Pete's Tasks

   Do a sheet of 100 math problems. I had written a little computer program that churned these out. He hated it, and they were a pain for me to check. 

   Use 5 2 Mouse Math or some other kid math software. For older kids, the 5 3 Spiro Math program is more of a challenge. 

   Draw five faces, a cow, a picture from a comic book, a copy of a picture in an art book, a deer in three different positions.

   Draw a scene from the book you are reading.

   Do the next lesson in the Draw Squad book.

   Look at the French Impressionists book and find the picture you like best. Write down the page it is on and why you like it. Use full sentences. 50 words at least. 

   Look up kangaroo in the encyclopedia. Where do they live, and for how long - 30 words. 

   Go to the library and check out a book about birds.  

   Read your book. The day always started with this for Pete. He could pick what he wanted to read, but it had to be a chapter book. I would either read the book, or scan it so that I could quiz him on content at review sessions. 

   Do Mario Teaches Typing for 20 minutes. Used the first year - he hated this.

   Do Mavis Beacon typing for 20 minutes. He hated this too, but man-oh-man can that kid type today. I think these loathsome drill programs were probably responsible. By the way, we use to have typing races sometimes, and I had to practice too to make any kind of a showing. By the second summer he could beat me hands down, but I the experience, after 40 years of hunt & peck, taught me how to touch type.

   Lego Dacta is a fancy add-on for Legos that includes gears, motors and pneumatic fittings. It comes with a bunch of project cards, some of which are quite challenging. Pete loved doing these. I am sorry that Lego Mindstorm was not available back when we were doing office hours. Both he and I would have had a lot of fun from that. 

   Make a tetrahedron model using 5 4 SymmeToy. 

   Write an outline for your own Star Wars episode. Write the first page of the story.

   Write instructions for getting up in the morning or some other simple task.

   Write, write, write.. 

   Go buy milk and bread at Uni-Mart.

   Oil the hinges on the bathroom door.

   Do other safe small job around the house. 

   Take apart a broken computer, clock, turntable to its smallest pieces. (Not a TV) 

   Look at the Magic Trick book and learn a card trick that you can show me. I have about 30 books on things like magic, cryptography, toy making, Boy Scout merit badges, old-time boy’s activities, art, exploration, mysterious places, how things work, op-art and polyhedra. All of these were potential sources of tasks, and he often had to root through this home library in search of the proper book. 

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   Treasure hunts. These started simple and became quite complex. The one I remember best was The Mystery of the Four Fins. Pete did it with his cousin, JP, who was visiting for the week. It went something like this:

Clue 1:  Something is wrong with this lawnmower.
This took Pete and JP to the lawnmower in the garage. Tied to the blade was...

Clue 2: Hmm, pretty dull. Better look at a new one at Shirey's.
This took them to Shirey's Hardware - the folks there were in on the game. Tied to a new blade was...

Clue 3: A message written in Klingon.
This took them home to the Internet, where they found the Klingon alphabet and         deciphered the clue to read...

Clue 4: Where the Hufnagels are buried.
This took them to the cemetery, where, in a film cannister hidden in the grass at one corner,  they found...

Clue 5: 747.54 P13m4 page 115
This took them to the public library, where tucked into page 115 of a particular book, they found the four fins - four $5 dollar bills.

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   Use the Polaroid camera to take 5 nicely composed pictures in the back yard.

   Use my old film camera to take 12 pictures that tell a story. Take the film to CVS and have it developed. 

   Go to Gloss Jewelers and talk to Mr. Gloss about his business. I, of course, made sure that Mr. Gloss was available to give a tour to a lone ten-year-old.