offline resources to figure it out. And this is, of course, thrilling for him. Today, he really gave me a challenging one, and I had to search around for quite a while to figure out one part of it. When I finally found the answer, I had to do a double take because the thing was called an expletive. I have seen countless sentences with these so-called expletives but, until today, never knew what they were called or how to diagram them. It was an exciting discovery! So, the next time English Grammar makes you want to use a four-letter word, you'll know that expletives are indeed acceptable.  😉

*Explanation of expletives from Grammar Revolution*

Day Thirty-Three: Self-Portrait

I have never considered myself to be very artistic, particularly in the field of drawing, but everyday Clay insists that I do the drawing with him in art class. And, though the artistic ideas may not be original, I find that I am quite capable of following simple step-by-step instructions, especially when they are accompanied by pictures. (Not to brag or anything!) Several of the projects have been the same ones I did with Ruth, back when she was in first grade. But today we did an entirely new project, which allowed me to create my first self-portrait.

Day Twenty-Six: A Whole New CC Experience

Classical Conversations is certainly nothing new to our family. We've been participating in the homeschool support group for years. But this year, we're proving that new experiences can lurk even within those things which seem to be old hat. First of all, this year, we are not participating in the morning (Foundations) classes but are only showing up for the afternoon class (Essentials), which I am tutoring. Tutoring Essentials is not new for me either, but it has been a number of years since I've done it. This is, however, my first time to tutor the class and have any of my boys in class as students. Both Weston and Max are in the class this year, which is very neat. It is also my first time to tutor on such a large campus, which actually has two Essentials classes. Consequently, there is an element of needing to coordinate with the other tutor on certain things, which is definitely not a problem, just different from how I've done this in the past. Finally, since I was out of town last week, I had to start today, on the second week of class, which was definitely a different experience for me. I'm thankful to have found this CC campus, and I'm glad that I can find some firsts even among a tried and true activity.

Celebrating my first day of CC on a brand new campus

Day Fourteen: Job Offer

Today was the first time I have been offered a job by a six-year-old. Clay keeps a store in his room, in which he sells his art for "pieces of American money." Since one of his official classes in school this year is art, he has been adding to his collection every day. Apparently, business is really picking up, because this afternoon he informed me that I could work in his store if I wanted...and if I had a "vest or some sort of uniform to wear." When I inquired how much the position paid, he quickly retorted, "That depends on how hard you work!" Shrewd boss, right there, folks. I haven't committed to the job yet, but I'm thinking it could be just the thing for me...if I can find a vest to wear.

Day Four: School Uniform

This year the kids voted to have school uniforms in our homeschool. Not in the sense that we all match, but rather that we all follow a certain set of standards, which approximates business/business casual attire. Since I attended public school while I was growing up, I've never worn what I consider to be a school uniform, so this is new to me. But, I've always believed that the way a person dresses makes a difference in how they perform, and based on our first day in the school uniforms, that does seem to be the case.