The bike path to homeschooling

Our new home in Dayton is blessed with lots of nearby bike paths, mostly level ones, too, not the hills and valleys prevalent in Colorado or Hawaii. Not only that, but there are park benches and porches all along the way, perfect for stopping and doing some homeschooling.

Another great thing about this area that I didn't remember till I was re-immersed in it, is the variety of wildlife. At first all I noticed were the dead animals on the road: skunks, ground hogs, possums, squirrels, and raccoons making up the bulk. But in the air are dozens of bird varieties that we haven't seen for years: bluejays, wrens, chickadees, flycatchers, swallows, cardinals. And all the usual robins and sparrows, but very few starlings.

We found buckeyes, walnut trees, bittersweet berries. All this along the route of only about five miles. So in a short period of time, we had writing (not a good idea without a decent table) and lots of natural sciences, not to mention an excellent workout. The boy goes extremely fast with his six-speed.

Raven and Dove

I must face the real possibility that my son is going to know the Bible better than I do soon. The other night, I read the story of Noah from his children's storybook Bible, and it said Noah sent out two doves. Jordan said, "But first he sent out another kind of animal, didn't he?" I said , no, it says here two doves. Jordan repeated his assertion, so I opened up his Superheroes Bible, which is a children's NIV version. Sure enough, Noah sent out a raven first. How great is that?

And speaking of homeschooling, that is going very well, largely because of Jordan's ability to recall facts. But not only that, he is able to assimilate the information into communication. In other words, he's understanding what he's learning, as well as enjoying the whole process.

His reading ability is very high. We've skipped through the first month of the 100 Lessons book, simply because there's no need to repeat what he knows as second nature. We'll start this week with more extensive reading passages and see how that goes.

Geography and history for kindergarten is not extensive, but he enjoys learning what's on the globe and where he is in the world. Math comes easily to him, and his art is coming together nicely. In the sports arena, he's a great little soccer player, scoring almost at will in his soccer group. He's like an irresistible force when it comes to getting the ball. There have been only a handful able to even contest with him.

We had his first playdate last week, too, with one of his soccer friends, and the only thing wrong with that to Jordan's way of thinking was, of course, that it didn't last long enough. I'm still trying to find local coop groups to join for the camaraderie for Jordan, though I'd have to trade some of my skills, too. It's not that easy to get these groups to open up, for some reason. Maybe it's just my fault for thinking that everybody answers emails. Who knows? Or maybe I'm sending out ravens when I should be sending out the doves? What the heck does that mean? :-) Better call Noah?