Kiiids In Spaaace...

The boys walked home from TKD last night. First time walking on their own.

Chris: [goes over all safety rules]
Boys: [repeat back all safety rules]
Chris: [turns to Daniel] Now. Daniel. [hands on shoulders, straight stare into eyes, Listen To Me This Means You] You're the twelve-year-old. You're responsible for paying attention to the traffic, the light, the cars. Especially in the parking lot and at the crossing.
Daniel: Yes.
Chris: Going to pay attention?
Daniel: Yes.
Chris: Good job. Off you go.
Boys: [leave]
Me: ... and you know what I'm thinking as you're saying all of that?
Chris: What?
Me "Now. Justin. You're the awake one."
Chris: Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. I almost said it, too.
Me: Except you totally don't have to, with Justin.
Chris: Yeah, exactly.

Random rambling association, food as the theme

Ratatouille is an awesome movie. Don't know if I'd love it as much without a foodie in the house, but watching it with Justin is a real joy.

It's funny, I often feel close to my mom when Justin's talking about food. She loved food so much, and it must have been such a disappointment to her that I really didn't have much interest in it. When Chris came along that was one of the things they had in common - well, that and gardening, and making fun of me for having a black thumb and a complete inability to tell rosemary from garlic even on a good day ;)

Justin would've made her so happy. And the fact that he's got me interested in food too would've amused her to no end, I'm sure ;)

And I am. Somehow in the last nine years he's got me interested in cooking, and experimenting, and figuring out why some things work and others don't. For example, it's because of him that I ended up trying to make home made bagels a few years back, and then turning to my flist (actually, to heathers) to figure out why our bagels kept collapsing.

Justin's latest project is Vegetarian Sundays. They haven't been totally successful, but they're always interesting. This week, for example, we made samosas; took way too long, were too bland & the sauce was gross, but Justin liked them enough that I think I'll probably make them again. They're not bad with mango chutney.

Our main Homeschooling Theme Thing is history. We follow a set of books called The Story of the World, which have simple history lessons matched up with various activities involving arts & crafts, research, games, etc. Every week we set goals to be done by the end of the week for English, French, Spanish, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art and Music. Whenever our SOTW books have activities that look interesting to us, they become our goals for that subject (eg. we're reading about the Battle of Hastings: our English goal is studying the effect of the Norman influence on the English language and our Art is copying part of the Bayeux Tapestry). We've gone through Volume 1 (Ancient Times, up to the fall of Rome) and are working our way through Volume 2 (the Middle Ages) and almost every time a chapter has a food activity connected to it, Justin does that for his Art goal of the week. We've made Phoenician bread, a Roman meal, Greek gyros, latkes, a monk's supper, a Japanese meal, Viking bread, Alfred cakes, (Ashkenazi) charoset - none of which I would've bothered to make had I had a different child on my hands.

Kids are quite amazing. They can drive you up the wall on a regular basis, but they can also make you grow in so many directions you'd never go on your own. Such wonderful little creatures, they are.