The beauty of chores

Austin has a renewed motivation to earn money. His good friend showed him a new Hero Factory (Lego) toy online, and ever since, he's been driven to buy it.

This week was definitely focussed on money-making activities. As a side benefit, our house is cleaner than it would have been, and Austin has improved some living skills.

Austin knew that he would need to save enough to cover taxes. I've been chuckling to myself as he applies the 12-times-tables to each potential purchase. He's worked out that he can multiply the price by 12 then convert from cents to dollars (ie. divide by 100). So, since he wanted to buy the Hero Factory Witch Doctor, which costs $39.99 before tax, he worked out that 40 x 12 = 480 and 480 cents = $4.80. Rounding up, he determined that he would need to earn $45 to cover his purchase. And here is how he did it:

Money left in his wallet: $9
Vacuum house (hallway, living room, Mom & Dad's bedroom) $3
Sweep floors (entry hall, kitchen, dining room, bathrooms) $3
Mop floors (entry hall, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms) $3
Wash car with Aidan $5
Mow front and back lawns: $15
Babysitting: $9

Total earned and saved: $47

He was thrilled to tie in the purchase event with a sleepover with very special friends.

And it all culminated in Austin disassembling Witch Doctor, sorting all 331 pieces by colour, and coaching Mom to build this evil dude, following the step-by-step instructions.

Quote of the day

This morning, around 7:50, I entered Austin's room and turned on the light so he could gradually wake up. He awoke with a cheery "Good morning!"

I responded with, "It's the big day." (sleepover at his friends' place)

Then, he said, "The sun is shining, the tank is clean and we are getting out of here!" (the image of "Gill" from Finding Nemo emerges)

It was so appropriate, as we both admired his clean, vacuumed floor. Even Austin, who absolutely hates to clean up, loves a clean space.

Inspired to Write

During a recent visit with a friend, Austin was inspired to write a prologue to accompany her brilliant fantasy story. She offered him her iPad, and he busily typed away for about 30-45 minutes.

Today, Austin and I worked together on a first revision of his writing. Halfway through this exercise, Austin wanted to stop - revision seems to be quite the opposite of inspiring!

Here are the first two drafts of Austin's prologue:

Austin's Story prologue.

1. First draft

It was night in terraplenta but in this part it was always dark

This part of terraplenta was called the black mountains

The reason it is called the blackmountins is the inhabitants here are dragons

.These are no ordinary dragons that breath fire and horde treasure no

These dragons brethe darkness a darkness that can even consume the soul

 one day in the nere by village of

Ignea little did the dragon know that the village was preparing to driVe them

from the black mountains . The dragons awoke with a start at first they

Thought it was visitors coming early after all the black mountains are the only

Safe haven for dragons. When they saw what had cosed the commotion

They were startled to see a army from ignea the closest fairy village they

Were cot off garde the dragons fled with the chief taiking up the rear

The chief stoped suddenly as he herd the ditresed call of his offspring

He rushes back to the den only to find them dead and his mate had suffered

the same fate they fled the black mountains as they got further away the

Black mountains That he called there kingdom vanish from sight.that night the

chief made a Vow to destroy the ones who killed his family.

2. Second draft (focus on spelling and punctuation)

It was night in Terraplenta, but in this part it was always dark. This part of Terraplenta was called the Black Mountains.

The reason it is called the Black Mountains is the inhabitants here are dragons. 

These are no ordinary dragons that breathe fire and horde treasure. 

These dragons breathe darkness, a darkness that can even consume the soul.

One day, in the nearby village of Ignea, little did the dragons know that the village 

was preparing to drive them from the Black Mountains. The dragons awoke with a start. At first, they thought it was visitors coming early. After all, the Black Mountains are the only safe haven for dragons. When they saw what had caused the commotion, they were startled to see an army from Ignea, the closest fairy village. They were caught off guard. The dragons fled with the chief taking up the rear. The chief stopped suddenly as he heard the distressed call of his offspring.

He rushed back to the den only to find them dead and his mate had suffered

the same fate. They fled the Black Mountains. As they got further away, the

Black Mountains that he called their kingdom, vanish from sight. That night, the chief made a Vow to destroy the ones who killed his family.

Swimming and Life-saving

Austin completed and received a certificate for Bronze Star, last month. This course is a pre-requisite for the life-saving course, Bronze Medallion, which Austin is eager to take next month. He enjoyed the group os students who completed Bronze Star with him. They ranged in age from 13-15, with most of the group over 13. Austin is looking forward to learning with that group, again. He is very motivated to become a lifeguard at his earliest opportunity. He has to be at least 16 years old.

In that course, he learned basic CPR and practiced saving a drowning person, even while wearing clothes.

September 12-22, Austin has been taking I Can Swim 4 on M/T/W/Th for 30 minutes per day, 5:00-5:30. He is getting private lessons, because noone else signed up for the course.

Austin's instructor, Hessam, told me that Austin takes instruction very well and he was impressed by Austin's mature response to the question, "What is your favourite stroke?" Austin responded, "The breaststroke, but that's most likely because it's the one I'm best at. I should probably practice other strokes to get better at them, too."

Austin told me that Hessam is getting Austin to work on improving his endurance. Austin has been getting good daily exercise, hiking in the hills around our home, as we walk little brothers to their respective schools.

Khan Academy mathematics

I like the learning tree on the Khan website. Austin is very motivated to earn points and badges. The site colours subjects in orange, if it's time for Austin to refresh what he has learned. Then, he can return to that subject and answer questions to demonstrate that he has remembered what he learned.

Austin spends most of his time with the Khan Academy, working independently. However, I worked with him on angles last week. We watched the video, "The Angle Game," together, and he intuitively was able to solve for the missing angles. Before Salman told us that two lines were parallel, Austin assumed that they were, so was able to identify corresponding angles and solve for supplementary ones. He was very quick with these exercises, clearly enjoying the work.

The blue colour indicates that Austin is proficient in the subject, green indicates the subject is suggested, and orange is selected for review.

Cosmology and Astronomy

Austin has been learning about cosmology and astronomy on the Khan Academy website.

The green-coloured font of the video title indicates that Austin has watched that movie. Since Austin has an enduring interest in this subject, he has already been exposed to many of these topics.

His own library card

Austin got his own library card last Friday. For the first three months, he can have up to ten items out at a time. After three months, he can sign out as many as 100 items!

This library card has given Austin a little more personal freedom and he likes to walk/skateboard up to the library on his own.

A few days ago, he took out books 7 and 9 of the Ranger's Apprentice series. He has already read books 1-6 and book 8.