Art Show

Last week the library had an art show. We stopped by to check out the work of the local students.

This was made from different bottle tops!

 

The kids were really impressed with the creativity displayed. Jayden decided he may even want to participate in next year's art show.

Library trip

We were stuck home for the second half of last week. Just before Jayden got conjunctivitis and Caitlin had an unexplained fever, we went to the library.

 

Caitlin got her very first library card! She proudly announced each letter of her name as she signed the back of her card.

Here is our collective haul.

Caitlin picked this book again

 

These are the books we will read together

The Spanglish book Juan will read to the kids

The books Jayden selected

We also borrowed three games and a move. Well the movie is for me.

 

Our books for Art History class have arrived! We will be making lapbooks with the FREE World's Greatest Artists curriculum here.

I can not stress enough just how happy Jayden is with his new math curriculum. His happiness means I'm happy. He always wants to start school with math and often wants to do extra pages. How can I not be happy with that? Right now all of his math work is review. That may be why he likes it so much. We'll see if he is still as enthusiastic about it when we learn new concepts.

We are nearly done with our Beginning Geography unit. Jayden completed the landforms and bodies of water portion. In the end he did an activity where he had to match the landforms and bodies of water to their pictures. The landforms he learned about are: mountain, plain, island, volcano, canyon, valley, and desert. The bodies of water he learned about are ocean, river, and lake.

 After correctly matching everything he took an end of the chapter test and scored a 96%!

Caitlin is still working through her kindergarten level of Time4Learning. In about 2 weeks our subscription will end. 

She also loves the FREE Salsa Spanish episodes. She has learned the words pastel and triste. 

Last weekend Jayden led his class in their warm ups.

 Afterward, they were all tested on the moves they have learned this semester.

They all earned their first patch, which is the school name. Apparently the parents have to sew it on. Not only do I suck at sewing, I don't even know where on his uniform it belongs. So even though his last karate class of the semester is tomorrow, Jayden's patch is sitting in my purse.

Next week there will be no class. The following week we will be moving to a new location for karate, possibly permanently. This buys me some time before I need to sew the patch on, right?


Last weekend's warm weather meant bike riding outside. 

During their time outside, Juan (at the insistence of the kids) took off their training wheels. It did not go as well as planned. There were scraped knees and blood involved. Luckily everyone is still in one piece!

Kids say the darndest things...

I've heard plenty of stories where kids say the most embarrassing things at the worst times. I've always thought these stories were hilarious, but also felt fortunate that those types of things never really happened with Jayden. Well, not in public anyway.

Why, oh why, did I think it wouldn't happen with Caitlin? I don't know. I should have expected it. Maybe I would have been better prepared that day. Instead, I have an embarrassing story to add.

Earlier this week we were running errands. I was in front of the cashier, paying for my items with Caitlin & Jayden by my side.

Caitlin looked at me and asked "Mom, what's 'sick'?"

At that moment I was dividing my mental to-do list into what had to be done that day and what could be postponed for a later date. I was in a rush to get Jayden back home because he hadn't been feeling too well due to allergies. So I absentmindedly answered, "You know what sick means. It means you don't feel well."

She was silent for a moment. Conversation over, right?

Wrong. Things are never simple with my dear little daughter.

I could see the wheels turning in her head. I thought nothing of it because I was now preoccupied with the cashier, who was taking forever to figure out which one of my items was ringing up incorrectly, giving me the wrong total.

All of a sudden Caitlin said loudly, "No mom, not SICK. I mean DICK."

WTF did I just hear?

At that point I didn't think my face could have been a darker shade of red from the embarrassment. Did the cashier hear her? I slowly looked over at her and saw that her eyes had popped out of her head.

Nope, no pretending she hadn't heard that.

I tried to play it cool and said "I'm not sure what you are saying. Do you mean stick?"

Now I knew damn well that wasn't what Caitlin had said. I was just hoping to... well I don't know what exactly I was hoping to accomplish...

"No mom, I am saying D-D-D-DICK," she said firmly, emphasizing the D.

The slow-as-molasses cashier snorted. A lady on the line to the right of us gasped. Now my face was on fire. I wanted to leave the items and run out of there, but I maintained my composure and said "Well, that's not a nice word. Where did you hear that?"

"From you. That's what you said," she replied.

NOW my face could not be any more red. At that point the cashier stopped trying to figure out the problem and stared at us, jaw wide open. A sense of panic came over me. I looked around for something, anything, to swallow me up whole. Of course I was unsuccessful.

When the hell did I say that in front of this child?! I do have a colorful language, but NEVER within ear shot of my kids. I decided not to press her at that moment, since I had no idea when I used that word in front of her and was frightened about the context she'd heard it in.

"Cait, we will talk about this later," was all I could manage to say. My terse tone snapped the cashier back to her job. A couple of minutes later we were out of there.

As we walked back to the car I asked again where she had heard that word from. I was convinced she'd heard it elsewhere. She must have been mistaken when she said she heard me say it. I silently cursed Juan, hoping, wishing, praying that it was his fault.

"Mom, it was you. You said it," she answered back in an exasperated tone.

My heart sank. "When did I say that?"

"You said you don't like dick tomatoes."

Then Jayden pipes up "Mom she's been saying 'thick.' That's not a bad word."

I looked over at Caitlin who instantly nodded. "Yes mommy, dick. That IS what I am saying!"

A tremendous amount of relief flooded over me. "OH!!!! Thick means wide. It is the opposite of thin."

Needless to say, we practiced pronouncing the th- sound all the way home.

Bikes and Potluck Playdate!

Caitlin is ecstatic. She got her first ever brand new bike. It is Lalaloopsy and comes with a seat for her Cabbage Patch Mavis, as well as a basket in front for any other baby who tickles her fancy that day. Normally she is not allowed to ride her bike without her helmet. Just this once I let her try it because her helmet is in the attic and I am too scared to go up there I don't have the key to our lock since I never go up there. OF COURSE this would be the one time she faceplants into the dirt. Lesson learned: safety first folks!

We went to a fantastic potluck playdate held by one of our homeschooling friends. She has a magnificent yard and the kids ran themselves ragged.

We got home around 6pm and the kids were begging to go to bed by 7! We waited a little longer but once they touched their pillows they were knocked out!

Catching up

Life has been pretty busy, as expected. My finals are finally over! I get a break for a couple of weeks before returning back to school.

 We had dentist visits last week. Both kids were given a clean bill of oral health.

We celebrated with frozen yogurt!

This week we went to a Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils event at a local library. Unfortunately we did not learn much of anything. The geologist seemed to have an enormous amount of information, but the event itself seemed unorganized so it didn't leave much of a chance for learning.

Once we got there we looked at the display of different rocks.

We also got to see some of the tools the geologist used to gather the rocks. From his explanation, it seemed like a difficult task!

 The kids were able to pick out some rocks to take home.

 Jayden entered a raffle for the geode rock (rock #3 above).

And he WON! The day after the event I received a call from the librarian that Jayden won the geode rock. He was so excited. "Mom! Can you believe I won? I never win raffles!" His prize included information about the rock as well. He stored it away in our homeschooling closet for safekeeping. 

After clearing out excess books from our personal library, we hit up a book sale and came home with 17 new books! These books include Magic School Bus books, an English/Spanish Barbie book, a Goosebumps Monster book (3-in-1 book), an Usborne Children's Encyclopedia, a book about the human body, and another book about the solar system.

We also hit up our favorite indoor playground.