Girls, Girls, Girls

My daughter is the only girl with 3 brothers, 1 foster brother and 2 little boys that come over for after school for care during the week. While she likes being called "The Princess", she has strong feelings about not having any other girls around... and she is not shy about expressing those feelings. LOL! Last weekend, we had family visit us from out of state and amongst the cousins were 3 girls, my 2nd cousins. What fun!

We went skating at our local YMCA, but could not go swimming as 1 of the cousins could not get her hair wet....sigh...but after skating there was giggling and spats and silliness and drama and multiple clothes change and tears and incessant chatting and popcorn, chips, twizzlers, nachos, ice cream, cake, 4 movies (none of them seen all the way through as they would change their minds and then change the DVD midway through the movie) and finally, quiet... as they crashed from the sugar high!

We survivied the weekend and funny thing, she has not been complaining as much about being the only girl. I think she is use to the drama-free life that boys provide. ~Smile~

The skate park at the Y... more falling than skating! LOL!

Week 30, 10 To Go

We are beginning our 30th week of the 2008/2009 school year. We have about 10 weeks to go. Our spring break is April 13- 17 and it will be a much needed break.

I have not done progress reports as usual, but good progress is being made by all.

On the baby front... we still have our little foster baby, AKA: Littlest Rottie, and he is growing so big. It always amazes me how my kids share so much heart for the children that come in and out of our home. This will be a tough one for my 5th grader as she has really enjoyed helping to care for the baby. She does such a great job of being aware of his needs and kisses and hugs on him continuously. He hears her voice when she walks in the room and he just lights up. He 'talks' so animatedly to her... both will miss each other very much.

On we go...

Lamination

I have discovered lamination and I love it. When the crew needs extra practice on skills, I often print something off from one of the many sites that I frequent and that paper is consumed. I first figured it out by putting a piece of paper in one of those plastic protective sheets and letting preschool use a dry erase marker. Then it happened... I was ordering school supplies on E-bay and the automatic feature that says: You might also like... showed a lamination machine. I found a nice (and by nice I really mean affordable) one and won the bid. This will not only save on paper, but it will save a great deal on ink....my biggest cost for school.

Patterns

Because I am taking it very slow with preschool, I sometimes find out that he has a delay in an area. Once we teach him a new skill, he is usually pretty quick at learning it and loves to repeat what he is learned. As mentioned before, I am not big on worksheets for preschoolers, but he really loves having "scoo wuk" like the bigger kids. This particular unit on patterns comes from the Harcourt Brace Math Workbook.

Technology Strikes Again

In first grade science, we have just begun a unit on energy. In part 1 it introduces the sun as a source of energy. It uses the example of light turning to heat energy and suggested letting the children see, safely, how a light bulb gives off light that turns to heat that can be used as energy. So I turn on the lamp and describe to him how the light bulb will get hot and was going to let him put his hand near it, not touch, to feel the heat. He puts his hand near it and looks perplexed. As it turns out, I have those energy efficient, florescent bulbs in all of my lamps and they don't get hot. Ha Ha Ha. Oh the good ol' days when light bulbs gave off heat.

Skating

Have A Good Weekend!

The Boy Can Tell Time

First grade continues to do well in math and seems to pick up new skills fast in this area... if only we could transfer some of that skill to Language Arts. LOL!