CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Pages

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Things Kids Say (Part 2)

Pickles and I were walking home from visiting a store in our neighboorhood when he noticed a billboard. The billboard said " Thanks President Bush for supporting America's older citizens. AARP"
Pickles looks over at me and the conversation goes like this:
Pickles : "I have that."
Mommy: " You have what ?"
Pickles: "AARP."
Mommy, looking confused: "Do you know what AARP is ?"
Pickles: "Yeah, it's some kind of disease."
Mommy: "Ummm...no. It's an acronym that means the American Association of Retired Persons, it's a group that does stuff for older people."
Pickles: "It's not a disease ?"
Mommy: "No, son....it's not a disease."

First Day of School 2007



Everyone had a great first day, despite some first-time riding the school bus jitters for the little ones.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Mommy Goes Bananas for.... Officemax ?!?

Some women go bananas for this. I go bananas for this.
If you check out their weekly ad link you will see why.

I actually had dreams about 1 cent crayons and 25 cent pencils. (You get 72 pencils for a stinkin' quarter....A QUARTER !!!)

I'm more excited than a kid at Christmas. I feel like dancing.

and yes, I will travel all the way across town to get to this store...by bus, without any hesitation.

Because I MUST have those pencils and crayons and folders and paper.

Just a testament of how parenting can cause a grown woman to go temporarily insane.

I can hardly contain myself.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

My Top 10 Favorite Educational Websites

1. Merriam-Webster's Word Central Online Dictionary and Thesaurus- Words, Words Everywhere !

2. Starfall- Learn to Read at Starfall.com. Designed to teach younger children how to read using phonics.

3. Iknowthat.com- Educational games so fun your kids won't realize they've learned something.

4. Spelling List Helper- You can customize this helper with your child's words and they can learn them using the Look, Cover, Write and Check Method.

5. Internet4Classrooms- A site for teachers, this place ROCKS !! Lots of resources for kids in grades K-8.

6. Using English/Irregular Verb List- Never know when this site will come in handy...but sooner or later you'll need to know something about idioms or irregular verbs.

7. EasyTestMaker - Several different test formats that you can customize. You have to register to use the site, but most of the content is free.

8. The World Almanac for Kids- Detailed in some areas, but not in others this site is handy for getting an overview of important subjects.

9. Phonics Interactives- Phonics activities for grades K-6.

10. WebMath- 'Cause even Mommy doesn't have all the answers. This is a great place to go when you get stuck on a math problem.


Do you have a favorite educational website to share ? Leave a comment. Let's try to make homework time a stress-free time. :)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Picture of the Day- Sunday


Pinky and Daisy at the Zoo a few months ago. Daisy decided that the "business end" of the goat needed to be groomed.

The Things You Find in a Boy's Pants

Everytime single time I do the laundry I have to inspect the pockets on my son's pants. I stopped being surprised at the things I find in his pockets a long time ago. It's like he has his own built-in storage facility (or trash collection).
Things I've found so far :
1 battery from a Nintendo DS
$5.00
Wrappers from every food he consumes during a day
Pencils sharpened down to a 1-inch nub (just can't bear to throw those away, I guess)
Assorted Game Boy games
Markers (which are soooo much fun when they pop open in the washer or dryer)
Gum (another fun find, especially when it melts in the dryer)
A cd
Rocks
shoelaces (no idea why these would be in his pocket and not in his shoe)
Lip Balm
Bratz Doll shoes (stolen from one of his sisters I'm sure)


There's nothing worse than settling down to relax while doing a load of laundry only to hear "Clank Clank" from the laundry room and knowing that I have indeed forgotten to check his pockets. I never know what I'll find, but it's always interesting.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

School Clothes Shopping with a Mid-Sized Family

We went school shopping today, the goal was to get enough clothes for the first three days of school. We ended up with:
10 pairs of jeans
2 skirts
12 shirts
3 hoodies
4 pairs of shoes
miscellaneous school supplies
24 pairs of socks
24 pairs of underwear
4 Bookbags
Grand Total $ 537.56.

I chose three stores and we were able to get some great deals. Of course, by the time we got to the third store the kids were acting insane, I was tired and had the beginnings of a headache and the stores were really crowded. Not a good combination, but we survived.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

The Downside to School Starting

Pickles, to me, is a great kid but he has a few school issues. He has struggled with most subjects and does horribly in Math. He has very basic understanding of mathematical concepts. Math, for him, is like expecting a Preschooler to understand Algebra.

Every year I come in and speak to the teachers, especially the math teacher. I try to explain to him or her that my son really needs a teacher who is patient and understands his limitations. He starts off every year with a willingness and a thirst to learn and by the middle of the year he's been beaten down by the failures he's endured.

Every year I have the same problem... Yes, he looks and acts like any other child in his grade, but after you spend some time teaching him you begin to notice that there is a problem, but you just can't seem to put your finger on what it is.

Every year I encounter teachers who are less than passionate about their jobs (the 6th grade science teacher spent her classroom time shopping online and watching YouTube)

Pickles has already been tested for a learning disability, and they claim he doesn't have one. So why can't my son understand math ?? His teachers last year said that he wasn't a "serious student" and that he "acted like he wasn't interested in the work".
Well, duh, it's kind of hard to be serious about something you don't have a clue about.

When he was in the 5th grade his teacher stated that " he asks too many nonsensical questions."
I had to (nicely) explain to her that it's not nonsense if you really don't understand what's going on.

He does not understand.

But.....
He does have the ability to understand. It just takes a little more time and effort to get the information into his head.

Pickles has worked on math all summer, he still is not even close to being where he should be. He getting better at it, but it's going to be awhile.

Maybe I'm not ready for school to start yet...

Friday, August 10, 2007

I'm Ready, I'm Ready

You can always tell when it's time for the kids to go back to school:

They fight over every little thing.
They complain about being bored a million times a day.
They ask an unusually high number of silly questions....like "Mommy can you make pants ?" or "Mommy can you flush an egg down the toilet ?"
They ask how much longer until school starts.

I am sooooooo ready to send them.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Picture of the Day- Monday



These are older pictures, but they always make me laugh. Especially the one of Pinky (the short kid in pink), she has some of the funniest expressions.