March Madness

IN LIKE A LION?:First thing this morning, the kids made their March calendars. It's amazing how much faster they are now at filling out their calendars than they were back in September. They rattle off the days of the week no problemo, and know the "Thirty days has September," poem.

As usual, we listened to our calendar standby songs as they worked, including this fave:



For the record, March in Seattle did not come in like a lion, unless that lion is, say, a gentle young cub. It was mostly sunny with a high of 57 - downright warm for this time of year .

WORDS, NUMBERS: While I was at the dentist, Christian took the helm as headmaster and gave the kids some math worksheets. It was simple stuff - adding single digit numbers. Never hurts to review the fundamentals, I suppose.

He also had the kids re-write their first spelling words list again this morning, and then drilled them spelling bee style. He reports they each got 100 percent so tomorrow, it's new list time - onward, upward!

In a turning-of-the-tables, the kids then administered a verbal spelling test to Christian. The challenge was to spell all of the word list within 60 seconds. He did so (with about 10 seconds to spare, he reports) and was awarded a million dollar (verbal) prize for getting them all right, and then another million for beating the clock.

MIND YOUR PEAS: Exciting news to report from the MPA campus. Some of the seeds sown last week have sprouted! Interestingly, the peas are going to town, while nary a bean has yet to make an appearance.

WE'RE BLUFFING: Figuring there wouldn't be much foot traffic since it's a Monday, we loaded up the bikes and drove over to Magnolia's west coast - a bluff along which spectacular views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains await.

The view from our parking spot wasn't too bad, either. (That's the Port of Seattle, the West Seattle Bridge and Mt. Rainier through the haze.)
SUSAN B. SUPER FAILURE: For some brain exercise, we watched an animated video about Susan B. Anthony on BrainPOP. Born in February of 1820, Anthony was a champion of civil rights and women's rights.

At one point in the video the narrator shared that sometimes detractors called Susan B. names. "Like Rudolph!" Annabelle analogized.

After watching the video - twice - the kids took the comprehension quizzes. Instead of letting them take it online like I usually do, today I printed the quizzes out (one deemed "easy" and one called "hard") and separated the kids at different tables.

I told them no talking during the quiz (unless, of course, they had a question about a question). When they finished, we all pow-wowed at one table and went over the results. The word "abysmal" comes to mind. On the easy quiz CJ was 1 for 5, Bee was 2 for 5. On the hard quiz Bee was 2 for 5 again, while CeeJ laid a big ol' goose egg. "Wow, he is a super failure!" declared Annabelle, actually managing to sound a bit impressed.

To their defense, the quizzes had "big" words like advocate and temperance and activist and suffragette and all the action was a century or two old. I wanted them to remember the words and concepts to be sure, but I didn't want anyone feeling like a loser because they did so, well, spectacularly crappy.

So, rather than wallow in inadequacies, I asked them what they though a superhero named Super Failure would be like.

"He'd wear a towel for a cape!" suggested Bee.

"And have an 'F' on his costume," added CJ, "with the letter upside down and backwards."

"He'd wear underwear over his clothes," surmised Annabelle, while CJ started composing a Super Failure theme song (every hero has to have a theme song).

"He would offer his weapons to the villains," said CJ.

"And he would crash into a bank and make the money free for villains," said Bee.

WEEKEND PROJECT: While heading to Lowe's is not an unusual event for us on a weekend, there was a fun twist on our Saturday trip. Instead of going there for remodeling supplies, we were headed there for fun! Specifically, it was a Lowes Build & Grow project. Held every other Saturday in select Lowe's stores (you have to register ahead of time, online).

Lowe's provided everything free of charge, which is cool. This Saturday's project was a Lowebot - a transforming robot car. It was a complicated little project, truth be told. No way could CJ or Annabelle have completed it on their own. (In fact, CJ's hammering motion would have been PERFECT - if he were swinging at a baseball.) Christian and I (who both know our way around a hammer) had to pitch in to help quite a bit.

Home Depot has kids' clinics too, on the first Saturday of every month. We'll have to check one of those out some day.

TAE KWON DON'T: Christian usually takes Mr. CeeJ to Tae Kwon Do, but today Christian was indisposed (translation: watching Avatar in 3-D on a six-story screen at Seattle Center). So, Bee and I did the duty. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm glad I went or not. ...

CJ's been going to Tae Kwon Do for two full months now, and based on what I saw tonight, you would have thought he had been held captive in a dark, sound proof closet during each of those previous classes. He was not cueing in on the teacher's words or actions at ALL. (And I mean not a bit. She might as well not have been in the room.) Instead, he glommed on to a classmate next to him (a girl about 9 maybe) and made half hearted and quarter-brained attempts to do what she was doing. And that was when he wasn't repeatedly scratching various body parts, yawning (over and over), and/or thinking about a video on YouTube.

At first I was agog. Then aghast. And eventually just plain ol' pissed. I assure you, I wasn't expecting him to be Karate Kid or Bruce Lee like, but I sure was expecting more than what I saw. Suffice it to say, I talked to Christian (who really enjoyed Avatar, BTW) afterward about what I saw and suggested to him that if they are to continue going to Tae Kwon Do together, there'd need to be Big Changes. For starters, CJ shouldn't stand next to Christian at class, because it seemed obvious today that he's used to cueing off Christian next to him, rather than watching and listening to the teacher. It's great that Christian can be there to assist CJ when he needs it, but if CJ's constantly visually cueing off a classmate - whoever it is - it means he's not listening to the teacher, or replicating her moves - and SHE'S the one that knows Tae Kwon Do.

So we shall see what transpires. ...