Here are Frodo & Sam enjoying the ride & the view.  I was really proud of Frodo, he's usually a nervous boy about these kinds of things, but he was pretty adventurous!  While up there, we got a great look at the dolphin nursery where the baby dolphins were playing with their handlers.


 Then we did some rides!  If hubby had been able to come along Sam would have totally ridden the log flume and other coaster.. but he was pretty happy with the ones in the nickelodeon section.  He did the beach ball bounce... this thing below that I can't remember what it was called.  You had to pull yourself up to the top using the rope and then hold onto the handles as you fall!
 Frodo & Sam rode the airplanes (which was again something for Frodo, he does NOT usually like things that leave the ground.. but this was ok because he got to control when it went up and down. Doesn't he look  like Joe Cool here? lol

I tried to write a Mother's Day post, but despite it being my intention to celebrate all the terrific things that Home schooling Mum's do for and with our kids... it kept feeling derogatory towards mothers' that use typical school systems. *sigh*    So I've just canned the whole thing because I would never want a single mother who loves her children to feel belittled by my words!

It boils down to this... all loving mothers do the best we can for our children!  We love them, and educate them, in our own ways.  And we all deserve to be celebrated for this :)

Happy Mother's Day my beautiful friends!  I hope you and your families have a wonderful day and that you are pampered a bit, as we all deserve it!

I was awaked at 930 this morning (delightful sleep in!) by breakfast & coffee.  My 8yo made me porridge with bananas & brown sugar.  Then there were flowers (lovely chrysanthemums that we can repot and enjoy on the veranda) a cd of Celtic women (which I love)  and a most non traditional gift, but one that's sooo perfect for me lol.  http://steelseries.com/products/games/diablo-iii/steelseries-diablo-iii-mouse#header  awaited me at my laptop this morning.  I needed a new mouse, and this is the most eagerly awaited installment of one of my favourite computer games ever... totally a win win situation!  

Ok fellow home schooling mamas (and dads!)  ... I need to whinge.  Anyone reading my blog for a while knows that Frodo home schooled, then went to school last year & had a horrid time, and was excited to return to home education late last year.  He's had a rough year, lots of illness and such, but we've still been moving along with his studies.  He's quirky and easily distracted as always, but we work around that.

The BIG problem that I'm having trouble getting around is his WHINGING!  Almost everything I ask him to do, schoolwork wise (actually... this is pretty true for any area of his life) that is NOT computer based, results in a great deal of complaining and whining about how BooooooooooOOOOOOOOring it is!  He mumbled under his breath several times how he hoped our excursion yesterday wasn't boring, only to have great fun in the end.  He enjoyed using History Odyssey when we previously home schooled and wanted to start it again (we're using lvl 2 now), which was cool with me.. but now he balks at reading any of the books that are part of the curriculum.  He's currently reading The Golden Goblet, which sounds like a bit of an Ancient Egyptian adventure tale... and informs me he did not like reading the first book and he doesn't like reading this one either.  

He was doing skwirk lessons earlier, text types was the subject, and I gave him the option of choosing either an information report lesson or a recount (with the suggestion that he could write something about his excursion to remember it by) well.. those are both BORING he says.  He eventually did the lesson on recounts.. but doesn't want to actually recount anything!?!  *pulls own hair out*

I have no problem with him doing a LOT of his school work on the computer, because clearly that is his passion and it's the way of the future anyway... but I have to have written samples, and for balance he needs to read actual books, and write things with an actual pencil etc.   Today I lost the plot momentarily and said fine, if you are that bored do you think I should start looking for a private school where you can start fresh, that way you wouldn't be bored and could see if it worked better than the local public school did!?!?!  I flat out told him I refuse to keep doing this if he is going to whinge & argue with me about every little bit of schoolwork.

Somehow he seems to think that homeschooling is about playing mine-craft all day long?!   (yep, already have limits in place there, he can play mine craft or other games after all his schoolwork is done for the day!)  I'm seriously considering just not planning any schoolwork for next week... but also NOT turning on ANY of the computers all day... or the Wii.  I think maybe he'd get the idea that I'm not going to have this fight, and that if he isn't willing to keep his end of the bargain then life is gonna be pretty boring.

But then... I feel like a real bitch.  I want him to enjoy home schooling and be enthusiastic.. but at the very least I want him to be enthusiastic to just get it done!   I keep letting him know that I do this because I love him, and that this choice means I give up being able to work or go to Uni during school hours and that I'm feeling a bit unappreciated about it.  But I really don't know how else to tackle this... I don't like making him feel guilty or worried that I'll send him back to school..

I've thought about swinging back toward unschooling.. but I know Frodo and I know that he would spend 80% of his time bouncing between mine craft on the computer, Skylanders on the Wii and surfing the web looking at Zelda walk through's and such (all the things that make up most of his free time now)   And honestly... that's not my idea of providing a high quality, well rounded education (which I've committed to providing to the Home Ed Unit application).    Oh how I wish I had a kid that would read or decide to investigate different things!  But I don't... I have a kid that perseverates on the very few things he is currently obsessed with.  

Suggestions would not be considered unsolicited advice at all *deep sigh*