Although this blog found its beginnings largely in an envious desire to participate in Melanie's Learning Notes link-ups, I have fallen off the wagon. Most of this lapse can be attributed to our more hectic schedule due to the burgeoning real estate career. Mealtime chats have revolved around establishing tomorrow's schedule and discussing the day's work events. As a result, the children have not been as involved in the conversation as much as I might like. They find discussing the number of successful client phone calls boring. The nerve! It also means that the discussions about school and subjects and little side tangents of related topics have also fallen to sadly low levels so there isn't a whole lot to report. It is a side effect of relinquishing the majority of their academics to the school system. When things get hectic at home, they carry on, but I don't know much about it. It shifts us into separate spheres which I do not like. But, you know, transitions.
The other half of the problem is two-fold. First, when conversations of enlightenment happen, I forget what we were talking about and how we got there. Even if I were to try to relay it back, it is an incoherent mess in my mind except for that killer line which has no set up. I have complained bitterly to Dave about this problem. He has suggested that I take notes at supper. He is only halfway joking. Secondly, I have fallen out of the habit of typing out what I do remember. My previous routine was to take ten or fifteen minutes at work to write about yesterday. It seems with the stop again, start again nature of our nonbusiness conversation, I don't always remember to write it up while it is fresh and then it is gone, gone, gone. Or I only have time to do one thing, either the learning notes or the post that is eating at me and I have been choosing my own instead the children.
We have, however, had a solid development. After the general advice from this post about homeschooling was to start exploring options now instead of waiting until the stars align, I signed up both girls for Khan Academy to work on their math. Wow, do they love it?! They are both math lovers to start with, but I never thought they would take to this program in the way that they have. They beg to be allowed to work at it. They argue over whose turn it is and who gets more time. They love unlocking new avatars and backgrounds. They strive for the green check marks and the rewarding little songs when they get correct answers and complete sections. They watch their percentage number creep upwards and lament if it isn't moving quickly enough. When they struggle, we have impromptu math lessons. I feel all mothery. It's fabulous.
There are a few pitfalls we have discovered. They definitely need a time limit to keep fresh. They will work and work and work and surpass any ability to think. Olivia spent over an hour clicking away the other day in a session that ended with her screaming at the computer. I'm not sure where she learned to scream at a computer. I think 30-45 minutes at a time is plenty long enough. They will see progress but not become counterproductive. We will have to learn to set the timer.
Olivia was upset about her percentage not advancing as quickly as Grace's so I had to explain that Grace's lessons cover one year of fourth grade math, but her lessons cover Kindergarten, first, and second grade which is three whole years. She was okay with this explanation, but she is definitely competing to keep up with Grace.
The first major hiccup was last night when I went upstairs to find that Olivia's completion percentage jumped 25 points in about twenty minutes worth of work. Of course, Grace was "helping." I have no idea what Olivia actually did and what Grace did for her. I can only hope in the algorithm to double check mastery and return to previous subjects when necessary. We had a talk about how important it was to do your own work because it only hurts the other person. They weren't intentionally trying to game the system; it's only they are not quite clear on the difference between real help and "help."
The most endearing thing about this new program is that Olivia calls it K-H-A-N. Not Khan, but she spells it out every time. When she is angry, when she is begging, when she is happy, any time she mentions this program, she calls it K-H-A-N. I am not exactly sure why except that when I first showed it to her, I spelled it out and showed her how to google search it and click over to the page to log-in. I thought about correcting her, but I decided I liked it too much.
So that's what is going on educationally around here. Not much and a bunch.
Showing posts with label GFLN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GFLN. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
GFLN Week 17 Jan 11th-17th
Linking with Melanie again.
I'm still struggling to get back in the groove here. Honestly chatting with the children has not been happening a whole lot lately. With all the schedule upheaval at my house, anything beyond the necessities tends to get pushed aside and, when we do have interesting exchanges, I forget to type them up. Hopefully soon, I'll have more of substance. In the meantime, something did happen last week which always fills me with angst. Report cards were issued.
Both girls did extremely well. This is great and problematic at the same time. All of Grace's grades were 95% and northward. They don't give grades proper in first grade, so as best as I can understand the convoluted rating system, Olivia had equivalent scores. The girls, Grace especially, are very conscientious about their work, but honestly we don't work very hard or very much with them on their schoolwork. They achieve these grades mostly on their own. I know that home environment contributes to success in school so I am not discounting our input into the equation. I am only noting that when it comes to the actual work itself, we do not have much to do with it.
This situation can only mean one thing: school is too easy. They aren't being challenged at all.
I am not one who thinks school needs to be at the most challenging level all the time. I think children need room to be children: to play and observe and not constantly driven to achieve. But what about the opposite? When school is never challenging? I don't think this is healthy either.
It may look fine now, but habits and expectations are being laid down. The expectation of easy learning is the one I worry about the most. How long do we have to wait before we hit the challenge and what will their reactions be? If the first challenge comes years and years into schooling, the reaction is often not good. An intellectual laziness many times takes hold. The expectation is that learning should always be easy and when it is not, there can be denial and refusal to work through the problem.
The other major concern is boredom. For now at their age, the girls are relatively content going to school and getting along, but at some point they will not like having to constantly wait for everyone else to catch up. Preteens are not universally known for their selflessness and Grace is fast approaching that age. Boredom in school is met with resentment: at school, at the busywork, at the teachers, at the parents. There is a restlessness that comes when nothing is ever challenging. Restlessness that can lead to acting out and arrogantly ignoring the learning you need to do on the presumption you already know it.
While I am proud of their work and achievements, they also fill me with dread because I know what is likely coming. I wish I had more control over their schooling, but for now, I don't. So I watch and wait and hope.
***
One funny (stupid) thing on Olivia's report card is the score she received in this content area:
***
The one interesting conversation I remember from the week was about van Gogh. Grace was studying him in art class and we had a lively conversation about the ear chopping incident and whether or not the poster I own is of "The Starry Night" or "Starry Night Over The Rhone." For the record, it is "Starry Night Over The Rhone" but Grace disagrees.
I'm still struggling to get back in the groove here. Honestly chatting with the children has not been happening a whole lot lately. With all the schedule upheaval at my house, anything beyond the necessities tends to get pushed aside and, when we do have interesting exchanges, I forget to type them up. Hopefully soon, I'll have more of substance. In the meantime, something did happen last week which always fills me with angst. Report cards were issued.
Both girls did extremely well. This is great and problematic at the same time. All of Grace's grades were 95% and northward. They don't give grades proper in first grade, so as best as I can understand the convoluted rating system, Olivia had equivalent scores. The girls, Grace especially, are very conscientious about their work, but honestly we don't work very hard or very much with them on their schoolwork. They achieve these grades mostly on their own. I know that home environment contributes to success in school so I am not discounting our input into the equation. I am only noting that when it comes to the actual work itself, we do not have much to do with it.
This situation can only mean one thing: school is too easy. They aren't being challenged at all.
I am not one who thinks school needs to be at the most challenging level all the time. I think children need room to be children: to play and observe and not constantly driven to achieve. But what about the opposite? When school is never challenging? I don't think this is healthy either.
It may look fine now, but habits and expectations are being laid down. The expectation of easy learning is the one I worry about the most. How long do we have to wait before we hit the challenge and what will their reactions be? If the first challenge comes years and years into schooling, the reaction is often not good. An intellectual laziness many times takes hold. The expectation is that learning should always be easy and when it is not, there can be denial and refusal to work through the problem.
The other major concern is boredom. For now at their age, the girls are relatively content going to school and getting along, but at some point they will not like having to constantly wait for everyone else to catch up. Preteens are not universally known for their selflessness and Grace is fast approaching that age. Boredom in school is met with resentment: at school, at the busywork, at the teachers, at the parents. There is a restlessness that comes when nothing is ever challenging. Restlessness that can lead to acting out and arrogantly ignoring the learning you need to do on the presumption you already know it.
While I am proud of their work and achievements, they also fill me with dread because I know what is likely coming. I wish I had more control over their schooling, but for now, I don't. So I watch and wait and hope.
***
One funny (stupid) thing on Olivia's report card is the score she received in this content area:
Presents knowledge and ideas in detail verbally, written, and with visuals.The teacher circled the word verbal to give her a separate grade. For written and visual details, Olivia got the highest grade she can get, 4, but for verbal detail, she received a three. Now I promise that Olivia can give just as good detail verbally as she can writing and visually, but she is an introvert. She is never going to talk the ear off an authority figure. She is not going to do it. So essentially Olivia was docked for being an introvert. Poor O. I am sure from the teacher's perspective she gave the appropriate grade because I am sure that Olivia did not meet the standard for a four. Not because she can't, but because she won't.
***
The one interesting conversation I remember from the week was about van Gogh. Grace was studying him in art class and we had a lively conversation about the ear chopping incident and whether or not the poster I own is of "The Starry Night" or "Starry Night Over The Rhone." For the record, it is "Starry Night Over The Rhone" but Grace disagrees.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
GFLN Week ?? Jan 4th-10th
*Forgot to link back here*
Trying to get back in the groove here. What week is this again? We have been extremely busy these last few months so we haven't had much interesting conversation involving the children asking questions or the like. Or the little we had, I hadn't the energy to write it up. So I begin again. Tentatively.
Sunday
Sick. We have been sick and sick and sick some more.
Monday
It was the girls' last day of Christmas break. I asked Olivia if she was ready to go back to school. She said yes and no. I asked her what she was most looking forward to at school and she said lunch. I asked why she was looking forward to lunch and she said because the day was almost done at lunchtime. Something tells me Olivia is not looking forward to being back at school, but she doesn't hate it either. She is an introvert and I think all the ruckus of school unnerves her.
At supper we talked about Brioche. What is it and what makes it that way? Brioche is bread that has butter kneaded into it after a first rise. I had just learned this little bit of information from GeekLady and then by happy coincidence we had brioche rolls for hamburger buns at supper. So we talked bread and King Cake and made plans to try to have one soon.
Tuesday
Olivia explained the difference between an ostrich and an emu to us. Ostriches are larger, weigh more, and run faster. This was the only thing I could pry out of either girl about school today. We spent most of dinner discussing the word 'quorum' and how you can't change the definition of the word just because. After listening to me rant on it awhile, Grace finally says, "I don't really know what quorum means because I have never heard the word before today, but I believe what you say is right, Mommy, because I trust your judgement." Think I should have a T-shirt made?
Wednesday
Grace came home with a packet of papers from December that needed reviewed and signed. I flipped through them and found a report she wrote on which of the 13 original colonies she would like to live. She choose Maryland because she is Catholic. Interesting because she never mentioned they were talking about religious freedom in class at the time she wrote it.
I thought the bit about New York was funny.
Thursday
The girls were off from school due to the bitter cold weather--it was 3F--because of concerns about the buses not running. Dave already had a busy day planned for himself so they all were brought to Grandma's for the day. They lobbied Grandma to make King Cake. She declined citing no receipe, but they did make a layer cake from scratch with chocolate icing. Grandma is pretty invested in teaching the girls how to cook. I suspect it is born of her truly enjoying cooking and wanting to share her skills and also ensuring that they not turn out like their mother. Grandma cut out a portion for her to enjoy and then sent the rest home for us.
At supper we decided to find out the history of King Cake so Dave read to us about it while the children sat entranced. No, actually they didn't pay much attention after hearing it mostly came from France, but I was interested.
I also had a random thought while looking at one of Olivia's papers. She had a piece of notebook paper where she had written a list of a few words and her teacher noted that she needed more words listed. She was supposed to list ten r-controlled words, that is words whose vowels are controlled by r like horse or car. My thought was 'What purpose does this serve?' Why do young children need to spend time learning about r-controlled words? I mean not that they don't need to know about the words or even how to spell them, but why to they need to know they are r-controlled. And I started thinking about a lot of the early elementary work. They spend a lot of time learning about all the different categories of words, word families, blend families, and I wonder if this emphasis on categorizing has any value at all. Not that they shouldn't be exposed to the words, but do they really need the gritty details. I don't really think so. I've decided this is make-work for six year olds to justify their time in school. What do yall think?
Friday
I don't remember much from Friday, but I did sit with Sam and read to him out of Winnie-the-Pooh which was delightful.
Saturday
Grace wanted me to make French toast with her for breakfast, but the prospect of managing that task in the 4'' x 8'' space available countertop was too much for me to bear so I declined. Dave and Grace and Olivia all made French toast for us which seems pretty educational to me. We spent the rest of the day shopping for eyeglasses for two girls.
Trying to get back in the groove here. What week is this again? We have been extremely busy these last few months so we haven't had much interesting conversation involving the children asking questions or the like. Or the little we had, I hadn't the energy to write it up. So I begin again. Tentatively.
Sunday
Sick. We have been sick and sick and sick some more.
Monday
It was the girls' last day of Christmas break. I asked Olivia if she was ready to go back to school. She said yes and no. I asked her what she was most looking forward to at school and she said lunch. I asked why she was looking forward to lunch and she said because the day was almost done at lunchtime. Something tells me Olivia is not looking forward to being back at school, but she doesn't hate it either. She is an introvert and I think all the ruckus of school unnerves her.
At supper we talked about Brioche. What is it and what makes it that way? Brioche is bread that has butter kneaded into it after a first rise. I had just learned this little bit of information from GeekLady and then by happy coincidence we had brioche rolls for hamburger buns at supper. So we talked bread and King Cake and made plans to try to have one soon.
Tuesday
Olivia explained the difference between an ostrich and an emu to us. Ostriches are larger, weigh more, and run faster. This was the only thing I could pry out of either girl about school today. We spent most of dinner discussing the word 'quorum' and how you can't change the definition of the word just because. After listening to me rant on it awhile, Grace finally says, "I don't really know what quorum means because I have never heard the word before today, but I believe what you say is right, Mommy, because I trust your judgement." Think I should have a T-shirt made?
Wednesday
Grace came home with a packet of papers from December that needed reviewed and signed. I flipped through them and found a report she wrote on which of the 13 original colonies she would like to live. She choose Maryland because she is Catholic. Interesting because she never mentioned they were talking about religious freedom in class at the time she wrote it.
I thought the bit about New York was funny.
Thursday
The girls were off from school due to the bitter cold weather--it was 3F--because of concerns about the buses not running. Dave already had a busy day planned for himself so they all were brought to Grandma's for the day. They lobbied Grandma to make King Cake. She declined citing no receipe, but they did make a layer cake from scratch with chocolate icing. Grandma is pretty invested in teaching the girls how to cook. I suspect it is born of her truly enjoying cooking and wanting to share her skills and also ensuring that they not turn out like their mother. Grandma cut out a portion for her to enjoy and then sent the rest home for us.
At supper we decided to find out the history of King Cake so Dave read to us about it while the children sat entranced. No, actually they didn't pay much attention after hearing it mostly came from France, but I was interested.
I also had a random thought while looking at one of Olivia's papers. She had a piece of notebook paper where she had written a list of a few words and her teacher noted that she needed more words listed. She was supposed to list ten r-controlled words, that is words whose vowels are controlled by r like horse or car. My thought was 'What purpose does this serve?' Why do young children need to spend time learning about r-controlled words? I mean not that they don't need to know about the words or even how to spell them, but why to they need to know they are r-controlled. And I started thinking about a lot of the early elementary work. They spend a lot of time learning about all the different categories of words, word families, blend families, and I wonder if this emphasis on categorizing has any value at all. Not that they shouldn't be exposed to the words, but do they really need the gritty details. I don't really think so. I've decided this is make-work for six year olds to justify their time in school. What do yall think?
Friday
I don't remember much from Friday, but I did sit with Sam and read to him out of Winnie-the-Pooh which was delightful.
Saturday
Grace wanted me to make French toast with her for breakfast, but the prospect of managing that task in the 4'' x 8'' space available countertop was too much for me to bear so I declined. Dave and Grace and Olivia all made French toast for us which seems pretty educational to me. We spent the rest of the day shopping for eyeglasses for two girls.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
GFLN Week 10 Nov 8th
Thanks to Melanie for hosting Learning Notes again.
Sunday
A week or two ago, I bought a pomegranate at the grocery store, but had not processed it. After church, I decided to break it open and have it with breakfast. I don't buy pomegranates very often because they are such a pain to eat so it may have been a couple of years since I last had one, but I do like them. No one could remember if any of the children had eaten pomegranate before and they were very interested. My preferred technique is to get a big bowl filled with water, score the ribs with a sharp knife, pull it apart underwater to keep from making a mess, and then pour the whole thing through a strainer which leaves the arils to eat. They were interested in what I was doing until they figured out it would take awhile and then they just wanted to eat. After I finished, I passed out samples and all approved. As we ate the fruit, we speculated that pomegranates may be been *the* fruit in the Garden of Eden. Then I told them the Greek myth of Hades, Persephone, Demeter, the pomegranate seeds, and the reason we have seasons. Greek mythology with Sunday brunch.
Monday
At supper Grace said they were studying erosion and weathering in science class. We asked her if she knew of a famous landmark in the US that was created entirely by erosion. After a bit of prompting (and outright loud hints), she came up with the Grand Canyon. I asked her which mountain range was older, the Rockies or the Smokies, and how do we know. She explained that the Smokies were part of the Appalachian chain and that the Appalachians were older than the Rockies. How do we know? She doesn't know. Because her teacher said so. So we explaineds the reason we know the Smokies are older is because they are much smoother and greener than the Rockies. The weather and water have had more time to work on them. She was satisfied with this answer.
Out of the blue she asks what the phrase a month of Sundays means. We had some discussion about whether it means about a month, about 30 weeks which would have a quantity of Sundays equal to a month, or a long time to relax because Sunday is a day of rest. Grace asked if Sunday was the Sabbath. I told her that Saturday was the Sabbath and Sunday was the Lord's Day and did she know why we rested on the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath. She said it was to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. So then I launched into an explanation that Sunday is the first day and the eighth day of the week at the same time and why that is important and I promptly lost all the children.
Signed two agendas, read a book with O, sight words with O, checked Grace's math homework
Tuesday
After school, Grandma picked up the girls to make some cornbread for a 4-H competition in Grace's class. It was good, but too sweet I thought. It is definitely Yankee cornbread, but Grace is convinced she is going to win. I am less convinced. We are in Tennessee after all. She is always convinced she is going to win, no matter what she is doing. A line we are always going to have to walk with her is to make sure her motivation is not purely winning. There is a book that she bought in Kindergarten at the school book fair. I knew it was junk as soon as I saw it, but I let her keep it. If I could go back in time, I would chuck that book the same day it came home. What is this notorious book? "Purple Princess Wins the Prize." The entire book is about winning and getting prizes and how you should try to beat everybody and having a trophy is the most important thing in life. This stupid little book imprinted in Grace's little mind more than I could have ever thought possible. She is competitive by nature and this book reinforced everything negative about that particular trait. So anyway, she wants to win the cornbread competition.
Oh the travails of having kids in public school! Grace announced at supper that someone had written on the wall in the boys' bathroom, "Mrs. Parks is HOT!" To avoid scandalizing the other children, she spelled out hot, H-O-T. Olivia, having the ability to spell immediately exclaimed, "Mrs. Parks is hot?" She was confused because how did they know if the teacher was cold or hot. Grace told her that 'hot' has two meanings, temperature and a bad meaning and they meant it in the bad way. Olivia was not convinced. Grace said that the boys would not be allowed to go to the bathroom again until the culprit confessed. I am doubtful.
Since Grace was telling tales, Olivia decided to add her own. Apparently there is a little girl in the class who has trouble behaving. One day she got mad and ran out of the classroom, down the hallway, out of the building, and onto the playground. The principal had to come and coax her back into the building. I wonder what the other children were learning during this little escapade.
Wednesday
Not much happened on Wednesday except that Grace did win first place in the cornbread competition. I was genuinely surprised because, while it was good, it was sweet. She was pleased as punch. She also wanted to know the origins of the word 'pumpkin.' I discovered that it was from a Greek word meaning "large melon." She wanted to know more, but I couldn't remember anything else and didn't have time to go back and look. The rest of supper was spent excitedly discussing other topics.
Thursday
At supper, Grace very nonchalantly announced that someone had written the word sex on the gym floor. SEX in capital letters. This caused much consternation among the fourth grade. She was desperate to convince her classmates that it only meant male or female and it wasn't "the bad word." I told her that sex wasn't a bad word, but it wasn't an appropriate word for children to be using and we changed the subject. After supper, I went almost directly into the shower because I wasn't feeling well. I called Grace into the bathroom with me for some girl talk. Yay! I asked her if she knew what the word sex meant. She said she did, but when I asked her what she thought it meant she wouldn't answer. I asked her if she wanted to know what it meant. She said she did. I told her that it was what married people did that made babies. She laughed and said she thought it meant "naked people." I told her it kind of involved naked people and she laughed again. I asked her if she wanted to know more and she said no. Again I reinforced that sex isn't a bad word, but it isn't appropriate for children to discuss. I then told her that if she ever had any questions, she could ask me and I definitely would tell her what she needed to know. I know that we have to be proactive about this topic, but ugh! already? I remember when I was in fourth grade and sex was Topic A. I was hoping things had changed, but alas.
Right after this little discussion, she started telling about this silly little rhyme that is going around the school that uses some Clueless valley girl accent. I immediately launched into a valley girl recital and Grace was super impressed with her cool mother. I hope that my credibility with the second topic encourages her to trust me with the first.
Friday
The girls both had library on Friday. Olivia got a penguin book and Grace picked out a historical fiction novel on Cleopatra. Our supper conversation was almost nonexistent since our excitement from Wednesday had come crashing around our feet and we spent most of our time staring into the middle distance. Grace persisted, however, in asking a million and one questions about Cleopatra, most of which I did not know the answers to. She seemed to think that if I didn't know the answer before I started eating, I would definitely know in the middle of supper. How is it that kids can ask the same questions over and over and over? I supposed we should go back and research, but Friday wasn't the night. We did have a little discussion about the concept of B.C and how time is counted backwards, but the people who actually lived during the time of B.C. did not call it that. They had a completely different way of accounting for years. She also wanted to know more about that, but again Friday wasn't the night.
At bedtime, it was a Grace night where she gets to spend some one-on-one time with me. Reading back over the week, it seems like Grace gets a lot my attention. That's probably true but she is the oldest and she talks a lot and the others are not quite old enough to hold extended coherent conversations. Anyway, somehow or another we started talking about our form of government and how power is distributed through checks and balances. No one part of the government holds all the power and that's good. We had discussed how other countries had dictatorships where one person holds all the power and how that is not so good. And now I remember why we were talking about it. She was back on the topic of Cleopatra (I still didn't know the answers) and she wanted to know if Egypt still had a pharaoh. No, they pretty much have a dictatorship, but that's not how the US works. And we were off.
Saturday
At breakfast, before an action packed day of shopping doom, we talked about the plot of Frozen. I wanted to know why everyone likes Elsa when Ana is so much nicer. They were adamant that Elsa was not mean and everyone liked her because she had ice powers. I said that maybe it wasn't Elsa's fault, but she was definitely messed up and she had bad parents. They were aghast that the honor of her parents had been called into question. They said they were just listening to the trolls. I said maybe listening to trolls was evidence of bad judgement. They would not be swayed. After much back and forth, Grace declared that the point of the movie was two sisters who learned that even though their relationship could be dangerous, they could still be together. Now isn't that just the idea we want imprinted into a child's mind, "Just because this relationship is dangerous doesn't mean we can't stay together" Thanks, Disney!
And as I have typed all this up, everyone else in the house has been playing paper airplanes behind me. Very educational: aerodynamics!
Sunday
A week or two ago, I bought a pomegranate at the grocery store, but had not processed it. After church, I decided to break it open and have it with breakfast. I don't buy pomegranates very often because they are such a pain to eat so it may have been a couple of years since I last had one, but I do like them. No one could remember if any of the children had eaten pomegranate before and they were very interested. My preferred technique is to get a big bowl filled with water, score the ribs with a sharp knife, pull it apart underwater to keep from making a mess, and then pour the whole thing through a strainer which leaves the arils to eat. They were interested in what I was doing until they figured out it would take awhile and then they just wanted to eat. After I finished, I passed out samples and all approved. As we ate the fruit, we speculated that pomegranates may be been *the* fruit in the Garden of Eden. Then I told them the Greek myth of Hades, Persephone, Demeter, the pomegranate seeds, and the reason we have seasons. Greek mythology with Sunday brunch.
Monday
At supper Grace said they were studying erosion and weathering in science class. We asked her if she knew of a famous landmark in the US that was created entirely by erosion. After a bit of prompting (and outright loud hints), she came up with the Grand Canyon. I asked her which mountain range was older, the Rockies or the Smokies, and how do we know. She explained that the Smokies were part of the Appalachian chain and that the Appalachians were older than the Rockies. How do we know? She doesn't know. Because her teacher said so. So we explaineds the reason we know the Smokies are older is because they are much smoother and greener than the Rockies. The weather and water have had more time to work on them. She was satisfied with this answer.
Out of the blue she asks what the phrase a month of Sundays means. We had some discussion about whether it means about a month, about 30 weeks which would have a quantity of Sundays equal to a month, or a long time to relax because Sunday is a day of rest. Grace asked if Sunday was the Sabbath. I told her that Saturday was the Sabbath and Sunday was the Lord's Day and did she know why we rested on the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath. She said it was to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. So then I launched into an explanation that Sunday is the first day and the eighth day of the week at the same time and why that is important and I promptly lost all the children.
Signed two agendas, read a book with O, sight words with O, checked Grace's math homework
Tuesday
After school, Grandma picked up the girls to make some cornbread for a 4-H competition in Grace's class. It was good, but too sweet I thought. It is definitely Yankee cornbread, but Grace is convinced she is going to win. I am less convinced. We are in Tennessee after all. She is always convinced she is going to win, no matter what she is doing. A line we are always going to have to walk with her is to make sure her motivation is not purely winning. There is a book that she bought in Kindergarten at the school book fair. I knew it was junk as soon as I saw it, but I let her keep it. If I could go back in time, I would chuck that book the same day it came home. What is this notorious book? "Purple Princess Wins the Prize." The entire book is about winning and getting prizes and how you should try to beat everybody and having a trophy is the most important thing in life. This stupid little book imprinted in Grace's little mind more than I could have ever thought possible. She is competitive by nature and this book reinforced everything negative about that particular trait. So anyway, she wants to win the cornbread competition.
Oh the travails of having kids in public school! Grace announced at supper that someone had written on the wall in the boys' bathroom, "Mrs. Parks is HOT!" To avoid scandalizing the other children, she spelled out hot, H-O-T. Olivia, having the ability to spell immediately exclaimed, "Mrs. Parks is hot?" She was confused because how did they know if the teacher was cold or hot. Grace told her that 'hot' has two meanings, temperature and a bad meaning and they meant it in the bad way. Olivia was not convinced. Grace said that the boys would not be allowed to go to the bathroom again until the culprit confessed. I am doubtful.
Since Grace was telling tales, Olivia decided to add her own. Apparently there is a little girl in the class who has trouble behaving. One day she got mad and ran out of the classroom, down the hallway, out of the building, and onto the playground. The principal had to come and coax her back into the building. I wonder what the other children were learning during this little escapade.
Wednesday
Not much happened on Wednesday except that Grace did win first place in the cornbread competition. I was genuinely surprised because, while it was good, it was sweet. She was pleased as punch. She also wanted to know the origins of the word 'pumpkin.' I discovered that it was from a Greek word meaning "large melon." She wanted to know more, but I couldn't remember anything else and didn't have time to go back and look. The rest of supper was spent excitedly discussing other topics.
Thursday
At supper, Grace very nonchalantly announced that someone had written the word sex on the gym floor. SEX in capital letters. This caused much consternation among the fourth grade. She was desperate to convince her classmates that it only meant male or female and it wasn't "the bad word." I told her that sex wasn't a bad word, but it wasn't an appropriate word for children to be using and we changed the subject. After supper, I went almost directly into the shower because I wasn't feeling well. I called Grace into the bathroom with me for some girl talk. Yay! I asked her if she knew what the word sex meant. She said she did, but when I asked her what she thought it meant she wouldn't answer. I asked her if she wanted to know what it meant. She said she did. I told her that it was what married people did that made babies. She laughed and said she thought it meant "naked people." I told her it kind of involved naked people and she laughed again. I asked her if she wanted to know more and she said no. Again I reinforced that sex isn't a bad word, but it isn't appropriate for children to discuss. I then told her that if she ever had any questions, she could ask me and I definitely would tell her what she needed to know. I know that we have to be proactive about this topic, but ugh! already? I remember when I was in fourth grade and sex was Topic A. I was hoping things had changed, but alas.
Right after this little discussion, she started telling about this silly little rhyme that is going around the school that uses some Clueless valley girl accent. I immediately launched into a valley girl recital and Grace was super impressed with her cool mother. I hope that my credibility with the second topic encourages her to trust me with the first.
Friday
The girls both had library on Friday. Olivia got a penguin book and Grace picked out a historical fiction novel on Cleopatra. Our supper conversation was almost nonexistent since our excitement from Wednesday had come crashing around our feet and we spent most of our time staring into the middle distance. Grace persisted, however, in asking a million and one questions about Cleopatra, most of which I did not know the answers to. She seemed to think that if I didn't know the answer before I started eating, I would definitely know in the middle of supper. How is it that kids can ask the same questions over and over and over? I supposed we should go back and research, but Friday wasn't the night. We did have a little discussion about the concept of B.C and how time is counted backwards, but the people who actually lived during the time of B.C. did not call it that. They had a completely different way of accounting for years. She also wanted to know more about that, but again Friday wasn't the night.
At bedtime, it was a Grace night where she gets to spend some one-on-one time with me. Reading back over the week, it seems like Grace gets a lot my attention. That's probably true but she is the oldest and she talks a lot and the others are not quite old enough to hold extended coherent conversations. Anyway, somehow or another we started talking about our form of government and how power is distributed through checks and balances. No one part of the government holds all the power and that's good. We had discussed how other countries had dictatorships where one person holds all the power and how that is not so good. And now I remember why we were talking about it. She was back on the topic of Cleopatra (I still didn't know the answers) and she wanted to know if Egypt still had a pharaoh. No, they pretty much have a dictatorship, but that's not how the US works. And we were off.
Saturday
At breakfast, before an action packed day of shopping doom, we talked about the plot of Frozen. I wanted to know why everyone likes Elsa when Ana is so much nicer. They were adamant that Elsa was not mean and everyone liked her because she had ice powers. I said that maybe it wasn't Elsa's fault, but she was definitely messed up and she had bad parents. They were aghast that the honor of her parents had been called into question. They said they were just listening to the trolls. I said maybe listening to trolls was evidence of bad judgement. They would not be swayed. After much back and forth, Grace declared that the point of the movie was two sisters who learned that even though their relationship could be dangerous, they could still be together. Now isn't that just the idea we want imprinted into a child's mind, "Just because this relationship is dangerous doesn't mean we can't stay together" Thanks, Disney!
And as I have typed all this up, everyone else in the house has been playing paper airplanes behind me. Very educational: aerodynamics!
Monday, November 3, 2014
GFLN Week 9 Nov 1st
Thanks to Melanie for hosting!
On Sunday, we spent a couple of hours at a local pumpkin patch.
On Monday, we had a long drawn out discussion about insurance and open-enrollment. The children were riveted. Or not. Actually they were told to go away. But before they were sent away we talked about moles, as in the quantity 6.02 x 10^23. It came up because before I got home from work, they were watching a Let It Go parody about chemists.
On Tuesday, the girls were at Grandma's until late working on Grace's Halloween costume. When they got back, Grace attempted to explain to me how to use a sewing pattern. I'm glad she will have some knowledge of these things and the time to practice the skill.
On Wednesday, the girls spent more time at Grandma's finishing the costume. They got home in time for supper. We had Oreos for dessert and Grace demonstrated the phases of the moon by taking bites out of her cookie. She then pulled out a diagram she had drawn for extra credit at school. I guess it was for extra credit. It said "Please Grade" at the top so I wonder if the teacher even knows it is coming. I should have taken a picture.
After supper, three of the four descended into whining and crying puddles because they are getting over illnesses.
I remembered something from last week that I thought I would drop in here since I forgot about it last week. Olivia is studying the associative property in math. She told me her teacher asked her how she would regroup the problem 9+6+1 to make it easier to solve. She told the teacher that she would regroup 9+6 to equal 15 because "I know that answer really quick" and then add 1. I thought this was hilarious especially listening to her reason out why she would do it that way. The teacher is obviously going for 9+1=10 then add 6 to make 16. But Olivia decided that 9+6 is too easy to even think about working around it.
On Thursday, Grace had technology where she typed a poem about Halloween cheetahs. Original, of course. Olivia had art so I asked what she did. She drew a castle with mountains in the background. Grace wanted to know why she didn't set her castle on the African savannah. Olivia thought that was absurd. A castle on the savannah??!! Grace told her of course there was castles on the savannah because that's where king cheetahs live. Hardy har. She also thought it was eminently resonable because after all King Tut had a 1000 cheetahs for pets and he must have lived in a castle, right?
On Friday after school before I got home from work, they finally got around to carving the pumpkin since we've had a lot of sickness and lack of evening energy (and a lot of evening cranky). Olivia reveled in touching the pumpkin goo. We then went to my sister's house to go trick or treating because Halloween in her neighborhood is like the movies.
Saturday was recovery from the week and Halloween. I sorted through piles of girl clothes to make the season change. I loathe this job. It makes such a mess. It takes such a long time. The rest of the house is destroyed while I do it. I get to hear whining as I tell a girl to try on another piece of clothing for the umpteenth time. The educational component here is that the children learned I have a short fuse when doing this job.
On Sunday, we spent a couple of hours at a local pumpkin patch.
On Monday, we had a long drawn out discussion about insurance and open-enrollment. The children were riveted. Or not. Actually they were told to go away. But before they were sent away we talked about moles, as in the quantity 6.02 x 10^23. It came up because before I got home from work, they were watching a Let It Go parody about chemists.
On Tuesday, the girls were at Grandma's until late working on Grace's Halloween costume. When they got back, Grace attempted to explain to me how to use a sewing pattern. I'm glad she will have some knowledge of these things and the time to practice the skill.
On Wednesday, the girls spent more time at Grandma's finishing the costume. They got home in time for supper. We had Oreos for dessert and Grace demonstrated the phases of the moon by taking bites out of her cookie. She then pulled out a diagram she had drawn for extra credit at school. I guess it was for extra credit. It said "Please Grade" at the top so I wonder if the teacher even knows it is coming. I should have taken a picture.
After supper, three of the four descended into whining and crying puddles because they are getting over illnesses.
I remembered something from last week that I thought I would drop in here since I forgot about it last week. Olivia is studying the associative property in math. She told me her teacher asked her how she would regroup the problem 9+6+1 to make it easier to solve. She told the teacher that she would regroup 9+6 to equal 15 because "I know that answer really quick" and then add 1. I thought this was hilarious especially listening to her reason out why she would do it that way. The teacher is obviously going for 9+1=10 then add 6 to make 16. But Olivia decided that 9+6 is too easy to even think about working around it.
On Thursday, Grace had technology where she typed a poem about Halloween cheetahs. Original, of course. Olivia had art so I asked what she did. She drew a castle with mountains in the background. Grace wanted to know why she didn't set her castle on the African savannah. Olivia thought that was absurd. A castle on the savannah??!! Grace told her of course there was castles on the savannah because that's where king cheetahs live. Hardy har. She also thought it was eminently resonable because after all King Tut had a 1000 cheetahs for pets and he must have lived in a castle, right?
On Friday after school before I got home from work, they finally got around to carving the pumpkin since we've had a lot of sickness and lack of evening energy (and a lot of evening cranky). Olivia reveled in touching the pumpkin goo. We then went to my sister's house to go trick or treating because Halloween in her neighborhood is like the movies.
Saturday was recovery from the week and Halloween. I sorted through piles of girl clothes to make the season change. I loathe this job. It makes such a mess. It takes such a long time. The rest of the house is destroyed while I do it. I get to hear whining as I tell a girl to try on another piece of clothing for the umpteenth time. The educational component here is that the children learned I have a short fuse when doing this job.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
GFLN Week 8 Oct 25th
Thanks to Melanie for hosting.
Again this week was completely absorbed by other matters so not a whole lot happening on the education front.
Spent all Sunday afternoon at my MILs preparing for court. Grace got bored, raided the fabric stash, and decided to make a cheetah pillow. I'm always impressed with their little sewing projects since I excel at threading a needle and that's about it.
On Monday the girls came home with their first quarter report cards. Both girls did well.
Olivia's report card: reading level F, 3s in Language Arts and mostly 4s in Math.
Grace's report card: Language Arts 94 Math 98 Science 98 Social Studies 94 Reading 97
Olivia's report card is a bit of a muddle to understand. They don't give As and Bs any more and the "grades" are different than even when Grace was in early elementary. You can get a 1, 2, 3, or 4 in a variety of specific content areas. Mastery is 4 and Regular is 3 and the others are not as great. Basically if you get 3s, you are doing fine and 4 is better than expected, I guess. The reading levels are also a bit convoluted. They tell us a range for each grade level and that's about it.
The Monday Night Football game was in Pittsburgh and the announcers always love to mention The Confluence. Olivia heard it and so we gave her a brief explanation of what a confluence is. She didn't seem terribly interested until I told her the big river that begins in Pittsburgh is the Ohio which is the same big river we crossed in Cincinnati on our way to Columbus. Then she nodded a knowing nod. Oh that big river!
I read a few books with Sam over the week, but poor Olivia is really getting the short shrift right now. We boom and bust with her homework and her reading. There were several nights I intended to listen to her read and then we all got distracted and I forgot. Try, try again.
The only real educationaly thing that happened this week is that Grace heard that a person's wingspan is the same as his height and she wanted to know if it was true. I thought a minute and said it sounded about right but how about we measure everyone and see the actual numbers. So without further ado, the data measured mostly by me and recorded mostly by Olivia in giant numbers and letters.
Height Armspan
David: 69.75 in 70.75 in
Jenny: 61.5 in 62.75 in
Grace: 49 in 49 in
Olivia: 44.5 in 44 in
Sam: 41.5 in 41 in
Marian was not measured because I decided it would be too much trouble. From our little data sample, it appears that the adults are shorter than their arms and the little kids are taller than their arms. Grace, of course, is perfectly symmetrical much to her delight. I wonder if the adults have shrunk from their full height a bit, a shadow of which is left in their armspan. And maybe the little kids have yet to grow fully out of their toddler bodies. So the answer to Grace's question is that yes, armspread is a good approximation of height, but it isn't exact even if hers is.
So maybe this next week, life will return more to normal and I'll have more to say.
Again this week was completely absorbed by other matters so not a whole lot happening on the education front.
Spent all Sunday afternoon at my MILs preparing for court. Grace got bored, raided the fabric stash, and decided to make a cheetah pillow. I'm always impressed with their little sewing projects since I excel at threading a needle and that's about it.
On Monday the girls came home with their first quarter report cards. Both girls did well.
Olivia's report card: reading level F, 3s in Language Arts and mostly 4s in Math.
Grace's report card: Language Arts 94 Math 98 Science 98 Social Studies 94 Reading 97
Olivia's report card is a bit of a muddle to understand. They don't give As and Bs any more and the "grades" are different than even when Grace was in early elementary. You can get a 1, 2, 3, or 4 in a variety of specific content areas. Mastery is 4 and Regular is 3 and the others are not as great. Basically if you get 3s, you are doing fine and 4 is better than expected, I guess. The reading levels are also a bit convoluted. They tell us a range for each grade level and that's about it.
The Monday Night Football game was in Pittsburgh and the announcers always love to mention The Confluence. Olivia heard it and so we gave her a brief explanation of what a confluence is. She didn't seem terribly interested until I told her the big river that begins in Pittsburgh is the Ohio which is the same big river we crossed in Cincinnati on our way to Columbus. Then she nodded a knowing nod. Oh that big river!
I read a few books with Sam over the week, but poor Olivia is really getting the short shrift right now. We boom and bust with her homework and her reading. There were several nights I intended to listen to her read and then we all got distracted and I forgot. Try, try again.
The only real educationaly thing that happened this week is that Grace heard that a person's wingspan is the same as his height and she wanted to know if it was true. I thought a minute and said it sounded about right but how about we measure everyone and see the actual numbers. So without further ado, the data measured mostly by me and recorded mostly by Olivia in giant numbers and letters.
Height Armspan
David: 69.75 in 70.75 in
Jenny: 61.5 in 62.75 in
Grace: 49 in 49 in
Olivia: 44.5 in 44 in
Sam: 41.5 in 41 in
Marian was not measured because I decided it would be too much trouble. From our little data sample, it appears that the adults are shorter than their arms and the little kids are taller than their arms. Grace, of course, is perfectly symmetrical much to her delight. I wonder if the adults have shrunk from their full height a bit, a shadow of which is left in their armspan. And maybe the little kids have yet to grow fully out of their toddler bodies. So the answer to Grace's question is that yes, armspread is a good approximation of height, but it isn't exact even if hers is.
So maybe this next week, life will return more to normal and I'll have more to say.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
GFLN Week 7 Oct 18th
Thanks again to Melanie for hosting!
I have been very derelict this week in typing up notes. Most of my free time has been consumed by all of the local drama. I'm sure we've talked and been very educational. Right? But I do remember a couple of things from the week.
First, Olivia and I read one of her school readers one night. She has just moved up a reading level and was struggling. It was late in the evening which didn't help. She would see a word she didn't recognize and try to sound it out, but the "sounding it out" was mostly guessing at the sounds she thought the word might be while looking at the picture instead of actually sounding out the letters. Very frustrating for me, anyway. "Olivia, look at the word. That letter isn't there." After several pages of this, I would just tell her the word if she started to struggle because I'm patient like that.
Second, we had a conversation with Grace about group punishments and group responsibilities. She was upset because her class was due to miss nine minutes of recess the next day because her teacher found nine pencils on the floor of the classroom. Since there was no way to identify who all the pencils belong to, the whole class would have to miss time. Grace knew this was Not Fair!
They weren't her pencils. How is the teacher supposed to know that?
She then launched on an elaborate explanation about how since two students were assigned to be the custodians of the room every week, they should be the ones punished for the pencils on the floor instead of the whole class. What's that, you say? She said that the custodian job should work the same way that her room responsibility works at home. At the end of very day, if her room isn't clean, it is her fault and she takes the consequences whether she made the mess or not. Hey, at least she understands the expectation! Her argument is that the classroom custodians bear the same responsibility so if there were pencils left on the floor and the custodians did not pick them up, they should be the ones punished instead of the whole class.
We explained to her that it wasn't exactly the same situation and that the student custodians should not be the only ones responsible if the classroom gets too trashy. Would it be fair for the school custodian to get in trouble for not having clean bathrooms if some students decided to throw toilet paper all over one of the bathrooms? No. The same thing applies here. The student custodians are supposed to keep the regular classroom messes in check; they should not be held responsible when fourth graders decide to throw an unreasonable number of pencils on the floor. Since there is no way for the teacher to know who is leaving pencils all over the floor, it is reasonable that the whole class miss a little bit of recess for each pencil until the situation gets better so everyone understands he is responsible for picking up the floor when necessary. She maybe, reluctantly, agreed with us but still wasn't happy. I told her that if she didn't want to miss some recess time, all she had to do was pick up the pencils off the floor whenever she saw them. As long as that happened, no recess would be missed and it wasn't a terrible imposition to pick up a pencil. She humphed. Turns out all this angst was for nothing because the nine minutes were just empty teacher threats letting the students know that they ought to be grateful someone picked up their mess, otherwise they would have lost some recess time. Anyway, I liked hearing Grace apply the rationale from one situation to another similar one.
Last story. On Thursday Olivia didn't want to eat breakfast before school, then got motion sickness on the way to school, and ended up throwing up on the bus before she got to school. When she got sick, she called for Grace who was a few seats away and then a couple of boys jumped in to help her and take control of the situation. Grace was highly offended! Olivia is her sister! She should be the one helping her and going to the office with her! Those boys had no business telling someone else to do it. Her job! She told them so and went to the office with Olivia after they got to school along with the child appointed by the boys on the bus, the nerve. Dave was called and picked her up from school. Olivia was fine the rest of the day, just a little embarrassed to have thrown up on the bus.
I have been very derelict this week in typing up notes. Most of my free time has been consumed by all of the local drama. I'm sure we've talked and been very educational. Right? But I do remember a couple of things from the week.
First, Olivia and I read one of her school readers one night. She has just moved up a reading level and was struggling. It was late in the evening which didn't help. She would see a word she didn't recognize and try to sound it out, but the "sounding it out" was mostly guessing at the sounds she thought the word might be while looking at the picture instead of actually sounding out the letters. Very frustrating for me, anyway. "Olivia, look at the word. That letter isn't there." After several pages of this, I would just tell her the word if she started to struggle because I'm patient like that.
Second, we had a conversation with Grace about group punishments and group responsibilities. She was upset because her class was due to miss nine minutes of recess the next day because her teacher found nine pencils on the floor of the classroom. Since there was no way to identify who all the pencils belong to, the whole class would have to miss time. Grace knew this was Not Fair!
They weren't her pencils. How is the teacher supposed to know that?
She then launched on an elaborate explanation about how since two students were assigned to be the custodians of the room every week, they should be the ones punished for the pencils on the floor instead of the whole class. What's that, you say? She said that the custodian job should work the same way that her room responsibility works at home. At the end of very day, if her room isn't clean, it is her fault and she takes the consequences whether she made the mess or not. Hey, at least she understands the expectation! Her argument is that the classroom custodians bear the same responsibility so if there were pencils left on the floor and the custodians did not pick them up, they should be the ones punished instead of the whole class.
We explained to her that it wasn't exactly the same situation and that the student custodians should not be the only ones responsible if the classroom gets too trashy. Would it be fair for the school custodian to get in trouble for not having clean bathrooms if some students decided to throw toilet paper all over one of the bathrooms? No. The same thing applies here. The student custodians are supposed to keep the regular classroom messes in check; they should not be held responsible when fourth graders decide to throw an unreasonable number of pencils on the floor. Since there is no way for the teacher to know who is leaving pencils all over the floor, it is reasonable that the whole class miss a little bit of recess for each pencil until the situation gets better so everyone understands he is responsible for picking up the floor when necessary. She maybe, reluctantly, agreed with us but still wasn't happy. I told her that if she didn't want to miss some recess time, all she had to do was pick up the pencils off the floor whenever she saw them. As long as that happened, no recess would be missed and it wasn't a terrible imposition to pick up a pencil. She humphed. Turns out all this angst was for nothing because the nine minutes were just empty teacher threats letting the students know that they ought to be grateful someone picked up their mess, otherwise they would have lost some recess time. Anyway, I liked hearing Grace apply the rationale from one situation to another similar one.
Last story. On Thursday Olivia didn't want to eat breakfast before school, then got motion sickness on the way to school, and ended up throwing up on the bus before she got to school. When she got sick, she called for Grace who was a few seats away and then a couple of boys jumped in to help her and take control of the situation. Grace was highly offended! Olivia is her sister! She should be the one helping her and going to the office with her! Those boys had no business telling someone else to do it. Her job! She told them so and went to the office with Olivia after they got to school along with the child appointed by the boys on the bus, the nerve. Dave was called and picked her up from school. Olivia was fine the rest of the day, just a little embarrassed to have thrown up on the bus.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
GFLN Week 6 Oct 11th
Joining with Melanie at The Wine Dark Sea
FALL BREAK WEEK!!! Since I am no longer allowed to bank my time off at work anymore, I thought I would take the week off with the girls just for the heck of it.
Sunday, Oct 5th
The big kids went camping with my parents at a state park about 30 minutes away. We drove over and spent the afternoon. We went on a short hike where we got down to the river's edge. Marian liked splashing in the water and the girls enjoyed picking mussel shells out of the water. Olivia was fearless in reaching into the water to grab those shells. They also found some hickory nuts that they cracked and picked open. We sprinkled them on our food for supper. Sam helped carry wood for the fire and generally liked being in the woods. I also got to roast marshmallows which was excellent.
Monday, Oct 6th
The big kids are still gone, but Marian says lots of cute things. Her language acquisition is on fire right now.
Tuesday, Oct 7th
I retrieved the big kids from camp where they helped tear down and clean up. We kept everything low key in the evening because they were tired and dirty. At supper I asked what their favorite thing about camping was:
Grace--exploring and looking for shells
Olivia--exploring, looking for shells, and getting messy
Sam--hearing the train whistle in the distance
My father called the woods they were hiking in "The Enchanted Forest" which is so out-of-character for my father as to make you wonder who that man who looks like my father might be. The Granddaddy Effect. They were said to be extremely helpful so hopefully they learned a lot about camping.
Wednesday, Oct 8th
We set the alarm early for 4:50am to attempt to view the lunar eclipse. About an hour or so before the alarm, a big storm blew through so it was questionable whether or not we would see anything. We got out of bed and looked out and the sky was pretty clear. Overhead I heard children walking around because Grace had also set her alarm so as to not miss anything. We all tramped outside and looked. The partial eclipse was already underway, but there were also clouds blowing in from the west. The children were excited to see the partially eclipsed moon, but soon the clouds won before it was complete. We stood for a few minutes waiting and occasionally a glimpse could be seen which elicited a shout from some child and then we waited some more. It was soon apparent there were no more glimpses to be had. None of our pictures really turned out. We went back inside and fired up the NASA live broadcast on the computer and saw the eclipse in totality and listened to the NASA guy talk. The NASA guy was in Huntsville which is just a couple of hours down the road. I was glad of that because he always gave his local time first when discussing the timing of events and his time is our time. We all eventually went back to sleep in order to wake up less than an hour later to get ready for a dentist appointment. We were a tired bunch and cranky by the end of the day. Most conversations for the day revolved around talking about the eclipse, how it works, why it happens, why is it called lunar, why the moon turned red, what is a solar eclipse, and on. Lots of astrological excitement here. I learned that Grace already knew what refraction means. Also just announcing that the total solar eclipse in 2017 will pass right over my parents' house so anyone who wants to come see it is invited to the party.
Olivia was sick in the afternoon.
Thursday, Oct 9th
I was in a pretty poor mood on Thursday. I spent the day either cleaning or avoiding cleaning by staring at the Internet. The only thing of real note from Thursday is that Grace is reading a lot. She is reading to the point of being annoying. "No, you can't read at supper." "Grace, put the book down and come here!" "Grace, where did you go? Why haven't you come back in here?" "Just finish what I told you to do and then you can read." She is reading a wide variety. I die a little death every time I see her engrossed in the Disney Princess storybook, but she is also reading Magic Kitten. :P Also Children of Noisy Village and St. George and the Dragon and a Boxcar Children book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and part of Prince Caspian. So yes, reading.
Olivia was sick all day.
Friday, Oct 10th
Olivia still sick and I am still cleaning. The highlight of the day was rearranging the bookshelf in the girls' room and reading to Grace out of the Barefoot Book of Classic Poems. It really is such a lovely book. After reading and discussing several of the poems, Grace asks, "Mommy, are you supposed to be cleaning?" And thus ended our poetry session because yes, I really needed to be cleaning.
I've read Sam several books over the course of the week, but I've not really kept up with what they were. He is also starting to sit and examine books on his own. He spent a lot of time looking at Noah's Ark and wanting to know why the town was on fire. He is obsessed with fires and firefighters right now.
Saturday, Oct 11th
Olivia is getting better but still sick and I am endlessly chasing Marian since her new favorite hobby is banging on the computer keyboard and clicking on the mouse.
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| Olivia searching with gusto! |
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| The Loot |
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| Roasting marshmallows for probably the first time in five years. |
Monday, Oct 6th
The big kids are still gone, but Marian says lots of cute things. Her language acquisition is on fire right now.
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| The fallout from Sam's packing |
Tuesday, Oct 7th
I retrieved the big kids from camp where they helped tear down and clean up. We kept everything low key in the evening because they were tired and dirty. At supper I asked what their favorite thing about camping was:
Grace--exploring and looking for shells
Olivia--exploring, looking for shells, and getting messy
Sam--hearing the train whistle in the distance
My father called the woods they were hiking in "The Enchanted Forest" which is so out-of-character for my father as to make you wonder who that man who looks like my father might be. The Granddaddy Effect. They were said to be extremely helpful so hopefully they learned a lot about camping.
Wednesday, Oct 8th
We set the alarm early for 4:50am to attempt to view the lunar eclipse. About an hour or so before the alarm, a big storm blew through so it was questionable whether or not we would see anything. We got out of bed and looked out and the sky was pretty clear. Overhead I heard children walking around because Grace had also set her alarm so as to not miss anything. We all tramped outside and looked. The partial eclipse was already underway, but there were also clouds blowing in from the west. The children were excited to see the partially eclipsed moon, but soon the clouds won before it was complete. We stood for a few minutes waiting and occasionally a glimpse could be seen which elicited a shout from some child and then we waited some more. It was soon apparent there were no more glimpses to be had. None of our pictures really turned out. We went back inside and fired up the NASA live broadcast on the computer and saw the eclipse in totality and listened to the NASA guy talk. The NASA guy was in Huntsville which is just a couple of hours down the road. I was glad of that because he always gave his local time first when discussing the timing of events and his time is our time. We all eventually went back to sleep in order to wake up less than an hour later to get ready for a dentist appointment. We were a tired bunch and cranky by the end of the day. Most conversations for the day revolved around talking about the eclipse, how it works, why it happens, why is it called lunar, why the moon turned red, what is a solar eclipse, and on. Lots of astrological excitement here. I learned that Grace already knew what refraction means. Also just announcing that the total solar eclipse in 2017 will pass right over my parents' house so anyone who wants to come see it is invited to the party.
Olivia was sick in the afternoon.
Thursday, Oct 9th
I was in a pretty poor mood on Thursday. I spent the day either cleaning or avoiding cleaning by staring at the Internet. The only thing of real note from Thursday is that Grace is reading a lot. She is reading to the point of being annoying. "No, you can't read at supper." "Grace, put the book down and come here!" "Grace, where did you go? Why haven't you come back in here?" "Just finish what I told you to do and then you can read." She is reading a wide variety. I die a little death every time I see her engrossed in the Disney Princess storybook, but she is also reading Magic Kitten. :P Also Children of Noisy Village and St. George and the Dragon and a Boxcar Children book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and part of Prince Caspian. So yes, reading.
Olivia was sick all day.
Friday, Oct 10th
Olivia still sick and I am still cleaning. The highlight of the day was rearranging the bookshelf in the girls' room and reading to Grace out of the Barefoot Book of Classic Poems. It really is such a lovely book. After reading and discussing several of the poems, Grace asks, "Mommy, are you supposed to be cleaning?" And thus ended our poetry session because yes, I really needed to be cleaning.
I've read Sam several books over the course of the week, but I've not really kept up with what they were. He is also starting to sit and examine books on his own. He spent a lot of time looking at Noah's Ark and wanting to know why the town was on fire. He is obsessed with fires and firefighters right now.
Saturday, Oct 11th
Olivia is getting better but still sick and I am endlessly chasing Marian since her new favorite hobby is banging on the computer keyboard and clicking on the mouse.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
GFLN Week 5 Oct 4th
Linking with Melanie again at The Wine-Dark Sea.
Sunday, Sept, 28th
I honestly don't remember what I did with the children yesterday because it has all been blotted out in my mind by an argument I had with a stranger on the Internet for most of the day. I don't recommend those and usually don't get sucked in. My bad.
Right after we got home from church, my brother called to tell us that Jack Hanna's Into the Wild was about cheetahs and we needed to turn it on and watch. We complied and brunch was delayed while we distractedly got food together and watched the TV. They had a king cheetah, which has stripes instead of spots, and Dave speculated that it was probably more like a breed of cheetah instead of a sub-species. He and Grace discussed the difference between breeds and species and Grace was skeptical until the cheetah expert on the TV said that they used to think that king cheetahs were a separate species until they studied them and determined it was a recessive gene trait. So there.
Olivia worked on handwriting a little and said her teacher said she wasn't allowed to work on cursive at home. I told her the teacher doesn't get to tell us what we are allowed to do at home.
Monday, Sept 29th
I arrived home to find Sam and Olivia with an elaborate pillow fort happening in the living room while Grace was upstairs buried in a book. Both Grace and Olivia had library at school. Grace checked out "Double Fudge" and Olivia checked out a book on swans.
At supper Grace said that she was going to have to do a PowerPoint project on a European explorer with a partner. The explorer is to be drawn at random out of a hat and the partner is to be drawn at random out of a hat. Everything about this project makes me want to hide: PowerPoint and group projects. Grace is pretty anxious about it. She has a whole list of people she doesn't want to work with because they don't do good work. And she is also self-conscious about her lack of ability in PowerPoint because her stupid parents don't think PowerPoint is very important in the elementary curriculum and don't let her practice.
We then talked about random European explorers and what they did. I think she is a little unclear on the concept of the continent of Europe because we would mention that so-and-so was Spanish and she would object saying the project was only on Europeans. Spain is in Europe, dear. I meant to get the globe out after supper but forgot. Memorable line of the night:
Dave: You could get Marco Polo.
Grace: Did he invent the game?
After supper, Marian was tired of being confined so I repaired upstairs with her so she could run free in the only minimally baby proof area of the house while Dave stayed down to wash dishes. What happened next I can only describe as the closest thing to feeling like a homeschooler without actually being a homeschooler.
Olivia announced she had homework that was due tomorrow. This was true enough. Actually we had completely ignored Olivia's monthly homework for the past three weeks and had mountains to make up. Since her homework requires an adult to sit with her and read through the instructions out loud, she came upstairs so I could help her. Grace wanted to work on her cheetah blog and Sam wanted me to read to him out of the nursery rhyme book while Marian ran all over. I would read Olivia an instruction on my left, turn to Sam on my right and read him a verse, randomly spell out words for Grace as she called them out, and tend to Marian as she crawled all over us, wanting to nurse, wanting down, wanting Sam's book, wanting Olivia's pencil. We kept this rhythm up for probably 45 minutes. Olivia and I powered through FIFTEEN pages of math homework! No page had more than six problems and a lot of the problems were just counting problems, but still, it was a lot of work for a six year old. I was mulitasking to the extreme and never got frustrated. Olivia got tired towards the end, but she, too, never got frustrated. The whole evening was glorious! I felt like a real mother doing real mother things.
Signed two agendas and Olivia's homework pack, read one newsletter, and learned that Wednesday is another Burger King night.
Tuesday, Sept 30th
The girls had cross country practice after school. They both had art class too. Olivia painted her sunflower from last time and Grace made a value chart. I had no idea what that might be so she explained it to us. Sounds like a color chart where you start with black and then the next spot is a little lighter and the next a little lighter until you get to gray and so on with all the colors. She was amazed to hear I have never taken an art class in school.
After supper, Sam and Olivia created an elaborate workshop out of a couple of big, cardboard boxes we had gotten that day. They had a room with windows and doors, a computer with a mouse, and a TV with remote. They set about to do their work and played this game most of the night. Grace was in and out of the game, doing whatever she was doing.
Signed two agendas and ignored a stack of letters that came home for me to read.
Wednesday, Oct 1st
The girls had their final cross country race of the season. They both did well again. Both finished in the middle of the pack again. I hope we get their times soon.
While we were driving over to the race, Grace told us that instead of having her regular class in the afternoon, they had a big assembly on bullying. Whoopee! Olivia had the same assembly. I asked them if they learned anything new. Of course not. Guidance on steroids. Perhaps I fail in my duties as a parent, but my contempt for these exercises is not concealed so we all got a big laugh out of it. Then Grace said that the fourth graders had a separate assembly early in the week to talk about tobacco. Oh, lucky girl! Two assemblies in one week! Grace gave me a packet of information where parents were issued a challenge. Oh yay! We are supposed to discuss the information provided about the dangers of tobacco use with our child and practice saying no with them every day for a week. A week! Then sign the attached certificate stating we followed through and talked about tobacco and said no every day for a week. Um, we will not be doing this. Grace immediately said she didn't think we would and that she didn't want the bag anyway. The bag? Oh yes, if you return your certificate you get a bag. They even provide five helpful ways to say no. They are:
After the race was Burger King night! Hopefully there will only be one more of these coming up for awhile. After we got home, girls needed bathed and then the bustle of getting ready for bed, and then Grace announced she had homework. Tears as we said she just needed to go to bed.
Signed two agendas, got Olivia's school pictures, and saw some other piece of paperwork that I cannot call to mind right now.
Thursday, Oct 2nd
I had to leave a little earlier than normal (well it actually should be my normal leaving time, but that's neither here nor there) so I didn't go up to tell the girls good morning before I left. As I drove away, I saw a light on in the girls' room so I am presuming Grace woke up early to do her homework.
I don't remember much because I don't remember. Olivia had technology class and Grace had PE. When Olivia went to technology, Grace was in the computer lab working on typing out a story about cheetahs for her writing class. Grace is working on her blog again. In Grace's folder I found multiple drawings of a mermaid queen.
The funniest thing of the evening was when Olivia was "reading" Sam a book. She was full of commentary and inflection. It was hilarious, but as soon as she realized I had turned my attention to listening to her, she stopped. That's a bummer. Olivia has a very wry sense of humor but hates being the center of attention. I feel like I should spend more time with Olivia's reading, but it keeps not happening.
Signed 1 agenda since Dave had already signed one, got Grace's school pictures, and read several letters pertaining to the school fundraising festival which will happen the week they get back from Fall Break.
Friday, Oct 3rd
Not much conversation at supper. Grace had library where she checked out Andrew Clements "No Talking" which she had mostly finished by the end of the day. Olivia had PE. There was another school wide assembly for the official end of the magazine fundraiser. Oh will these fundraisers ever end?
After supper, I read Sam a couple of books, "Smokey the Fireman" again and "Mud Pie for Mother." Olivia took over and they looked through a "Tiger" book. Sam has really become interested in books and drawing recently. Sometime this week, he drew portraits of Marian and Olivia.
Before bed Grace and I were talking about her book which was inspired by a silent protest of Gandhi's and applies the concept to an elementary school which, of course, pits the boys against the girls. It sounds like a strange book to me. Gandhi was protesting societal injustice and the principal in the book just wants the kids to shut up and proposes a no talking challenge, but problems arise when the students take it seriously and then won't respond to their teachers. So, um, what is the point of this book? I don't know, but it gives Grace something to think about.
She found out that her European explorer is Henry Hudson and I had tell her that, in fact, the Dutch are not French.
We also talked about 4 digit by 4 digit multiplication and how you have to add one more zero to each addition line for every digit and why that is true. I again emphasized the need to keep your columns straight and neat which I think she is starting to understand why I have stressed it. Her handwriting is messy so there is lots of room for improvement here.
Saturday, Oct 4th
Dave and Grace made pancakes this morning and Dave made her double the ingredients so some early morning math happening. Overheard quote by Dave while Grace was mixing ingredients that made me laugh: "The more you knock out of the bowl, the less that will be in the bowl." Yes. that's true.
Lots of screaming and whining here this morning for reasons I can't quite figure so they were all banished outside as soon as it was plausible. Even Marian was cranky, but she's currently passed out in the playpen.
The girls are on Fall Break next week so I'm not sure what will be going on around here. Grateful to not have to sign anything for a week.
Sunday, Sept, 28th
I honestly don't remember what I did with the children yesterday because it has all been blotted out in my mind by an argument I had with a stranger on the Internet for most of the day. I don't recommend those and usually don't get sucked in. My bad.
Right after we got home from church, my brother called to tell us that Jack Hanna's Into the Wild was about cheetahs and we needed to turn it on and watch. We complied and brunch was delayed while we distractedly got food together and watched the TV. They had a king cheetah, which has stripes instead of spots, and Dave speculated that it was probably more like a breed of cheetah instead of a sub-species. He and Grace discussed the difference between breeds and species and Grace was skeptical until the cheetah expert on the TV said that they used to think that king cheetahs were a separate species until they studied them and determined it was a recessive gene trait. So there.
Olivia worked on handwriting a little and said her teacher said she wasn't allowed to work on cursive at home. I told her the teacher doesn't get to tell us what we are allowed to do at home.
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| Olivia's portrait of her cousins |
Monday, Sept 29th
I arrived home to find Sam and Olivia with an elaborate pillow fort happening in the living room while Grace was upstairs buried in a book. Both Grace and Olivia had library at school. Grace checked out "Double Fudge" and Olivia checked out a book on swans.
At supper Grace said that she was going to have to do a PowerPoint project on a European explorer with a partner. The explorer is to be drawn at random out of a hat and the partner is to be drawn at random out of a hat. Everything about this project makes me want to hide: PowerPoint and group projects. Grace is pretty anxious about it. She has a whole list of people she doesn't want to work with because they don't do good work. And she is also self-conscious about her lack of ability in PowerPoint because her stupid parents don't think PowerPoint is very important in the elementary curriculum and don't let her practice.
We then talked about random European explorers and what they did. I think she is a little unclear on the concept of the continent of Europe because we would mention that so-and-so was Spanish and she would object saying the project was only on Europeans. Spain is in Europe, dear. I meant to get the globe out after supper but forgot. Memorable line of the night:
Dave: You could get Marco Polo.
Grace: Did he invent the game?
After supper, Marian was tired of being confined so I repaired upstairs with her so she could run free in the only minimally baby proof area of the house while Dave stayed down to wash dishes. What happened next I can only describe as the closest thing to feeling like a homeschooler without actually being a homeschooler.
Olivia announced she had homework that was due tomorrow. This was true enough. Actually we had completely ignored Olivia's monthly homework for the past three weeks and had mountains to make up. Since her homework requires an adult to sit with her and read through the instructions out loud, she came upstairs so I could help her. Grace wanted to work on her cheetah blog and Sam wanted me to read to him out of the nursery rhyme book while Marian ran all over. I would read Olivia an instruction on my left, turn to Sam on my right and read him a verse, randomly spell out words for Grace as she called them out, and tend to Marian as she crawled all over us, wanting to nurse, wanting down, wanting Sam's book, wanting Olivia's pencil. We kept this rhythm up for probably 45 minutes. Olivia and I powered through FIFTEEN pages of math homework! No page had more than six problems and a lot of the problems were just counting problems, but still, it was a lot of work for a six year old. I was mulitasking to the extreme and never got frustrated. Olivia got tired towards the end, but she, too, never got frustrated. The whole evening was glorious! I felt like a real mother doing real mother things.
Signed two agendas and Olivia's homework pack, read one newsletter, and learned that Wednesday is another Burger King night.
Tuesday, Sept 30th
The girls had cross country practice after school. They both had art class too. Olivia painted her sunflower from last time and Grace made a value chart. I had no idea what that might be so she explained it to us. Sounds like a color chart where you start with black and then the next spot is a little lighter and the next a little lighter until you get to gray and so on with all the colors. She was amazed to hear I have never taken an art class in school.
After supper, Sam and Olivia created an elaborate workshop out of a couple of big, cardboard boxes we had gotten that day. They had a room with windows and doors, a computer with a mouse, and a TV with remote. They set about to do their work and played this game most of the night. Grace was in and out of the game, doing whatever she was doing.
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| Laptop. Note the mouse with the mouse pad. |
Signed two agendas and ignored a stack of letters that came home for me to read.
Wednesday, Oct 1st
The girls had their final cross country race of the season. They both did well again. Both finished in the middle of the pack again. I hope we get their times soon.
While we were driving over to the race, Grace told us that instead of having her regular class in the afternoon, they had a big assembly on bullying. Whoopee! Olivia had the same assembly. I asked them if they learned anything new. Of course not. Guidance on steroids. Perhaps I fail in my duties as a parent, but my contempt for these exercises is not concealed so we all got a big laugh out of it. Then Grace said that the fourth graders had a separate assembly early in the week to talk about tobacco. Oh, lucky girl! Two assemblies in one week! Grace gave me a packet of information where parents were issued a challenge. Oh yay! We are supposed to discuss the information provided about the dangers of tobacco use with our child and practice saying no with them every day for a week. A week! Then sign the attached certificate stating we followed through and talked about tobacco and said no every day for a week. Um, we will not be doing this. Grace immediately said she didn't think we would and that she didn't want the bag anyway. The bag? Oh yes, if you return your certificate you get a bag. They even provide five helpful ways to say no. They are:
- Say "no"
- Say "no" again and again
- Say "no" like you mean it
- Say "no" and give a reason
- Get up and leave
After the race was Burger King night! Hopefully there will only be one more of these coming up for awhile. After we got home, girls needed bathed and then the bustle of getting ready for bed, and then Grace announced she had homework. Tears as we said she just needed to go to bed.
Signed two agendas, got Olivia's school pictures, and saw some other piece of paperwork that I cannot call to mind right now.
Thursday, Oct 2nd
I had to leave a little earlier than normal (well it actually should be my normal leaving time, but that's neither here nor there) so I didn't go up to tell the girls good morning before I left. As I drove away, I saw a light on in the girls' room so I am presuming Grace woke up early to do her homework.
I don't remember much because I don't remember. Olivia had technology class and Grace had PE. When Olivia went to technology, Grace was in the computer lab working on typing out a story about cheetahs for her writing class. Grace is working on her blog again. In Grace's folder I found multiple drawings of a mermaid queen.
The funniest thing of the evening was when Olivia was "reading" Sam a book. She was full of commentary and inflection. It was hilarious, but as soon as she realized I had turned my attention to listening to her, she stopped. That's a bummer. Olivia has a very wry sense of humor but hates being the center of attention. I feel like I should spend more time with Olivia's reading, but it keeps not happening.
Signed 1 agenda since Dave had already signed one, got Grace's school pictures, and read several letters pertaining to the school fundraising festival which will happen the week they get back from Fall Break.
Friday, Oct 3rd
Not much conversation at supper. Grace had library where she checked out Andrew Clements "No Talking" which she had mostly finished by the end of the day. Olivia had PE. There was another school wide assembly for the official end of the magazine fundraiser. Oh will these fundraisers ever end?
After supper, I read Sam a couple of books, "Smokey the Fireman" again and "Mud Pie for Mother." Olivia took over and they looked through a "Tiger" book. Sam has really become interested in books and drawing recently. Sometime this week, he drew portraits of Marian and Olivia.
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| Olivia by Sam |
Before bed Grace and I were talking about her book which was inspired by a silent protest of Gandhi's and applies the concept to an elementary school which, of course, pits the boys against the girls. It sounds like a strange book to me. Gandhi was protesting societal injustice and the principal in the book just wants the kids to shut up and proposes a no talking challenge, but problems arise when the students take it seriously and then won't respond to their teachers. So, um, what is the point of this book? I don't know, but it gives Grace something to think about.
She found out that her European explorer is Henry Hudson and I had tell her that, in fact, the Dutch are not French.
We also talked about 4 digit by 4 digit multiplication and how you have to add one more zero to each addition line for every digit and why that is true. I again emphasized the need to keep your columns straight and neat which I think she is starting to understand why I have stressed it. Her handwriting is messy so there is lots of room for improvement here.
Saturday, Oct 4th
Dave and Grace made pancakes this morning and Dave made her double the ingredients so some early morning math happening. Overheard quote by Dave while Grace was mixing ingredients that made me laugh: "The more you knock out of the bowl, the less that will be in the bowl." Yes. that's true.
Lots of screaming and whining here this morning for reasons I can't quite figure so they were all banished outside as soon as it was plausible. Even Marian was cranky, but she's currently passed out in the playpen.
The girls are on Fall Break next week so I'm not sure what will be going on around here. Grateful to not have to sign anything for a week.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
GFLN Week 4 Sept 27th
Joining in again with Melanie at The Wine-Dark Sea for Guilt Free Learning Notes.
Sunday, Sept 21st
A long awaited day: Grace got her cat. Grace has been asking for a cat since she was in Kindergarten. We told her she was too young then and she had to wait. We had another baby and she had to wait. We had to psych ourselves up for it and she had to wait. Finally the day arrived. Introducing Lucia the cat:
Dave and I had a cat for years whom we loved, but she had a kidney disease that required a cheap, but consistent treatment of subcutaneous fluids. Over time, the costs add up plus the vet and the litter box and all the other things, so after she died, we decided to wait until a child was old enough to do most of the work before getting another cat. And we hope this new cat won't cost as much as the previous cat.
But cat is what happened all day. I'm not sure who was more stressed out by the children stalking the cat all day, me or the cat. I think probably me. I can't wait for the new to wear off after a few days because the hovering is driving me crazy.
Monday, Sept 22nd
After I got home from work, but before supper, Olivia and I read a shark book from school. She squealed her discontent with the pictures every time we turned the page. I asked her if she had picked the book out herself. She answered sheepishly that she had but didn't look in it before choosing it.
Olivia had guidance where she watched two videos but couldn't tell us what they were about. After awhile she decided they were about self control. After they watched the videos, they had to draw and write while listening to music. She immediately announced one of the songs was "Let It Go." The irony was too rich to keep from laughing. After encouraging self-control, the teacher played "Let It Go." Hello? Grace had PE, I think.
During supper, Marian started putting food down her shirt for reasons that only toddlers know. Grace, highly amused by this antic, immediately started recounting a scene out of "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" in which Fudge is told to eat his food or wear it and ends up dumping food all over himself. She read this book in third grade so she proved that it is indeed possible for a third grade child to read and discuss books.
After supper, Marian had a monstrous dirty diaper that required some assistance in keeping her distracted while I cleaned her up. Olivia came in and launched into this dialog: "What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?" I swear she hasn't seen the whole movie. Really.
I signed two agendas, examined a progress report, and checked some math homework.
Tuesday, Sept 23rd
The girls had cross-country practice today. Grace had guidance and watched the same videos that Olivia had watched the day before, but she did not get "Let It Go" afterwards. Poor Grace. Olivia had technology class, but instead of having class, they watched videos because some third grade child had to finish a test on the computer so they weren't allowed in the lab. Mixed feelings about this. Why are they taking tests on computers? That's stupid. Why is one child's need to take a test allowed to derail an entirely different class's schedule. However, it's technology class. Who cares?
Grace had a substitute teacher and got fussed at in class for having the temerity to look at the ceiling while she thought about her work instead of staring at her paper. She was very offended. She got a lecture about staying on task and how that teacher was trying to get her ready for fifth grade. As if the sub has anything to do with that. Apparently some boy jumped to her defense and she tried to show her she was doing her work, but to no avail. We laughed about it and told Grace not to worry about it. Some subs are just like that. Grace really hates to be thought of as not doing her work. Olivia has had this sub in the past too and doesn't like her either so they exchanged terrible sub stories.
I read "Smokey the Fireman" by Richard Scarry to Sam and Sam sat with a pile of books "reading" to himself. The book he paid the most attention to was "Not Your Typical Dragon" by Dan Bar-el. He somehow managed to empty most of the bookcase.
Grace read "The Sword and The Stone" out of a Disney storybook to have something to put down on her reading log. She also finished writing her first post on her cheetah blog so she is officially published. We shall see how often she puts new stuff up. She stayed up way past her bedtime reading something. I'm not sure what she was reading since we were more concerned with her turning out the light.
I signed two agendas, examined a different progress report, and checked some math homework.
Wednesday, Sept 24th
The girls had their first cross country race of the season. The race is a mile course set through a local school's campus. They both did well and finished in the middle of the pack. Olivia ran really hard, but I think Grace set too slow a pace for herself. She is the queen of pacing. Since the course is just set off by flags and cones, the spectators can get close and follow the runners around the track. Dave was running around with the video camera. I had Marian in the carrier and Sam by the hand and we staked out spots along the route. The girls would run by, we would cheer and then hurriedly move to the next convenient spot along the route. Since the girls are in two different age groups with different races, we did this twice. I can't say I ran a mile, but I did haul myself around quite a bit in the hot sun and was very tired from the effort.
We decided to eat supper at Chik-fil-a. Not much conversation there. I learned Grace had art class and is still working on her pancakes and Olivia had PE, maybe? Mostly we ate in silence. On the ride home, I frantically filled out two Girl Scout fundraising forms, wrote a check, and filled out two Girl Scout health forms for us to drop off on the way home since the girls had to miss their meeting due to the race.
At home I tried to read three newsletters that came from school and check some more math homework, but I couldn't make my eyes focus. I signed two agendas and worked on getting everyone in bed as soon as possible. Grace was very excited about getting comments on her blog post so I did let her respond before shooing her to bed. There was also some "discussion" about the reading log and not getting the opportunity to read for twenty minutes. Just go to bed and make it up tomorrow!
Thursday, Sept 25th
I got home from work to be greeted by Sam who was very excited about the apple seed he had planted. He explained when it was big enough, he would transplant it out of the cup and into a pot. I am also happy to learn that the coveted plastic monkeys are now in the house. Olivia is pleased as punch. These things are cheap, cheap, cheap and will be broken within the week.
At supper we discussed European vacations and suppertime in Rome because, hey, we live vicariously! Grace had technology class and Olivia had library. She checked out the Magic Tree House book "Twister on Tuesday." I immediately told Grace not to read it because she has a fear of storms and we don't need to encourage it.
Grace is working on two digit by two digit multiplication in math enrichment and she is feeling unsure about the algorithm. Well she said she didn't know what to do so I asked her to work a problem so I could see where she had trouble. She didn't have any trouble so I think she just wanted someone to watch her work and make sure it was right. We worked a few problems together and I showed her the trick about moving the number over if the bottom number ends in zero. I also showed her that lining up her columns works better and eliminates any confusion about what to add together. So we had a nice little math lesson.
I meant to read the shark book with Olivia again, but she went outside to play for a few minutes after supper and I completely forgot about it by the time she was back in the house. While I was picking up before bed, Sam found a book that had large letters on it and wanted to practice naming letters. He was pretty sure the words said "The Columbus Zoo," but alas, it only said "The Zoo Book." He is getting decent at the letters. I would have to drill him to see how many he knows, but I'll guess it's about half.
Marian has started pointing at letters on shirts and trying to say something about them. I won't say she is naming the letters because she is not, but she is recognizing the letters are something that have names. Grace had this same behaviour as a young toddler and could name most of the letters by age two. Just saying, here we go again.
Signed one agenda, learned that I apparently forgot to sign one of the agendas yesterday even though I could swear I did, looked at the circle of shame where my initials were not and saw where Dave signed yesterday's and today's, and signed the reading log even though it is incomplete.
Friday, Sept 26th
Supper was dominated by me going on and on about a conversation at work that greatly disturbed me that I ramble on about here too. The reason I mention it now is because it was funny to hear the girls chime in. Grace, who is always looking for affirmation, did her best to argue my points and show outrage on my behalf. Olivia, who has always been a bit more independent, was getting frustrated and saying, "They have their own brains. They can make their own decisions." In and amongst the parenting philosophy discussion, the girls were arguing over the casting in the next movie they make with the Darwin children. Grace was telling Olivia she had to play the youngest girl and Olivia objected saying she didn't want to be the youngest again. Grace said Olivia had to be the youngest unless she could convince the youngest Darwin girl to do it. And thus they argued for a long while.
Around bedtime I told Grace I was listening to "The Odyssey" in the car and gave a very brief plot overview. She wanted to know when it was written and then tried to remember which Native American groups were prominent at the same time. We then discussed what A.D meant and whether or not Jesus was born in the year 0 (no).
Signed two agendas and Olivia exchanged the shark book for something else.
Saturday, Sept 27th
Marian woke up this morning and promptly threw up all over me. She is puny and running fever, but the vomit seems to have been a one-off event. The other children are being incredibly whiny. We watched a football game and then spent a couple of hours at my sister's while my parents were there babysitting. And that's it. Football and playing with cousins are educational too.
Sunday, Sept 21st
A long awaited day: Grace got her cat. Grace has been asking for a cat since she was in Kindergarten. We told her she was too young then and she had to wait. We had another baby and she had to wait. We had to psych ourselves up for it and she had to wait. Finally the day arrived. Introducing Lucia the cat:
Dave and I had a cat for years whom we loved, but she had a kidney disease that required a cheap, but consistent treatment of subcutaneous fluids. Over time, the costs add up plus the vet and the litter box and all the other things, so after she died, we decided to wait until a child was old enough to do most of the work before getting another cat. And we hope this new cat won't cost as much as the previous cat.
But cat is what happened all day. I'm not sure who was more stressed out by the children stalking the cat all day, me or the cat. I think probably me. I can't wait for the new to wear off after a few days because the hovering is driving me crazy.
Monday, Sept 22nd
After I got home from work, but before supper, Olivia and I read a shark book from school. She squealed her discontent with the pictures every time we turned the page. I asked her if she had picked the book out herself. She answered sheepishly that she had but didn't look in it before choosing it.
Olivia had guidance where she watched two videos but couldn't tell us what they were about. After awhile she decided they were about self control. After they watched the videos, they had to draw and write while listening to music. She immediately announced one of the songs was "Let It Go." The irony was too rich to keep from laughing. After encouraging self-control, the teacher played "Let It Go." Hello? Grace had PE, I think.
During supper, Marian started putting food down her shirt for reasons that only toddlers know. Grace, highly amused by this antic, immediately started recounting a scene out of "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" in which Fudge is told to eat his food or wear it and ends up dumping food all over himself. She read this book in third grade so she proved that it is indeed possible for a third grade child to read and discuss books.
After supper, Marian had a monstrous dirty diaper that required some assistance in keeping her distracted while I cleaned her up. Olivia came in and launched into this dialog: "What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?" I swear she hasn't seen the whole movie. Really.
I signed two agendas, examined a progress report, and checked some math homework.
Tuesday, Sept 23rd
The girls had cross-country practice today. Grace had guidance and watched the same videos that Olivia had watched the day before, but she did not get "Let It Go" afterwards. Poor Grace. Olivia had technology class, but instead of having class, they watched videos because some third grade child had to finish a test on the computer so they weren't allowed in the lab. Mixed feelings about this. Why are they taking tests on computers? That's stupid. Why is one child's need to take a test allowed to derail an entirely different class's schedule. However, it's technology class. Who cares?
Grace had a substitute teacher and got fussed at in class for having the temerity to look at the ceiling while she thought about her work instead of staring at her paper. She was very offended. She got a lecture about staying on task and how that teacher was trying to get her ready for fifth grade. As if the sub has anything to do with that. Apparently some boy jumped to her defense and she tried to show her she was doing her work, but to no avail. We laughed about it and told Grace not to worry about it. Some subs are just like that. Grace really hates to be thought of as not doing her work. Olivia has had this sub in the past too and doesn't like her either so they exchanged terrible sub stories.
I read "Smokey the Fireman" by Richard Scarry to Sam and Sam sat with a pile of books "reading" to himself. The book he paid the most attention to was "Not Your Typical Dragon" by Dan Bar-el. He somehow managed to empty most of the bookcase.
Grace read "The Sword and The Stone" out of a Disney storybook to have something to put down on her reading log. She also finished writing her first post on her cheetah blog so she is officially published. We shall see how often she puts new stuff up. She stayed up way past her bedtime reading something. I'm not sure what she was reading since we were more concerned with her turning out the light.
I signed two agendas, examined a different progress report, and checked some math homework.
Wednesday, Sept 24th
The girls had their first cross country race of the season. The race is a mile course set through a local school's campus. They both did well and finished in the middle of the pack. Olivia ran really hard, but I think Grace set too slow a pace for herself. She is the queen of pacing. Since the course is just set off by flags and cones, the spectators can get close and follow the runners around the track. Dave was running around with the video camera. I had Marian in the carrier and Sam by the hand and we staked out spots along the route. The girls would run by, we would cheer and then hurriedly move to the next convenient spot along the route. Since the girls are in two different age groups with different races, we did this twice. I can't say I ran a mile, but I did haul myself around quite a bit in the hot sun and was very tired from the effort.
We decided to eat supper at Chik-fil-a. Not much conversation there. I learned Grace had art class and is still working on her pancakes and Olivia had PE, maybe? Mostly we ate in silence. On the ride home, I frantically filled out two Girl Scout fundraising forms, wrote a check, and filled out two Girl Scout health forms for us to drop off on the way home since the girls had to miss their meeting due to the race.
At home I tried to read three newsletters that came from school and check some more math homework, but I couldn't make my eyes focus. I signed two agendas and worked on getting everyone in bed as soon as possible. Grace was very excited about getting comments on her blog post so I did let her respond before shooing her to bed. There was also some "discussion" about the reading log and not getting the opportunity to read for twenty minutes. Just go to bed and make it up tomorrow!
Thursday, Sept 25th
I got home from work to be greeted by Sam who was very excited about the apple seed he had planted. He explained when it was big enough, he would transplant it out of the cup and into a pot. I am also happy to learn that the coveted plastic monkeys are now in the house. Olivia is pleased as punch. These things are cheap, cheap, cheap and will be broken within the week.
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| Note the lens cap for approximate sizing of the coveted monkeys |
At supper we discussed European vacations and suppertime in Rome because, hey, we live vicariously! Grace had technology class and Olivia had library. She checked out the Magic Tree House book "Twister on Tuesday." I immediately told Grace not to read it because she has a fear of storms and we don't need to encourage it.
Grace is working on two digit by two digit multiplication in math enrichment and she is feeling unsure about the algorithm. Well she said she didn't know what to do so I asked her to work a problem so I could see where she had trouble. She didn't have any trouble so I think she just wanted someone to watch her work and make sure it was right. We worked a few problems together and I showed her the trick about moving the number over if the bottom number ends in zero. I also showed her that lining up her columns works better and eliminates any confusion about what to add together. So we had a nice little math lesson.
I meant to read the shark book with Olivia again, but she went outside to play for a few minutes after supper and I completely forgot about it by the time she was back in the house. While I was picking up before bed, Sam found a book that had large letters on it and wanted to practice naming letters. He was pretty sure the words said "The Columbus Zoo," but alas, it only said "The Zoo Book." He is getting decent at the letters. I would have to drill him to see how many he knows, but I'll guess it's about half.
Marian has started pointing at letters on shirts and trying to say something about them. I won't say she is naming the letters because she is not, but she is recognizing the letters are something that have names. Grace had this same behaviour as a young toddler and could name most of the letters by age two. Just saying, here we go again.
Signed one agenda, learned that I apparently forgot to sign one of the agendas yesterday even though I could swear I did, looked at the circle of shame where my initials were not and saw where Dave signed yesterday's and today's, and signed the reading log even though it is incomplete.
Friday, Sept 26th
Supper was dominated by me going on and on about a conversation at work that greatly disturbed me that I ramble on about here too. The reason I mention it now is because it was funny to hear the girls chime in. Grace, who is always looking for affirmation, did her best to argue my points and show outrage on my behalf. Olivia, who has always been a bit more independent, was getting frustrated and saying, "They have their own brains. They can make their own decisions." In and amongst the parenting philosophy discussion, the girls were arguing over the casting in the next movie they make with the Darwin children. Grace was telling Olivia she had to play the youngest girl and Olivia objected saying she didn't want to be the youngest again. Grace said Olivia had to be the youngest unless she could convince the youngest Darwin girl to do it. And thus they argued for a long while.
Around bedtime I told Grace I was listening to "The Odyssey" in the car and gave a very brief plot overview. She wanted to know when it was written and then tried to remember which Native American groups were prominent at the same time. We then discussed what A.D meant and whether or not Jesus was born in the year 0 (no).
Signed two agendas and Olivia exchanged the shark book for something else.
Saturday, Sept 27th
Marian woke up this morning and promptly threw up all over me. She is puny and running fever, but the vomit seems to have been a one-off event. The other children are being incredibly whiny. We watched a football game and then spent a couple of hours at my sister's while my parents were there babysitting. And that's it. Football and playing with cousins are educational too.
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