The Five Day of the Tao

The saying that I chose today was:

     With enough practice,

you could come and go without a trace,

speak without stumbling over words,

do complicated math problems

in your head.

     I think that it would be awesome to do complicated problems in my head. So now I need to practice practice practice. It would also be really awesome if you could go without a trace. I think that it would be awesome to do all that stuff, so now I must practice

Day Four of the Tao

 I chose this saying:

When you have nothing to say,

you may as well keep your mouth shut.

     

      My dad says that if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything. Now I don't always follow that rule, but the saying that I picked today is exactly like that saying. I think that if you don't have anything that isn't going to hurt my feeling then don't do that.

Tao Day Three

The saying that I chose today was:

Trust and respect people.

That's how you earn

their trust and respect.

This verse means that if you earn people's trust then they will. This saying applies to me quite a lot because my dad said that I have lost his trust because I like to do things that I'm not supposed to do.

But now I know that I shouldn't do those things. I think that I will work on that.

Tao Two

Today I chose this verse:

"If you drink too much, you get drunk.

The engine won't start

if you're always tinkering with it.

If you hoard wealth,

you fall into its clutches.

If you crave success,

you succumb to failure.

Do what you have to do,

then walk away.

Anything else will drive you nuts."

It is about if you do too much stuff, then you will have to suffer the consequences.

The thing that I do too much and have to suffer the consequences are when I add the little touches to projects that take quite a while and then I'm out of time. I'll give you an example. Last week, I had to do a project on a new website. The website was cool because you can put words inside of other words. I was messing around with it and then it was the day that it was due and I still had a lot to do. So I stopped doing all that and got it done. I think that this saying particularly appealed to me because I like to add the finishing touch to everything.

Tao

For the next week or so, I am going to read poems about Tao. It is kind of hard to understand, but it is still interesting.

The guy that made it easier to understand is a guy called Ron Hogan. The saying that I chose for today is: 

"Stop doing stuff all the time, and watch what happens."

This means that instead of taking and doing stuff, just stand back and watch. I've had a logic lesson that has this same message. The lesson was lesson two - it said to be a good listener and just watch and listen. I like this saying because it refers to me a lot. I like to have a good time and talk quite a bit, but after this I think that I am going to try to be a better listenter and watcher. If I do this then maybe, I will become smarter.

Science Experiment Day

Today we some did neat and interesting science experiments. The first one that we did was a one where we created some flat paper boats. Then we made a notch in the back where we put the “motor”.  We made four boats and on three boats were chewed bubble gum, soap and facial tissue. On the last one, it had no “motor”.  

 Then we put them in a tub of water and let them float. The facial tissue, gum and the one with no motor were the ones that didn’t move very much, but the soap one went like crazy. It went in two circles and then finally stopped. 

The next science experiments that we did were a one where we put pepper in a bowl and then dipped items in. First we dipped a piece of facial tissue and gum and the pepper kind of moved out of the way but no more. The pepper was like scared of the soap because when we put it in, the pepper moved out of the way and quick.

From left to right, soap,facial tissue, chewed gum, and none

This is  me (Spencer) dipping the soap into the peppery water

This is after when we discovered that the pepper goes away from the soap

Some Good Things That I Did Yesterday

Yesterday, I felt that I did better with my control than the day before.

After yesterday's cross country meet, I wanted to go to Asian Buffet because some of my cross country team was going. Even though I felt really sad and mad that I could not go, I dealt with it and decided that I don't need Asian Buffet so I stopped crying and got over it.

We had a track meet yesterday where I did some good things that made myself happy.

1. I stayed behind at the playground when one of my friends(Aaron) was going to ditch one of my other friends(Colton). Even though, I was mad at Aaron for leaving the playground, me and Colton still had fun.

2. Then while we were at my cross country meet, me and Colton got to ride in the golf car that showed the runners where to go. Then Colton accidentally dropped the girl that drove us Ipod Touch. Then I went to look for it when Colton went home. Turns out that Colton actually had the Ipod.

3.  Even though I didn't get to go to Asian Buffet, I still was nice to everybody at home. I even helped Elliot put together his new Lego thing that he got for his birthday.

Yesterday

Yesterday, Mom asked me to read a page out of a book that was about manners, because me and my siblings haven’t been getting along very well. We like to fight a lot and we like to antagonize each other, so that is why Mom made me read a section out of the book. Some of the things that the book mentions were that you should be aware of your surroundings and should pay attention to other feelings.

            Some of the ways that I did those two things were that I cleaned the table even though it wasn’t my night for dinner duty, so I think that that was nice. Also I normally do the dishes and yesterday I helped my sister with her side of doing the dishes. Me and them didn’t fight as much as we normally do so that is good. One more thing to wrap it up and that is that yesterday I felt a lot happier than those other days when me and my brother or sister would fight.

            Some of things that I still need to improve is that I still need to stop fighting. It isn’t like we were fighting majorly, but every now and then either me or him would get a little angry at him. One more thing that I noticed was that I like to tease a little bit, so I MUST stop doing that.

            Things that I plan to do for today are trying not to fight with my brother. Even if he jumps on me, I will push him off and walk away. Also I need to stop teasing. When I do that I tend to get others mad. Also my dad made a good point when he asked me,” What do you get out of it”.

Mom's note: I was impelled to switch out Logic studies for what I called Guidance.  I felt Spencer was in need of a little soul-searching and reflection this morning.  The blog entry below is a summary of his lesson.

Today we had a new subject , Guidance. I know that I like to fight with my brother and sister a lot and my mom knows that too. So today instead of logic we did guidance.

I learned that we have to look at our surroundings and we have to look at the people that we are mad at and look at how they are feeling. If they are feeling like they have had enough, then just leave them alone. If they are antagonizing you, then just leave them and tell a parent. Before I used to just fight until one of us was on the ground crying. Now that I look back on it, I really feel bad about what I did.  The book that I read from was Manner Made Easy by June Hines Moore. It was a good book that explained the reason that we should not fight.

Done!

            Today I got done at two fifteen. Even though I’m still writing my blog, I will be done at two thirty. I’m so happy I’m going to do an Irish jig when I get home at three thirty.

My favorite thing today was cross country. We got to play octopus tag. It is like tag but when you get tagged, you stand in the spot you got tagged and try to tag other people. We also took it easy and didn’t run very much. The worst thing today was my right leg. It hurt yesterday and it still hurts today when I walk on it. It is not like I am going to die from it but it just hurts. Today I really tried hard to get my work done and it paid off in the end.

            The most valuable thing that happened to me today was that if you work well, you can get valuable rewards. For example in tech today we got to play games because we got our presentation done. In math, I had to do two rework problems instead of four or five that I missed before. One more thing is that I did my science wrong and I knew. So Mom made me rework it over again. So Do it good the first time and you don’t have to do it again.

Taking Care of Business

           Today I was taking care of business in every way because I got done at thee thirty. Yeah for me. I’m so happy that I don’t have to do anything past three thirty. Today my favorite subject was Math at Smokey Row. Okay, it was going to Smokey Row, but I also liked math because it was easy and a break. Tomorrow is my favorite day of the week because we are almost done with school but not done with it.

            The least favorite thing that I did today was Science. Normally, I like science but there were not any science experiments. Those are my favorite part because they are exciting and I don’t know what is going to happen. Over all today was a pretty good day except that my leg hurt(and is still hurting a little bit) at cross country when we ran.

Two-Thirty

            Today I decided that I would get done earlier that three. Well I did by thirty minutes. Yeah I feel so overjoyed. Okay maybe it wasn’t that big of an accomplishment, but I still was happy that I got done early. Also I happy because yesterday I spent until seven doing homework, but I had the track meet in the day too. 

Today in Technology, we worked in partners and did a history about something. My partner, and me Aiden are doing ice cream. It wasn’t my idea but after hearing the other students ideas, I felt that we picked an okay one. The other groups picked the toilet, the tennis shoe, the boomerang, and one other that I couldn’t remember.

Today in Orchestra we got a new song called Gauntlet. It is AWESOME like awesome can be. We have a concert in a month and we are playing Spy vs. Spy, Gauntlet, Rocky Top (like the one from Tennessee) and Fiddler on the Roof.

Changes in History and First Meet

The change in history is that instead of reading one subject, I have to read two. This week I have to do Islam for my regular reading, but I also have to do Monasticism for a minor reading.

           Today was the first cross-country meet. It was okay, the fun part was seeing my friends and the bad part was were I ran and almost fainted. Okay maybe I didn’t almost faint or faint at all, but it took almost two hours to feel my legs. It was still fun to run with friends against the other kids.

Joyful

Today I am happy because I finished at three o’clock. Yesterday took a while and I was unhappy that I got done at three. Today I learned that if you drop two things at the same height that the shape and the weight matter. Also I learned that when adding decimals you let the decimal number fall down. What I mean is that when you add digits with decimals you line them up and then you bring the decimal down.

            

Struggles today were that I had a doctor exam during the time me and my dad do math. So I had to do math later during the afternoon. Guess what, I still got done at three. I didn’t like how I woke up early this morning. I woke up early yesterday too and by the time that it was noon, I was wiped out.

Do I like homeschool? Well I would say yes and no. The major thing that is awesome about homeschool is that I have freedom because I can move around the house. Another is the fact that I can take a nap(I’m pretty sure they don’t let you do that in school).One of the major downers is that I can’t see my friends. One more reason that homeschool is a bummer is that I don’t get exercise.

I have learned that homeschool is a tiring yet fun and interesting. Although at school school it’s still tiring, so it’s not that bad. I think that during this two and a half weeks that school has been going on, it has been more educational than public school. It is nice that parents can work with the student one on one rather than in a classroom where the teacher has to work with all the students and try to teach that way..