Evenings with the Cow Crew

Evenings here can be interesting. We fall into discussions of such things as tachyon beams and betanaphthol. The dictionary is dragged out. After looking up various words to settle arguments... we get to chasing down other 'rabbit trails' of other words we came across while looking up the first words.

I can see the 'wheels turning' in Mr C and the twins' brains, looking ahead at possible ways to work new words into casual conversations.

I cannot say what led to last nights bunny trail... but Tom found the thesaurus before we found the dictionary (under a pile of clean laundry on Ben's desk). He began to use (apply, employ, exercise, exert) the list of synonyms for the word for which we were seeking (pursuing, questing, searching) the dictionary. Soon we were all sputtering with laughter.

Mr C told Sam that he didn't believe that Sam knew how to use a dictionary. Sam demonstrated his ability.

Hmmm, I'm thinking it is time to drag Scrabble out again.
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One thing about having homeschooled so many kids, one after the other, over the last 23 years, is that I think we have covered all the bases with each kid- only to find I have NOT. This usually comes out glaringly over a simple matter that "everyone" knows. I assume I have covered an area more recently than I have.

I found out while we were in Ohio that Daniel and Sam did not know all the months of the year, nor the order in which they fall. I endured the lecture (I really ought to number the repetitive lectures for ease of reference) about how I am not doing a good job of teaching the boys if they don't even know (the months of the year) when they are (12) years old!

You know, some things you just assume people already know. I know we have gone over the months of the year in the past. I thought I had done this with the twins. And state capitals... they don't know all of the state capitals, and the states to which each capital is associated. Now I KNOW we have done the States and Capitals. But it was at least three years ago, possibly four. So we are doing some 'remedial' work.

Sam asked why they have to learn the capitals of the 'stupid little states that are too small to even write the state name ON the state. The ones like Rhode Island and Delaware... where the name just floats in the ocean'. (I am sure the people who live in those states feel that their state is every bit as worthy of learning as Texas and Montana.) I'm not exactly sure what benefit being able to recite States and Capitals will have later in life, but we are learning them.

(Perhaps the benefit of not not thinking that, "Oklahoma is that state over by West Carolina, isn't it?", which my nephew Luke's high school girlfriend asked us during a visit last year.)

The book that has come to our rescue, as containing a US Map with the capitals "dotted" and listing every State and Capital (and the added virtue of us already owning the book)... is The Dangerous Book For Boys. I hope that Jade is enjoying and getting as much use from her copy of the Daring Book For Girls as the twins are this book.
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Well, it IS time we were schooling. Have a blessed day!