Tales from a Tuesday

OFF TO THE RACES RECESS: Our new morning (pre-9 a.m.) routine 'round here is CJ running to and fro across the yard with Kirby at his heels. They do lap after lap. It's good for both of them.


GIMME SOME SUGAR: I couldn't help myself; Yesterday while in Albertsons, there was a special (no doubt Halloween/seasonal) display of three blast-from-the-past cereals: Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry. I had to buy them all - for educational purposes, of course. Though they had no frame of reference, the kids were totally enchanted by the names and the graphics on the boxes. We conducted a taste test of the sugary trio, and then part of this morning's table time was writing assignment was to select a favorite and explain WHY it's. So often in life people are going to ask your opinion and it's almost always going to be followed by a question about WHY you have that opinion, so you need to be prepared with a reason. So they chose a favorite, wrote why it's their favorite, and then draw a little picture, too.


MO' MONEY, MO PROBLEMS: The Notorious B.I.G. & friends might have been rapping about CJ's coin counting skills when they sang that song. ... As the refrain goes, "I don't know what they want from me, it's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see." The good news is, that corny coin chant from yesterday seems to have helped some. We chanted and passed around coins and by the time we got to the table to do some dreaded coin IDing and math, there was a flicker of recognition there. ...

MONDAY REDUX: We reviewed the new vocab from yesterday as well as revisited the types of clouds we learned about yesterday. Hey, this blog is coming in handy!

MAGIC BUS: Today, for the first time, we checked out The Magic School Bus Web presence. It's not the flashiest site ever, but the kids did have fun creating insects, doing mazes, and such. One thing I did love about the site is they had a "Pop Quizzes" category under "Games" so the kids were gleefully taking tests about science, and CJ being CJ wouldn't quit until they had a perfect score. : )


STORY TIME: Right after lunch, we read a couple of library books. Princess Pig was a cute little tale of a pig who comes into posession of a princess' sash after the sash blows off the pickle princess in a local parade. The pig starts acting like a princess and it's fun at first, but she soon realizes it's not her true identity. The story bothered CJ, because all he could do was worry about the poor pickle princess who had lost her sash on Page 1, and how she'd ever get it back. ...


Next, we read a book by Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond fame. It was CJ's choice at the library - I think he was intrigued by the title: Why I Love and Hate My Brothers. The illustrations were great, but I wasn't wild about the book - it was more slice of life than a story. CJ loved it, though, and isn't that what counts?


MUSIC TO OUR EARS: The 35 minute drive to yoga was a great time to do the homework from music class last week - listening to a CD. A lot of it reminded me of the Sound of Music-and I mean that in a good way.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What's a 'kill code'?" asks CJ. I give him a definition, but I can't help but ask him where he heard the term. He tells me heard it from yesterday's movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," in which a food-weather machine goes awry.