BB&T (Boys Bank & Trust)

Well, it happened. On Friday, my Baby Boy lost his first tooth. I have to face it--he's growing up. Jacob was indeed quite proud of the big gap in his mouth and eagerly anticipated the Tooth Fairy's visit. His big financial goal of the moment is to save enough to buy another Webkin, a goal which he was, on Friday, still $7 short of attaining. He was thus convinced that his loss of a tooth must be some sort of divine event and that the Tooth Fairy would leave enough for him to reach his lofty goal. I tried to explain to him before bed that most kids only get a quarter for a lost tooth, so he should not be disappointed in the morning if the Tooth Fairy did not leave $7.

Inevitably, the morning came. And as I greeted him, I asked him if the Tooth Fairy paid a visit. "Yes," he said, "but she only left me $2." I once again reminded him how lucky he was to have received $2 when most kids only get a quarter. But he was convinced that there still must be a lost dollar or two hiding somewhere in his bed or in the mess beneath his bed. When his search turned up nothing, he added his $2 to his bank and asked us to count it up to see how much more he needed to save.

This morning the boys are back to counting their money and getting some wheeling and dealing going. They actually have come up with a pretty good and generous plan: This Saturday, Jacob will give Michael his allowance so that Michael will then have enough to purchase another Webkin. Then Michael will give Jacob his allowance for the next two weeks so that Jacob will have enough within that time.

The Bible says money is the root of all evil. Not that Webkinz are evil. Or allowances. Or even counting money. Or wheeling and dealing. But this constant discourse over money: "Do I have enough yet, Mommy?" "Do we get allowance today?" (Since you just got it yesterday, what do you think the answer to that question is??)? At least they're saving for something, right?!

The Big Log

(Alex stole authorship, which I don't mind...although I did point it out to her!)

The Big Log

Soon it will be time to go on the big boat. The rules say if a baby is not potty trained, she cannot go in the pool on the big boat.

Mommy said, "It is time to potty train the baby." So Mommy took the baby's pants off and showed her the potty.

Illustration by Michael

Mommy forgot about Baby. Mommy went to take a shower. Soon Michael yelled, "Mommy, will you come? She smells!"

Mommy said, "In a moment." Mommy did not come fast. Mommy began to dry her hair. Then Mommy stopped. Hmmm. Baby had no pants on. Uh oh!

Mommy found Baby in the boys' room. On the rug, Baby had left a big log of poop.

Illustration by Alex

Mommy had to smile. It was funny. The boys smiled. Alex smiled. Daddy smiled. It was funny. Mommy cleaned up the mess.

Illustration by Jacob

Then Mommy had class in the room with tile. The baby sat on the potty then got up and peed on the tile. Jacob said, "Baby, you must not pee on the tile. You must stay here. If you are not here, you can hold it until you get to your pot."

It was not yet lunchtime. Baby had peed on the tile six times. Mommy did not like to mop the tile. It was not funny now.

Mommy put Baby's pants back on. Mommy said maybe Baby will not swim on the big boat.

Special Sounds (Clue Words): oo (tooth), e (me), o (go), y (baby), -ed (played), ow (bowl), er (verse), th (this), sh (ship), ow (owl), sm (smile), st (stop), dr (drum) air (hair), -ed (looked), ou (out), oy (boy), cl (clock), th (thick), ay (pray), ch (church), u (push), ck (duck)

Sight Words: to, the, a, is, said, you, come, uh oh, was, here, are, your

Destination: The Final Frontier

When we picked Audrey up after Awana last night, she had a fever (my sincere apologies to anyone who had children in the nursery with the Princess), so even last night I had pretty much written off today as far as academics go. However, yesterday I re-discovered www.learningpage.com, a treasure I had forgotten about until I began my quest to find cursive practice for Alex. Learning Pages offers thematic units...and some wonderful resources on Space. Since we have been studying the Solar System, I made an executive decision this morning to have a day without the 3R's and just participate in whatever academics the Princess would allow us to do.

One of the resources LP offers are murals to go along with each unit. I decided that would be our project this morning, so I put up a black wall using construction paper. I did sneak in a little 'Rithmetic with Alex when I challenged her to figure out how many pieces of paper we'd need if we had 4 rows of 10 across. As I was putting up the black paper, I explained to the kids that I was putting Space on the wall. After it was done, Michael said, "We have the coolest house ever!"

After creating Space on the wall, I began to get the cut-outs prepared for coloring. During my prep time, my little teacher gathered a hallway classroom with the boys, Audrey, and several stuffed animals. I caught the beginning of her lecture: "There is more in space than just the earth and the sun..." She went on to explain all about other heavenly bodies, the planets (and how they got their names from gods and goddesses). Finally, when I told them it was time to color Alex declared, "Workshop!"

The Solar System mural turned out well, and the kids have asked if we can keep it forever. And seeing as how we've only studied Mercury and Venus yet Alex taught the kids and their stuffed animals so much, I may just put her in charge of homeschooling from here on out!

Classical Music of the Middle Ages?

I'm itching to get to some composer study, but I'm also incredibly obsessed with keeping my electives tied to our History studies. Obviously, there weren't too many Beethovens or Mozarts tromping through the lands of the Byzantine Empire or across the deserts of Muhammed's neck of the woods. So I have settled...for an armenian composer from the 700s named Stepanos Sunetsy.

Sunetsy's hits include Psalm No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, which I downloaded from www.classicalarchives.com (someday I'll take the time to learn how to put an actual link on here!). Here are the kids comments:

Michael: I liked it because it sounded like pretty music.

Jacob: I thought it was sweet music and pretty music.

(I think "pretty" may have been prompted because I let them watch the swirly things on Windows Media Player as they listened.)

Alex: I felt like I was in sort of a big, dark room with that music playing. And it was really warm in the room and smelled good too. I thought it was from either India or Russia. Then I felt there were people dancing around in white clothes with little cloths wrapped around their head, and they wanted me to join them.

(As a side note, I have to say that she actually said, "...smelled good too, like wine." I omittted "wine" because I don't want to offend anyone, but then that's a funny part of her description I want to archive!)

I have a feeling I may stray from my timeline in order to get some good music in the mix, especially since I have some free gifts and two composer CDs and books in the mail. Yes, I'm one of those suckers that sends in the tear off sheet that says, "Yes! Please rush my two books for only $1.99 (+ S & H) along with my free gifts..." And, yes, I'm always excited that I get the gold sticker that allows me to claim the maximum number of gifts...even though I'm completely aware that there really aren't any silver stickers out there (and pity the poor person who would get a silver sticker!). Until we get my CDs, composer books, and all of my free gold sticker gifts, however, we'll continue studying some very obscure composers from the Middle Ages!

Just a Day

Even ordinary days have extraordinary moments. Yesterday's moment came on the way home from church when Michael got a hold of some large googly eyes we used to teach Sunday School. He placed the googly eyes behind his glasses and had the whole van giggling. Jacob tried his on as well.

Tonight was Jacob's "Special Night" again, and he wanted to Jenga. We built a masterpiece block tower, and he wanted to capture it on film:

History Rhymin'

Last year I didn't push the boys to be involved in history, but this year I insist on it. However, I do understand that their minds are apt to wander during a chapter of Story of the World. So I've done a couple of things to combat this. First, instead of having them do the mapwork or color the picture provided by Bauer AFTER the reading, I put the map and picture in front of them during our reading. That way, we can reference the map and mark it up as we read, and my kinesthetic learner has the freedom to keep his hands in motion as he colors while I read. A second thing I've done is to create a couple of rhyming lines for each chapter we read. While I don't think my rhymes will win any poetry contests, it is helping all three of the kids retain some facts. We just covered Chapter 9 today and therefore added a couple new lines to our developing poem:

The Middle Ages

Rome was so big they didn’t know what to do.

So in 395 the Empire split in two.

The West fell out of Rome’s hands.

The Celts lived in British lands.

In 449, the Anglo-Saxons settled there.

Then Augustine brought Christianity to share.

The East became known as the Byzantine Empire

with the Hagia Sophia and its tall spire.

The capital was Constantinople,

And Justinian was the Emperor hopeful.

He always worked very hard in his life,

and he ruled in 527 with Theodora, his wife.

In India, the Gupta Dynasty—peace it gave

While Buddhist Monks lived in Ajanta caves.

In Mecca, Muhammed began to preach

and in Medina from the Koran began to teach.

All over, Islam began to spread

with Muhammed as the religion’s head.

The Tang Dynasty ruled 300 years.

It was China’s Golden Age of no fears

Japan broke from China and Korea to go their own way

and followed the Yamato Dynasty which still rules today.

So I guess you could say those lines are our World History in a nutshell. I wish I had done this last year with "Ancient Times" so that the material would be more cemented in not only the kids' minds, but mine as well, but I guess we'll catch it when it cycles back around in 2 years.

Chickens!

Chickens, chickens, chickens! Not that my friend doesn't have enough on her plate what with 3 kids, a fourth one almost done cookin', a huge new house to maintain, a farm to run, kids' brains to fill with amazing academics (how does she do it all?!)...today she was kind enough to accommodate us when we invited ourselves to her farm for a chicken field trip. The new farm owners just acquired 12 chickens, and I thought it would be a blast for the kids to observe the birds...and of course play with their two best buddies Grace and Jack. In earnest preparation for our field trip, we did a little KWL yesterday (actually, we haven't done the L yet): K meaning what you already Know about chickens, W for what you Want to learn about chickens, and tomorrow we'll get to the L which is what you Learned about chickens. You won't be surprised to know that Michael's request was to find out "what chicken poop looks like." (What is it with boys' obsession with poop anyway?!)

Michael quickly forgot his main objective when the lively birds were freed from their coop to free-range on the farm. The kids were delighted to chase them around and watch them eat their fill of bugs or whatever else they were pecking at on the ground! It's funny--I grew up with chickens but never realized they had so much personality! Shows what can happen when you actually study something like my dear friend has done. The cutest/funniest chickens were the silkies which our host explained are from Japan. They are such peculiar looking critters from the tufts of white feathers on their heads down to the ankle cuff of feathers above their toes!

Helping feed the chickens

When we were done playing with the chickens, we enjoyed playing together and gobbling up a pizza lunch. Thank you so much for a fun field trip and wonderful fellowship, Amo!