books

One of my main problems with books is that I have a hard time pacing myself when I find a book that I really enjoy.

At the library this week, I picked up a copy of "The Hunger Games." I wanted a light read while grabbing a snack after the kids were in bed, so I started the book. I kept telling myself that I'd read only a little bit more before going to bed. It was almost four o'clock when I gave up. Wander had to get up early in the morning, and he found me face down in the book, sleeping. I woke up just long enough to realize that I really needed some sleep. I dragged myself upstairs and turned up the volume on my alarm clock as loud as I could.

The main thing that drove me awake in the morning was the knowledge that I had to be read for my daily morning meeting with the girls. If I didn't make it to the meeting on time, I'd loose what little credibility I had with the girls on getting *them* to do their morning routines in time.

I put the sequel on hold at the library, but I don't expect to get it for another month or two. It's really tempting to order it on m kindle. Then I could start reading it in under 60 seconds. But then, I probably wouldn't put it down either, and the house is a mess.

math

Around this time last year, I had way too many language arts programs, and nothing that I really liked.

This year, I have way too many math programs, and I like all of them. However, Sparkle is not mathematically inclined, and she still has 12 lessons left in last year's main math textbook. Several of those lessons are multi-day lessons, so I expect that we won't start grade level math until next month.

Usually when I do Glitter's hair, she asks me for a "low pony-tail." These past few days, Sparkle has been turning Glitter's pony-tail into a cute little braided bun. Sparkle braids the hair and then somehow twists it into a little knot and secures it with an elastic.

Dictation

Here's a video of Sparkle doing her dictation for school.
I left Sparkle alone for the most part, and didn't realize all the antics she was doing until after I watched the video.



Remarks:

Sparkle likes to have a snack when she does dictation. As long as the food doesn't distract her from her assignment, I let her nibble. Glitter is off camera also enjoying snack of craisons.

I pre-record a week or more of dictation on my iPhone. Sparkle can play, pause, and rewind the recording as much as she needs in order to get the dictation word perfect. She determines how long a phrase to remember at a time.

I am experimenting with giving Sparkle passages that have more complex punctuation than I've taught her. Thus, I say all the punctuation aloud. Eventually, I will gradually phase out the spoken punctuation.

This dictation doubles as spelling. Sparkle generally makes few spelling errors. Notice that she asks me how to spell one word in the middle of the passage, and then changes her mind. If she sounds out the word and gets it right, she doesn't have to practice the word at the end. If she has me spell the word for her, or if she guesses wrong, she has to practice that word three times at the end.

Before I see the paper, Sparkle is free to make any corrections herself. Once she is done, I mark any additional corrections myself and explain the correction to her. Sparkle is a bit of a perfectionist, so simply seeing my markups is incentive enough for her to try to get it right next time. I have her write double-spaced so that there is plenty of room for corrections.

The dictation is a story taken from a public domain reading textbook. I got the idea of using an ongoing story from Jane Bell Kiester's "Caught'ya! Grammar with a Giggle" book. Sparkle likes to re-read earlier parts of the story before starting her dictation.

dance bags

Over the past two years, I've given the girls assorted cast-off bags to use as dance bags: old conference bags, small toy backpacks, freebie bags, etc. The bags have been functional, but not ascetically pleasing. When a bag ceased to work, such as when Sparkle needed to carry tap shoes as well as ballet shoes, or when Glitter started to dance, I just rooted around Wander's collection of bags until I found something serviceable.

However, I've been envying the dance bags that other girls carry into the studio. Even though I never had a purpose-built dance bag when I was a kid, I wanted the girls to have them: bags that are obviously made for dance; not just bags that happens to carry dance supplies.

When the girls started showing an interest in sewing, I decided to have the girls sew their own dance bags. I drafted a simple pattern. It had to have straight seams and be easy enough for the girls to sew. It had to have a zipper closure so nothing would fall out. It had to have a shoulder strap. It had to be big enough to hold all their supplies, including their clothes, yet small enough for Glitter to carry without dragging. It had to be durable and have finished seams. It had to be small enough to fit in the cubbies for storage during the week.

Once I had a pattern in mind, I took the girls fabric shopping, and splurged on full price fabric. I wanted the girls to have different fabrics so that it would be easy to tell which bag belonged to whom, but I could find only one "dancy" fabric. So, I altered the pattern and bought different co-ordinating fabrics.

As before, Glitter was the one most interested in sewing. Sparkle didn't get interested until she saw Glitter's finished bag. The actual sewing performed by the girls was limited to operating the foot pedal and removing pins while I guided the fabric. I did all the cutting and ironing, and most of the pinning. I also sewed the straps and Sparkle's zipper.

Here is Glitter with her bag.


Here are the two bags together.


I'm looking forward to using the bags for the first time tomorrow.