Results tagged “chess” from Learn at Every Turn - Creative, Enriched Homeschooling

We just returned from Landry's first chess lesson, and it was a complete success. Landry loved playing with other people, even when he didn't win. He came home enthused to practice and return for another lesson. And, although one of the coaches seemed fairly concerned with competition, Landry remained unconcerned and simply wanted to play his game.

All of this raises a dilemma for me once again. At the moment, the boys enjoy taking lessons in martial arts and piano during the school year. Landry's chess lessons occur each week and are 45 minutes minutes by freeway from the house. And Kipp is not interested in chess. As I've written before, he prefers building and robots, and I may have found a fall class suited to his interest. Eventually, Galen will have interests that may be better suited to outside lessons.

Of course, I'm also responsible for seeing that the boys complete their curriculum. And I need some time for my own pursuits.

How do I find a balance between outside lessons and the curriculum? Or in time spent on each son? Or between homeschooling and my own creative life?

At the end of last semester, I felt burned out by homeschooling, a college class, and a commitment to getting the boys out more. Now, I see the boys becoming involved in even more outside activities, and I want them to have those experiences. At the same time, my exhaustion does not really benefit anyone.

So, where do you draw the line?

After taking a much needed break from all writing, I am finally feeling a revival of my innate need to write. I've spent the better part of this evening working on some minor issues pertaining to this blog and can now truthfully write that I am looking forward to posting again.

It's late here, so my list of potential posts will have to wait. In the meantime, however, I will mention a couple of small but interesting developments here.

As I've posted before, Landry loves chess, but has learned primarily through computer games. For some time, I have been looking for an outlet where he can play with other children who share his passion. An initial foray earlier this year just didn't feel right to me. The group seemed to emphasize competitions and tournaments, and Jerry and I feel strongly that Landry's genuine love of the game should not be destroyed by pressure to win.

Well, I found a different local group recently. Again, the emphasis seems to be on tournaments and the trophies that the children have won. However, they have a free lesson night apart from tournaments, so we've decided to give it a try. Landry is excited to attend this week, and I hope he has a terrific time.

As for Kipp, I ended up with some extra money when I budgeted my allotment from the charter next year, so I requested that the charter buy Kipp a LEGO Mindstorm NXT. So far, it appears the request is going through. I can't wait to see Kipp's face when it arrives or find out what he decides to do with it.

I've also made progress in finding some leads on engineering classes suitable for an advanced six year old. I'm hoping something pans out. I would love to find a class that encouraged Kipp's ceaseless drive to build and design machines and robots.

Okay, enough for tonight!