November 17, 2009

Spotlight on...TOBIN

Those who know and love Tobin are already aware that he is 110% BOY!! From playing Star Wars with foam light sabers to building and crushing Lego structures, from sword fights to wrestling on the furniture, he seems to have an endless supply of energy. Thankfully, he also truly loves to read, and this keeps him quiet when I need him to settle down. :-)

In school Tobin is buzzing right along with math. He just started the Gamma book from Math-U-See, and I expect he'll breeze through the first part of it quickly, since he also knows all his times tables from the aforementioned Timez Attack game. I truly believe that Tobin could learn ANYTHING if it is in computer game format. He is definitely our media boy--anything with a screen mesmerizes him. It's a bit scary, frankly...I suspect we will battle an addiction to gaming with this one! Thankfully he is also extremely social and loves playing with his friends in the neighborhood and at church.

Anyway, back to school. This year I've seen him grow in leaps and bounds with his writing skills. He does his language arts and seatwork activities with no complaints, and he has even started to enjoy creative writing. He is currently writing a mystery book--no surprise there, since that's one of his favorite genres.

His passion for reading is amazing considering he is only 7 1/2 years old. He recently completed Stephen Lawhead's novel Hood, one of Ted's and my favorite books from one of our favorite authors. Last year his reading project was the Lord of the Rings trilogy--he still hasn't made it through the whole saga, but he did make it through the middle of The Two Towers, the second installment. His library stack right now includes books from the Magic Tree House series, the 39 Clues series, The Adventures of Ordinary Boy, and the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, as well as a few Curious George books. :-)

Like his father, Tobin is a major history buff. He amazes me with the knowledge he brings to our reading each day, informing me he read about So-and-So or Such-and-Such in another book and filling in extra details that aren't included in our school reading. I love that he gets so excited when it's time to read history--I certainly never felt that way when I was his age! My love for history has developed AFTER graduating...which is just one reason I wanted to homeschool our kids with Sonlight! Since Tobin is quick to inform me when things get BORING (according to him), I'm sure school will be a constant flow of mesmerizing entertainment, ha!

Though we still have our spiritual battles involving our impetuous firstborn son (one night saw him raging at us and screaming threats to run away when we sent him and Arden to bed without dinner), he has definitely grown and matured in many areas. I'm pleased to note that I am starting to see glimmers of altruism shining through the self-centeredness. He has genuine concern for other people's salvation, if not their well-being, LOL.

Favorite foods: Ice cream, chicken pot pie, ice cream cake.
Favorite toys: Star Wars Legos, army men
Favorite activities: Playing Lord of the Rings and Fortress America with Dad
Favorite animal: Lion
Favorite color: I think it's black.
Favorite subject: History
What I want to be when I grow up: An army man.

2 comments:

Debi said...

To hear you describe Tobin is like having Kyle described at 7 years old (except the reading, LOL) Kyle enjoys reading, but was certainly not reading at that level at 7!

Tobin is a wonderful boy and I miss him so much!!

Ski said...

Tobis is so full of life! Enjoy him and the gifts he brings you and your family, even the challenging days/times. And when he goes to college and all the test are on the computer all the playing computer/video games will pay off. some Dr.'s who use laser technology say they started with video games. It helps the eye hand coordination. Not that he should spen all of his time playing!