What a great thread!
Agreed.What a great thread!
yeah, he says he wants a pickup when he is old enough to drive. I'm noodling on the idea of getting him a beater pickup when he is 15 and telling him it is his when he gets his license as long as he fixes it up. I rebuilt a mustang when I was 14 with my dad and it was memorable.Best thing I ever did was learn to tear down an engine.
Go find an old VW engine. Pretty simple to work on. Not too heavy - like a PUP truck engine might be.
Books - for the Complete Idiot
I got pretty good at having it in pieces in about one hour. VW's are crap btw. Air cooled - another 'learning' experience.
What happens when oil gets hot? It leaves.... where it's supposed to be lubing.... CHUNG!
Yeah, small engine repair would teach him the mechanical aspects....Also was looking at go kart kits the other day as a project we could work on...
Truth be told, the best way to remove old oil stain from a driveway is kitty litter and a 2"x4"x6".I like 3d.
What's the 2x4 for? Is it used as the 'scrubber'?Yeah, small engine repair would teach him the mechanical aspects....
Truth be told, the best way to remove old oil stain from a driveway is kitty litter and a 2"x4"x6".
Scrub the litter into the spot and it just disappears.
Yes. I have a small bag of litter with a spraypaint can lid for a cup and the 2x4 lives in the bag.What's the 2x4 for? Is it used as the 'scrubber'?
Know a family that used that.Trivium Education - Trivium Education
The Trivium method: (pertains to mind) - the elementary three. General Grammar, Aristotelian Logic, and Classical Rhetoric comprise the first three rules-basedwww.triviumeducation.com
I always thought that this is the education I should have learned.
Logic seems to be a lost subject.
I can set up a Chess Board and Castle.The best way I learned to play chess is to get a book of chess master games - usually found in paperback.
They go through the famous games step by step, move by move and you play both sides of the game on your board.
It taught me a lot of strategy.
That's the general thought: tactics, tactics, tactics, but to each their own. While I have no doubt that is the quickest route to immediate success; I never enjoyed puzzles and drilling tactics. I like to imagine myself a positional player and enjoy the long range plan for position instead of finding future tactics. A great player once said, "Tactics flow from a superior position." But being a patzer myself; what I consider good long range positional planning probably seems retarded to an actual good player.For learning chess, once you know the basics, what you need to do is chess puzzles to learn strategy and tactics. There are several online apps that will drill you on these, many of which have an AI engine behind them so they drill you until you learn a concept; if you are not getting the concept they come back to it before moving on. I was talking to a h.s. chess coach at a national tournament - he told he he has a 30 minute commute to work everyday and his third grade son would do these drills during the commute and was already ranked 1200.
All one need to do then is play the games move by move and in no hurry.I can set up a Chess Board and Castle.
I was never a good player, but I thought that winning was about playing well. Maybe that is why I was never better than "okay".You destroy your opponent mentally. It's brutal like that.
She said, "you know if I just do this it will turn out better and we can get it done quicker." I had to explain, "that isn't the point, he needs to do it for practice and he will take pride in his own work." She acquiesced.
"that isn't the point
Exactly!You are a very wise man.
Wow! That is so creative!!Kid finished his easter story, printed out his homemade easter cards, addressed, stamped, and stuffed 9 envelopes to drop in the mail, yesterday.
Edit: he used our now usual method: sketch with pencil/tweak, trace with sharpie, erase pencil, color with crayons or pencils, scan, cleanup, color/effects/draw, print.
Found a youtube for this. You fold it so that the egg is whole and the rabbit doesn't show when it comes out off the envelope. Then you unfold it and the egg cracks/rabbit shows up. Popup-style.
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Well the card/folding/design wasn't our idea. But I agree it was nice. The kid picked it out after perusing a bunch of how to draw easter card videos.Wow! That is so creative!!
Put his ass to work.Every kid should learn how to cook and operate kitchen appliances.
I was cooking the majority of our family dinners by the end of 6th grade. And knowing how to prep and cook meals has always proved rewarding throughout my life. With that in mind, I seized the homeschool opportunity this year to get my kid capable.
He has had many baking experiences with his mommom, but never really had time or interest in learning how to cook dinners/meals. We took a week earlier this year and had him help with every meal every day. During that time he learned how to safely operate all the major kitchen appliances: toaster oven, stove, cooktop, slow cooker, bbq, chopper, coffee pot, garbage disposal. We never use the microwave, he just finally learned to operate that the other day when we had cause for popcorn.
He has learned how to make our usual family meals. He has learned chopping/knife skills, cleaning, etc. Now him prepping and helping with a family dinner happens at least once a week. I also have him plan the shopping for one meal/week.
He's got family in the restaurant supply business and has a standing offer/threat to work there part-time when he gets a few years older.
yeah, a lot of the stuff I am having a chance to teach him are entry level job skills. which i happily point out each time. i couldn't wait to get a paying job when I was a kid.Put his ass to work.
Kid built our new raised bed yesterday that he designed over the weekend.Today we sat down with grid paper and the homedepot site website and we designed our new raised bed, figured out size of the bed, and had him figure out all the lumber and fasteners we needed to order. He had to calculate how many pieces and what sizes we need, keeping in mind sawing, then screw length and type. He had to fill out the cart himself.
and that is precisely the problem with skooling... no practical relationship to the real world.Was a good use of the measuring and geometry skills he has worked on.
That is very impressive, particularly for a child that young.Kid built our new raised bed yesterday that he designed over the weekend.
He did all the measuring and marking, a little bit of the cutting, half the hauling, half the screwing, and all the orienting (using a compass to determine which direction to point it), and all the cleanup. Was a good use of the measuring and geometry skills he has worked on. Today he'll be using the volume and area math skills to calculate how much soil and mulch we need to order to fill the bed and other parts of the yard.
Yeah, we have lots of trees. That photo was late in the day (sunsetting). We made note last year and took photos last summer where the sunny spot started and ended. The area where it is located is the one big patch of land where there is full sun for the majority of the day, especially from the south (no trees blocking that direction). He used a compass to orient the box so that the long side is facing due south.I did something similar as an adult and learned that building raised beds so close to tall trees (as indicated by the shadows in your pictures) means that you will grow very little due to the limited sunlight.
He is gonna learn that this weekend. :) And he thought hauling firewood this past fall was hard work...I also learned that filling those raised beds is a back breaking job.
I grew up a country kid and my dad built our house. He had us doing all this and more from about the same age. While I didn't grow up and go into any building trades, we always had access to tools and materials as a kid to build whatever we wanted; so as an adult I felt comfortable enough to attempt most things and had enough experience to know when I just want to hire somebody else to do the job.Its wonderful that he will learn these lessons much earlier than I did.
Judicious use of a shovel and a wheel barrow... Just watch the toes when dumping it!He is gonna learn that this weekend. :) And he thought hauling firewood this past fall was hard work...
A few weeks back I decided we needed an exercise for the kid's memorization skills. So now I find a new meaningful quote every week for the kid to log and memorize. We discuss the meaning of the quote and about the author.
eg: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
-Mark Twain
If you all have any favorite quotes you think a young boy should know, feel free to share them.