Another great Friday

Too busy to blog much these days, but since I'm wide awake at 3am (after having fallen into a deep sleep starting at about 8!), I thought I'd take the opportunity to record George's very successful day today (well, yesterday now).

Perhaps I should add that this very successful, productive day came at the end of a week that was not maximally productive for him. Monday my stepson was home from school and spent the day with us, plus it ended up being an intense workday for me, so George got very little work done indeed that day (though the boys had some great bonding time, which was nice). Tuesday also somehow slipped by without much getting done--it's my busiest work day, and it was busier than usual, which kept me almost entirely off his back! By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was already exhausted, but did manage to make sure he at least started to get on track with some work. Thursday was a more-or-less "normal" workday for him, but I was feeling sort of bad about not having made sure he worked at the beginning of the week. So by the time Friday arrived I was ready for him to be in high gear, and I guess he was, too!

In the morning he did his chores (brushed and flossed his teeth, cleaned the cat box, plus other minor stuff), watched the Colbert Report with me (current events, you know!), wrote a book review on his blog, practiced his recorder at length, and worked on a song he's composing (part of his assignment from his music teacher, who is wonderful and also really "gets" him) which included a quick break to learn about sixteenth notes and how to write them. He also read (as always) and played in his room a bit.

At noon we went to the Y for our Friday afternoon activity marathon, which starts with an hour of Spanish class. His Spanish teacher is also wonderful, by the way, and makes the class a lot of fun. Sometimes it seems like he's more into the fun and less into the Spanish, but today he asked a great question about a verb form that really showed that he was in fact paying very close attention. The language teacher in me was quite proud :-)

After that it was time for an hour of swimming class and then an hour of gym class, followed by an hour and a half with a sitter while I ran to campus for a lecture (during which, embarrassingly, I did not fare well in my struggle to stay awake!!), followed by Tae Kwon Do class, where I met up with him again, and where he finally earned his white belt.

I know--most places, you get your white belt and your uniform when you sign up, but Master Choi is hardcore. You have to go there for like a month or more and prove (mostly to yourself, I suppose) that you are serious about this before you get your white belt. Then you have to jump through some more hoops before you earn your uniform! To get your white belt you have to show that you can do 5 push-ups, 5 sit-ups, and 5 back-um... something-or-others. George did like 20 or 30 or 60 of each, and was quite proud as Master Choi heaped on the praise (sorry for the low-quality cell-phone-photos):

I missed the shot of when Master Choi was tying the belt on him, but you get the idea:

My own little Karate Kid:

So, all in all, it was a great day. He worked hard and accomplished a lot all day, in so many ways (composing and practicing music, reading, writing, studying Spanish, working so hard in Tae Kwon Do after already having done two hours of physical activity at the Y...). It was one of those days where I just *know* that homeschooling is the right thing for him. He's being challenged in ways that are highly varied and appropriate, and he is rising to the challenges with enthusiasm and energy. And despite the fact that he still needs some direction from me, I can see that he likes to push himself and feels really good about his accomplishments. He's growing and thriving--creatively, physically, intellectually. It's easy to doubt myself sometimes when we have a sub-par couple of days in a row. But days like this one give me the strength and enthusiasm and resolve to continue on this path, even if it means that I occasionally doze off at work. (But for that, I think I'll blame whoever scheduled that lecture for 3:00 on a Friday afternoon!!!)