Saturday, November 22, 2008

Thursday/Friday catch up

Thursday Highlights



  • catching up on bookwork

  • 4H Leaders meeting


Let's talk about math. Both boys are very very math minded lately! They are doing so well. T2 and I have been concentrating on multiplication and division since September. Yes, I know this is a 3rd grade skill and T2 is technically in 4th but he didn't really grasp it fully last year. This year I decided that we would immerse ourselves in it until he "got it". Well I think he finally has. He can get 50 multiplication/division facts in under 2 minutes. I think it's almost time to get back to the books for him! We've been using manipulatives and drills until this point.



T1 and algebra. He's seeing the light. He's doing very well. I know I mentioned wanting to get the Teaching Textbooks math but I never seemed to be able to come up with the money (it's really pricey). A good friend gave me the entire "Key to" series and we LOVE IT! He's really getting it and is doing algebra problems that make him feel so proud of himself. I asked him the other day, " If I'd shown you that problem 2 months ago, would you have believed that you could not only DO it but you UNDERSTAND it?". He just grinned from ear to ear. For the first time ever he's been getting 100%s on his work. I'm proud of him!



4H



Thursday night I went to a 4H leader training meeting. Good stuff. We learned how to help the kids keep track of the money and how to record the meetings. We learned how to put on a "Skill-o-Thon" which were kinda cool. I got to meet some of the other local 4H leaders. They gave me the skunk eye, btw. I'm not "one of them" LOL. I'm so glad I went though because they were having the first Rifle Team meeting too and I got the boys the last 2 slots on the team. Now you'd think my kids would be just overwhelmed with excitement over this... right? Not so much, they're whining about it. I think they'll have a blast once they get to practice. They have to now,, they have tshirts. ha ha. We'll have our first meeting on December 9th. We're officially a 4H club now!

Friday.

  • Made a turkey
  • Took the kids Christmas shopping
  • Finished a book
  • Foxy Brown is back.

I cooked a turkey Friday evening. Now I generally cook a pretty rockin' bird. It's not hard and if you loosen the breast skin up and ram about 10 pats of butter under there,, how can you go wrong?

I'll tell ya how.

Forget about it. Yeah,, I kinda forgot about the turkey cooking and over cooked it. It's still yummy, just a little... tough? ha ha ha. That's what mayonnaise if for right? Geeze, it's no wonder we're the fattest people in the country. I'm not talking about Huntington,, I'm just talking about my family! ha ha ha.

The kids have no idea what they'd like for Christmas. Not only is there nothing big that's a must have this year, my spoiled rotten brats have everything they want! I told them to think of FOUR things they really really want. No dice. They couldn't come up with anything. After much window shopping they finally came up with 4 things each.

T1:

  1. An Iron Maiden "A Matter of Life or Death" Tshirt
  2. A video Mp3 player
  3. A professional Yo-yo
  4. Zelda for the Wii

T2:

  1. Lego Indiana Jones for the XboX
  2. Lego Indiana Jones legos
  3. Nerf Vulcan Gun
  4. A Metallica/ACDC/Aerosmith Tshirt

I finally finished a book I was reading. I've been reading it for well over a month. It's a GREAT book I just haven't had time to sit down and commit to finishing it. It's called The Legend of Mammy Jane by Sibyl Jarvis Pischke. Just an awesome book if you love reading about the old ways. It wasn't the deepest or the best written book I've ever read but come on... it's spectacular considering the woman who wrote it is a hairdresser!

It's the semi-fictional account of the history of the Jarvis family in Oka, WV (just past Charleston). More importantly it's a tale of how good sense and hard work will always prevail over any situation. I think a few people in government should read this book. I think a few people that think they're going to get something for nothing should read this book. I'll get off my soap box.

It's a great book. If you can get your hands on a copy, read it! The Cabell Co. Library has it (or will soon) but the cheapest you can get it on Amazon is $30.00. It's just not widely available.

Fox.

Our fox is back. He is crafty, that's for sure. We've seen evidence around the hen house of fox infiltration. Unfortunately, I'm never ready for that fox when he shows up so we'll have to trap him. I don't want my girls being "Triple Delight" for that fox!

On the upside of this though,, T2 has been feverishly researching foxes. He wants to do an entire presentation on foxes. I've never been more grateful for the laptop! He can sit in the same room with me and do his internet thing while I keep a watchful eye on him. I had to make a potty run and as I was coming back down the hall I heard him say "I'm going to w w w dot FOX dot com" and I was like.... "NNNNNNNNNOOOOOoooooooooo" Thank goodness it's just Fox Network's website but you just don't know do you? ha ha.

Well, now I'm caught up. Don't you feel better now that you know all the exciting stuff that is going on here at Backyard Academy?

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