Theater District Open House

I don't have a talent for writing. I type stuff that falls from my brain to my fingers and sometimes I try to organize the words. But usually the only stuff that comes out is boring factual stuff. Still, I enjoy watching the arts.

We went to the Theater District Open House today. For the cost of parking, we were able to enjoy world class ballet, opera, stage combat, and symphony, all in the space of a few hours. I even managed to drag myself away from the enticing ticket prices by reminding myself of all the $$$ that we've recently spent repairing and replacing appliances in the house.

The girls had a fabulous time, and Wander even came along. He slept through most of the performances, except for the sword fighting. Sparkle enjoyed dressing up in all the costumes, and Glitter's dancing in the seats had the couple behind us smiling at her for the entire show.

A rare picture of all four of us.


Sparkle with a dancer from the ballet company.


Wander, Glitter, and Sparkle watching a show.


Glitter in one of the most expensive seats in the house. Please don't fall over the edge.


Sparkle and Glitter romping in fake flowers on stage.


Sparkle in dress-up again.


More dress-up for Sparkle.


Face painting! A pink and purple butterfly for Glitter -- her favorite colors.


An orange and green butterfly for Sparkle.


Theater games. I had to prod Sparkle to join the group, but once she did, she had fun.


Wander awake -- it's the sword fighting.


Sword fighting!


The finale was a concert featuring songs that Sparkle and Glitter actually recognized, thanks to Themes to Remember.

The girls, especially Glitter, have taken to walking up and down the 3" wide backs of the sofas. At first I tried to discourage it. Then I remembered the battles I had with a one year old Glitter standing up on a swaying rocking chair. Those battles only ended when I got rid of the rocking chair. So now I simply tell the girls to not let daddy catch them doing it.

Sparkle sidetracked

Can you tell I've caught up with the photos off my camera?
I now feel free to take more random kid pictures.

Here is Sparkle. She was having some trouble drawing the braces in the bar diagrams for math, so I told her to practice drawing braces during her free time.

I expected her to just draw some wavy lines, but instead she decided to come up with her own math problem. I commented that it was a very nice word problem, but there were no braces. I then got a scrap piece of paper and demonstrated drawing braces. Sparkle nodded, and I went on my merry way. A few minutes later, Sparkle showed me a picture of a character in her word problem, Molly. The only braces on the page were mine. A few minutes later, Sparkle has completed the bar diagram for her word problem with some nice looking braces.

I decided to take a picture of Sparkle with her word problem. Then I decided to take a picture of the accompanying illustration. Alas, Glitter has taken the paper and cut it up into pieces. We salvage most of the pieces, but cannot find the piece that shows the pie that Molly was smelling. (Hum, there are no erasers in the picture, contrary to what I would expect, given the word problem.) I take a picture of the pieced-together picture, and then Sparkle insists on drawing another picture of Molly for me to photograph.







BTW, the word problem is ...
"Sally had 2 erasers after giving 3 erasers to Molly. How many erasers did Sally have at first?"

The answer is 2+ 3 = 5. "Sally had 5 erasers at first."

school for Glitter

After three years in preschool, I finally brought Glitter home. This school year Glitter is in pre-K. My main academic goal for the year for her is learning to read.

I'm using the textbook "The Reading Lesson" with Glitter, just like I did with Sparkle.


Here is Glitter reading today's lesson. You can see how she uses the notched card to keep track of which word she is on. When she has trouble with a particular word, she also backs-up the notched card to better sound out the individual letters.



I am also teaching Glitter the phonograms that she will eventually use when we start spelling after she finishes "The Reading Lesson". Once again, the flashcards are leftovers from when I made them for Sparkle.


In between the Reading Lesson and phonograms, I read Glitter a story of her own choosing. I figured that wasn't worth video-ing. BTW, today's lessons went abnormally smoothly. Glitter so enjoyed the idea of being on video that she was remarkably on-task during the lesson.

grain mill

I got a grain mill.

The mill is designed so that even a four year old can turn it.


Yummy fresh, whole wheat bread to snack on!

family photos

Here's Glitter with her doll. Glitter has taken to asking me to take a picture of the two of them whenever she puts on a new outfit.


Here's Wander starting an experiment for Sparkle with a balloon. As far as I can tell, nothing really happened. We've been having bad luck with science experiments.


Here's Sparkle with a bouncy ball stuck in her hair.


Sparkle and Glitter with pumpkin faces. Sparkle commented that with so many missing teeth, she looked like a Jack-O-Lantern. So, she decided to make a pumpkin face for herself. Then Glitter wanted to try, and she also insisted on having the pumpkin colored orange.

Not a good start

We're two hours into the new school year, and it hasn't been a good start. We've already had two meltdowns and both girls have been in and out of the naughty corner. It's taking half an hour to get in ten minutes of piano practice.

Well there are a few bright spots. Glitter is done with her school, and a load of laundry has made it all the way to the dryer.

UPDATE: ....

We got all of school done and Sparkle is cooking soup from a can for lunch. (She doesn't want to have noodles.) Glitter still hasn't finished her oatmeal from breakfast.

I used the kitchen timer to see how long each school activity would take. Including family activities, teaching Glitter, and teaching Sparkle, it took us a little less than three hours of on-task time to do school for the day. On the other hand, it took us four and a half hours to do those three hours of work. Where did that other hour and a half go? Frittered away looking for silly bands, snacking on peanuts, naughty corner, complaining about sissy, answering a phone call, putting on an impromptu puppet show, etc.



I suppose that it's unrealistic to think that we'll ever accomplish three hours of school in three hours. Still, a gal can dream, can't she?

Morning meeting went smoothly, once I made the girls to sweep the oatmeal off the floor so that we could get to the calendar. In math, we accomplished less than I hoped, and it took longer than expected, but I felt that Sparkle needed to at least complete one page. In English, we also accomplished less than I hoped, but it took less time than I planned because we were at a good stopping point and it was clear that Sparkle had enough of it for the day. My new plan for dictation took much longer than expected, but met with no objections, even though it was much more work. Drill work went much better than last year, due to me taking over as scribe.

I wouldn't call the day a success. I wouldn't call it a failure either. It was just another day homeschooling.

School starts tomorrow

School starts tomorrow, and I'm anxious about how it will go. I don't know why. I don't feel ready. I feel so disorganized this year compared to previous years. So, what am I doing? I'm uploading a bunch of old photos and just shoving them in a disorganized mess onto this blog.

Home improvement

We've had a bunch of home improvements these past few months.
Our A/C, dishwasher, dryer, and hot water heater all went out.







I also armed the girls with spray bottles of water and wash rags so they can help clean the house.

babysitting hermit crabs

Babysitting hermit crabs for two weeks.

Independence Day Photos

Independence Day photos.

Children's museum

Visiting the children's museum.

random photos

Here's some random photos from the summer.

Happy sisters in Hawaiian dresses.


Sparkle got a purse for her birthday.


We got to see some friends at their ballet show.

Wander's a Godfather.




Glitter likes her doll more and more.


I got some new toys.


Isn't she sweet?