Friday Odds and Ends

For those of you with little girls in your lives (this would not include our family, incidentally), you must take a look at this new site. All profits from the sales of these adorable hairbows goes to benefit our sweet friend Avery. To view the hairbows, click HERE. To read more about Avery, click HERE.

For those of you with kids in your lives - babies, preschoolers, little kids, big kids, homeschoolers, public schoolers, your kids, grandkids, other special kids: be sure and join in this Tuesday for Children's Book Tuesday! Choose one favorite children's book, post about it, and then link up at The Joyful Chaos! Head over and visit to see more what it is all about.

And in today's last bit of random linkage, for those of you who like baseball, THIS has become one my new favorite links! You can "watch" several games at a glance, or you can click "GameCenter" under your team's game info to follow a more detailed summary of that game. It is a great way to keep up - live! - if you are away from the tv or occupied with something else!

Of course, that's assuming you like baseball. Do you have a favorite team? We only have eyes for one.... and that's their home field pictured above. Anybody recognize it?

First Grade - 6 Week Review

We are six weeks in and I must say, so far so good!

In the last six weeks we have:
- Covered most major stories from the book of Genesis, and made 20 notebooking pages over them.

- Started the book of Exodus

- Made a rainbow on the wall with a mirror and a tub of water

- Studied wasps, cicadas, grasshoppers, ladybugs, lightening bugs, and spiders

- Added 11 pages to our science notebook

- Finished 4 chapters from Story of the World

- Added 5 pages to our history notebook

- Made Dale's name in hieroglyphs in a scroll

- Made a pyramid out of legos

- Checked out approximately 150 books from our library

- Memorized a spider poem

- Learned a new memory verse

- Adapted to a consistent weekly schedule

- Written 24 handwriting practice pages

- Finished 23 math workbook exercises and several worksheets

- Observed a huge snapping turtle, a cicada eaten alive, a spider in a jar. The snapping turtle and the spider were released. Can't say the same for the cicada.

- All those assorted things like math games, phonics workbook pages, and learning videos, and misc. workbook pages, and real-life learning that can so easily fall through the memory cracks!

Needs improvement:

- more time reading aloud / actually finishing a read aloud in a week or two

- more memory work (poems, Bible verses, etc)

- more craft time / projects

Okay, so I can think of lots of things I'd like to improve on, but as far as school goes, I'm happy with what we are accomplishing so far! Especially the fact that I have started each week with lesson plans in place, and (even if it takes an extra day or two) we have finished everything (of significance) that was planned. Yay!

Math Games

Dale has been working his way through Singapore Math 1A since we started school a few weeks ago.

Mostly this has involved beginning addition and subtraction. Since he has had a firm grasp those concepts for a while now, we are really concentrating on memorizing the basic facts: What numbers pair up to make 9? 10? 7?

I can imagine we will get to the point of dedicated memorizing and flashcards and all that, but for now the majority of our learning these facts is in using them.

In addition to (pun intended) the workbook and various worksheets from online, we are playing lots of math games using simple materials we already have, like dice, dominoes, Legos, and a set of 10 cards.

My problem is I tend to think up one of these games and then forget about it, instead of using it over and over!
Here are a few that I actually remember. :)

With a pair of dice: Choose a number you want to practice the facts for. Anything 6-10 works well. Player 1 rolls his die. Player 2 turns his to the corresponding number to add up to your chosen number. For example: "What goes together to make 7?" Player one rolls a 4. Player two turns his die to show a 3. Next turn.

With Legos:

Using 10 (or more or less, depending on which number you are practicing facts for) blocks of the same size, stack them up into a tower. We like the 1-dot bricks, but the 2 or 4 would work also. Each player makes a tower, then each player turns away from the other(s) and removes a number of bricks from his tower. Players take turns looking at how many blocks were removed (while the remainder of the tower is hidden in a fist) and then figuring out how many remain in the tower. For example: "Let's make a tower of 10 blocks." Player one turns away, removes 2 bricks, and lays them on the table for Player two to count. Player two then 'guesses' (or hopefullyfigures) that there are 8 bricks left in the tower hidden in Player one's hands.

We've played different variations on this Lego game, but I can't remember them! I should probably ask Dale.... I bet he knows!

And finally, the sets of 10-cards. I cut a stack of colored index cards in half, and wrote one number on each half, from 0 to 10. I made a second set of a different color.

For the first game we used them as playing cards, with each player getting one color. We chose which number facts we wanted to practice and took turns playing cards to make that number. For example: "Let's see what goes together to make 9." Player one looks at the cards in his hand and plays a 6. Player two would then play a 3. Play continues until all possible cards are used.

Today's game was a more straightforward way to practice. Dale had made a 'stairway' of 10 legos, so we decided to use our cards to show all the ways to make 10. When we finished 10 we took away a lego and lined up the cards again to show all the pairs that make 9, then 8 and so on.

Dale loves the variety and the fact that I am playing games with him. I love that he is learning his math facts the way he will actually need them.... by using them!

And Alan... well, he loves just being in on the action!

A tender family moment.. or not

I'm not sure whether to chalk this one up to homeschooling, having boys, or just parenting in general.

Greg and Dale and I were outside one evening this weekend, enjoying the great out-O-doors (and waiting for the chicken to come off the grill) and were treated (?) to a little nature show.

We noticed a consistent buzzing in the tree nearby and recognized it as cicada wings. Sure enough, after a quick look into the tree we could see the thing buzzing away, yet staying in one place.

At this point, one of the adults present may or may not have muttered under his breath some word about those things being "less than intelligent". And little ears may or may not have heard the muttering and tried to determine what was said. The same little ears, coincident tally, that don't "hear" me state plainly that his dishes should be put in the dishwasher.

ANYWAY....

We were intrigued by the cicada that somehow seemed to have gotten itself stuck in our tree. How does this happen? Don't those things live in trees?

We craned our necks to get a better look at the buzzing 10-12 feet overhead, and suddenly, we SAW:

The cicada was stuck alright. In the clutches of a preying mantis!

Well. Having just studied cicadas a few weeks ago, and having our very own beast vs. beast showdown taking place (better than Nat'l Geographic, I tell you!) we quickly fetched a ladder and the camera to get a better view of the impending carnage.

Here is the part where I had to swallow the pity I felt for the poor cicada whose furious buzzing were becoming not-as-furious and with longer breaks in between. We were watching the poor creature die.

But... it IS the way God made it, and it WAS real-life science, and well... don't tell anybody, but it was kind of cool.

Finally, the cicada buzzed his last and the mantis backed up into the tree to enjoy his dinner, which we let him do in peace. Or maybe our chicken was done by then.

At any rate, here is a photo taken by one of the Devine Naturalists from atop our ladder. View with caution folks, this creature was vicious!

Seeking inspiration

I've been trying this week to get up to an alarm and get a couple of things done before the boys get up.

And by "get a couple of things done" I mean allow my eyes to come into focus and then stumble into the kitchen to read my Bible.

Maybe some coffee, juice, or ice water, but I don't like to get carried away so soon after dragging myself from bed.

One morning this week my alarm had gone off but I couldn't quite bring myself to pry myself from my pillow. I wished for some thought or scripture for inspiration, but there wasn't one single Bible within arms reach.

However, I did remember my pretty Verse-a-Day perpetual calendar that lives on our headboard. You know... the one that was still sitting on the verse for July 27.

I reached over my head and held the calendar to the light from the window while turning to September.

You want to know the verse that greeted me for that very day?

"And in the morning, rising a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." Mark 1:35

Umm... okay, Lord, 'nuff said. I'll get up now!

I'm angry.

There. I said it. I held off for a few days, thinking I could skirt the issue or ignore the feelings, but the truth is, I am not a happy camper.

About a week ago, I took Dale to one of our usual weekly 'outings'. Toward the end of the scheduled program at said outing, I noticed a small snotty child receiving some assistance on some serious nose-wiping.

Great.

Dale and I used hand-sanitizer as soon as we got to the car, and washed hands as soon as we got home, but even though I had hoped otherwise, the damage was already done.

A few days later Dale was a sneezy, snotty mess.

Great.

Sure enough, 24 hours later, Alan was a little snot-ball himself.

And, not surprising when you live with a snotty toddler, within another day or two Greg and I had succumbed as well. (And for the record, Greg is fanatical about hand-washing!)

Now, I felt such pity for Dale when he had his afternoon sneeze-athon. I bet the poor boy sneezed 75 times. I hated it for him!

And it is beyond frustrating for the parents to be a sneezy-runny mess themselves.

But here's the thing. Within 24 hours Dale was just about back to his usual self. And Greg and I will bounce back pretty quick as well.

But Alan? Well this "little cold" has gripped him the hardest. Unless medicated, he hasn't slept well.

His cold is the only one to come with a cough.

For a person that needs extra fluids anyway, to have fluids draining from his body via his nose just ups the amount his parents must make him drink.

And I can assure you, he will be the last one in the family to be rid of his cold. His little body will take at least twice as long to fight off those germs as the rest of us.

And then....

There are those thoughts in the back of my head.... will this develop into something more?
Will it involve a doctor visit? A hospital stay? Will it mess up the balance of his medication? Will his immune system kick in a little too much to fight a "little cold" and irritate his liver?

And that my friends, is why I am angry. Someone decided that a "little cold" wasn't reason enough to keep their kid home last week.

I had let down my guard and wasn't diligent enough to notice before it was too late, and my kid and their kid shared art supplies.

And germs.

So yes, it's just a "little cold", but to some families a "little cold" is a Big Deal. So please, please remember us the next time you decide to head out to the store, or the library, or church, or the playground, or school with your little one who isn't feeling well. Believe me, I know it isn't convenient to make other plans, but the rest of us would prefer not to suffer for your convenience, whether we have special medical needs or not!!

P.S. At the risk of sounding incredibly hypocritical, I have to acknowledge and apologize for not following my own advice and heading over to my parents' house with snotty kids in tow. Thanks for having us (and our germs) over to visit. We'll try to refrain from being so generous in the future!!

It's a....

WINNER!! :)

After 10 guesses...

5 for Boy

and

5 for Girl

....there were 15 names to draw (I put in the name of each correct guesser twice).

My Little Buffaloes gathered around...

Alan drew a name...

Dale read it...
It said....

Jaynee from The Lockwood Family!

Of course, Jaynee's odds were doubled, because she guessed correctly.

Congratulations, Jaynee! Email me at bzcookieATyahooDOTcom with your address so I can get your prize in the mail!

By the way....

In case you were wondering....

she guessed...

BOY.

Yes my friends, another Buffalo will be joining the herd! :)