It's funny...

It's been a while since I've "blogged"...
that phrase is funny to me. you see, that's how almost every journal entry in every journal I have ever had starts.
..."it's been a while since I've written..." As if I owe someone an apology for my laziness. when in fact it is not laziness but busy - ness that keeps me from blogging.

Yes, I have been home-schooling. I kind of feel guilty that I am not liking it as much as other moms seem to like it. It is a real sacrifice to make sure I make that time to prepare and sit and teach and help. I get very frustrated with my son.
but here is what I do love - he is doing better than he had a chance to do in school.
Gabe is a difficult kid sometimes. He flat out refuses to do work of any kind unless it is making movies on the computer.
so me... the big genius that I am... decides he gets to have his own blog spot to journal and write in. But what is his Blog now? A huge mess of games and movie downloads. No writing anywhere. hurumph. okay, how to get a kid to write. that is the next problem. He draws comic books and writes a few words or phrases here and there to embellish the story he tells with pictures. He is a great story teller with pictures. I love that he can change facial expressions and body language in a stick figure. amazing to a non-artist like me.
I had the reverse problem in school. Teachers were always saying "Michelle, I asked for a one page essay comparing these 2 poems, I didn't need 13 pages tying in other poetry books and comparisons Please do it over and make it something I can read in one night."
Yeah, I was THAT kid. So it's hard for me to figure out why MY child doesn't want to write? I don't expect perfection. one time I told him he could write anything he wanted to (this was after trying to get him to do a paragraph of what he just read) But he cried and cried and cried and refused and said his head was going to explode. So when the paper was finally finished it was something like this...
"... I hate my mom. my head hurts. Why does everyone hate me. I can't think of anything to write. If I have to miss my brother's party I'd rather die. ..." etc, etc...
So yeah. He finally wrote a whole page. this is something he has never done before for any teacher. since then he has written 2 other pages very similar, but he is STARTTING to write.

I believe learning to write to be so important. maybe it's because it's MY way of being vocal. But truly every great leader in history has been able to write their thoughts and feelings. Even great scientists and artists need to learn to write what they think and see and feel in order to gain the respect of their communities.

So yeah, I am a stickler on writing. Not penmanship, not spelling, not punctuation. Just on writing. Getting thoughts to words to computer or paper. If I can help him do that, I think he can feel more free to express all those things tied up inside him.