Monday: Joshua

I get to spend Monday's with Joshua.

He spelled his name for me.  While he's been writing it for a few weeks now, this is the first time he's spelled it out loud for me.  It's a good thing that H is this week at school, because that's the one he's been having the hardest time remembering.




Then we went to the store.  The crazy kid didn't realize he had is coat on upside down until I told him.

Then to gymnastics.  Joshua had written a note for his coach and it seemed like she was having a bad day so it was especially appreciated.  He also really liked pushing this block back and forth.

Saturday: spark lab

We went to the SparkLab at the museum today.  After last rotation I had been expecting to not really go back, but we had a sneak peak of what was there this past Wednesday and they had some interesting stuff again.  I'm still not sure what I'll do when our membership is up...maybe let it lapse for a little bit and then go back?  We'll see.

Anyway, they had marble run stuff.  Isaac worked so, so hard for two hours to make his work. (And he did!)  He also found out the some marbles had a hollow inside and some had something slightly shaky inside.  One type of marble worked on his run but not the other.

Joshua stayed at the marble run the whole time to, but explored it much differently.  It started with building a run, but decayed into...random experiments I guess.

Friday: day off

Isaac didn't have school today.  We spent most of the day at home.  We cleaned off the table and got some new Legos out.  (And yes, the table is now messy again.  I almost took a picture of it for the five minutes it looked nice.)

Joshua got out his new robots.  I don't think he had fully appreciated them before, but as he started to look at the box and realize that it was a Boost set, kind of like Isaac's, he got very excited.  He worked all day to put R2-D2 together.  (And by all day, I mean every spare moment he had.  He took a few breaks to eat, have screen time, etc., but otherwise he was working on it.  I was rather impressed.)  He almost has it done.

Isaac decided to play with the pick-a-brick cups.  I was a bit surprised, but that has been a bit more up his alley lately.  He spent most of the morning doing it and some of the afternoon.  (I did make both boys clean their rooms.  Joshua has it down to a science.  Isaac decides to play with everything while putting it away.)

We're trying to make rock candy.  I don't think it quite worked...we might need to reboil it tomorrow.  However, the boys loved the super saturated sugar water.

The new dryer came today!  Yay!  People were starting to run out of clothes.

This evening we went to the library for a small pumkin fest.  We painted pumpkins and listened to some stories.  I'll admit, I've missed story time with Mr. Rob.

Thursday: fashion show

Wednesday: meh

Meh.

I could have done better today.

I'll try again next time.

Last Friday: on the way to Chicago

It was a busy day.  I woke up too early, afraid that we'd miss the train, but then everyone else woke up early too.

The boys were super excited...for everything.  For Chicago, for the train, for not going to school.  (Isaac only had a half day though.)  One of the things that I thought was cool is that as he was looking out the window Isaac was figuring out what kind of a community it was...rural, suburban, or urban.  They had studied it a few weeks ago in school, so it was cool to see it being put into practice.

Once we were almost to the train station Joshua decided he wanted to start counting the roofs of the houses we were passing.  ...well, he and Grandma counted as fast as Joshua could, which wasn't very fast.

We stopped at the hotel to drop off our stuff.  There was a bear.
Joshua: Is the bear real?
Isaac: No, it's wearing a shirt.
Later when I asked Joshua if it was a real bear he told me it wasn't because of the shirt....not because of the many other reasons that it might not be real.

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and stayed pretty much until they kicked us out...and we still didn't get to everything.

There was a large bucket with balls that tipped over every few minutes.  Joshua was intrigued/worried about it.

Joshua carried around these two red balls a lot longer than I would have thought was fun.  Sometimes he let go to put them in the river or what not, but then always got them back again.

My favorite part was the large Tesla coil.  The boys' favorite part was "everything" (including the movie Joshua fell asleep during.)

After dinner we had reservations at the Sugar Factory.  Oh my goodness, Isaac was so excited.  Joshua was excited too, but Isaac went a bit crazy.  Everything, the food and the desserts, were delicious.

And what trip to Chicago would be complete without a stop at the Lego store?  Joshua got Kai as his Mini-fig match, which was pretty cool.

Phew.  A great day, but by the time we got to the hotel I was exhausted and fell asleep quite promptly.

Tuesday: bragging on the kids

Last week I was picking Joshua up and while he was getting off the playground she was relating a few stories from the day.  Then she said, "I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but...he's up there."

Today we met with Isaac's teacher about math.  This time his number for math went down a bit to 218, but the test changes a bit from first to second grade and with summer it was expected.  It was still high though.  Anyway, we talked about some ways to keep him engaged and pretty much ended up with the same solution as last year.  She mentioned relief that we didn't just want him set aside with worksheets during class.  :)  (During school if they're just drilling addition he might do something else.  If they're doing something more activity based it might depend on how things are going.  I get to do his homework...this week we're doing the coordinate plane and today he mapped out a smiley face.  He liked it.)

Anyway, she had so many nice things to say about Isaac too.  He's been doing a much better job getting his work done this year, and finding pockets of time to work on it if he isn't going fast enough during the set aside time.  (Yay!!)  She mentioned that he is really interesting to converse with and finds appropriate times to talk to her.  He's still a bit of a loner, but interacts with other students appropriately.  Although I feel the same way, it's nice to hear.

So we also got a packet of topics that Isaac is (supposedly) ready to learn (so that I can appropriately make the homework).  Some of these items are super surprising to me.  Let me give you some examples...
*Writes and solves proportions to make inferences about populations
*Completes complex conversions of customary units of weight involving fractions, decimals, or more than two units.
*Solves real-world problems involving least common multiples
*Writes and solves a two-step linear equation in one variable involving a real-world or mathematical context

Monday: spinner, dryer

Joshua had two sets to chose from to put together this morning.  He went back and forth a bit, but decided on the spinner because he got it first.  While it didn't take him long to put together, he played with it a lot!

Also, our dryer started making terrible squeaking noises.  The good news?  We already have a new one on the way.  The gasket had been brittle and disappeared, and where the gasket was was slowly eating the laundry.  So we ordered a new one last week.  It won't get here until Friday, but we can line dry as needed until then.

Thursday: excel

Lately the computer that I teach at has had an extra feature where Excel quickly restarts itself while I'm in the middle explaining something.  It's been a bit annoying, but had hadn't yet contacted CIT. 

Today, however, I was unable to keep two worksheets open.  Every time I tried to do something it would restart and the work I did would be lost too.  I ended up moving into Google sheets, which I really don't care for...but it at least didn't reset every thirty seconds.

Surprisingly, excel worked almost fine for the second class.  It restarted once like normal, but it was with a different file.

Tuesday: winter is coming

Today was fall break, so I stayed home and got some stuff done.  While I didn't work all day, I did work consistently and got some of the important things checked off the list.

Including dealing with the garage.  This needs to happen twice a year when the seasons change.  This year we decided to put the kayaks in the garage instead of puzzling out how to get them in the storage area of the basement.  I think this will be a very good choice.  I also stowed a lot of the outside toys and made room for the winter tires, so it'll be easy to switch once snow comes.

We also got some fish yesterday.  Some shiny ones and, as Joshua calls it, an allergy eater.  I think it's too cute to correct to algae eater, so I just smile whenever he says it.

Monday: eagle

So...let's talk about this eagle.  It was part of Joshua's homework and he wanted to color it.  That's cool.

What wasn't cool was how many tears were shed over the colors of the eagle.  Apparently the eagle needed to look like a real eagle, so he brought out brown, yellow, and orange.  So really, as long as it's mostly brown it'll look fine.  No, not in his mind.  He walked up and down the stairs (because I was downstairs) what felt like ten times times weeping over little details, like the color right above the talon.  Or he seemed to forget what we had just talked about and couldn't remember what color the talon should be.  I finally had him bring it downstairs and color right next to me to try and relieve the drama. 

After it was colored he wanted to know what yellow the beak should be.  'What yellow?' I thought.  He only had one option in his markers.  He had already colored it.  I said probably a light yellow or a yellow.  He looked at it and said it was more of a dark yellow.  I quickly said that was fine too and that it looked like a real eagle.

Sunday: zombies

8:30pm, after Joshua should be in bed.

Joshua, in a completely calm voice: Mom, I think I heard zombies in my bedroom.
Amanda: Zombies aren't real.  You didn't hear zombies.
Joshua: Well, it was a sound like zombies.
Ben: Well, you're completely safe because there are no zombies in your room.
Joshua: ok.

9pm, way after Isaac should be in bed.
Isaac: Mom, I can't sleep
Amanda: oh, because you had too much energy?
Isaac, crying: no, because of Flurry.

Saturday: pretty normal

Today was a pretty normal Saturday.  The boys played with Legos all morning.  Joshua worked really hard on putting together a Nexo Knight set while Isaac bounced around between a few things.

I got quite a bit of housework done, although it's rather hard to tell.  I'm still plugging away at my way-to-long to-do list.  I have fall break this week and am not going to work on Tuesday.  I'm feeling motivated this semester, so there's a chance that I'll get a decent amount of work done.

Friday: a walk, school pictures

Isaac's school pictures came back.  They're fine, but I'll admit that I liked last year's better.  Isaac mentioned it was the third try to make sure he didn't blink...I can tell that the smile isn't quite real.

Cheryl, Joshua and I went for a walk at Stu Visser trails this morning.  Joshua reminded both of us to wear our boots in case it was wet again.  It sure was!  There were a few puddles and then there were a few places were the pond overflowed onto the walkway and the water was ankle deep.  Joshua enjoyed his comfy stroller ride.

We did eventually find an overflow that was just too deep.  Cheryl had short boots on and the stroller wasn't going through it very easily.  I carried Joshua over to the other side, we walked across the bridge, and then we went back.  Over all we got a little bit farther than last time, but not much.

Thursday: reading

Joshua has been getting homework.  It isn't much, but enough to get a little more practice in and start getting in the habit of doing it.  He complains a little bit, but then very happily does it...almost like he feels he should complain about it but secretly enjoys it.

They've also been working on a few sight words.  After several discussions of, "mom, did you get my book?"  "Yes"  "I don't think you did."  "I did"  "They put it in my folder, are you sure you got it?"  I finally showed it to him and he read it to me.  Although...the best part is when he's reading it before he's turned the page.  It's still a good place to start. :D

Wednesday: wisdom and Legos

I showed up at Isaac's school today and poked him on the shoulder as they were heading towards an assembly.  "What are you doing here?"  "Oh, I just thought I'd come watch the assembly."  "Oh, ok."

Fast forward, and Isaac wins the Moral Focus award for Wisdom.  He was surprised and didn't think he'd get it.  (But really, why else would I show up??)  His teacher said one reason he (and the other student) got the wisdom award is because when they're done with their work they continue to challenge themselves and don't just chat or draw or whatever.  (The part I was most excited about is that sometimes he finishes early!)

The odd part was that all three second graders in Lego League received the wisdom award...so is it wise to be in Lego League or does Lego League make you wise?

Our Lego boxes arrived today!  We knew they were supposed to arrive today, but it took until 6:30 for them to actually show up.

We started taking things out pretty quickly, but then we sat down and the process got slower as we all looked at the pictures more in depth.  It was pretty fun to see what cool things we could find on the pictures.

Also, there was one Lego set that neither of us recall picking.  There were also a few Lego sets that, this past Monday at Meijer, I thought, "oh, I really wish we had chosen that Lego set."  So while I apparently can't remember what we got I do have consistent desires.  It took a little over an hour to pull everything out.

I'll admit, it was a little better than Christmas. 

Tuesday: construction

There's construction by Isaac's school.  It's been a little bad previously, but today was terrible.  It probably took us an extra 20-25 minutes to get home.  This meant that I had been commuting for about an hour by the time we got home and I was in a mood.  I know that an hour commute isn't bad for some people, but it's bad for me.

Sunday: Tornado

We finally got Tornado to sit on Isaac's lap for a little bit.  We've tried in the past, but usually the cats just leave right away.  Isaac was super excited that Tornado stayed for a few minutes.

I also took a picture of the laundry explosion.  There's one more load that was in the dryer, but it's still pretty close.  Taking care of at least a little bit is on the list for tomorrow.