This page contains interesting progressions, observations, and benchmarks of the homeschool education of Luca Finn Mosley-Sims. Items are listed in chronological order with the most recent at the top. The old page can be found here.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here. The zingers keep coming steadily from Luca, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to kepp a blog like this updated.

But here's a general update. Back in August, we moved up the river from Helena to Memphis, TN. The main reason for the move was to get Luca into a better school. We're happy to say that he is now in a wonderful school here in Memphis.

In other news, our family is now larger by one. Isaac Jace Mosely-Sims was born on November 13, 2006. He's adjusting quite well to the stream of chaos that is our family.

That's the short and long of it. I'll try to post more often. I promise.

Luca: "Wanna know what my motto is? My motto is, 'You don't get nothin' from me unless you give me $300. Actually, $3000.'"

Here's something no parent particularly wants to hear from their offspring.

Luca: Mom, can I [play Nintendo, watch a DVD, play on the computer]?

Mom: No, you're grounded, remember?

Luca: (muttering, on his way out of the room) I guess I'll just go work on destroying the world.

A few minutes later, I heard him call out, "Mom, where are your keys? I need them!"

On the way home from Little Rock yesterday, Luca treated me to a description of the alien creature he will soon unleash upon us. This alien is being bred in a glass jar from Penzey's Spices. I'm not sure what ingredients go into an alien, but I know it includes green food coloring and salt.

The alien's name is Venix2358. He can ride a rocket-powered skateboard into outer space. He wears a space helmet all the time, because he doesn't breathe air. Instead, he breathes the smell of fog. His space helmet and "air tanks" suck all the air out of Venix2358's helmet and replace it with fog.

What a cool dude.

Tonite as we were driving home, Carmen and I were discussing an upcoming cocktail party that we've been invited to. From the back seat, Luca pipes up and says, "Can I go to the party? I want to wear a chicken costume." ("Cock tail." Get it?)

So, we've moved from Kansas City to Helena, Arkansas, back in August of '05. Lots of changes for the whole family. Perhaps the greatest of which is that we had to send Luca to public school. It's got it's ups and downs, but it's also got it's funny bits, too.

One day last semester, he came home and said, "There's a girl in my class who likes me."
"What's her name?" I asked.
"I dunno."
"Well is she pretty?" I asked.
"Compared to me, no."

More on school later.

Today, I asked Luca to give his fussy brother a pacifier while they rode in the back seat of the car. Luca said, "We should all just go around saying, 'All Hail, Bird,' because everytime he needs something we have just do it like we're his slaves."

Our beloved pet guinea pig, Hoppy, died sometime today. Luca noticed that her eye had gone white and that she was laying on her side. At first he was excited to tell me about how she was doing something different, but was crushed when he realized that she had died.

We had a ceremony for her in the back yard behind the red-bud tree. He was so sad. We gathered some dandylions and clover (2 of her favorites) and a red marigold and put them in her grave. We said our tearful good-byes and placed lilys and trumpet flowers from the garden on her grave.

Luca's friend, Noah, came over after he heard about it and gave Luca an ENORMOUS stuffed lion toy. Luca named him "Courage" upon Grammy's recommendation.

It was a sad night.

We went to a KC Royals game last night. The Royals were playing the Yankees. Yankees infielder Jason Giambi got up to bat, and his face and stats were flashed up on the Jumbo-tron.

Luca pointed and said, "Hey! That guy looks like Pete!" (See entry below).

Memorial day weekend at the lakehouse with some friends, everyone is in the livingroom watching Star Wars. Our friend John Stephany is on the other side of the room from Luca. Luca looks over and asks, "What's your name?"

John replies, "John."

Luca says, "Your name should be Pete."

Several minutes go by and Luca looks back over at John and says, "Do you know why you should be called 'Pete?' Because you're big and fat, and you look like you could crush things easily."

Sitting on the floor with Bird, Luca sang: "Amazing, exciting, good-for-you, compassioning... BINKY!" and gave Bird his pacifier.

Overheard a few nights ago when Luca and his best friend were playing in his room:

Luca: I don't really care who I marry, but I want to marry someone who has kids because I want kids of my own.

Noah (in tones of 5-year-old disdain): Well, I'm gonna marry a boy.

Luca: Why?

Noah: I just want to marry a boy.

Luca (ponderingly): Can boys have babies?

Luca and Beau recorded "Luca is a Monkey." Press the little play button above to hear it.

"You hate me, don't you."
"I'm just going to call you morons everyday from now on."

These are just two of the many statements Luca made, with stoic calm, during our yard sale today. At least half of our yard was full of Luca's toys, and, while he had accepted the inevitability of it, he still wasn't happy about it. We spent last weekend poring over all of Luca's belongings, weeding out everything that he had outgrown, lost pieces to, or simply failed to play with because too many other options were available. The result: our front yard looked like FAO Schwartz.

Still, I'm proud of our little man. Both of them, actually. Luca and Bird were terrific all day long, muttered sentiments of disgruntlement notwithstanding. Brad has been assuming all week that he would have to smuggle Luca out of the house during the sale to avoid a collectie nervous breakdown when Luca saw all of his toys actually on the block. But he accepted it pretty well, and is now playing happily with all of the toys left, which he can actually see and appreciate with all of the clutter gone.

Oh, happy week.

Luca is taking guitar lessons from Beau, my old friend and recent nextdoor neighbor. He can already play C, D, and G on the bottom 3 strings and is playing a song with them. He strums and sings, "Luca is a monkey."

Luca "cooked" a very nice, well-balanced meal this evening. It included a quartered banana, a slice of home-made bread, and his own creation; peanut milk (roasted peanuts in a bowl of milk). Yum! He covered all the food groups and was quite proud of himself.

Afterwards, we made home-made peanut butter with the food processor. We first had to shell the peanuts, and it was at that point that we saw Luca's methods for shelling the peanuts that went into our peanut milk dinner. He put each peanut between his teeth to crach the shell. When we looked at him weird, he said, "It's ok. I only got spit on the outside of the peanuts."

"Why do they call them Crocuses? Do frogs like them?"

Picture this: a cozy kitchen scene. Mommy is standing at the fridge, juggling three huge pillows and trying to get herself a glass of ice water. Luca is mumbling something evil-tempered in the background, and Mommy is only halfway paying attention. Her ears perk up when she hears:

Luca: ...and you've got sunrise for three days before something terrible happens if I don't get my money.
Mommy: What?
Luca: My money.
Mommy: Are you extorting money from me?
Luca: What's extorting?
Mommy: Are you threatening that bad things will happen if I don't give you money?
Luca: Well, if that's what extorting means, I guess that's what I'm doing.
Mommy: Okay, well, how about you do your worst, and we'll see who's happy with that in the end.
Luca: You mean like a contest? Let's have a competition.
Mommy: Okay. Whoever says "Mercy" first loses.
Luca: Okay.
Mommy: And the other one gets the money.
Luca: Okay. [pause] I'm not gonna say it.
Mommy: You're not gonna say "Mercy"?
Luca: You lose!

We were driving down Independence Avenue a few days ago, and Luca saw a sign that he could read.

"Pet hostpital?! What's a pet hospital?" he said dubiously from the back seat.

And as my usual answer to such questions, I replied, "Well, what do you think a pet hospital is?"

He answered, "A veterinian?"

We had 2 milestones today. Our first visit to the dentist (yes, I know we were about a year overdue), and also the subsequent loss of his first tooth. He's very proud and excited about the tooth loss. The tooth was loose at the dentist's office and he's been fiddling with it all day. He took a papertowel and just kept working it back and forth until it came out. He's so brave.

Luca is currently telling Bird all about teeth. "This is a baby tooth. Just like you. You're gonna lose some of these teeth when you get older, but don't worry about it, you're gonna be brave and be able to take it. It really hurts. But you're gonna be brave. See, this is the hole where my tooth was. Wanna see my baby tooth again? Here it is. You can't eat teeth. Teeth is a whole lot of tooths."

A few weeks back:
Carmen and I were sitting in bed reading and using the laptop (typical). Luca is supposed to be getting ready for bed or a bath or something. He bounds into our room, butt naked, and says, "Wanna see me play my guitar?" at which point he grabs the tip of his foreskin, gives it a stretch, and whacks at it with the other hand like a big, up-right bass. He's way ahead of schedule for that kinda stuff.

Back during Christmas, we were driving out to get Chinese food, as per tradition, and the car conversation turns to what the holiday means and what people of different faiths believe. We talked about how and when Jesus was born, then went to other holidays that happen around the time. In a muddled attempt to explain something about Hannukah, we get to some of the differences between what Jews and Christians believe. We're a bit fuzzy on some of the details.

At that point, Luca sets us straight, by saying, "When I was a Jew, I believed...." We were all laughing so hard that we pretty much forgot what it was that he actually believed "when he was a Jew."

Well, the new baby brother is finally here. Emil Bird Mosley-Sims was born at 7:41 pm, on Sunday, January 9. Luca's been really great with him mostly. Very affectionate. Always coming by to kiss baby's forehead and look at him. Luca refers to him as "My Baby."

There's been a bit of jealousy, but I think it's mostly just testing the limits, setting some boundries. It mostly comes in the form of "why is the baby getting so much stuff and you never buy anything for me."

Heh. Yeah.

Luca just came in from the back and said, "Can I borrow the stepstool... to climb the fence... to get on the limb... to climb into the tree?"

Last night we were drawing pictures and cutting them out to glue to popcicle sticks to make puppets. He said, "Look, I drew a horse but he's got a duck's nose." I replied, "Ah, so he's a horse-duck." He said, "Yeah." I said, "Is he a horse-duck or a duck-horse." He said, "He's a horse-duck, because a duck-horse is rediculous."

Yesterday while I was rebuilding his castle play set, Luca was on the floor with me playing with some of the little knights and such. He says, "Hey Troll, you stay here and guard the gate. Don't let anybody in unless they're employees."

This is a small one, but it bears documentation. He's learned/taught himself to swing on a swingset. It's just another of the many little things that he's done recently that have made him more independant and more of an individual.

I've noticed a marked change in his personal identity since his 5th birthday (June 26), and particularly in the past 2 or 3 months. He's really become a different person than he was then.

I see it most noticeably at the play group that we go to 2 to 3 days out of the week. The group is for infants to 5-year olds. Since he's turned 5, he's become so much "bigger" than all the other kids there, whereas, before 5, he was still like a more mobile toddler.

He's now much more independant now than he was earlier in the summer. He doesn't need me to help him play with things as much. He communicates more maturely with other children and with the adults there. He's become more confident in making his own decisions (sometimes with questionable results), rather than generally deferring to me. His conversation level is more fully rounded, and sustained, while also less random or repetitive. His attention span is much longer and more involved. He converses over a much wider range of thoughts and subjects for a longer, more thorough period, rather than picking a subject and repeating its basic thought in variations or talking just to talk.

He's also physically bigger, taller, stronger and more agile than the younger children at play group. They have "races" across the basketball court, and Luca is so much faster than all the other younger kids. And this has changed before my eyes in the past few months.

In short, he just seems so much "bigger" than the other children only 6 months to a year younger than him.

We're at the grocery store, and Luca, with his magnetic personality, begins talking to a stranger in line in front of us. As the conversation goes on, he asks, "Do you have any kids?" The lady says, "Yes, but my daughter is older than you. She's thirty-two. She's probably a older than your dad."

Luca replys that no, Dad is thirty-four and therefore older. Just to show off test him, I ask him how much older I am than the lady's daughter. He holds up a little peace sign for 2. I beam.

I'm at the computer. Luca's playing by himself. A timer-bell rings in the kitchen, and I know I don't have anything cooking. From the other side of the house, Luca shouts, "It's forty minutes, Dad."

Always good to know when forty minutes has gone by.

Luca has been reading now for about 2 months. Actually he's been reading longer than that, but he's been reading BOOKS for a couple of months. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for a partial but ever-growing list of books that's he's read so far. We're doing the Dr. Seuss books pretty heavy, with a few others here and there.

As far back as last December, he was reading little words here and there. I knew he was ready to read back then when we were walking into K-Mart to do some last minute holida shopping, and he looked up at the sign and said "Why does that say BIG?" (K-Mart = "Big K" now.)

Today we were driving back from dropping Carmen off at work. He had his brand new pair of binoculars with him. The following conversation occurred:

Luca: Here Dad, look at the road through these vinoculars while you drive.
Me: I can't. I won't be able to see the road.
Luca: But if you look through them, the road will be be bigger and we'll be able to get home faster.

Well, here's the newly updated design for Luca's homeschool education weblog. I hope to put all sorts of interesting things about his educational growth on here, including milestone, funny anecdotes, and special activities, among other things. If you have comments, please send them to brad at bradsims dot com.

Hop On Pop
Fox in Socks
Great Day for Up
Ten Apples Up On Top
In a People House
Anno's USA (wordless book)
Moonlight (wordless book)
Did you ever see....?