I have a set of Little House on the Prairie books that I've had since I was younger than my dd is now. I had tried a couple of years back to start reading the series to her, but she was not at all interested. Tried to encourage her to read them; nope.
Then I saw the DVDs of the series at the library. I LOVED the series as a kid and was 99% sure she'd like it, too, given how much she enjoys places like Ft. Edmonton. Managed to find the pilot movie and we watched it this morning. That's all it took. She's going to finish up the book she's reading now, Rufus the Sea-Faring Rat, and start reading the series. :)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Does more room make for crazier kids??
Yesterday, dd's furniture got moved from the room she shared with her brother to her own room. A lot of stuff got cleaned up--or stored temporarily in the closet. ;) There's no longer anything on the floor of either room that shouldn't be there. They look absolutely wonderful. And my son is going crazy! So much energy. Wow. I guess it's just the excitement of having a wonderful room to be in now--especially since there is nothing under his bed now and he can fit under it. ;)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Already almost the middle of July!
(Excuse the following--it's a random jumble of thoughts!)
It's July 11. In a few more days, we'll be halfway through July. Where does the time go??? I'm sooo glad I've got August off this year!
We had a great trip out to the lake. The weather was great one day then so-so the others, but we still had a great time. Ds spent lots and lots of time outside playing soccer and other games, as did dd, but not quite as much. Ds learned to play SkipBo and we played a few games together. I'll have to see if we have a deck so that we can play here.
Other than that, we've been working on dd's room. The paint was finished yesterday--she chose yellow--and if the smell is calmed down today, we will move in her basic furniture and she can sleep in it tonight. :) She's VERY excited. Ds wants her out and his room cleaned up so that we can start stamping some fish and shells onto his walls. lol. He's sooooo eager to decorate the walls since we refuse to repaint them (we did it just 2 years ago) but I told him that his sister's stuff has to be out first AND things have to be clean--we can't be messing around with paint when there's stuff all over. That will be our big project today.
Let's see, what else? Ds is making progress with his reading and writing. I'm just pointing out little things or asking him little things here and there like, "So, where's the a sound in that word? How do you know that word is such-and-such? How do you think that word would be spelled?" He's getting better and better at analzying things and coming up with the correct letters and sounds. And he enjoys it, which is great. I've got plans to prepare different games so that we can play more with letters, sounds and words. Bingo is the first I'd like to play. We have a set of letter bingo cards that came from a Sing, Spell, Read and Write kit a former student left us, but it doesn't have all the basic French sounds, like è or é. I'd like to make something that is better suited to French.
Oh, and ds got his cast off yesterday. We were going to keep it, but it stank so badly and the nurse just tossed it into the garbage without even asking us if we wanted to keep it. It's kind of sad--he had all kinds of signatures and stuff on it. But he's not sad about it at all, so I guess I'm just being a sentimental mom. lol.
Dd is almost done reading The Fellowship of the Ring. It's taken her quite a while--in part because she's read other books since first starting the novel--but she quite enjoys it. I don't know if she plans on reading the second book or not just yet. Haven't dared to ask.
Hm... It's 7:35 as I type this and my kids are still asleep. I guess that's good--they didn't get to sleep until close to 10 last night. I don't know if ds will manage to get his 10 hours in and sleep until 8, but it would be good if he did!!
I have a little project I'm going to get started on: comparing predicted temperatures/weather to actual temperatures and weather. I check the forecast often and it's CONSTANTLY changing. I'd like to see just how accurate their predictions are and how far in advance. Yetserday, they had no rain predicted for the coming week. Now they're predicting rain for Monday and Tuesday. Will it change again? Undoubtedly. I'm not sure how long I'll check the predictions, but if they're as unreliable as I believe they are, I'm not even going to bother looking at the week-to-come predictions again. What's the point? And why do the weather people bother? I can understand THEM working on predictions and trying to fine tune things and learn how to predict better, but why share it with the world? lol
It's July 11. In a few more days, we'll be halfway through July. Where does the time go??? I'm sooo glad I've got August off this year!
We had a great trip out to the lake. The weather was great one day then so-so the others, but we still had a great time. Ds spent lots and lots of time outside playing soccer and other games, as did dd, but not quite as much. Ds learned to play SkipBo and we played a few games together. I'll have to see if we have a deck so that we can play here.
Other than that, we've been working on dd's room. The paint was finished yesterday--she chose yellow--and if the smell is calmed down today, we will move in her basic furniture and she can sleep in it tonight. :) She's VERY excited. Ds wants her out and his room cleaned up so that we can start stamping some fish and shells onto his walls. lol. He's sooooo eager to decorate the walls since we refuse to repaint them (we did it just 2 years ago) but I told him that his sister's stuff has to be out first AND things have to be clean--we can't be messing around with paint when there's stuff all over. That will be our big project today.
Let's see, what else? Ds is making progress with his reading and writing. I'm just pointing out little things or asking him little things here and there like, "So, where's the a sound in that word? How do you know that word is such-and-such? How do you think that word would be spelled?" He's getting better and better at analzying things and coming up with the correct letters and sounds. And he enjoys it, which is great. I've got plans to prepare different games so that we can play more with letters, sounds and words. Bingo is the first I'd like to play. We have a set of letter bingo cards that came from a Sing, Spell, Read and Write kit a former student left us, but it doesn't have all the basic French sounds, like è or é. I'd like to make something that is better suited to French.
Oh, and ds got his cast off yesterday. We were going to keep it, but it stank so badly and the nurse just tossed it into the garbage without even asking us if we wanted to keep it. It's kind of sad--he had all kinds of signatures and stuff on it. But he's not sad about it at all, so I guess I'm just being a sentimental mom. lol.
Dd is almost done reading The Fellowship of the Ring. It's taken her quite a while--in part because she's read other books since first starting the novel--but she quite enjoys it. I don't know if she plans on reading the second book or not just yet. Haven't dared to ask.
Hm... It's 7:35 as I type this and my kids are still asleep. I guess that's good--they didn't get to sleep until close to 10 last night. I don't know if ds will manage to get his 10 hours in and sleep until 8, but it would be good if he did!!
I have a little project I'm going to get started on: comparing predicted temperatures/weather to actual temperatures and weather. I check the forecast often and it's CONSTANTLY changing. I'd like to see just how accurate their predictions are and how far in advance. Yetserday, they had no rain predicted for the coming week. Now they're predicting rain for Monday and Tuesday. Will it change again? Undoubtedly. I'm not sure how long I'll check the predictions, but if they're as unreliable as I believe they are, I'm not even going to bother looking at the week-to-come predictions again. What's the point? And why do the weather people bother? I can understand THEM working on predictions and trying to fine tune things and learn how to predict better, but why share it with the world? lol
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Enjoying summer
The last 2 months of school, it was work, work, work for me and I'm finding it hard to stop filling my time with all kinds of work stuff!!! However, I am slowly learning to enjoy summer and time off and instead of my original thought to have a sit-down school time each day, just bringing things into our daily life.
One thing that will really help is that we will be at my in-laws' lake property until Tues. :) Leaving in a couple of hours--I hope. Dh still isn't up, I need to shower and pack yet, the kids need to shower... It's do-able. In any case, I'm going to bring a novel--completely unrelated to school ;)--to read and my cross-stitch and I'm not sure what else. I want to take a little vacation. I will bring a little notebook to write in because I always need paper and pen to write thoughts, brainstorm or to write out little ideas for stories/book chapters. Haven't done the latter in quite a while. I'd like to get a better routine going and so far, this summer vacation, I've just been keeping myself constantly busy, little relaxation time. That's not how I want summer to be!
Oh! I hear dh is up! Time to get ready!!
One thing that will really help is that we will be at my in-laws' lake property until Tues. :) Leaving in a couple of hours--I hope. Dh still isn't up, I need to shower and pack yet, the kids need to shower... It's do-able. In any case, I'm going to bring a novel--completely unrelated to school ;)--to read and my cross-stitch and I'm not sure what else. I want to take a little vacation. I will bring a little notebook to write in because I always need paper and pen to write thoughts, brainstorm or to write out little ideas for stories/book chapters. Haven't done the latter in quite a while. I'd like to get a better routine going and so far, this summer vacation, I've just been keeping myself constantly busy, little relaxation time. That's not how I want summer to be!
Oh! I hear dh is up! Time to get ready!!
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Music, music
I went out quickly this morning to get a few groceries we need for this weekend. My kids weren't even dressed yet, so they stayed home and I went just by myself. I got back and dd is sitting on the couch playing the recorder--something she hasn't done in ages. Ds, still in his pj's, is sitting in the stairs playing his little Power Tour guitar, something he hasn't seriously done in some time. He goes up to get dressed, dd shares with me a little song she's composed on the recorder then proceeds to play more songs from a beginning recorder book we have. Ds decides he wants to play my flute. Uh, okay. Right off the bat, gets his lips just right and gets a sound out of the mouthpiece. But then he can't maintain it and thinks there's something wrong with the flute. lol.
The other day, it was my guitar that got pulled out. I think the piano top needs to be cleared off so that some inspiration can move that way, too.
The other day, it was my guitar that got pulled out. I think the piano top needs to be cleared off so that some inspiration can move that way, too.
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