Leaping From The Box » Martial Arts

Blog Carnival of Homeschooling

Leaping — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:31:46 +0000

I have an entry in the 134th Carnival of Homeschooling – The 12 Labors of Hercules this week. Tiffany at Life on the Road is hosting the carnival this month.

I have not had a chance to do any more than just scan the titles and descriptions of each blog post included in this month’s carnival, but I will definitely be spending my free moments this week reading more in depth. These few intrigue me right off the bat:

ChristineMM challenges us to take a hard look at our standards, in Controversial Article About Homeschooler’s Abilities On My Mind posted at The Thinking Mother.
Katherine gives her review of a great resource for the preschool set: Kumon Workbooks, at No fighting, no biting! (Since it looks like I’ll be unschooling a preschooler the next year or two, I have been looking more at preschool activities, etc.)
NerdMom beautifully address an issue near and dear to my heart in The First Key to Homeschooling and Not Losing It over at Nerd Family.
Teresa Wymore talks about the value of great literature (and don’t miss her insightful expose on public school teaching!) in harry potter and homeschool posted at Flesh & Spirit.
Living By Learning shares some insight about A Game Ethics Lesson from The Karate Kid at On Living By Learning. (I have read this article and left at least one comment. We’ve been having a great discussion on Game Ethics!)

Thanks, Tiffany, for gathering together a great looking bunch of bloggers and blog posts! And for all you visiting homeschool bloggers, please consider visiting my LeapingFromTheBox.com website for more homeschool information, elists & support groups, and articles on unschooling and homeschooling! Thanks for visiting!

Technology, Love it or Hate it?

Leaping — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:31:00 +0000

Charles got an iPod for his birthday Tuesday. He had an mp3 player already, but it was about wore out and he had requested something bigger and better for his birthday. Of course, bigger and better also means more complicated! Charles does not deal well with most computerized technology. He has a difficult time reading something and translating that into action. If he can see it done, he is fine. But he has inherited my technology-blindness, if you will. I have tried to help him, and we are finally making progress in understanding how to convert his existing songs into the proper format, but man, has it been a struggle. It’s like learning a new language, reading some of the technical jargon. I’ll read something to myself, then read it aloud to Charles, and the two of us try to decipher what I just read. But, like I said, we are finally making progress.

Now, if you were to show Charles a new karate form, he would get it right away. Or if you were to put him in charge of a class of karate students, he would have no problem with that. The class would continue calmly and smoothly. But show him something that needs tools to work on, like a car, or something with technological jargon and pop-up warnings, like a computer, and he is lost. He has had to learn to deal with more of that, though, this year with David away to college. No more can he just throw his arms up in defeat and cajole his brother into helping him.

And what is Charles doing now? While his iTunes is finally converting all the files the way he has been trying to get it to since late last night? He is out squirrel hunting. I am not sure if he took his blow gun or his bow. I do know the squirrels are not in any danger, though. The cats trailing after Charles will successfully warn away any squirrel silly enough to get within shooting range.

Jujitsu Black Belt!

Leaping — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:07:00 +0000

Last night was Graduation and Charles received his Jujitsu Black Belt. Quite an achievement! Charles worked so hard the past several days, helping teach classes because his instructor had hurt his hip, and also helping prepare for graduation. I think he was too tired to really get the full joy of graduating and receiving that black belt. But he did look pretty happy.

On the extreme left is Honshi Rawls, a 10th Degree Black Belt in something, maybe Jujitsu? I can never keep it straight. And then Charles is to the right of Honshi Rawls. And then to the right of Charles is his instructor, Donnie Chappell, who is a 4th Degree Black Belt in Karate and 3rd Degree Black Belt in Jujitsu. And to his right is his daughter (Charles’ girl friend) Rebecca, who also received her 3rd Degree Karate Black Belt last night. Not a bunch to pick a fight with!

So, now Charles has two black belts, one in Jujitsu and one in Karate. And he is about halfway to being ready to test for his second level karate black belt. It’s a three-year process, so another year and a half to go. Amazing what a can happen when a sibling wins a month’s free lessons in something! That’s how our karate adventures began. Kat won a month’s free lessons at a homeschool seminar in 1999, I think it was. Charles watched Kat that month and immediately wanted to sign up! Ever since, his first love, basketball, has paled in comparison to martial arts.