Merry Christmas

Just home from Midnight Mass.

It was the first time trying to take the kids to midnight mass. To prepare we had everyone take a nap after supper. Wander snored on the sofa. Glitter asked to snuggle with me on the floor, and Sparkle soon joined us.

Wander likes being early, but the parking lot was empty when we arrived, so we drove around a bit looking at Christmas lights. A neighborhood next to church does a great display.

We got to church early and sat way in front. We got to see the procession bring in baby Jesus and lay him in the manger. I loved that moment.

The girls were tired but made it through. At the end the pastor said that it would be his last Christmas mass with us. I felt sad when I heard that, although I wasn't surprised.

Santa visited our house while we were at mass. Suddenly the girls had tons of energy. Glitter the camera phone that she'd been wanting. Sparkle got a Nutcracker snow globe.

Glitter is writing a thank you note to Santa as I type.

Miquon Math

I *love* how Miquon introduces dividing fractions.

Math is one of Sparkle's weakest subjects. Yet she was able to figure out these problems in the Miquon Yellow Book:

(1/2) / (1/4)
(10/5) / (2/5)
(6/3) / (2/3)
(6/3) * (1/3)
(2+1/2) * 4

These problems are so carefully crafted, sequenced, and presented that even my math hating 8 year old could understand them.

I doubt that she could do them without the accompanying number lines, manipulatives and verbiage. She probably would even need me to keep her company. However I find it amazing that she was able to comprehend the concepts at all. The explanation in Miquon is beautiful in its simplicity.

Glitter Writes

Glitter likes to write. She does far more writing than her sister did at this age, although her spelling is far worse.

********************************************
One day Glitter wrote some of her co-op science memory work on the white board. She made three columns. I didn't get a picture, so I don't remember her misspellings. The first column listed the classfication of living things: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. The second column listed types of mammals: fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds. The third column listed the stages of metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, adult.

********************************************
Here is a story that Glitter wrote. Glitter wrote it a few days ago in her free time and showed it to me. Then it disappeared. Today I discovered it again when straightening the sofa cushions. It is in a little blank booklet that I make for the kids to play with. She also drew a picture to go with it. (Her pictures also lag far behind what Sparkle was doing at this age.)

Oh, and the only reason "Once upon a time" is spelled correctly is because I got tired of seeing her misspell it over and over again, so I broke down and taught it to her a few weeks ago.
***
A Big dog

Once UPon a
time thar
wer a litll
Blo brd. It
waS siting on
a brach of
a tre.
then one day.
A men dog
cam up. And
omost got
the berd.
The End

***

Translation:

A Big Dog

Once upon a time there was a little blue bird. It was sitting on a branch of a tree. Then one day a mean dog came up and almost got the bird.

The End.

******

When my last watch died I tried going without a watch and just using my phone to tell time. That's what lots of other people do. I tried for several months. It didn't work. I bought myself a watch today.

Three costumes in three days

Three costumes in three days.
No sewing for me.
Sunday: All Saint's Party
Sparkle dressed up as St. Margaret Mary.
Glitter dressed up as St. Therese the Little Flower.
Both girls wore the nun costumes I sewed three years ago, and they added appropriate tokens.


Monday: Halloween
Both Sparkle and Glitter were ballerinas.
They wore Sparkle's old recital costumes. Sparkle didn't get home from ballet class until 7pm, with her hair already in a bun and wearing tights. I don't think she could have been anything else, given the quick change required. She even skipped supper.

Tuesday: Renaissance Festival
Both Sparkle and Glitter were princesses.
They wore the princess costumes I sewed several years ago.

Sorry, no pictures. I'm barely getting this post up at all.

Me, Me, Me

This blog is for me, me, me. So I am going to go ahead and start posting stuff even if I don't have the time or inclination to make sense. I'm going to start posting even without pictures or even if the pictures are stuck on the camera. Why not. It's my blog and I'm writing it for me.

So, today we carved pumpkins. It was fun. I picked up the pumpkins at the grocery store on Friday. I was a bit sad about not having Wander with us as we picked up pumpkins. However, we were running out of time to carve pumpkins, and Wander had expressed concern about when we would get them. I missed the experience of all four of us picking out pumpkins together, however, the girls had fun picking out their pumpkins and picking out a pumpkin for daddy.

We carved the pumpkins in the front driveway. It was chilly. I moved into a sunny spot. It went quickly. It was morning, so we didn't light candles in them and take gobs of pictures like previous years. Sad.

This fall has felt so pressed and squeezed. Too many activities. Too many worthwhile things to do. Not enough time to unwind, relax, and find my groove.

Sparkle had her Nutcracker rehearsal today. It was really stressful because she missed the previous rehearsal because we went camping. They tried on costumes, but Sparkle didn't try on hers. I was confused until Sparkle explained that a new costume would be sewn for her. Ta Da. That's why they didn't fit Sparkle for a costume. They knew I could sew and figured that it would be easiest to have me sew her costume versus having one of the other moms sew a costume.

So while I'm thrilled that I get to sew Sparkle's costume, I'm also concerned about the additional work. Only three more weeks of rehearsals.

I thought about inviting my brother to visit for Thanksgiving, but I just can't handle more this fall.

Library

Yippie. Thanks to the book selections from Brave Writer's The Wand, Glitter got interested in the Mr. Putter and Tabby books. She liked the books so much that she picked out two more from the library on her own. This is the first book series that she's shown interest in following. For once, I didn't have to coax her to pick out books, and have all my suggestions turned down for being too boyish, too babyish, too hard, or too easy.

Sparkle has been interested in "The Buddy Files" series of books from the library's Bluebonnet Book Club, so I put more books in that series on hold. One of them arrived and I picked it up from the library. Sparkle squealed when I showed it to her. I let her have the book, but only if she read it out loud in the car. When we got home I made her leave the book in the car so she could focus on finishing schoolwork. I'll let her continue reading it aloud on our way to dance class. She's pretty good at reading aloud. She does funny voices for the different characters. Oh, and I had her read aloud because I wanted to find out what happened.

Oh yea, and my librarian totally rocks. She submitted my inter-library loan request for a book even though there are only *five* copies of the book available in libraries in the USA. Yippie. Another curriculum that I can preview for homeschooling for free before deciding on buying.

Glitter's Prayer

Glitter wrote this prayer today while I did school with Sparkle. Glitter would write a little, bring it to me and read it, and then go off and add more. Eventually she taped together three pieces of paper before she was done. I have preserved her spelling, capitalization, and spacing.

*****************

In the name uf the foter and the
Lord is whith us
God thac you for oll the
thegs. That you mad.
For givus are sins.
And Love us all.
olso and in heven. Amen.
In the Lod rgod
to thak him in
are hots. Amen.
[picture of a cross]
God I Pray I thak
you for diyeing on
the cros Ples help
me tolern a bou you.
God I tri to
understand you
When I am
frustradid a.
Bot you.
[picture of a person]
God I lve you
vare mush and I
wil srve you. for
ever. Amen.
I sal sorv you
for ever in my
lif. Amen
[picture of a big cross]

*****************

Here is my translation:

***
In the name of the Father, and the Lord is with us.
God, thank you for all the things that you made.
Forgive us our sins and love us all, also and in heaven. Amen.
In the Lord God to thank him in our house. Amen.
God, I pray, I thank you for dying on the cross. Please help me to learn about you. God, I try to understand you when I am frustrated about you.
God, I love you very much and I will serve you forever. Amen.
I shall serve you for ever in my life. Amen.

*****************

I like this prayer. It shows what Glitter thinks about God. It also shows that her command of the English language is slowly improving, even though she has a long way to go. Even Wander was able to decode her writing with only a tiny bit of help.

The moral of the story: Kids do surprising things when they have (almost) unlimited access to paper, pencils, and tape.

More math

I didn't think about skip counting as a method of learning math facts until I started homeschooling. Even then I didn't think of it much until it was time to teach Sparkle her math facts. Then I saw so many math programs using skip counting, so I bought into the idea of skip counting. I taught Sparkle skip counting and drilled her in skip counting.

Then I discovered that skip counting is slwo and error prone. It takes too long to skip count up to the higher numbers, and it too error prone because it is too easy to get numbers mixed up. Was the next number 42, 48, or 49? Does 45, 54, or 56 come next? Yuck. I find when I'm skip counting, I'm actually using my memorized multiplication tables in reverse.

So it's no more skip counting for me. Instead I'm going to teach Sparkle tricks and shortcuts for memorizing math facts. My favorite trick is for one of the hardest to remember facts: 56=7x8 (5678).

Division with fractions

This is going to be another of those rambling posts.

Homeschooling has given me a whole new perspective on grammar and elementary math. Before homeschooling I didn't think much about either subject. Now I adore these subjects. Too bad my kids don't share my fascination with either subject.

This morning I had a wonderful math moment.

To back up a bit. ....
I've been learning about math through teaching Sparkle and reading some math blogs. I read how treating multiplication like repeated addition falls apart when multiplying fractions. I've read elsewhere how many students (and many teachers) don't really understand dividing by a fraction. They might be able to do the procedure (don't question why, just invert and multiply), but cannot create an accurate word problem that reflects dividing by a fraction.

Most explanations of division of fractions that I've encountered explain division by a fraction with a lengthy discussion of division as the inverse of multiplication. It makes sense as I read it, but I didn't internalize it well enough to explain it to someone else.

Then a few days ago I was flipping through Sparkle's new math book. Dividing by a fraction is taught less than halfway through the new book. I was amazed. If you use this series of math books at the recommended levels, students would be encountering these problems halfway into the first semester of third grade! Sparkle will be older when she gets to it, but I still think that she will be on the young side for the concept. However, what really impressed me was that the concept was presented in a way that made total sense to me. I can really see a child can understand these concepts after working through these math books.

The problem (1/2) divided by (1/4) is expressed as the question "How may 1/4ths in 1/2?" It's the same way of phrasing (8 divided by 4) as "How many 4s in 8?"

My wonderful math moment was vaguely related.

Another tricky subject is subtraction of negative numbers.
I'm probably going to use incorrect terminology here, but I don't care.

Adding and subtracting are opposites.
A number plus its opposite equals the identity number for addition.
The identify number for addition is zero. (A number plus zero is itself.)
For example, the opposite of 5 is -5.
Subtracting a positive number is the same as adding the negative number.
5 - 5 = 5 + (-5)
The opposites cancel each other out. Swap subtracting with adding, Swap a number with its opposite.
So, subtracting a negative number is the same as adding the positive number because two opposites cancel each other out and everything stays balanced.

Similarly, multiplication and division are opposites.
The identity number for multiplication is one. A number times one is itself.
A number times its opposite equals one.
The opposite of a fraction would be the inverted fraction.
Inverting and multiplying to dividing by a fraction also involves two opposites. The inverted fraction is an opposite and changing dividing to multiplying is also an opposite.


Sorry if you've read this. It probably doesn't make much sense. I'm just typing this to try to capture my beautiful math moment for myself so I'll remember it later.

Poetry and Prose by Sparkle

Here is a poem by Sparkle. The assignment was to write a poem for the Renaissance Festival. She wrote this poem fairly quickly. I guess she felt inspired that day. Her first draft was almost three times as long, but the Renaissance Festival contest only accepts poems up to 20 lines long. So, we cut apart the stanzas and played around with them until we got this arrangement. Then Sparkle did a few more edits - mostly capitalization, punctuation, and a few minor word changes. The first draft was done on one day and the revisions on a second day.

**********
The Fairies

Flying with the birds,
Sitting on a snail,
Listening to it rain
On the water pail!

Hopping from a leaf,
Dancing on a flower,
Making rose buds bloom
With their special power.

Spinning in a garden
On their little toes!
Has anybody seen them?
Does anybody know?

The Fairies dance and sing.
The Fairies love to fly!
They watch it rain upon the pail
And see the world go by!



****************
****************

Here is a piece of her prose writing. The assignment was the final essay from the end of The Paragraph Book 1. It took her several weeks and many, many, many drafts before we decided that it was good enough to stop working on it.

****************
How to Get, Peel, and Eat a Grapefruit

First, see if there are any grapefruit on the counter. If you can’t find one on the counter, go to the store to get a grapefruit. Come home from the store with the fruit. Put the grapefruit on the green kitchen table. You have the fruit.

Next, put your nails on the fruit. Dig your nails into the skin of the fruit. Make sure your nails don’t puncture the flesh of the fruit. Pull down with your nails to start peeling. You will see a hole in the skin. It is the start. Repeat until there is no skin. Rest because your fingers will be very tired! Then, you will see an underskin. It looks fuzzy and it’s whitish. Peel off the underskin. Look for any underskin on the fruit. It tastes bad. If there is still a little bit of underskin on it’s ok. You don’t have to peel all the underskin off. You have your peeled fruit.

Finally, peel off the membrane around the fruit segments. Hold a grapefruit segment up to your mouth. Do this to start eating the fruit. Bite the fruit segment and chew, and swallow. Catch any falling juice, it’s good, and spit any seeds out into a bucket or trash can. Repeat the steps. There are baby seeds too so watch out! You ate your grapefruit.

***************

To better appreciate the work in the above composition, here are her original frame paragraph and her first expanded draft.

*******
Original Frame
*******

How to Peel a Grapefruit

First, get a grapefruit from the counter or store. Next, get your nails in the fruit. You do it to start peeling. Then, pull down with your nails. Make sure you don’t bend your nails. Then, repeat until there is no skin left. Peel of some of the stringy skin too. Finally, eat your grapefruit.

*******
Original Expanded Draft
*******

How to Peel a Grapefruit

First, see if there are any grapefruit on the counter. Next, go to the store to get a grapefruit. You do this if you can’t find one on the counter.Then, come home from the store.Don’t forget the grapefruit. Then, put the grapefruit on the table.Put it on the green kitchen table. Finally, you have the fruit.

First, put your nails on the fruit. Next, dig your nails into the skin. Make sure your nails don’t puncture the fruit. Then, pull down with your nails. You do this to start peeling. Then, you will see a hole. It is the start. Finally, rest.

First, reapeat until there is no skin. Next, you will see a underskin. Peel off underskin. Then, look for any look like banana skin on the fruit.It tastes bad.Then, if there is still a little bit of skin on it’s ok. You don’t have to peel all the skin off.Finally, you have your peeled fruit.

First, peel of the clear skin.Next, hold the grapefruit up to your mouth. Do this to start eating.Then, bite the fruit and chew and swallow. Catch any falling juice it’s good and spit any seeds out.Then, reapeat the steps. There are baby seeds too so watch out! Finally you ate your grapefruit.

****************

Tucked in like Pippi

Our current bedtime read-aloud is Pippi Longstocking. Tonight I read from the chapter where Pippi gets into bed and puts her feet on her pillow so she can wiggle her toes.

Moments later, when the girls crawled into bed, both of them tried to imitate Pippi.

Sparkle stuck her feet on the pillow and lay on top of her sheets. When I burst into laughter at her silliness, she started to wiggle her toes.

Glitter wasn't as clear on the concept. She moved her pillow and stuck it at the foot of her bed. Then she put her feet at the head of the bed. So her pillow was where her feet normally would be, and her feet were where her pillow would normally be. However, her head was still on the pillow. Glitter also managed to fold the top sheet backwards on itself and over her body. She is still short enough that the sheet covered her.

Crazy cute kids. I tucked them in and said good night.

Math, Music, and Siblings

Glitter is almost done with kindergarten math (RightStart Level A). I plan on having her do the last lesson of her book tomorrow. Then I'll move her on to the next book (RightStart Level B), even though she is still in kindergarten.

Sparkle's math is coming along more slowly. She is almost done with the second grade Miquon books. I expect her to finish them by the end of the month. She is also almost done with the first grade word problems book. I expect her to finish it by the end of the semester. Then hopefully she'll be ready to move on to a third grade math textbook. After all, she is in third grade.

I am trying to prepare myself that Glitter may eventually outpace her older sister in math. I doubt that she will surpass Sparkle's ability with rote calculations, but she might catch up conceptually.

Similarly, Glitter has passed her sister in the Suzuki aspects of their piano lessons. Glitter practices piano even when she doesn't have to. As a result, Glitter learned their most recent Suzuki song before Sparkle. (Okay, she got her right-hand sticker first only by a matter of minutes, but still, that's impressive given the age difference, and the fact that Glitter got no formal instruction on the song.)

Glitter has a passion for math and music that Sparkle doesn't have. I hope that doesn't discourage Sparkle. Sparkle's talent for drawing and spelling hasn't frustrated Glitter. However, it's natural for an older sibling to do something better than you. It's something else when the ages are flipped.

Unschooling Writing

I wish that I could unschool writing.
Sparkle comes up with all sorts of writing projects for herself.

She created a mini-book about the plants and animals at the local botanical gardens. Each two page spread has an illustration of the plant or animal and one or two sentences describing it. She begged to stay at the gardens for a few more minutes in the sweltering heat so that she could finish the book.

She found a blank picture study notebooking page that I had given up using with her. She copied a painting and wrote a nice little paragraph about it, making some thoughtful connections with her life. Then she found another page and drew an original picture and wrote another paragraph explaining the picture.

She is in the process of creating another mini-book with monsters from Wander's D&D book. She copied the picture of the monster and some of the text describing it -- in beautiful cursive. Sparkle kept balking when I asked her to use cursive in school work, so I finally let her print everything. Her handwriting for school varies from legible to fairly neat, but hardly every as well formed as in this little booklet. She dislikes copywork and is annoyed when she makes mistakes in dictation for school. She discovered her own mistakes when reviewing her work on this booklet and happily corrected it.

However, when it comes to me teaching Sparkle how to write, it's a struggle. She has a hard time figuring out what to say. Her handwriting is sloppy. She wants to know the bare minimum she has to do to get by. On the other hand, I know that she is having fun with her own writing projects because I have taught her the underlying skills, and I need to continue doing so.

Theater District Open House

This was the third time we went to the Theater District Open House.

We started at the Wortham Theater.
We got a family picture taken with some dress-up stuff. The girls got their pictures taken with the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker. Rats, soldiers, and The Nutcracker roamed around.

We went on a tour of the Wortham. We didn't start in the Green room this time. We got to sit in the Founder's boxes (the really expensive seats). We watched a presentation about Houston Grand Opera's upcoming performance of The Barber of Seville. We got to see the costume shop and look at costumes in the process of being built.

We went on the stage and the girls tried on costumes. We saw some of the props from The Barber of Seville. We watched a wig maker create a wig for Barber of Seville.

We got to see Houston Ballet II perform. We were late to the performance, so we sat in the aisle until some people left and get got their seats.

We went to the Alley Theater. Both girls got their faces painted. They tried on costumes and got a six second movie of them all dressed up, which was turned into a flip book. We went onto the stage and the girls got to do theater games: statues & night at the museum, a shark song, Wizard of Oz voices & walking on the yellow brick road.

We ended the outing with a concert by Houston Symphony at Jones Hall.

All this for only the cost of parking!

Yup, this is a dull reporting of facts. Afraid that's all your going to get. Sorry. No time to think it over and add better descriptions. Have to cook supper. Maybe the girls' log books will be better.

Busy weekend

It's been a busy weekend.
Saturday was Sparkle and Glitter's first piano recital. It was a duet recital - all the pieces were duets. Glitter and I played a short little song from her music book. Glitter did great. But I forgot my music and didn't have the song memorized, so I was awful. Sparkle did great. She played with a friend.

Sunday we went to see a theatre production of "The Sound of Music" a friend's aunt/sister was playing the role of Maria. Both girls loved watching this musical. I had to keep reminding myself that the theatre production came first, before the movie. They didn't change things from the movie; things were changed for the movie.

School starts tomorrow at 8am.

Potsticker Day!

Today was Potsticker Day!
Potstickers are one of my favorite foods.

For the first time since Sparkle took regular naps, I made potstickers from scratch. Actually, all four of us got together to make potstickers. It took us over two hours to cook up a little over three dozen potstickers, but it was yummy!

When I last made potstickers, I only did it during Sparkles long afternoon nap. And it took me all nap long and a little extra. I did it all by myself: cutting up the vegetables, rolling out the dough, stuffing the wrappers, and cooking them. It got to be too much work, so I stopped making them. I told Wander that I wanted to try again when I felt comfortable with the girls handling raw meat.

That day was today. With six extra hands, you'd think that things should go faster, but that wasn't the case. The main benefit was having fun as a family.


[INSERT PICTURES]

language arts for Glitter

I really enjoy homeschooling, and my two favorite subjects are math and English. I joke that all I teach is math and English. So far Sparkle has been my only official student, as Glitter won't start kindergarten until later this month.

However, I have been doing some work with Glitter to give her some individual attention and to ease me into teaching two kids. And somehow I ended up doing
doing three different language arts programs with Glitter.

The first language arts program was a variation on Spell to Write and Read. This program worked well for Sparkle, and the beginning is just letter formation and memorizing the phonograms. Once Glitter entered review mode with those skills, it was natural to start the spelling lists. Plus I got tired of seeing her chicken scratch, misspelled writing everywhere. (This child likes to write.) I adapted the program to really slow it down and provide lots of review, and it's been going well.

The second language arts program was a variation of Writing With Ease. I was reading to Sparkle and helping her with a written narration. It was only natural to have Glitter listen in. It also made sense to have her say one thing she remembered, and then use that sentence for copywork. It was a simple way to keep her engaged and part of the family. Plus, she likes to write and imitate her big sister.

The third language arts program happened by chance. It's Brave Writer's "The Wand." Glitter fell in love with it when she heard the name and found out that it is by the same company that produces her sister's program "The Arrow." It uses Post-it notes and funny books. Glitter has begged for it and it's the first thing she wants to do in the morning. What's not to like?

And that's not counting the reading practice that Glitter does.

Eek. I need to cut something.

School supplies

I'm quite surprised, but I haven't bought much school supplies for the coming school year. I'll probably pick up some crayons and colored pencils, but I don't see any big purchases in the works. I even went to the big homeschool convention and walked up and down the vendor hall twice without spending any money. (Even admission to the vendor hall was free that night.)

I did pick up and electronic spell checker for Sparkle and some more math manipulatives. I also got some books that were on sale. But I tend to spread my homeschooling dollars around throughout the school year rather than spending them all at once.

School Bribery

We've used our school bribery system for a few weeks and it's been working well so far. I don't like using treasure chest toys as rewards because the toys are expensive, you end up with lots of junk cluttering the house, and the kids get hung up on the rewards. But I've found a reward system that works for us.

Each Sunday night, I post a list of school activities for each day of the week. Most of the activities can be done in 10-15 minutes, but some are quicker (math fact drill), and others are longer (piano practice). Some are independent (read a book), but most are not. Subjects are spread across several different activities.

For each activity each child can earn up to three points
- one point for just doing the work
- one point for starting in a timely manner
- one point for doing it with a good attitude

At first I thought that simply doing the work shouldn't be enough to earn a point, but then I realized that sometimes just getting the work is is an accomplishment. Starting in a timely manner also is one of the huge hurdles, or the kids get distracted in between activities. Notice that correct and incorrect answers have no bearing on the number of points earned. As long as the work is done with a good attitude, it doesn't matter how many mistakes the child makes. Of course, the type and quantity of mistakes are an indication of attitude.

Today Sparkle had about 9 activities, so she could earn up to 27 points per day. Glitter has only about 6 activities, so she could earn up to 18 points. Then, at the end of the day, I add up the points earned versus the points available and calculate a percentage.

There are three reward charts. One joint reward chart, and individual reward charts for each kids. If one girl gets a 100%, meaning that she did all her work on time with a good attitude, she gets a mark on her individual reward chart.
If *both* girls have at least a 90% for the day, we consider it a good day of school, and they get a mark on the joint reward chart. This is to encourage the kids to help each other get their work done, instead of distracting each other. When the joint chart is filled, the kids get a joint reward. When an individual chart is filled, that child gets a reward.

That's the base system that we started it. Then I decided to expand the system. Bad behavior results in negative points. For example, kids can loose points for not being ready on time in the morning, or for failing to pass inspection. On the other hand, kids can get bonus points if all work is completed before lunch.

It's not a complicated as it sounds, and so far it has been working well. We don't get 100% or even 90% every day, but days are much smoother than before. It also helps me recognize that even if a child had horrible attitude problems, it was only for 1-2 activities and the work was still done.

not really about kindergarten

As Glitter will be starting Kindergarten this year, I read the blog post of a well respected homeschooling mom about kindergarten.

It was a beautiful, poetic piece with lots of insights. I found myself nodding along with her on many points. Childhood should not be rushed. Children learn best from from doing real things with caring adults in a child friendly environment.

There were some points where we did things differently, but I felt I understood her point of view.

Then I got to the part about a little boy who was her former student, and I wanted to cry for him. She said that he was a brilliant young child with similarly intelligent parents. She and her friend taught him in preschool and kindergarten. She states with sorrow how he couldn't remember to hang up his coat, didn't play with other children, asked about advanced academic subjects, and had social/emotional skills that were out of balance with his intellectual achievements. Their teaching goals for him were to get him to play and talk with his peers.

My heart ached for this little boy as I read about him. But not, I suspect, for the reasons the blogger implied. I don't think that this boy's parents rushed him through childhood in pursuit of academic achievement, leaving him unable to relate to his peers. I think he was probably profoundly gifted. It is hard for such gifted children to relate to their peers because they don't have true peers. Their age peers are not their mental peers, and their mental peers are not their age peers.

Teaching such a child to hang up his coat and get along with his classmates are important and valuable skills. But I think his innate asynchronousity caused his struggles, not his parents' value of academics.

swimming

Yay, both kids can now swim the length of the pool. When I first put them in swim lessons three years ago, this felt like an impossible goal. All I wanted then was to be able to have two kids in the pool with neither one touching me. Now Wander likes to call the kids his little sea otters.

Many thanks to Wander for paying for swim lessons and for taking them to the pool over and over again.

Teatime Again

We've done BraveWriter teatimes off and on ever since I read about them three years ago when Sparkle was five years old and in kindergarten. Our goal was teatime once a week, but sometime life got in the way. Last spring life got so busy that I even stopped writing teatime on the weekly schedule. However, one unscheduled afternoon this week, the girls spontaneously set aside their play, cleaned everything up, set the table, and told me that we should have teatime. So we did.



Some things haven't changed. Our first teatime started with a broken mug; this teatime began with a broken a vase. Glitter is still a crumb factory, and the tablecloth always needs washing afterwards. The sweet snacks I had planned to phase out are still served. Sparkle still loves the poetry so much that she forgets her treats on her plate as she giggles at one Jack Prelutsky poem after another.

Other things have changed. The girls have taken on the fun of setting and decorating the table. They prefer the green tablecloth to my blue one, and they make outrageous bouquets of silk flowers instead of the fresh ones I used to buy. Glitter has started reading some poems herself, falteringly but definitely reading.



I hope that we will continue to find time for teatime in the school year to come.

Library Magic Show

Oh dear, I'm putting things horribly out of order. This magic show at the library really happened before the show with the bunny and before the children's museum visit, but here it is in the post order.

Here's the poster for the magic show at the library.


Here are Sparkle and Glitter making their entries in their log books at the library.


Here are their log book entries. I helped Glitter with spelling. The sticker in Sparkle's log book is the free "ticket" that the kids need to get into the show, so that the room doesn't exceed fire code.

Dumping photos from my phone

This post is a dump of photos from my phone. (I'm getting better and better about having my phone with me and having the battery charged.)

The girls got these two Barbie dolls that came as a set with girl-sized necklaces. They loved the Barbies and the necklaces that fit together to make a heart.


A while ago (last month?) we got to babysit the neighbor baby. Sparkle loved feeding her.


Wander looks happy in this picture.


Glitter and Sparkle


I love these pictures of Sparkle.


I must have forgotten to post about going blueberry picking.


Sparkle took these pictures of Glitter with her phone and then Bluetooth'ed it over to me. We finally convinced her to stop sending pictures as messages because they costs us too many minutes.

Log Books

In an effort to create a "writing rich" environment for my kids, I got them log books. They are simple black hardback books with blank pages. Each kid colored a faceplate that I glued to the front.

I explained that just as Christopher Columbus kept a log book documenting his voyages and travels, so too they could log their outings and adventures. Glitter immediately took to the idea. Sparkle was a bit slower to warm up to the idea but got on board when she saw Glitter's enthusiasm.

I'm trying to give control over the log books to the kids. I suggest when to put entries in their logs, but don't insist. I do require that they keep their log entries accurate - no writing imaginary adventures that never happened or making up stories (they have other venues for that). I also ask them to include a combination of writing and drawing. Sparkle tends to focus on the drawing and I have to coax her to write. Glitter likes writing and I have to coax her to draw. Unfortunately Glitter's handwriting and spelling are typical for her age - indecipherable even to herself. I asked her to read her entry to me and puzzled out as much as I could and wrote the "translation" in her log.

Here are Sparkle's entries for going to dance class, and a show at the summer reading program at our library.


Here is Glitter's entry for the same library show.

Okay, I allow some leeway in accuracy. There was only one bunny and one snake. But I didn't feel like nit-picking Glitter about that minor detail.

Amusingly enough, the live animals were the only part of the show that left an impression in their minds, even though they were only a fraction of the show. Here's the girls petting the bunny. Yeah, they're lousy photos, but heck, the alternative is no photos at all.



(The previous entry about our trip to the Children's Museum has more scans of their log books.)

I hope that these log books will become treasured possessions when they grow up.

No pictures

I haven't been taking pictures this past month. I just haven't been grabbing the camera. As I load the car and struggle with teaching Glitter how to buckle herself, I think, I'm just going to experience whatever happens, and that will be enough, even without photos to remember it. Because, of course, if I don't have photos or blog about it, I probably will forget that it even happened.

So, today we went to the Children's Museum with some friends. The kids had fun, but, oh my, it was *packed*. I don't think I'll go again until after school starts. We're spoiled by going to places when there aren't many people around. My kids aren't used to having to wait in line and stick close by me in the crowd. They want to see their own things on their own time. But I'm being a bit harsh here. Both girls were actually really good about going at the pace of the group, taking turns, not going places that wouldn't work for the whole group, and accepting that there aren't always enough supplies to go around. I think the crowds scared them into submission.

All in all, a fun, busy day. The kids explored a kid-size city. Glitter's favorite was the grocery store. We saw some science demonstrations, including fog filled soap bubbles and a representation of a clogged artery. We found a room with some fake trees that Glitter also enjoyed. She called it "outside but not really outside." Sparkle found some books in that room to cuddle up with while the younger kids ran around and hid in a hole in a tree. We had a picnic in the back of my car with my trusty loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter. Then we went back to the museum and made ice cream cone sculptures out of paper, markers, and tape.

Plus, the girls prayed for me when driving. It is so sweet to hear them praying for me when there is bad traffic or tough driving conditions. So far their traffic related prayers have always been answered.

After we got home I gave the girls their new log books and they each put in an entry documenting the adventure. Glitter's entry filled three pages with her chicken scratch handwriting describing the different exhibits and activities. I had to beg her to read it to me so I could write a translation next to her writing so that we'll know what she wrote later on. Unfortunately, neither of us could decipher about a quarter of her writing.



Sparkle's log book is in sharp contrast to Glitter's. Sparkle has no trouble with handwriting or spelling, but all she had to say about the whole day was that we "had fun looking and playing." Sparkle devoted most of her log entry to a picture of us lined up, with special attention to getting our relative heights and hair colors right.



Oh, and here's a picture that I took the following day of the ice cream sculptures.


Oh, lookie, lookie, I found this fuzzy picture on my phone from our visit to the Children's Museum. That's Glitter in the green dress and Sparkle in the blue dress. Nope, you can't really tell it's them, but it was too crowded to get a posed shot.

VBS

The girls had a great time at Vacation Bible School, and thank goodness it is over.
The girls *loved* their time there. They loved the food, the activities, the fellowship, the songs, etc. But by the end of the day they were exhaused, often falling asleep in the car on the way home.

Glitter gets the camera again

Glitter got the camera again. We were at a wedding reception. Resting on each table was a disposable camera for the guests to take pictures. Imagining Glitter running through the entire roll of film in five minutes, I quickly decided to let her use my camera if she was very, very, very, very, very, ... very careful.

I asked Glitter how careful she had to be. "One hundred ninty carefuls!" she proudly exclaimed. (Sometimes I wonder where she gets her numbers from.) Then I let her have the camera.

So here's some of the photos she took, minus the pictures of the floor, the ceiling, and fingers.

highlanders watertower

Driving the girls to Vacation Bible School this week, I've gotten a bit nostalgic. I used to make this drive every Wednesday to our church playgroup. Most times we'd get caught at the light at this intersection and I'd point out the water tower to the kids, first Sparkle, and then later Glitter. I spelled out the letters. I explained that the phonogram "igh" says "I." I sounded out the syllables and blended the sounds to make the word. I always wondered if the kids had any idea what I was talking about, but I did it anyway as part of teaching them reading readiness.



(We still go to church, but it's not the same since Wander drives.)

The Girls Do Laundry

Here's some pictures of Sparkle and Glitter doing their laundry. They have come up with their own routine for operating the machines. Usually Sparkle is the "puller" who pulls the clean, wet clothes out of the washing machine and sets them on the door of the dryer. Then, Glitter is the "pusher" who pushes the wet clothes all the way into the dryer.

However, this day, Glitter decided that she wanted to be the "puller." If you look carefully in the second picture, you can see how she has almost climbed into the washing machine to reach the laundry, and her little feet dangle below.



After we had an incident when Sparkle tried to help Glitter reach further into the machine, and Glitter almost fell in, I convinced the girls to return to their traditional jobs based on height.

Sparkle's Birthday

We had a tiny celebration for Sparkle's birthday. No big party. Just pizza and cake at the neighborhood pool.