Nathan

It's weird having an 8-year-old....especially Nathan! (And I mean that with all the love a mother can muster!) What can I tell you about Nathan? There are days when I swear he came out talking even though I know better. Still, he talked very early and very well (and that's not just MY opinion). He never stops talking and almost never stops pretending. He's our homeschooling guinea pig, obviously, but he never complains and truly seems to enjoy it. He's really good at math and loves science/technology type things. And even though he's a great reader and does really well with the spelling program we use, he would probably be more than happy if I allowed him to skip reading, spelling, and especially handwriting. He's happy as a lark right now because with being pregnant, his school has been scaled back to creative writing (always paired with an art project), reading, and KONOS (thanks to Mrs. Kisha for keeping that going when I'm not really able to put a lot of effort into it!). Art -- that's probably the biggie for him. Anything that has to do with art and crafts and he loves it all. That's what kinda sparked this post -- we just finished up the fall semester of a homeschool co-op we do and I wanted to show off some of his art projects (below). But I figured maybe I should do a post for each one of them. They all came from the same parents but, as any parent with more than one child knows, they may look similar but they're all very different. Caleb's post coming up so stay tuned! Anyway, back to Nathan -- he's all about friends, too. [RABBIT CHASE: Some people find it odd that Nathan's so social because we're homeschoolers. Some not-so-nice people even accuse homeschooling parents like us with children who are "social bugs" of being unkind (or even abusive) because we don't let them go to "real" school to have friends. Nathan's social abilities have NOT been hindered in ANY way by being homeschooled. For the record, we "co-homeschool" with Mrs. Kisha and her daughter, Fionna, so Nathan sees Fionna usually twice a week at least and, unless there's some other schedule conflict, they always get an opportunity to play before and/or after we do school. Then there's Matthew, the boy down the street that plays with Nathan every now and then after school. And don't forget his church friends and the 2 homeschool co-ops we are members of. He has friends in both co-ops and loves going. The beauty of homeschooling -- we can PICK his friends (how dare we do that? EASY!) and thereby keep an eye on his outside influences. There's been moments already where we've had to not allow him to have contact with Matthew up the street because things have gotten out of hand. It's our responsibility as his parents because having a lot of "friends" isn't always the best thing unless you take the time to make sure that those "friends" parents believe the way you do!! Rabbit chase done!] Now if we could just get Nathan to learn how to sit properly in a chair....but that's a whole other story! Nathan is awesome! Faults, yes, he has them but still, he's really a good boy!! You can check out his blog at http://nathanpix.blogspot.com/ As promised, here's a few pics of hhis co-op art projects. First up is his color wheel. Next is his self-portait (my fav -- don't you think that's great?!?). Last is his "name alien". You can't see it here but if you turn the drawing sideways, his name is written in mirror image on both sides. Very creative if you ask me. Good job, Nathan!