Try, Try Again

Emperor recites a poem about perserverance it took him all of five minutes to memorize.  :/

First World Problems

"Do you want a cutie with your pizza rolls and cookies?" I asked Elf.

"I want an apple!" he told me.

"I wan it apple!" Woodjie chimed in.

"Well, I only have one apple," I told them.  "Here.  You can have the apple, Elf.  I'm just going to chop this slice off for Woodjie."

"Aaaahhh!  I hate it when that happens!  And you always take a big slice out of my apple!"

"You're right, Elf," I consoled him.  "I'm sure the children of the Sudan are weeping for you..."

"No, they're not," he said matter-of-factly.  "I'm just weeping for myself."

Kindergarten Curriculum!

That's right!  Little Rose will be joining our homeschool next year.  Tucked between all the chess books are her ABeka readers.  She's sounding out words and ABeka really works for her.  You simply can't beat the systematic way in which it teaches children letters, sounds, sound blends and fluent reading.  Rose is now midway through the first grade readers.  She can read far better than she can write.   I've ordered a cute phonics book that goes with the series, so we'll see how she does with that.

I got all kinds of half-used books at the thrift store for about 50 cents each.  I figure throw these in with the Dick and Jane stories and our Handwriting Without Tears books, and we're set for a good while.  PS.  If you're glancing at the Everyday Mathematics books and wondering, no, I will not ever ever ever teach math the Everyday Math way.  There will be no calculator except to check our answers in the upper grades.  She will learn "standard algorithms."  She will be math-fluent and enter high school unfamiliar with the lattice method.  (Look five minutes into the video.)  This is my pledge to humanity.

She'll write her name on this book on her first day!  Earlybird Mathematics is an early version of...

... what she will do when she reaches a first grade level.  Singapore Mathematics!

I saw this at the homeschool convention and just loved it.  I bought it DESPITE the fact that it is "Aligned to State Standards," not BECAUSE of it.  Mostly?  The cute drawings inside and non-cluttered method of presenting simple problems to little children.

I'm looking forward to starting the school year with her.  She is such a big girl now! 

Elf Update

I haven't blogged about Elf in a while, so I thought I'd give an update.

Elf is in seventh grade and is doing pretty well in most of his classes.  He is extremely disorganized and doesn't always understand social cues very well, so he has an IEP.  That means he meets with other children who also have difficulty with social cues and they brainstorm answers to "What would you do if" questions.  (Hilarity ensues.  But it's guided hilarity at least, I suppose.) 

He also has a little extra help organizing his school binder and that sort of thing.  This spring break he's been working on all the science projects he "forgot" about over the last several weeks.  Though in all honesty, it hasn't been much of a spring break.  Really mostly I've been lying around and recovering and Elf and the gang have been watching too much tv, playing games (the older children learnt Rummy) and hanging out together.

Elf has also come occasionally to chess, but these last few months more often than not, he'd rather stay home.  I don't know if it is really because his little brother overshadows him a bit, but he says not, and he's really the sort of person who couldn't care too much for that level of competitiveness, so there you are.

One thing he just did today was make cinnamon raisin bread in his new breadmaker.  Here's a quick snapshot of his food and his pottery.  Unfortunately, he's also reaching that age where he does NOT want you to take his photograph. 

Yummers.

Gallon-Smashing!

  Apparently it is the new thing to do.  Throw gallons of juice or milk around so that they break and then pretend to fall down in it.  There are several videos of this type online and it isn't little old ladies doing it; it's young guys.  They seem to have some sort of contest going for "most outrageously unbelieveable accident."

My Winter Home

Much of the snow has melted, but there is still enough left for Patrick to make a little snowman.

G's Food Stamp Challenge!

You've heard of the Food Stamp Challenge:  everyone from big-city mayors to large family bloggers have tried it at one time or another.  G is reaching adulthood and wants to make some of his own food choices.  Food stamps here are about $150/month per person, so we gave him $20 and told him it had to last four days.  Long enough for him to get a taste of what life would be like on a budget, but not so long that we'd starve the kid. 

G was able to eat one bowl of our cereal each morning, but that was it.  Other than that, he's on his own until Friday morning.

So here's what he bought:

$1.28  loaf of bread
$2.00  bologna
$1.88 six-pack small applesauce
$1.38 baby carrots
$2.56 small peanut butter/jelly combo jar
$2.48 large strawberry yogurt
$1.98 half-gallon lowfat milk
$.68 macaroni and cheese box (bought 2)
$1.98 chips
$.86 tax

TOTAL:  $17.76

G had to "buy" margarine from us to make his macaroni and cheese.  We could have just let him suffer for his own poor planning, but we didn't.  We're also seeing that soda is an expensive habit as we are charging him 40 cents a can (pretty much our cost) until the experiment is over.

What we've seen:

G is much more appreciative of the fact that his parents make him eat less expensive food sometimes for a reason.  We simply do not have the money to buy him a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate shake at every meal.  G has one more day to go and he is finding that the food is starting to run out. It won't kill him to eat bologna slices right out of the package tomorrow if the bread is gone, but I'm hopeful that he will be more understanding in the future when we run out of a favourite food.

Have you tried giving your children a similar challenge, or did they learn these things in college?