Remember when I posted about purchasing a go kart for Son? He has enjoyed his go kart very much. He figured out how to prevent the go kart from stalling by finessing the gas and brake. He learned about loans, compounding interest, and choosing to purchase one object over another. He experimented with turning radius, acceleration up a hill, and stopping distance. He experienced its not so great handling, the bumpiness of the ride, and the smell of the exhaust. We paid for and did the work to replace the bearings and the clutch. He got grassy from driving right after mowing. He paid for gas and filled up the tank for his joy ride. He loved his go kart.
Yesterday it left our house. We sold it. Son had driven it long enough to satisfy his need. He had not driven it in weeks. It was his idea to sell the go kart. He sucked the life out of the go kart and then passed it on for another boy and his cousins to love. Enjoy the ride!
Showing posts with label passions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label passions. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Boats, Guns, and Secret Service
Son has been interested in boats for a while now. He has gone on a row boat and paddle boats. He loved the idea of powerboating. He was browsing Craig's List one time and asked if we could buy a $15,000 boat. Umm, no.
After weeks (and more weeks) of putting him off about purchasing a power boat (we said no for gas, cost, and interest reasons), I was able to shift into trying to help him get what he wanted. I suggested we walk down the street to our powerboating neighbors and ask to go out when they are going anyway. They of course said sure but not today. They said they'd call. Waiting is so hard. Last weekend, they finally called and Son and Husband got to go out on the Potomac River in a power boat. At first, he didn't want to go. I shifted and reframed the opportunity with the excitement I knew he would have. He quickly packed his bag and headed off. First time out on a power boat for Son. He came home tired, a bit windblown, and joyous. He enjoyed the boating, he enjoyed the company (bit older girl to talk to), but boy was he hungry! Apparently going on top of the water at 70 mph was a bit more interesting than eating his sandwich :-) I was so happy to have helped him Shine on that day.
That was over a week ago. This past weekend, we watched the movie Sentinel. We enjoyed Michael Douglas as a Secret Service agent. Now my kids are Shining with their new nerf guns and cool sunglasses and doing lots of secret missions. Madame president frequently needs the house sweeped for bad guys. The First Man's arrival home from a busy day at the office is an anticipated and well planned out event now :-) I do sometimes wish we had guns that shoot love or peace instead of guns with toy bullets. But I suppose I need to work on my pretending a bit more too!
After weeks (and more weeks) of putting him off about purchasing a power boat (we said no for gas, cost, and interest reasons), I was able to shift into trying to help him get what he wanted. I suggested we walk down the street to our powerboating neighbors and ask to go out when they are going anyway. They of course said sure but not today. They said they'd call. Waiting is so hard. Last weekend, they finally called and Son and Husband got to go out on the Potomac River in a power boat. At first, he didn't want to go. I shifted and reframed the opportunity with the excitement I knew he would have. He quickly packed his bag and headed off. First time out on a power boat for Son. He came home tired, a bit windblown, and joyous. He enjoyed the boating, he enjoyed the company (bit older girl to talk to), but boy was he hungry! Apparently going on top of the water at 70 mph was a bit more interesting than eating his sandwich :-) I was so happy to have helped him Shine on that day.
That was over a week ago. This past weekend, we watched the movie Sentinel. We enjoyed Michael Douglas as a Secret Service agent. Now my kids are Shining with their new nerf guns and cool sunglasses and doing lots of secret missions. Madame president frequently needs the house sweeped for bad guys. The First Man's arrival home from a busy day at the office is an anticipated and well planned out event now :-) I do sometimes wish we had guns that shoot love or peace instead of guns with toy bullets. But I suppose I need to work on my pretending a bit more too!
Bellydancing - my new passion!
Yesterday I had a great time going to my first bellydancing workshop. I went to the House of Dance for a Choreography Workshop with Amy Koskey. We moved, we shaked, and had a grand old time. Amy dances a tribal fusions tyle which was so much fun. I learned that someone I have known for over 6 years teaches bellydance in the next county over and dances with the area bellydance troupe. Wow that was a surprise. I checked out her photos on the web and no wonder I never knew. She looks so different decked out in bellydancing attire than when I see her at the nature center where she works:-)
I know what you are thinking. Why bellydance? Why now? Well, at Live and Learn, Mindy and her son Max did this fusion bellydance/hip hop act which made me want to be on stage dancing with them. Since I came home from L&L thinking that the things I spend my days doing were kind of boring - I was feeling open to new passions. I got advice to just try a bunch of new things and see what I liked. I tried bellydance. I like!
On the way to the workshop, I stopped to pick up some wood burning tools that I got through freecycle. My Roots and Shoots group is going to make some trail signs for a local state park. The funny thing was that the place I picked up these tools was the same neighborhood as my friend Ronda used to live in. The same Ronda that started the Roots and Shoots group and then handed it over to me several months later! We sure miss you dear:-)
I am checking out an actual bellydance class this weekend. I hope that is as fun as the workshop I did yeaterday.
I know what you are thinking. Why bellydance? Why now? Well, at Live and Learn, Mindy and her son Max did this fusion bellydance/hip hop act which made me want to be on stage dancing with them. Since I came home from L&L thinking that the things I spend my days doing were kind of boring - I was feeling open to new passions. I got advice to just try a bunch of new things and see what I liked. I tried bellydance. I like!
On the way to the workshop, I stopped to pick up some wood burning tools that I got through freecycle. My Roots and Shoots group is going to make some trail signs for a local state park. The funny thing was that the place I picked up these tools was the same neighborhood as my friend Ronda used to live in. The same Ronda that started the Roots and Shoots group and then handed it over to me several months later! We sure miss you dear:-)
I am checking out an actual bellydance class this weekend. I hope that is as fun as the workshop I did yeaterday.
Friday, August 1, 2008
New Goal and Go-Kart
I start to feel guilty if I don't post for a while and then I don't want to do it at all. Also, I was never someone who kept a journal, so blogging is not a natural, easy thing for me. My friend Ronda has inspired me to try blogging more. So I set myself a goal to blog daily for 2 weeks and see if that improves my attitude. Here goes ...
This blog is named Organic Everything because I put a priority on local, organic food and on organic learning. I have yet to post at all about the learning portion. Within the last year or so, I have jumped into the river of what is commonly called unschooling. Its even more strange than that - we are trying our best at radical unschooling. I love to control things and so this is hard for me. It means letting go of bedtimes, arbitrary parental rules, food limitations, expectations of learning particular things at particular times, and parents taking priority over their kids. Radical unschooling also means giving freedom to everyone in my home no matter what age, learning about anything and everything - by choice - in a variety of ways, helping my kids and husband with what is important to them (not me!), trusting that my kids are doing the best they can right now, and living with the today at the forefront of my mind. Radical unschooling means that I do things for my kids that I would not want for myself. I do them because they want them and I am in a position to help them.
Need an example? I recently helped my son purchase a used go-kart. My personal opinion is that these types of vehicles eat gasoline, create dirty air, tear up the yard, and shouldn't be driven on neighborhood roads. Son (who is 9 almost 10) really wanted to drive something that goes faster than him on his road bike (and he races his road bike). He explored dirt bikes, electric bikes, go-karts, and at one point asked my to get him a $15,000 boat off Craig's List. He spent a lot of time watching youtube videos, checking out company web sites, and otherwise learning about non-automobile moving vehicles. After the wonderful folks at UnschoolingBasics helped me view this situation differently, I offered in a different way to walk down to our neighbor and see if we can check out their go-kart or to the other neighbor to ask to ride along on his power boat. Wouldn't you know it, but the neighbor with the go-kart was interested in selling his 10 year old go-kart for $250. Much different than the $1500 he spent on it 10 years ago and much more doable for our family finances. You guessed it! As of 7/23 we now own the go-kart.
The go-kart was used and well loved by the 3 boys who drove it (they drive cars now). So of course, after the first day of driving it almost all day. the chain started to come off. Well, Son wanted to shorted the chain (he does his own bicycle maintenance). We asked another neighbor who works on engines if that was the right way to fix the problem. Nope - just loosen the bolts and slide the engine up till the chain isn't loose anymore. Oh, but you might want to fix this wheel. What wheel? So now the poor go-kart needs new bearings for its drive wheel. So we take off the wheel, hub, and bearings and ride our bikes up to a lawn repair shop (its 7/25 now). They measure, check catalog, measure more, check catalog again, and finally pick the part to try. When we get back from our trip to PA, we get the bearings and joyfully come home to put everything back together. Alas, the bearings are not the right size. The inner hole is too small and they do not fit on the axle. But it is now after close of business on 7/29 so we have to wait more. I get out dh's calipers, take the measurements myself (well actually ds - we do unschool afterall), and call the shop next morning. It takes all day to find the right part. Turns out that parts aren't always the same as the measurements they are sold as. We are hoping that today the part will come in and it will be the right one. I could either have a very happy boy or a boy who doesn't know what to do with himself for the weekend. I'll let you know!
This blog is named Organic Everything because I put a priority on local, organic food and on organic learning. I have yet to post at all about the learning portion. Within the last year or so, I have jumped into the river of what is commonly called unschooling. Its even more strange than that - we are trying our best at radical unschooling. I love to control things and so this is hard for me. It means letting go of bedtimes, arbitrary parental rules, food limitations, expectations of learning particular things at particular times, and parents taking priority over their kids. Radical unschooling also means giving freedom to everyone in my home no matter what age, learning about anything and everything - by choice - in a variety of ways, helping my kids and husband with what is important to them (not me!), trusting that my kids are doing the best they can right now, and living with the today at the forefront of my mind. Radical unschooling means that I do things for my kids that I would not want for myself. I do them because they want them and I am in a position to help them.
Need an example? I recently helped my son purchase a used go-kart. My personal opinion is that these types of vehicles eat gasoline, create dirty air, tear up the yard, and shouldn't be driven on neighborhood roads. Son (who is 9 almost 10) really wanted to drive something that goes faster than him on his road bike (and he races his road bike). He explored dirt bikes, electric bikes, go-karts, and at one point asked my to get him a $15,000 boat off Craig's List. He spent a lot of time watching youtube videos, checking out company web sites, and otherwise learning about non-automobile moving vehicles. After the wonderful folks at UnschoolingBasics helped me view this situation differently, I offered in a different way to walk down to our neighbor and see if we can check out their go-kart or to the other neighbor to ask to ride along on his power boat. Wouldn't you know it, but the neighbor with the go-kart was interested in selling his 10 year old go-kart for $250. Much different than the $1500 he spent on it 10 years ago and much more doable for our family finances. You guessed it! As of 7/23 we now own the go-kart.
The go-kart was used and well loved by the 3 boys who drove it (they drive cars now). So of course, after the first day of driving it almost all day. the chain started to come off. Well, Son wanted to shorted the chain (he does his own bicycle maintenance). We asked another neighbor who works on engines if that was the right way to fix the problem. Nope - just loosen the bolts and slide the engine up till the chain isn't loose anymore. Oh, but you might want to fix this wheel. What wheel? So now the poor go-kart needs new bearings for its drive wheel. So we take off the wheel, hub, and bearings and ride our bikes up to a lawn repair shop (its 7/25 now). They measure, check catalog, measure more, check catalog again, and finally pick the part to try. When we get back from our trip to PA, we get the bearings and joyfully come home to put everything back together. Alas, the bearings are not the right size. The inner hole is too small and they do not fit on the axle. But it is now after close of business on 7/29 so we have to wait more. I get out dh's calipers, take the measurements myself (well actually ds - we do unschool afterall), and call the shop next morning. It takes all day to find the right part. Turns out that parts aren't always the same as the measurements they are sold as. We are hoping that today the part will come in and it will be the right one. I could either have a very happy boy or a boy who doesn't know what to do with himself for the weekend. I'll let you know!
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