Feb. 9, 2010 Percy led to D'Aulaires and Edith Hamilton
 B's buddies at Lego Club loved the Percy Jackson books, DH read them along with him, discussing the very troubling death of his stepfather. DH and B were waiting so long for the 5th book to come in from the library, that DH bought it on Amazon, and then they took turns devouring it.
B has since read D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and is half way through Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Sometimes a popular book will lead to ones you would have assigned anyway, only now it's the kid's idea and he does it on his own.
Convenient.
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Feb. 9, 2010 Cozy Winter Sunday at Grandma's House
   DH had the camera that day, I need to get more snaps of HIM!
Mom found my old stencils and paper holder, it keeps the paper and stencils stationary, so little kids can trace without howls of frustration - great for Sunday afternoons when the grownups are sleepy!
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Feb. 9, 2010 Big Announcement
I finished the Kitchen Curtains
They have two pockets for tension rods, so I can fold them in half, and cover either the top or bottom of the window, or take them down completely if I want too (most days I want to until the afternoon when the sun slants into the kid's eyes.) Or cover the window completely
 It lets the light through, but not the draft.
Phew, that wasn't so bad.
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Feb. 9, 2010 Dinosaur Egg Data collection
M wanted to know why sometimes his instant oatmeal packet held many "dinosaur eggs," and sometimes not so many. (Yes, I let him have sugary instant oatmeal as a treat sometimes. ;-) We began to count the eggs before adding the boiling water, recording the numbers on the inside lid of the box.
There is quite a distribution, but I think we'll wait until we've got data from another box to do some graphs with it.
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Feb. 9, 2010 "This is what happened to my bionicle when he touched the sword of Disorder." Feb. 9, 2010 You know you have a toddler when Feb. 5, 2010 Today I'm Bad to the Bone - sort of
B woke up with a fever today, K was in a sleepless mode last night, wanting to play dolly (DH took an hour with her about 3AM, God Bless Him, he did play dolly, he rocked dolly to sleep, put a blanket on her and told K how sleepy dolly was - I'm not sure if K took the hint.) When I took my turn with K, she wanted some "gooks" read to her. I succumbed to the moment, and 'read' the Foot Book by Dr Seusse, I only need to see the illustrations by the dim hall light, I have the text memorized.
So, how am I being bad today? I've already drunk two cups of coffee (yum, French Roast with whole milk, no sugar.) I'm planning to let B read books in bed all day, take the Littles to the library for books and movies, and let them all watch them this afternoon after nap time while I (GASP) work on a scrapbook or sew.
I'm feeling so rebellious about carrying on with daily lessons when my brain is bursting with ideas for my own projects. I just want to use my creativity for something that I am actually interested in myself. I don't want to school with a begrudging attitude. I don't want to loose the season where I actually want to sew the kitchen curtains (I bought fabric for them this Saturday) or make my mittens, or write for the scrapbook for my friend that I went to China with. Mostly, I want to play. I want to get to hang out with my brain myself.
Next week we are going to work on the Bernie Zubrowski book on clocks. Only B's Latin, flute and (at his insistence) math will continue on. Maybe that rebellion will settle my spirits. (Ha Ha)
What do you think? Do Mommy revolts keep away February Blues, or just add to it? Am I being selfish or showing the kids a curious spirit? If I let them sew with me, and demonstrate measurement when I cut the fabric, am I still being irresponsible? If my kids are at this moment reading aloud to each other while building with Lego, am I still "Bad?"
I'm not sure I really want to know - but comment anyway, I'll just delete it if it hurts, because today I'm bad.
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Today was a MONDAY - just too much of a MONDAY. So I'm not going to blog about it. I'll blog about Saturday morning.
M bounced onto my bed, and began a monologue. "Mom, did you know that owls have hollow bones so that they can fly better? Did you know that they have extra bones in their necks so they can turn their heads further? They have peg shaped eyes, so their eyes don't turn, but they can see as much as we can. Their ears are set so that ... Momma, you have to look at me...one is here, and one is here (since you out in blogland can't see him either, one ear is higher than than the other) and when he hears his prey, he can tell where it is, he can hear a mouse turning around under the snow a football field away, and we took apart an owl pellet and it had three skulls in it and a LOT of ribs...and Energy Griffins have heads like owls now, not eagles. (Energy Griffins are his imaginary monster friends, owls must have made quite the impression).
When DH and the boys dragged in Friday night, they were too tired to tell me if they'd had a good time or not at the Oak Knoll Audubon Owl Prowl, but once M had some sleep behind him, he really took off on owls.
Friday afternoon was awesome too: the boys played Pokemon at a friend's house while lots of Moms sipped tea and K got into too much chocolate.
Sunday Mom hosted interesting guests for dinner; the seminary prof who was pulpit supply while my pastor is away seeing to his mother's burial in England, and his wife who just recently finished up homeschooling their four kids.
How could a plain old Monday compete? Maybe Tuesday will have nothing to prove and we will hum along more cheerfully. If it's not fatigue with 3 field trips and a planning meeting all in last week but the February blues are creeping up on us - I have a plan.
I'm going to pause our regular work (not B's Flute or Latin though - the outsourcing has it's own schedule) and we will take two weeks to run through the Bernie Zubrowski books that have languished for the year.
Of course, if it is just fatigue- I have a plan for that too.
Goodnight, I'm going to be early ;-)
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Jan. 29, 2010 More on the de-Nazification of my Mitten
I finished the new first version chart today, cast on the mitten tip up so I could test knit it directly (and maybe get a mitten out of the test while I'm at it, by old teal mittens have another hole in them - in a darned spot, so the darns need darning)
I found a pattern in Vogue Knitting International Holiday 1988 called the daisy stitch, which (with a wee modification) will do nicely for my second sort of flower.
So the hexagonal logenge will not longer hold something that looks like a swastica.
Phew.
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Jan. 29, 2010 Guest Blog from M
I went to a pizzaria Uno for a field trip on the 27.   I made the pizza
myself, It was yummy.  I toured the kitchen, it was like a house kitchen
only giant-er and more people. The refrigerator and freezer were like
stock houses except colder.  After the pizza party I played with my
friend N and his sister at a playground.   We were playing this
stick game, it was kind of cool, N and me were on one side, and
his sister and my brother were on the other side. They had weird kinds
of stick cannon, it was more like a bunch of sticks with big twigs all
over them, so it wasn't too realistic.  We were sword fighting with
sticks, and stealing everyone's sticks, then we made a rule that no one
could make a rule during the game (but we made that rule during the game
so it was sort of violating itself.) |
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Jan. 26, 2010 "Momma - Look!" said K Jan. 26, 2010 Many Uses for a new to us tablet computer
My Mom's work sent us some tablet computers that they were replacing, they have some problems with connecting to their keyboards, and the security program needed for keeping medical records secret, after wiping them completely, we are having a lot of fun with them with just the styluses though, and our family's uses don't have to comply with HIPPA (Is it two p's or one?)
B is doing his handwriting exercised on the tablet; if the computer can translate it into print correctly, then he knows he did a good job with it without me having to criticize his work (I am so trying how to do it gracefully, meanwhile any face saver is welcome to both of us).
The guys will be able to play their war games head to head to head on the tablets.
I played on the GIMP with the tablet - the stylus is easier than the mouse
We realized that I'll be able to download e-books on the tablet and use it as a portable reader - yeah, no more printing e-books! Now I just have to learn how to get e-books off my hard drive and onto the tablet, but I'll ask DH.
Eventually, I'll use the tablet for charting knitting patterns, so I can chart in bed ;-)
M is drawing with the stylus, then playing with changing the 'pen' he used for it.
Oh! New Toys! Such Fun!
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It has been a week of pizza, I meant to make it twice, but the way the dinners fell, they are almost back to back. one batch Chicago Deep Dish (from the new issue of Cook's Illustrated - it's almost like Gino's East!) And ultra thin crust. Tomorrow the guys get a behind the scenes tour of Uno Grill too.
I didn't feel like making PBJ at noon, so I warmed up the leftovers, and added some frozen pizza that our neighbor's who moved away gave to us instead of packing, in case my own left overs were not enough. The frozen pizza was roundly rejected by all, it just could not compete with the home made stuff. Oh well, so much for using up what I had. We had apples and the rest of the cake instead. |
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Jan. 26, 2010 To Do this Afternooon Jan. 26, 2010 January Thaw - or Mud, Mud Glorious Mud
M told me this morning that, "Mud is like dirt's muscles." as he and K edged closer and closer to the puddle at the play ground. A group of college students passed us as they walked to the library. One of they splashed his toe into the puddle, then exclaimed, "I feel like a kid!" to which his companions replied, "You are a kid."
Both pairs of M's boots are drying out now, but the ones he had to yank out of the ground in his socks are just indescribable.
DH helped him shower before lunch. His clothes went right into a laundry basket in the hallway.
Mud Mud Glorious Mud, there's nothing quite like it for cooling the blood....
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Well, I did learn that a rusty 12" upholstery needle is not a good substitute for a 5" doll needle, but at least the places where the jersey covering tore are covered up!
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Jan. 21, 2010 M takes to the times sign
Miquon can introduce math ideas so quickly in the early books, that I get caught off guard. For the past few days, M has been practicing addition and subtraction, playing on number lines, and I've been getting breakfast dishes done while he just does whatever came next, being about to help answer questions and keep K from drawing on the table or herself.
Today he asked me what these dotted symbols meant. Glancing over from the oily pan I had roasted potatoes on the night before (OK, it was breakfast and Large things that hadn't fit in the dishwasher from supper dishes) I explained that it meant "times" or "groups of." M nodded, and began working away, although he was pleased to learn later that he only had to draw two diagonal lines, not a group of diagonal dots. He even said, "Oh, I can skip writing 2+2+2+2+2+2+2 on the sheet I didn't finish yesterday and just write 2x7, I'll be done quicker."
So far so good. He has more trouble remembering not to write his numbers mirror style than figuring out the actual math. No temper tantrums over perfection this month either. He was a little frustrated that he'd mixed up the x with the + a few times. I suggested that tomorrow he borrow Daddy's highlighter pen to find all the x's first, so that would be easier tomorrow. Oh, a gadget? Be still his heart!
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Jan. 18, 2010 5th Iteration of Independent Work Organizational System
 B with his new pocket chart for organizing his independent work. I used one of Cathy Zielski's tricks; cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock to a 12x8.5 inches - then it fits through the printer. If I cut 3x5 note cards in thirds, they are a good size for his pockets. Here is the pdf if anyone wants it. |
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Jan. 18, 2010 Mitten bogged down - but it's good!
So many new things I've been learning - I'm still wearing my much darned mittens, but it's worth it - I've got a new font for using on a spread sheet instead of a word processor - much easier to select vertical portions - and several fruitful digressions.
I was just going to re-knit the mitten with a different thumb placement and shaping, leaving the leaves and vines alone, but I looked at it again and thought - uh oh, even with the flower in the center, doesn't it sort of look like a swastica? I asked my friend T, and she said, very diplomatically, "Yeah, it really does." Well, if that doesn't call for a re-design!
So I went back to the reference book. Originally, the Moghul rug had 8 flowers swirling in the middle of the design, not 4 leaves. If I left the top and bottom leaves, and tried for little flowers, I'd be a lot more comfortable with the design. Back to the Barbara G Walker books. Cornflower pattern in the 2nd treasury looks a lot like the carnations in the Moghul rug, so 'all' i had to do was figure out if it worked on a purl ground, and how to rotate and invert it. I did figure out that, but it requires a bit of Kitchener stitch into one stitch to make it perfectly symmetrical - oh, and they needed finer vines, that calls for closed cable designs with one knit stitch. I did figure out a great 'smile' curve, but the frown needs some work - tutorials coming soon, because
DH found the camera! |
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Jan. 14, 2010 An entry In Which I say "Ahhhh!" frequently
As I read M "Enemy Brothers," he commented that "Phemie's word was to be counted on, but yours isn't. You don't mean to Mom, but you forget a lot." (Internal "Ahhhh!") Not to be outdone by a character, I was bound and determined to help M re-assemble his huge Bionicle vehicle Skopio, after K got into it and tore it to pieces. Not a problem, I'd told him to put the pieces into a container, I'd supplied the container, I would not have to dig thought the Lego Library to help him fix the thing. All 900 pieces of it.
So, yesterday when K was sleeping nicely, and I had read my Bible passage and snoozed for a while, I dutifully walked down the hall to tell M I'd help him with the repairs once I had my coffee. I sighed as I passed my knitting bag, where new ideas were waiting to be explored on needles and graph paper, and entered the boys room: where stuffed animals, toy cars, library books and legos had recently been holding a war. M pointed to the general Bionicle parts bin, and said I could start working on it. "Ahhhh!" I demanded to know why my explicit instructions had been disregarded. M said B said that was how to do it. I announced that I would help restore Skopio when the room was tidy, and the parts were separated. (And did he remember that Skopio has over 900 parts?). Then I stalked down the hallway after B who was working on his independent studies.
I told B what I thought of his organizational skills. Lots of mutual "Ahhhh!" somehow K slept though it. She was storing up sleep for last night when we saw 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, I woke DH up to tell him how guilty I felt for yelling at the boys, and that I had insomnia, 4:00 then we all slept like stones until DH brought me coffee in bed... anyway, B said he'd never heard the instructions. (My boys never do hear instructions. No Charlotte, I haven't read your book yet about habits, though I did download it.)
I have since apologized to both boys. Skopio is up to the end of book one of instructions.
M said two cute things in his sweet, let's calm Mommy down voice,"Wow, cleaning up the room really doesn't take that long." and, "Mom, I was born fast, I don't know how to slow down."
Tomorrow is another day
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