Macschooling

I'm sorry this is so late in coming.  I went looking for pictures that apparently I don't have.  Rather than make you wait further, I figured I'd post what I could.
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In a recently (for me) post, I mentioned that my son has become quite the tinkerer.  I wish I could say he's gotten this joy and talent from me but I admit it's mostly from his father.   Yes I can come up with some interesting solutions to problems (and patterns for knitting), but my husband... well, he's awesome when it comes to such things.  In fact he was hired at his new job to help fix electrical and computer components rather than just replacing them.  To say he to tinkers is an understatement.

In fact, for at least a week after I met my now-husband, I knew his as MacGyver.  As in the guy from the TV show.  Why?  Because when he started working at the summer camp we met at, he had a Swiss army knife and used duct tape to fix things.  Since then, he has upgraded to a Leatherman knife and he uses other things besides duct tape as well, but the nickname still works for him.

I've asked my husband how he learned to fix things.  What I was told was that when he was growing up he started out by going through people's trash looking for electronic things for parts.  He would take parts from various "broken" pieces of equipment that he found and he would get one item working.  He also fixed Walkmen for people at his school (for a fee of course).  During college he worked at a computer store fixing and assembling computers.

So, it came as no surprise to me when my husband came home from yard sailing with a broken Billy the Bass for our son to mess with.  I WAS a bit surprised however, when my son got it working in less than an hour.  Since that day, my son has started going yard sailing for the sole purpose of finding things to fix or use for parts.  He was given a circuits kit for Christmas a couple years ago and he's even mixed parts from that with parts from "real" electronics in order to make new things.

I am a firm believer that hands-on learning is the way to go for many things in life, and this is no exception.  Thankfully, I have an electrical engineer in the house to help make sure our son doesn't hurt himself while tinkering.  If any of my local friends have any broken electronics, contact us before throwing it out.  I MIGHT know someone who would like to play with it.  :-)

Son watching Daddy fixing our washing machine

Son looking at the "broken" electronics panel from our new fridge.

Light-band son made from the broken panel from our fridge (Mac[Gyver]schooling at it's finest)

Educational Success

In addition to buying a new car yesterday, we went to what was called a "Knowledge Faire."  It was aimed at homeschoolers and was designed to give the kids some fun things to do as well as give parents the opportunity to look at some books, games, and curriculum that could be useful to their family.  It cost a few dollars per person to get in, but I decided if it meant I could look at and touch some of these things it would be worth it.

I loved that my kids could do some of the fun yet educational things.  Among other things, they had a First robot team which my son LOVES and they had some representatives from Busch Gardens there with a few animals which my daughter loves. 

But the main reason I was there was to see if I could find some games that would help me get my son reading as well as something to help my daughter recognize a few numbers and letters she's still having problems with.   I did find a few things that I'm considering, but if anything what I found was that I am not giving myself enough credit.  Some of the ideas that have been made into games are very simple.  If someone else can do it, why can't I?  Give me some time and maybe the kids and I can come up with a game we can sell.

As great as all the game ideas were, the thing that I really enjoyed was watching the surprise on someone's face when my son answered a rather tough question correctly.  To be honest, I didn't think he remembered the answer, but he did.  It feels so good knowing that although the method I've chosen to use to teach my son is what some would consider unconventional, it seems to be working.

It made yesterday go from a good day to a great day.