Bunnies

Zizzlingers

Blue

Dora Outfit

Package from Grammy

UH OH! Sadie just discovered the harmonica! *cackle*

Benny got his out and they're now harmonica-ing all over the place.

Parade

This parade is today, downtown at noon. I feel like I should take the kids but I don't know if it's rowdy or weird. I get stressed out in crowds if it's rowdy or weird, especially with the children.

I taught him something

Typically Benny learns in this mysterious osmotic way. He kind of absorbs the information or skill without my input. In fact, I purposefully refrain frome explaining things, many times, just to give him more of a challenge.

He's been blazing ahead in his "Time and Money" workbook which he loves. Today it moved to telling time on the half hour and he *didn't know how to do it.* I actually had to teach him how to make the hand between the 2 and the 3 or how if the minute hand points to six it means 30 minutes, etc. Somewhere in this house I have one of those learning clocks where you move the hands around and it tells you the time below. I at least have SOME CLOCK SOMEWHERE that I could use to give an example. But I could not find it. So I taught it to him, and he learned it!

IT WAS ALMOST A TOTALLY NEW EXPERIENCE FOR BOTH OF US. *cackle* He actually paid attention and understood what I said and then applied it to the workbook and put down correct answers. I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing all the time, but I actually feel PROUD TODAY because I was able to teach my child something he didn't already know.

Sadie

Keyboard

Play

The children seem to just want to play all day. I am trying to think of why I shouldn't just let them.

Time

Spirotein

Math and breakfast

The Day

Today we started off with gymnastics at 9, then playtime, lunch and bike ride with the delightful and nutritious Porterfields, and then I broke down and took them to the playground instead of coming home for a sensible nap. It was such a nice day, I would have felt even meaner than usual if I'd stood firm on the nap issue. So, Sadie went down the slide a million times and Benny fell in with gang of children in some kind of after school care. Well. Those children were a little rough around the edges, I must say. And Benny was richly, thoroughly, absolutely entertained.

First there was the sand throwing, which seemed to be ignored if not sanctioned by the caregivers (I hollered a little, just to be officially opposed) and then there was a golden moment: Benny was down at the bottom of the slide, having made a sand pile, and he looked up to the top of the slide where there was kind of the ringleader of this gang of boys.

Benny: Hey look down here at this sandcastle I'm making.
Ringleader: *cavernous burp lasting like 30 seconds*
Benny: *gaze of total instant adoration*

He just loves being in a big herd of kids. They didn't seem to be... actively killing each other so I just let him join in however he could. It was pretty funny. Sadie stayed clear, thank goodness, so she was just giving me faints trying to go up and over those half-circle climby things that she insists she's big enough to do. She's not. Leroy ate a bunch of sand. A good time was had by all.

Ebay

Oh my goodness. I'm selling something on Ebay. I haven't done that since I was pregnant with Sadie. I will tell you what prompted me, honestly, to do it. I had this Stride Rite box and I had Sadie's old sandals, and I thought, "With this box, and these sandals, and the sunny day, I could make a nice product photo. I should sell these on Ebay." And I did.

Here's the listing. Weird, isn't it? I promise I'm not broke or anything. At least, I don't think I am.

Studydog

Benny spent the last hour working on free software called Studydog. He was using the first/second grade level and it looked to me like it was way too easy for him. It held his attention though, and it had a good section on making contractions where you have to squeeze things into a box and add apostrophes etc. He liked that part.

Letters

Dog operation

Icy Buoy

Play doh

Off to work

Time and Money Workbook

Leroy

Benny

A few minutes ago we were engaged in our morning ritual of greeting Leroy. We let him out of his crate, feed him, and then he jumps around on us on the sofa and kisses us and we laugh.

Benny: Hahaha!!! A giant man with a tiny puppy might be quite outstanding!
Me: Wha??
Benny: Like Daddy at the dog school with Leroy.

Okay.

Now he's playing "Frere Jacques" on the keyboard, transposed into a E minor.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone

2006/03/27 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 2 100% 0:06:36 B1
2006/03/27 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 3 98% 0:13:44 B1
2006/03/27 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 4 98% 0:06:24 B2
2006/03/27 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 5 100% 0:09:28 A1

Sheep and Lunch

Yesterday, when we were waiting for pizza, Sadie was plaintively carrying around a can of chicken noodle-O's and also a can of spaghetti-os. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? I have no idea.



This is a toy where you balance wooden sheep on top of each other. There are lots of different configurations to try, to make them balance. Benny is OBSESSED with this, at church, and rushes to it every week, and gets in awful trouble fighting the other kids off it. I tried to find it on Ebay, and of course it's not to be had, except from NEW ZEALAND and it probably costs more to ship it than the actual product. I have to find it on Ebay! Have to! I must have it!

Jr. NATURALIST

Listing local fauna

?

Cool Latin Fun

I'm trying to decide whether Benny needs to learn Latin next or much later. Here's a SO COOL site where you can make Latin sentences by dragging things around on the page:

South America

Finally got Sadie's South America workbook up to date, at least up to G. They love flipping through their workbooks, and I've needed to add the next few pages for... hmm.... weeks and weeks? :) Done. Now to do Benny's. Here's a screenshot of Sadie's E is for Empanada page:



To see the whole E lesson, with Ecuador and equator and empanada, go here.

Here's one of Benny's pages, F is for Flores.

Excitement

Ms. Charlie, aka the Director of Children's Ministries at church asked me today if Benny would like to lead the children in the procession on Easter Sunday. This means he will wear vestments and carry the cross and whatnot. VERY COOL. What, Benny? Want to lead? But he's such a shy, timid little thing, so eager to let others show the way... Yeah right! He practiced today with the cross.... have to learn to carry it straight up and down and not like a stick horse or something. So we will practice with a broom. :) It should be cool -- he told everyone who would listen all about it on the way out of church. :)

Another Benny story:

Benny was at Ahno's and she had a neighbor over. Benny was in his uberpolite, senatorial mode and shook the guy's hand, saying, "Hi, I'm Benny. It's so good to meet you!" Later he was interrupting urgently when the guy was talking about dogs, and Ahno said, "Benny, hold on a minute" so the guy could finish talking. Benny left the room and came back carrying a sign that said, "I have a puppy too." Hehehe. That's my little hyperlexic chickenhead!

Ihop

Mr. Bob

HUZZAH

The curse is lifted! Last night Dan brought home yet another coffee pot to try, and this morning he made coffee in it, and he is *DRINKING IT* with actual pleasure. No wrinkled nose. How do you like that?

Test

CHECK ONE TWO.

Rosetta Stone

I've been letting him just play with Rosetta Stone for a while now, but now I've decided to get systematic and actually do the tests and time it and whatnot. Here's how he did today:
Test results for Benny
2006/03/24

Date Chapter Score Time spent Activity
2006/03/24 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 1 100% 0:04:04 A1
2006/03/24 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 2 100% 0:03:49 A1
2006/03/24 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 3 85% 0:04:11 A1
2006/03/24 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 4 100% 0:04:23 A1
2006/03/24 Spanish (Lat. Am.) Level 1 Unit 1 Lesson 3 92% 0:05:17 A2

One Thing Done

Today's nap time was supposed to be spent getting myself up to date with the South America pages both on the web and in the children's workbooks. That didn't happen. However, I did finish formatting and polishing this little unit study on Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. KABOOMINARS are unit studies so small they can fit in one day, and so fun they have to be done with friends. This is the first one that I've finally gotten around to writing down and posting.

Whew!

We had a great morning! Benny did a fantastic job in gymnastics again -- this time in addition to letting other people go first in line every time, he also did not try to "win" the warm-up exercises. They do crab walk, bear walk, run, jump on one leg, etc. all from point A to point B and typically Benny will kill himself to be first, while other more virtuous gymnasts trot along behind actually doing the technique they're supposed to be doing. Today I saw him making the conscious decision to hang back and let someone else be first -- that is huge for him. No milk/cheese today. Also no peanut butter. One of those things is making him buggy, I'm becoming convinced.

Then we went to the Porterfields and played. We played in the backyard, then had lunch, then Veronica had a great game where they tasted different things, blindfolded, and wrote about what they were tasting and tried to guess what it was. Very fun. Benny was EXTREMELY distrustful and could hardly stand to keep his eyes closed while tasting. Then gave up halfway through, just couldn't manage it. Oh well! It was great for the other kids. :)

More Puppet Show

The Galapagos puppets are really earning their Kleenex stuffing. The children are putting on yet another puppet show. Just now, the marine iguana threw off the shark mask he had been wearing and said, "ATTACK!" and the land iguana said, and I kid you not, "This highly motivates me!"

Sadie is being the tortoise. The tortoise's lines are thus: "Puppet show! Puppet show!" He also jumps around a lot in a very inauthentic way.

Two Bennyisms

Two quotes from Benny.

Me: I'm going to give you chocolate milk today, and if you're naughty, we'll know it's because of the milk
Benny: Oh, Mommy, sometimes I'm naughty and sometimes I'm not. That's just the way it goes!

Later.... after hollering at me about not having time to play Chinese Checkers etc.

Me: I think the chocolate milk did make you crabby, Benny.
Benny: No, it wasn't that.
Me: Then what was it?
Benny: It's just the way I'm made!

Sign - Out

Sign - In

Morning

Benny got right up and learned about plural and singular nouns. Spent some time on that, and then moved on to music class where we ran through all our South America songs. Now he's doing some more "predicting outcome" thingies while Sadie plays with the guitar. His favorite singular/plural pair was puppy/puppies. Natch. And he pointed out that child/children doesn't add an S or an ES or an IES. Thank you.

I must, this week, without fail, catch myself up on the South America web site and also the memory books for the children. He loves doing that book, and currently it's only up to E. DUH. And Sadie's is still on C! Maybe today during the nap I'll wade into that.

Dad's chair

Cat

Luge

Benny reports he got first place in luge.

Rainy and Gross

Today is VILE. I can't believe yesterday we were at the playground saying, "When you're not in the sun it's a little nippy." Today it's frigid, wet, and windy. Totally vile.

BUT! Benny had a great violin lesson. We need to work on the steady tempo in Gavotte from Mignon, and work on the 4th finger being up tall in Gavotte by Lully, and we're kinda previewing Minuet in G now. He was really good -- a couple focusing issues where he gets staring off into space and forgets where he is. But nothing major. Great. He's now playing Playstation, singing the Olympic theme, and digesting his reward cookie. On our way home from Ahno's house after picking up Sadie, I said, "We are not leaving the house for the rest of the day!" And Benny said, "What, we don't have any business to take care of?" Huh??? He had a good swimming lesson too. Excellent day all the way around so far, in terms of Benny's bee hayve yor.

Not so excellent in terms of weather. But hey.

Tooth

Benny's fourth tooth came out as we were changing into our clothes after his swimming lesson this morning. He was determined I would not pull it out (OOOO -- I wanted to!) so it was hanging by the proverbial thread. Then he ate a cheese cracker and it fell out in his mouth -- trauma! Ah, son, this is just what I warned you about! He retrieved it from under his tongue however, while narrating in hushed tones. He carried it carefully all the way home, telling everyone within hearing that he'd just lost a tooth, "THIS VERY MINUTE!"

BLAST.

So, we've been discussing the issue of whether Leroy can spend the night in his actual crate, instead of his crate-inside-a-crate where he can get out and relieve himself if he needs to, during the night. We're trying to be correct about the potty training now. Instead of incorrect, which we have been. So we've been taking him out on a leash, trying to get him to go in one spot outside, giving him treats for it, and shutting him in his crate to prevent accidents unless we know he just went, etc.

He went to bed at 11:30-ISH. I got up at 1:30 and took him outside, since I was already up with Benny. Then he was in the crate until 7:00.

AND HE POOPED AND PEED ALL OVER IT. !!! He is NOT supposed to want to poop and pee in this crate! It is too small for him to think it is okay to do that. So, can he really not hold it for five hours? He's supposed to be able to, at five months, hold it. Do I need to set an alarm for 4AM or something? Or does he just not HAVE that instinctive crate-protecting urge that ALL DOGS are supposed to have?

UGH! I'm just so irritated and disappointed and naturally I'm out of paper towels so I had to use and throw away ratty dish towels, which is probably all to the good, but... !!!! Of course Benjamin thought it was hysterical beyond measure.

BLEEEAARRRGH. Flush him down the tullet.

Sock monkey

Leroy

Playground

Jungle

Tra la

We're eating strawberries and doing math. There was another puppet show early this morning. Can't find my copy of Mill on the Floss! And just when I was getting to the exciting part where someone does or does not go fishing with someone else! How will I live through another hour not knowing which of whose Aunts has what kind of sleeves on her dress, indicating what social class or what moral virtue? *thud*

Oatmeal

Today

Benny was excellent today. He had learned about verbs and practiced his violin all by EIGHT O'CLOCK. Went to Sunday School *and* Children's Chapel and was borderline excellent. A couple times the meltdown threatened to emerge, but he fought it back, and was victorious. Huzzah. After church he went to Ahno's to play, and Sadie went to sleep, and I worked on the endless job of fixing pictures. Getting close to being caught up. Maybe.

When Sadie woke up, we went and got Benny. He was good at dinner, good at bedtime... good good good. Lovely day. Very charming. His best thing today, he said, was church. I reported to him that my best thing was seeing him get school and violin done so early in the morning. If *that* is the reason he gets up at six, I'll whole heartedly support his early rising.

Brainstorming for Happy Tales Book Club, and getting ready to go with H is for Hats, and also I very much need to upload everything from F is for Flower and G is for Galapagos. And update the kids' South America books with all the new pages. If I get the South America stuff caught up this week, it'll be glorious. GLORIOUS I SAY!

Uiolin

School

Participant!

Leedee McRoy & Benny Too

I'm finally getting around to fixing the Christmas pictures. WHY must I take SO MANY. *shrug* And here's one of Leroy as a 9 week old puppy, and one of Benny at Christmas too -- I love this picture!

Painting

As usual, Sadie wanted to paint. And did. Then Benny came along, and he was painting away, and I started asking him math problems and having him paint the answer. Then I was crayoning some math onto his painting paper and having him paint around it. Then I gave him a page of crayon and paint math to finish. His comments: "I'm not going to paint anymore if you're going to start mathing it up."

*cackle*

Yikes

Wow, that was disastrous for us. Very chaotic, very loud, lots of running, door-slamming, chair-climbing, and in general not what I expected. I think... it would have been better outside at a playground, maybe. I didn't have a lot of takers on the shamrock craft. And... while Benny did get to play checkers with another little redheaded six-year-old boy, I didn't really like the games that were being played by the older kids. One of them said they were trying to play an army game and Benny was messing it up. And then asked me loudly in front of him if he had a speech problem. Sadie got knocked down a few too many times. It just wasn't a good scene for us. You know when Benny is the one marching around saying, "Stop shouting! Stop running!" that the chaos has reached a new and possibly unprecedented level. I think that after an hour, he just couldn't handle all the stimulus and started getting irritated. He did enjoy playing with that other boy. And Sadie had a nice time with a girl who was enjoying dressing her up, early on in the afternoon. We left early. It was just too much.

Unpacking

Silly

Benny

Finished his seat work. Amazing.

Shamrockery

Oh here is the little page I made to go with it. Shamrocks.doc It's a word file. the PDF-maker isn't working. Anyway! The bread dough is three parts flour, one part salt, one part water. Lot of green food coloring and now my hands are GREEN. I made a lot -- I hope it lasts.

St. Patrick's Day

Today we're going to a social meeting of a local homeschool group we've never tried before. We're supposed to bring some food, and also something to do... ambiguous. I made some green bread dough and we're going to make shamrocks. I have enough for about 10 kids to do it, no idea how many to prepare for or if this is the type of thing we're supposed to bring or what. Benny is also going to bring his checkers, to see if he can scare up a game. And I guess we'll bring some paper and markers? I hope this shamrock activity isn't too dorky. It's all just in a meeting room in a library, but there is a kitchen attached, so hopefully I can just bake the things in there. We'll see! I'll try to post pictures.

This morning Benny did his school work and we also painted. Now when Sadie goes down for a nap we'll do violin, and we'll be the most virtuous people alive.

Yellow and blue make

Little S-G

I was looking for my keys just now, as I frequently am, and I passed by Sadie playing at her little table, and said, just conversationally, "Oh where are Mommy's keys? I just don't know!" Or whatever, you know, just talk to the baby automatically, etc. and she bustled off. In another minute, I turned around and she piped up and said, "Oh, here are." And she handed them to me, saying, "I find them. There ya go." I said, "THANK YOU SADIE." And she said her usual, "Uh talcum." Which means, of course, "You're welcome." This is truly Dan's child! And also the most polite two-year-old in the world!

Great Day

Benny and I decided that a really valuable experiment at gymnastics class would be to always without fail let other kids go first. To never be first. My thinking was that this would take some of the stress out of racing to be first, stifling protest when other children are first, noting that the line "Doesn't look quite right" to him, and stuff like that. It worked GREAT. He was such a doll today. Really a doll. All day.



We left the house at 8:30 for Gymnastics. Dropped Sadie at Ahno's house. Did his class and ran into Porterfields there, because Zoe has her class right after Benny. They invited us over (or rather, Benny suggested plaintively that we should really go over and Veronica agreed) so we ran home, got Leroy from home and Sadie from Ahno, went back, had big huge fun in the back yard and then lovely lunch. After that, we went to the park for homeschool park day... I *think* I met some homeschoolers, but we didn't flash our secret gang signs, so I'm not sure. Benny had a FANTASTIC time -- there were lots of regular school kids there too and Benny loves a big herd of kids to run with. It was such a huge herd it was a little breathtaking, especially with Sadie who has no fear whatsoever and of course Leroy who wanted to meet everyone and lick a layer of their skin off.



Great day. Benny's playing Wallace and Gromit on the Playstation right now and Sadie is watching him from Daddy's chair, looking quite glazed over. Poor little moppet had to catch a nap in the car. No workbooks today. The weather was too good. I did get some help on my "Echar Flores" song from Veronica though.

Echar Flores

Anybody know Spanish who can tell me if this makes any sense? Trying to write a song in Spanish, when you barely scrape by in the language... is pretty silly! It's supposed to be about "Echar Flores" as in throwing flowers, giving compliments. F was for Flores in our South American alphabet. Trying to squeeze in some phrases they can learn by singing.

Echar Flores, Te quiero,
Te amo mi amigo
Usted es agradable y dulce.
Tu me gustas!
Tu me gustas!
Echar Flores, Te amo mi amigo!

Mi Favorito Mi querido
Me gustas mi amor!

Echar Flores, Te quiero,
Te amo mi amigo
Usted es agradable y dulce.
Tu me gustas!
Tu me gustas!
Echar Flores, Te amo mi amigo!

Sadie and Life

I'm sitting here with a child who insists she isn't done with dinner. She had giant ravioli with parmesan cheese, and she had strawberries. Now she has mushed the remains all together. She has one giant lump of strawberry/cheese and one smaller lump, and she is pretending that they are two people, and narrative their dialogue *and laughter*. Example, one of them said, "Oh, GOSH, are you okay?" and the other one said, "OH, yeah" and then they both laughed. Just now she said to me, "Look, Mommy, it's the Mommy and the Daddy. I give them names!" And there they are. The two strawberry lumps. Then she announced, "I'M DONE" and put her binky, binky side up, on the tray, then slurped it into her mouth, ravioli and all.

Wow.

Today we took a long walk, finding many spring flowers that we practiced pronouncing, and we also wrote our "Echar Flores" song, which Benny helped me with. We had music class and did all our South America songs with me on guitar, Benny on violin, and Sadie on drums. We made a house out of boxes. We did some math. We reviewd suffixes by playing a game where we clapped twice every time we said a word with a suffix on it. AND now we're going to go practice the violin. Benny didn't finish all his work, so we didn't go to karate. A new tactic to make him get out of his head and get done with his work more quickly. It's not that he needs to learn how to do what's on the paper -- he knows how. It's that he needs to learn to DO something, complete it, without me standing there saying "Put your finger on the next problem." At least I think he needs to learn this. Maybe he can't. We'll see.

Blogger Issues

I've been having issues with Blogger from my home PC -- and it is rejecting almost all the pictures I'm sending for some reason. I can't post and I can't figure out what's going on. I'm at Ahno's house now and was able to take down some of the broken-link pictures but MAN this is irritating. I guess I better... REBOOT!

Dentist

Palms

Us

House

Yesterday

The karate tournament was very fun to watch. Benny was mostly riveted. I have a bazillion questions now, for Mr. Odom, like... how do they score four different forms against each other? Etc. I'm a total NOOB in the karate thing. It's kind of interesting to be a total noob.

Dog class was entertaining too. Leroy is not the worst dog in class, but he's probably the second worst. If Dan and I could ever train him without little people chirping up and echoing the commands, or wanting to give him the treat, or wanting to chase him with doll strollers, he might improve. At least we're learning what he *should* be doing, even if he's not doing it.

Today we're going WHALE WATCHING again. We've been twice, with zero result. Today, however, I strongly feel we will see whales. In record numbers. Like... one. We're going to, if we can, try and shadow the whale watching cruise from the aquarium. Cheating, in this case, may help us.

Violin

Perfect

Christmas

Dan and I were singing a duet of "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas." Hey, it's just what we like to do, early on a Sunday morning, right? And...

Sadie: "Where Christmas go?"
Me: "Mmmm.... Christmas is in December. When we get to December again, we'll see Christmas then."
Sadie: "Okay! Let's go!"

Humility

So, we're lounging on the sofa watching the new Wallace and Grommit, and bless my soul, my tummy is popping out between my skirt top and my shirt. And Sadie pokes it in an experimental way, very tentatively and says:

Sadie: What's that guy?

Me: That's Mommy's tummy.

Sadie: *pulls shirt down* All gone!

*wan smile*

Husband

Husband: There are people living next door.

Me: *closing curtains* Yes, dear.

Husband: You don't have to close the curtains.

Me: Well, I know it reminds you that there are other people in the world.

Husband: I like a sensory deprivation home.

Dog and Men

Benny: Leroy and I are going to play "Dog and Men." I'm going to be the men, and he's going to be the dog.

Okay! This is while he is making Leroy a doghouse out of felt. Leroy retreated from the somewhat invasive fittings by getting up on my lap. But Benny found him out and subjected him to more fittings.

Benny: Now this one is going to totally perfectly work!

Galapagos Report

Oh my goodness!

The Galapagos day went GREAT!

Ahno had made us some fabulous puppets by drawing or using photos, laminating, stuffing, and mounting on sticks. She had drawn a land iguana, a marine iguana, a flamingo, and had used pictures for a sea lion and a tortoise. They were fantastic – the kids loved them immediately. Benny was instantly on fire to do a puppet show, so the first thing they did when Zoe and Phillip arrived was to do an impromptu, unscripted puppet show, which was great. There were three “chapters” to it. The chapters were called "The Playground," and "The Mall," and "Sleepover at Tortoise's House." Not very South American, but OKAY!

Then they came to the table to make puppets of their own, which they liked. Then lunch and of course ice cream. Then we reproduced maps of the Galapagos Islands and discussed Darwin, microevolution, isolation, circumnavigation, adaptation, etc. Very good. The kids were right on top of it. Then we went and danced with our puppets and sang the Galapagos song, and then they did another puppet show.

The differentiation between the land and marine iguanas did *not* appear in the final puppet show, but I was still extremely satisfied with the event. All the kids behaved marvelously, and even Sadie got to wave her puppet around and make sea lion noises. She was also, at one point, spontaneously telling us something about Ecuador. We couldn’t understand what it was, but we did understand it was about Ecuador. J GREAT HOMESCHOOL DAY. Follow link for pictures.

Car store

Sadie @ Fish

Sit

Dog school

Tired boy

Spectator

Karate

Show

Making Puppets

Puppet show

Audience

Flamingo Puppet

Math Project

We took a long walk today around the neighborhood. Instead of math workbook, we played math with the license plates. The last four characters on every non-vanity plate are numbers, so we broke it into two two-digit numbers and added them together. He did *really well* even with the ones with carrying/regrouping -- he was usually able to just tell me the answer. Which is pretty amazing to me, considering I was still using my fingers and he was giving me the answers before I knew them.

ALSO -- I don't know if I'm kidding myself or not, and I probably am, because that's just the kind of rakish cad that I am -- Benny was a LOT better today. He's been so irritable and awful lately, just pitching fits over nothing and acting so bossy and angry. Today he was better. I took him off peanut butter and peanuts, and put him back on Valerian. Violin class tonight was much much better -- better for example than last week where I had to just give up and take him home because he was waving his bow like a flag and wouldn't quit. So... who knows?

Happy Easter

Siding

EH?

Salvador Dali Melting clocks are not a problem in

your reality. You are an unschooler. You

will tolerate a textbook, but only as a last

resort. Mud is your friend. You prefer

hands-on everything. If your school had an

anthem, it would be Dont Worry, Be Happy.

Visit my blog:

http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com


What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Goldfish

YIME THE BAD BOY: A story by Benny

YIME THE BAD BOY

Yime was a bad boy
He did not do enethng his mother told him to do
he had work he did not do it: bad
not a story: bad

how old> years: 3 months: 24 amatin: 324
then he had a big disiton: good
insted of bad he will be graet

Hilarity

So, we got back from dinner, and I let the kids have Leroy in the bathroom with them to dull the pain of having to go straight to bed, and Benny was laughing insanely uproariously at everything Leroy was doing, which was, of course, pretty funny... and he said...

"Oh, I'm so tired of laughing! It makes my brain have to need a lot of air! But I can't stop -- the laughs just keep coming out!"

Hehehe.

Reminds me of Ashley saying, at about this age, when she was asked to stop laughing and go to sleep, "But it's my mouth! It's so funny, and it won't stop talking."

Benny

Dad and Mr. Bob

Dinner

Sadie

Sadie (entering office, holding up two biscuits): Help! The puppy! Wanna bite this! Dog food!
Me: Well, let him!
Sadie (turning on her heel and trotting away): Oh! Okay! Thank you! Bye!

Drama

*children screaming/laughing/fighting*
*me disengaging from computer*
Me: BENNY! What is the problem in there!
Benny (with great joy): Sadie's trying to kill me!

Last one

Now she's saying, "LAST ONE. Okay? Two? Okay! Say, LAST ONE!" *cackle*

Sadie

Insanely cute. She is running around the house with a dog biscuit in each hand. When Leroy loses interest in chasing her, she says with great authority, "LEROY. COME." Then takes off again. She is narrating all the little things she does like, "Open door! Close door!" "Puppy in! Puppy here!" Or, my favorite, looking down at her feet, "Run, legs, run!" HAHAHAHA. I don't know what thoughtful nature is preventing him from knocking her down and taking them from her, but he must assume (correctly) that he would be torn limb from limb if he attempted it. It's so CUTE how she hollers at him, how she laughs with such insane joy as he chases her around the downstairs, and how he just sort of trots along out of principle, knowing she will never give him those biscuits.

Bennyisms

Him: How much old away from each other are we?
Me: Well what's my age take-away your age?
Him: Well we're 27 years less from each other. So that means, hmm, that means, well I kind of forgot what that means.

So, I'm so nervous about teaching him borrowing/regrouping with subtraction, and he can do it in his head, no problem.

Benny (by the hairdryers at the YMCA -- picture below) : The mirrors are vibrating with each other, and making many more worlds.

Us

Benny

Morning

Sadie

Letters

Serious

Math

Spanish

Leroy sharing

Leap Pad

Dog playdoh

No cartoons

Cossack

Humor

Benny perceived something I find very interesting yesterday. The dog was chasing the cat through the room, and he laughed uproariously, and then he explained to me.

Benny: It's funny for children when they see something they see in another life.
Me: Eh? What other life.
Benny: The life on TV.
Me: Eh?
Benny: I see a dog chasing a cat on TV and then it's funny when I see it again in this life. That makes it funny.

I think I understand what he meant.

The other child, the small girl-type child, also has something to contribute. She made up a joke where she asks for things out of books. It started with the lollipop on the L page of Dr. Seuss's ABC. She would stretch out her hand to the page and say, "Neh Hobbit?" Which is how she asks, "May I have it?" And Benny found that EXCRUTIATINGLY funny, which encouraged her even more, so now at least once a night she asks for something out of a book, with a sly I'm-so-clever smile, and we all laugh. This afternoon after her nap she was entertaining herself by asking for the orange stripe in her pants. Benny's standard answer, "You can't have something in a BOOK, Sadie!" :)

Dinner

Sadie: "I love it, paint!"

Poor Barbie

I regret to say that Barbie's right arm has suffered terrible bites from a giant dog who captured her from her retreat to the coffee table and took her back to his fleecy lair to gnaw. She is, I am afraid, permanently disfigured. Sadie, her rightful protector, was distracted by showing me all the candles, and telling me what they all are. Most of what she said, I couldn't make out, but she did correctly and distinctly identify "Pumpkin Pie" which was shocking. This is a game she plays with Dan. We were sitting on the floor with Barbie and she turned to hug me and said, "Mommy, I luh-yoo. Wanna sniff eagles?" And by her pointing and saying, "Right DERE, over-dere," I understood that she meant candles.

Benny is quite taken with the song "Peggy Gordon" from the new Corrs CD which is all pop versions of traditional Irish songs. Today he figured it out on the violin and I figured it out on the guitar and we played together -- it was really fun!

Benny (playing with a plastic elephant):

Now, if anyone has anything to say, I'll be glad to listen.
Well, I kind of have to go to the restroom.
Oh, it's outside, in the wall.

Good Day

The children were both so charming and darling today. At least 90% of time I was pleased with and proud of Benny. That is a good percentage. I am feeling sad that they're getting older. Sadie is incomparably well-behaved and amiable. What did I do to deserve these children? Yesterday I was ready to lock Benny in the closet and stick my head in the oven. Today, he is a delight.

Of course, we're about to go to violin lesson, so this could all turn completely rotten.

Benny's Instruction

I happened to be sitting here, and so I transcribed this:

Benny: "Leroy, let's sit down and have a conversation about running out in the street. Now, we love you. And you are very valuable. And we don't want to have to make a poster that says, "Lost Dog." And dogs and cats are very loveable. They have people that love them. And they only have one bad thing that they do -- that's biting. You bite us all the time. But we love you so much that we want to keep you. SO, we don't want you to run out in the street by yourself. You have to go out with somebody. Do you understand what I said, Leroy? Do NOT go out by yourself."

Groomingdales