Redwall Abbey

School is improving. 

Since the beginning of using K12, I have been somewhat disappointed with their Language Arts piece. Mostly it's been reading to the child, and asking comprehension questions. Blech.

At the moment, however, we're actually starting to get into grammar and exciting things like identifying and labeling types of sentences (asking, telling, exclamations, commands) and even writing a few of our own. David had to sequence pictures today, and wrote, "The birds are looking. They bild a nest. One bird lays four eggs. The eggs hatched." (Ok, so spelling is still a mess.) The other group was, "She is digging. She is planting. It is growing! She waters it." You have no IDEA what kind of huge leap this is. Really. And he's so proud of himself.

*happy dance*

The second part of LA is to incorporate free reading time. Right now we're working our way through a book called Redwall.
I never read this before. We got the name of it off the PBS Kids website; a character that David likes in the program Cyberchase recommends the book as his favorite. So, of course, monkey see, monkey do. I looked up the name and figured it looked kinda cute and we looked for it at the library. Read a chapter or two, got bogged down, and it took us a long time to get into it, despite David's persistent reminders. Incorporating it into LA has allowed us to read it daily, and has created a tiny monster.

He LOVES Redwall, and sometimes I'm amazed that he can understand it. Still, he'll rush through his LA "homework" with the promise of Redwall, and while two chapters is standard he still asks for "Another chapter! Another chapter!" or "Go back to Matthias!" (Main character) whenever I try to quit reading. Tonight he had trouble getting to sleep because he was all wound up about Warbeak and what the sparrow is going to do. I told him I didn't know, and then said, "Goodnight, Warbeak." 

"I'm not Warbeak!"

"Oh. OK. Goodnight, Cornflower."

"NO!!!!!"

"OK, so who are you? Cluny?"

"NO! I'M MATTHIAS!!"

Hmmm, my bad. Still, it's fun to see him wrapped up in a novel. As I told Doug, "Dad, you just don't UNDERSTAND. The book is really interesting, and you've never been caught up in a book so good that you didn't want to quit reading!" He snorted at me. "Yeah," he said, "That's how we end up burning though a book in 48 hours with no sleep." Oh, so been there.

Found this interesting little item, too. It's a cardboard/paper model of Redwall Abbey, the central place of action for the novel. It looks awfully neat, but I can't find it at the place where I found the photo. Apparently it came out in 1999, and is a tad bit harder to find now. Still, some people on Amazon.com are selling it (for $50! Ow!), and I'm thinking of how well this might go over. Especially with the knowledge that the Redwall book series is really, really long, with all sorts of spin-offs. It looks like there are at least seven books in the main series, but I'm not sure. Pretty prolific stuff. (There's gotta be a boxed set somewhere out there, right?) But David likes asking questions and connecting characters and keeping score of what's happened to whom, and trying to predict what will happen next. This, to me, is far more like what Language Arts should be about. 

And I broke out the new Science stuff; we'll be comparing the relationship between weight and mass tomorrow, and how it's not necessarily related to volume, through the use of a balance scale. Phonics is covering blended sounds vs. digraphs, Math was a semester wrap-up (with a four-page test! They're NEVER that long!). Today's History covered Laura Ingalls Wilder (quite briefly), and Lauren was thrilled at how close her name came to "Laura." 

Oh! And speaking of History, Grandma Jean has introduced David to the new $1 Presidential coin series that the Mint is starting. He saw that on TV and freaked out. I also saw they had a new series of coins with eagles, but those are actual GOLD COINS, and I'm NOT gonna be getting him $300 gold coins. 

Both he and Lauren went outside to play today and came tearing inside, shouting that they had found "snake eggs." Or perhaps spider eggs, they weren't sure. At any rate, I felt it best to go and investigate. Apparently what they'd discovered were some kind of bug cocoons that show up on the leaves every year. I have no IDEA what kind of bugs these are that to this, but it's quite consistent. Or maybe they're egg sacs or even spores from some kind of tree fungus. I haven't the slightest idea. But the kids lost interest when they found out they weren't spider eggs. 

And we haven't made it to the library yet to check on the baby chicks! Perhaps they're gone by now, I don't know....

Sweets

We had a Scout meeting tonight. David had an absolute blast; they dumped a bunch of paper towel tubes, tape, string, etc. onto the table and set the boys loose to make whatever they wanted to. 

Then they passed out little plastic airplanes and guided the boys in making parachutes for the planes with string and plastic grocery bags, so they'd toss the airplanes up in the air and those would float back down. David kept climbing up on a chair and flinging his parachute into the air while jumping off. 

They had a new and inventive snack...graham crackers with frosting (which the Scouts applied, which you can rest assured means that David ate about 4 pounds of orange frosting!) and Kool-Aid to drink. Eek! David NEVER gets that much sugar in a single sitting! (Sugar, yes. THAT much sugar, no.)

Finally they played a game called Steal the Bacon, which involved a great deal of running and tagging. Good boy stuff. David was, naturally, disappointed when he didn't perform perfectly. He failed to tag an opponent and went back to his side of the room in tears. I think the Den Leader is now used to this kind of behavior from him...it used to kind of freak everyone out, and now I think they know to expect this out of him. He snuffled his way through a few high-fives and finally dried up when a teammate half-heartedly slugged him in the arm and said, "It's all right." (This is the boy tribal stuff I will NEVER understand. I'll respect it, but I don't always get it.)

Soon after they ended the game and David ran outside with a couple of other boys. I gathered my stuff and followed him, at which point he ran up telling me he'd hurt himself, and sure enough, he had blood all over his finger. It didn't look too bad.

"How'd you do that?"

"I don't know! It hurts!"

"Well, we'll get you home and bandaged up."

"It HURTS!" 

"I bet. Did you hurt yourself outside?"

"I don't THINK so."

I got him home, and sure enough, there was a big cut on his finger. I washed it off and was putting the last Band-Aid on when he says, "Mom?"

"Mmmm-hmm?"

"I think I'm going to throw up." 

          (!)

"OK, lean over the sink, then."

Yup. He did. 

Now he feels hurt and sick and crappy. Beaut. 

He wanted to lay down. I drew on his feet. He calmed down and felt better. I think the extra junk food on top his being upset about the cut got him totally worked up. Sometimes I'm amazed that this kid doesn't break out in hives, you know it?

I have Easter photos, but haven't gotten them off the camera yet. I admit it! I'll try to do that for the next update. 

Everyone is still a little snuffly, but better. Doug went to work today, much to my surprise. He came home at 3:15, however, and fell into bed. Not doing QUITE as well as he'd hoped. 

Oh, and Lauren is a thief. I put her Easter candy up on top of the fridge because I KNEW she'd gorge herself. Apparently she went into David's room, stole all his chocolate Easter eggs and ate them. Naturally he moment he discovered this, he howled. Lauren had to forfeit all her chocolate eggs back to David. She was threatened that if she ate any more of his candy, she would lose her entire stash to David. Later that evening, I found an unopened package of Reese's Pieces on the floor of her room. This opened another huge can of worms; obviously she had stolen the candy, but not opened or eaten it. And when did she do this? The timeline was unclear. 

There was a tremendous amount of quizzing and inventory-taking, and eventually we decided that since she told the truth about not taking David's Cadbury egg (it was missing, but later was discovered in her own bag, which was out of her reach anyway) and about taking the Reese's Pieces, she could tentatively keep the candy. She's still on probation, and I had David hide his candy. Next time I'm liable to get the boy a wall safe. His sister has no compunction at ALL about pilfering from anyone, least of all her pesky big brother.

Worm Mucking

So I head out to the store today, and then figure it's really getting pretty late, probably too late to get a decent dinner going, so I decide to grab a pizza from the shop next to the store. I call and place and order, unload the groceries, head over and get the pizza. On my way back, I see all these twigs all over the sidewalk. Must be all this rain. Hmm. There aren't any trees here big enough to generate all these twigs. What the heck? 

They were worms.

Dozens and dozens of worms. They all came from the raised planters that the store had out there. Made sense, the poor things were drowning, and trying to escape. Unfortunately, they were on the sidewalk now, which probably wouldn't help their case. I picked up one and tossed him back on the dirt, but walked around the rest to go back to the car. I decided there were just too many of them to worry about. (Like too many starfish on the beach?) Well, besides, even if I DID toss them back, they wouldn't fare well. The poor things were squirming out of the drain holes in the planters. Where could they GO?

What about my garden?

Now THERE'S an idea. 

So I fished an old cup from the car, left the pizza in the font seat and went back to the sidewalk, prodding at worms. If they moved (and some played dead), I put them in the cup. If they were still, I left them for the birds (who were chirping and rustling up in the grocery store sign's lettering). I learned lots about worms today:

• Sometimes they play dead.
  
• Worms can climb up brick walls.
  
• Worms are strong little suckers. Just TRY pulling them out of hiding.
  
• The easiest way to pick up a worm is to slide him across wet, smooth concrete and into a cup.
  

I had half a cup full by the time I left...probably around 70+ worms. I put a lid on the cup and drove them home. I checked my garden, but alas...it was SWIMMING! I couldn't put them there, they would die! So I tried the front garden, right around the dense boxwoods, and lo and behold, by taking a Garden Weasel to it, I easily pulled up some nice dirt. I checked our sidewalks and driveway and didn't see any stranded worms, so I figured it would be OK. Lauren wanted to help me toss worms into the garden (of course, she's my bug catcher!) so she came out in the rain with me. 

I was digging just a little more to make sure the worms would burrow in nicely, when Lauren shrieks, "LOOK MOMMY LOOK!" I turned, and there she was with a little snail held in her pincher-grasp. 

"The snails are out!" I said happily. "Hi, guys!"

I looked down at the Hosta bed and found it just littered with snails.

"Look at them all!" I said, pointing them out to Lauren. "Good grief!"

"I GO TELL BEBO!" she shouted, and streaked around the front of the house.

I tossed a few worms into the garden. Lauren came back, and I then started holding the remaining worms in my hand by the handful. Those worms who started to dangle from between my fingers first got picked and tossed into the newly roughed-up soil and mulch. 

I heard a bit of a squawk and a flutter, and looked up to see a mockingbird on the edge of the roof. His beady little eyes were watching the worm proceedings with much interest, and he hopped sideways one way and then the other. 

flutter, flutter.

David came around the corner and scared the bird away. I still pointed it out to the kids and asked why they thought the bird was so interested in the worms.

"He going to EAT THEM," said Lauren quite seriously.

"Not while WE'RE here, but yes, I think he has his eye on them."

Lauren made a sad face.

flutter, flutter.

Apparently it was too much. I whispered, "He's just landed on the sidewalk behind you."

Lauren turned and the mockingbird ran into the evergreen shrubs under the garage windows. 

Lauren looked at me with HUGE eyes. I shrugged back at her. David finally decided he was too cold and went back inside. Lauren helped until all the worms were in the garden, and I started to cover them with more dirt. She went back inside. 

I hoped the worms had enough time to get pretty deep underground, because now I was leaving them. 

I went around to the back garden. One of my stepping stones was literally underwater. I tried the Garden Weasel on the dirt. I didn't plant anything last year, and the garden had half-heartedly grown over with grass. The Weasel uprooted the grass in nothing flat. I saw my opportunity and took it. 

I fetched the Garden Claw, and proceeded to spade the entire garden. Great hunks of grass and mud came up, and it made sucking squelching noises on every third turn. Every time I stabbed at the garden with the Claw, a little shower of mud droplets hit my sweatpants. 

Lauren came out the back door, dressed this time in a coat and scarf. She kept trying to dip her foot into the mucky water until I threatened to send her inside if she did it again. She was fascinated. "Cool sound," she said.

"Yup. It's wet."

"I put the stones back for you..."

"No, it's too muddy for the stepping stones to go back. Right now I just want to get all this grass flipped over so it'll rot."

"Yucky! Why?"

"Because it's green fertilizer, it'll make plants grow better," I said. 

"Gween?"

"Yeah, the grass it green, they call it green fertilizer. It'll break down in about six weeks and be plant food."

"Oh! (pause) I'm toasty warm, Mom, I have a COAT!"

"I'm glad you're toasty warm. Believe it or not, I'M toasty-warm, too, withOUT a coat."

"I thought you would be cold."

"No, I'm warm. I'm warm because I'm working."

"Working in the the mud."

"Yes, definitely working in the mud."

"Your hands are black."

"That," I said, unsuccessfully trying to wipe away a mud spatter on my glasses, "would be the mud."

"You hafta have a bath," she said, and spun on her heel and headed for the door.

Education From All Quarters

Let's see...Sticker Grandma came out for a lovely visit, and we didn't do much of anything to speak of...of course, since Sticker Grandma tried to kill herself on a patch of ice a couple of weeks earlier and was still nursing some wounds, there wasn't much we could do. And let's face it, February isn't exactly the nicest weather to be running around in.

And I'm able to type again, which is exciting. In making a wonderful dinner a couple of nights ago of maple-orange-glazed chicken, I had momentarily forgotten that the ovenproof frying pan had, indeed, been in the oven.  Note to self: Do not grab a 375-degree metal pan with your bare hand. The resulting burns mean a call to the Urgent Care center, 4 hours of cold-water soaking followed up by two days of immersing the affected hand in pasty lanolin goo (Lansinoh) and encasing in a cut-up surgical glove, topped with a fleece sock (less mess). Also entails two days of not typing, not driving, and a complete inability to open any kind of jar, or even cat food containers. Crap.  (Or, as I have caught the kids saying, "Kwap.") And for the record, yes, I am much better now, thank you. Typing and driving and everything. I am convinced that I will live, at least for now.

I finally decided to officially move my aircheck tapes from actual cassette tapes to the computer. I thought perhaps Mac might have an easy way to accomplish that (say, Garage Band?), so I signed up for their free workshop. They spent most of the time on iPhoto and iMovie (the new versions, which I don't have, by-the-by), and I finally had to ask specifically about my project. Apparently it's quite doable, I just had to get the right cables to do the import. Haven't attempted it yet. Also plan to get in on a voice-over thing that's happening at the end of the month...the experience in radio has to help with that, maybe I could start doing voice work again. 

Anyway, I brought the kids along to the Mac thing and they merrily hopped onto the iMacs and went nuts. David has also been saving up every spare dime he could and Duck Grandma's gift for Valentine's Day put him over the top...he was able to roll up all his quarters and pennies, trade them in at the bank, and take his fortune to the Apple Store, where he very proudly purchased His Very Own Video Game.  Joy, rapture.  I purchased cables. I think there's some kind of imbalance with the universe when my first grader is aiming to purchase software with his money. 

Speaking of the first grader, he is now apparently beating the computer at chess (Mac has an ultra-easy setting for the younger user crowd)  and is quite pleased with himself. He's also getting introduced to multiplication and division in the most abstract way in math...he's not pleased at all about that. In some ways he does just fine with it (Here's 12 cents, how would you DIVIDE this evenly among four people? And, How Many Sets of 3 Are There? Five Sets of ____ Equals 15?) and yet he considers himself "bad at" these skills...especially division. So he freaks out at the idea of attempting it. I keep wanting to bang my head against the wall, seeing as he won't even SEE the true Evil of Division (LONG DIVISION!!!) until third grade or so. Chill, dude. You're doing great. 

Oh, and New Math is back, apparently...part of the whole No Child Left A Dime thing (Outcome Based Education, you know). A parent was complaining that they couldn't help their kid with his math homework because she didn't get "how to regroup." WTF???? I had no idea what she meant, and then it struck me that this was getting some attention from irate parents. Mostly parents who had science and math degrees. 

This bit is funny....sad, but funny. It shows where this woman is getting "regrouping" in her kid's math homework. 

This one doesn't have the humor angle, but it's a far better explanation of what's happening...this was as of just last year, BTW, so it's not particularly old.

And for your final edification this evening, (morning?), a California court ruling has decided it's illegal to homeschool your kid if you don't have teacher's credentials. Why? So that they'll get a superior education? Nope. "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote...

As one of my friends said, that's called fascism, folks. 

The other revolting comment I read was this one:  "We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

Imagine that, the Teacher's Union is happy. What a surprise. 

What no one is talking about in all this grand assumption of parental ignorance is the following: 

If 12 years in your system of chew-'em-up, spit-'em-out education left me with so little left in my memory banks that I'm unqualified to teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, perhaps you ought to look at and ferret out your own failings first. 

Of course now the Governor is promising to protect homeschoolers and the whole thing will probably boil down to nothing. But it does point out a large philosophical divide on which one side assumes the state should have ultimate control over a nation's children, and the other which assumes parents should have that control. As I told Doug yesterday, the ability to get a hold of the next generation and shape their education....to determine what they will accept, what they will fight, what they will value...is a very coveted position. The religious institutions want it, the government wants it, parents want it. It's a very powerful thing to have. 

Hippy Chix

Can't help it, I really like these:

That is all.

AlphaZoo

A charming Flash page teaching little kids the alphabet.

D&D Co-Founder Dies

How sad! The co-founder of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax died.

May I suggest a t-shirt in his honor?

The Birds

We filled the feeders. I think it's gone over rather well. (I had to put red dots on all the birds so you could see how many of them there really are here. ) Shortly after this a HUGE flock of something like 30 birds sort of descended out of the sky. Eek!

Nora the Cat

im in ur playlist, jammin out ur tunz

$200 per week

How on earth do two-parent working families afford the summertime?

See, it’s about this time of year that the brochures for summer camps start rolling in...places like the Butterfly House, the Science Center, the GRC, all those wonderful, educational places. And you read through their offerings, which usually promise to keep the school-aged kiddos occupied from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The real jaw-dropper is when they tell you that these programs are available for a mere $200 per week.

Seriously. 

OK, let’s assume that you have two parents who are working, no vacation time, and that adds up to around $800 per month in order to keep the kids looked after from 9 a.m. (after you’re supposed to be AT work anyway) until 3 p.m. (well before you get home). Um....one of the big influential factors in my quitting work to stay home with The Baby was cost of daycare. With even just a single baby in daycare, it was going to cost $700 per month. Taking everything else into account (including taxes, lunch and commute) I was going to be either making $5 per month or paying $5 per month for the privilege of working for an unethical boss. (Note to self: Quit.) Now you’re talking about two kids, not one. I’ve been eyeing the future, the potential to go back to work full-time when both kids are finally in school, and the ugly specter of What To Do During The Summer pokes up and lo and behold: Childcare costs run at the princely sum of $1,600 per month, and it doesn’t even cover your full workday schedule.  Um...that’s about 150% of our MORTGAGE payments. (Which, thankfully, are not tied to an ARM! G-d bless fixed APRs.) Is it just me, or does this sound the tiniest bit insane? Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?