J has taken it upon himself to write two books.  The books each consist of a folder (the ones with the brads in the middle to put notebook paper in) and several sheets of paper.  They are drawn/written in crayon.  He worked on these all day yesterday and has read them to himself several times.

The first book is titled, "Ships."  It's about all different kinds of ships.  You know, floating ships, sinking ships, big ships, little ships, etc.  There are no words other than the title.

The second book is titled "Ar-Mes."  (Armies.)  There are guns, bloodshed, and lots of phonetic spelling.  The first page shows an "army guy" with a gun, and the words "Y Ar Never Live, Boo Ho Ho Ho."  (You are never alive, boo hoo hoo hoo.)  Subsequent pages show burning buildings, a "t-anker" (I'm not sure why he uses hypens so liberally), a very sad individual with the words "Ar Bot Is Sinking" (our boat is sinking), airplanes, "fiy-ur" (fire),  and what looks like a burning neighborhood with the words "Wat happind?"   While I can't say I'm thrilled with the subject matter, I'm glad he's writing and illustrating. 

Today we read "Who Owns the Sun," which is about slavery, and then another book about freed slaves travelling westward towards California.  "Who Owns the Sun" was actually written by a 14-year-old, and in the back of the book, it shows several other books written by children.  The youngest writer/illustrator shown is a 6-year-old.  J commented that he too has written and illustrated two books. 

Oh, a little brag:  We went to a little carnival put on by our church this weekend, and in order to buy anything, you had to first buy tickets (4/$1).  We all (J, R, and I) decided that we wanted snowcones, which were 4 tickets each.  J had no trouble figuring out that we needed 12 tickets, and that he needed $3 to purchase the tickets.  He wanted to pay by himself, so I sent him over to the ticket tent.  The man in the tent said "$3?"  And J said "no, three snowcones, so we need twelve tickets."  He was so cute!  The guy kind of laughed, and said "that's right!" and I had to restrain myself from yelling "we homeschool!"  Of course he just figured it out and had nothing to do with homeschooling, because we are not doing multiplication, but I was still proud!

Since I just went on and on about J, I will share a little R story as well:  I believe that she is training to be a mommy just like me!  Normally if she misbehaves, it involves a lack of listening to mommy, so our discussions about it consist of me asking "Did I tell you to yada yada yada?"  And she says "Yes."  And then I'll ask, "Did you do yada yada yada?" and she'll say "no."  So I'll say "Was that listening to mommy?"  And of course she'll say "no."  So I'll say "what is the rule about listening to mommy?"  And the answer is "Always listen to mommy."

Well, the other day she was crabbing and asking for milk and we had about a hundred other things going on, so she was being ignored for the moment.  Finally she came over and tapped me on the shoulder and said "sit down."  I looked at her, and she said "Did I tell you to get me milk?"  And I said "yes, but you need to wait" and she said "Is that listening to me?"  Ha hahaha!  I had to say "No, R, I guess it's not!"  LOL

Happy Monday!