If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
--Martina Navratilova
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
No, We Haven't Dropped off the Planet--We're On Vacation!
I had every intention of blogging on our vacation--we're in Pittsburgh, tagging along on a business trip with Matt (much like when we go to Boston in November). We are having lots of fun. Despite everyone always ridiculing Pittsburgh, we are finding it a lovely city with lots to do, and we are having gorgeous weather to boot. However, our hotel offers a wonderful breakfast buffet that is only open till 9:30, which means we have to get moving early (for us!) and so I haven't had the time or energy to blog at midnight the way I did from Boston. Also, we've taken photos and those can't go up till we're home anyway...so I'm using that as another excuse! We return on Saturday and I will try to post over the weekend, amidst grocery shopping, unpacking and laundry. Have a great week!
--Jen
P.S. Note to self: Change photos on blog cover to reflect SPRING!!!
--Jen
P.S. Note to self: Change photos on blog cover to reflect SPRING!!!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Math
Ben loves math. That's all there is to say. He has finished his 1st grade math curriculum--finished it quite some time ago, in fact. When I bought the fat Brainquest 2nd Grade workbook back at Thanksgiving, thinking it would cover any gaps for the rest of the year while actually providing a challenge, I thought it would be especially nice for Ben to go up a notch in math--everything covered for first graders is easily completed by Emma, except for the actual forming of numbers, which she still has some problems with. She can do everything orally, though. Well, the 2nd grade math in that workbook wasn't much of a challenge for him, either.
Here we are in the first week of March, and Ben has completed that 2nd Grade workbook. All of it. We even did the cursive pages, at his insistence--I didn't begin the girls on cursive until 3rd grade, and I thought they had better fine motor control than Ben does. However, he wanted to do the pages, and he worked doggedly at them and now can write pretty good cursive for a 6-year-old. It isn't always immediately recognizable, but you'd be surprised at how good it is. His main problem is forgetting the size letters should be--his "tall" letters like h sometimes look like n's, for example. Now he wants to progress into 3rd grade. I had to tell him that it's good to review things you already think you know, and that even though he is doing beautifully, there are some things in 3rd grade that he just won't be able to do yet. For instance, that it requires much more writing. He enjoys writing, but being six, it takes him much longer to actually get a sentence down on paper than it would an older child. He is a great speller for his age, but not for a 3rd grader. (Or at least, not for MY idea of a 3rd grader!)
So now we are getting to the creative portion of the school year. This is not as much of a problem for the girls because their work generally lasts through at least May. This is because for a given subject, say Language Arts, I get many different components--there may be workbooks on spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, then there are novels for reading and different reports or journals to write. This spreads the work out across the year. However, for the younger grades I tend to rely more on multi-subject workbooks because first of all, at this age Ben just doesn't need to sit all day for school work, and second of all, this way we get an overview and can then focus on things he really enjoys.
He is still making pages for his history notebook, doing the Draw Write Now books, and playing his music CD-Rom. For science, we have been doing some books my mom gave him at Christmas time, which are a bit above his level I think but he seems to like the activities (lots of crossword puzzles, scrambled word puzzles, secret codes and things of that sort) and if I help him he does fine. For math I have started writing problems for him to solve. He loves doing addition and subtraction with as many digits as you want to throw at him--he loves carrying and borrowing. He's like a little accountant, scrabbling away at math problems, and I often get up in the morning and find that he has written out a page on his own and solved them all. And he rarely makes a mistake. We have been practicing spelling using a Leap Frog game meant for Grades 1-2, which is kind of funny because he seems to know almost every word in this game--but no matter how many times I remind him he insists on spelling "were" W-H-E-R and mistakes of that nature. And then of course we play chess and checkers and Battleship and cards, and he has been loving the finger knitting and he reads, draws and writes his own stories.
Looks like his school year will be wrapped up in May!
Here we are in the first week of March, and Ben has completed that 2nd Grade workbook. All of it. We even did the cursive pages, at his insistence--I didn't begin the girls on cursive until 3rd grade, and I thought they had better fine motor control than Ben does. However, he wanted to do the pages, and he worked doggedly at them and now can write pretty good cursive for a 6-year-old. It isn't always immediately recognizable, but you'd be surprised at how good it is. His main problem is forgetting the size letters should be--his "tall" letters like h sometimes look like n's, for example. Now he wants to progress into 3rd grade. I had to tell him that it's good to review things you already think you know, and that even though he is doing beautifully, there are some things in 3rd grade that he just won't be able to do yet. For instance, that it requires much more writing. He enjoys writing, but being six, it takes him much longer to actually get a sentence down on paper than it would an older child. He is a great speller for his age, but not for a 3rd grader. (Or at least, not for MY idea of a 3rd grader!)
So now we are getting to the creative portion of the school year. This is not as much of a problem for the girls because their work generally lasts through at least May. This is because for a given subject, say Language Arts, I get many different components--there may be workbooks on spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, then there are novels for reading and different reports or journals to write. This spreads the work out across the year. However, for the younger grades I tend to rely more on multi-subject workbooks because first of all, at this age Ben just doesn't need to sit all day for school work, and second of all, this way we get an overview and can then focus on things he really enjoys.
He is still making pages for his history notebook, doing the Draw Write Now books, and playing his music CD-Rom. For science, we have been doing some books my mom gave him at Christmas time, which are a bit above his level I think but he seems to like the activities (lots of crossword puzzles, scrambled word puzzles, secret codes and things of that sort) and if I help him he does fine. For math I have started writing problems for him to solve. He loves doing addition and subtraction with as many digits as you want to throw at him--he loves carrying and borrowing. He's like a little accountant, scrabbling away at math problems, and I often get up in the morning and find that he has written out a page on his own and solved them all. And he rarely makes a mistake. We have been practicing spelling using a Leap Frog game meant for Grades 1-2, which is kind of funny because he seems to know almost every word in this game--but no matter how many times I remind him he insists on spelling "were" W-H-E-R and mistakes of that nature. And then of course we play chess and checkers and Battleship and cards, and he has been loving the finger knitting and he reads, draws and writes his own stories.
Looks like his school year will be wrapped up in May!
Daily Quote
I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.
--Vladimir Nabokov
--Vladimir Nabokov
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Snow Photos
I'll begin by apologizing that these photos aren't very exciting--I was sick in bed as I said before and so wasn't there to tell Matt/Rachel (see, I'm not even sure who TOOK the pics!) to get some with actual people doing fun things! But you can get the idea of how much snow we got....
This is of the back patio, and is not even representative of all the snow we had--it continued to snow throughout the day!
This is from the front patio, and those azaleas are buried almost to the top with snow. The next one is of the car in the driveway and the street behind it--notice the road is unplowed. I was totally taken aback by that, as the plows are usually out in full force the night before a "storm" where we're only going to get a few inches! I guess they decided to conserve gas or something??
If the kids are still excited to play in the snow tomorrow (they spent a combined total of about 4 hours in it today playing a game they call "Snow Warrior") I'll try to get some shots of them...I always like to have people in pictures. The good news is that we have collected eggs galore from the chickens--5 on the day of the blizzard alone! :)
--Jen
This is of the back patio, and is not even representative of all the snow we had--it continued to snow throughout the day!
This is from the front patio, and those azaleas are buried almost to the top with snow. The next one is of the car in the driveway and the street behind it--notice the road is unplowed. I was totally taken aback by that, as the plows are usually out in full force the night before a "storm" where we're only going to get a few inches! I guess they decided to conserve gas or something??
If the kids are still excited to play in the snow tomorrow (they spent a combined total of about 4 hours in it today playing a game they call "Snow Warrior") I'll try to get some shots of them...I always like to have people in pictures. The good news is that we have collected eggs galore from the chickens--5 on the day of the blizzard alone! :)
--Jen
Spring Blizzard
It always seems like the best snow falls in March. We have had a very snowy winter here on the East End. I remember we had a great one on December 19 (because it was our anniversary and it spoiled our plans to walk to the restaurant we went to for dinner!) and we pretty much had snow on the ground continuously till Valentine's Day, which is unheard of here. We had more snow this winter than probably the part four years combined. Then there were a few spring-like days, and March was coming upon us, and thoughts turned to sunshine and flowers...but too soon. This past weekend the weathermen were talking of nothing but snow. Don't get me wrong, I believed we'd have some snow, but I was not prepared for what we actually got!
My family has been sick (for us) for the past week or more. I say "for us," because we don't get sick often, and when we do, it generally is not as bad as what everyone else seems to get. Friends have been plagued with illnesses ranging from colds to flu to pneumonia this winter, so our colds are not bad in the grand scheme of things. But first Julia had a cold, then Ben (with a 4 hour fever), then Emma and then I finally succumbed late last week. Matt and Rachel, as usual, went unscathed. My cold was odd because I had it for two days and then began to feel better, so much so that I went to the gym on Saturday night. Then on Sunday afternoon I felt queasy, and felt worse and worse as the evening wore on. The snow began around 7pm and was very heavy by the time I went to bed. I had a rough night, and Matt knew his office was closed before we even went to bed, so I slept till 10 without worrying about it....and woke up to a foot of snow!
The day went on, and I was sorry to miss it. The kids played, Rachel and Julia shoveled, and I...was sick. I had a fever, a blinding headache, and ended up sleeping a great deal. By the time I was a bit coherent in the late afternoon, we had nearly 18 inches of snow...they are saying more snow than we've had here in 20 years! I really regret that we have not gone sledding this winter--I got so used to our winters being comprised of four or five tiny snows that melt in a day or two that we haven't gone sledding since Rachel was 6 or 7 years old--and this would have been a perfect snow to head to the public golf course and gone down the hills with the kids. Unfortunately, I was not willing to freeze to death while sick in order to do it, and though I am on the mend today I have a feeling that by the time I feel up to it, the warming trend is going to have melted it all. I have to keep sledding in mind for next year!
Will post snow photos later!
--Jen
My family has been sick (for us) for the past week or more. I say "for us," because we don't get sick often, and when we do, it generally is not as bad as what everyone else seems to get. Friends have been plagued with illnesses ranging from colds to flu to pneumonia this winter, so our colds are not bad in the grand scheme of things. But first Julia had a cold, then Ben (with a 4 hour fever), then Emma and then I finally succumbed late last week. Matt and Rachel, as usual, went unscathed. My cold was odd because I had it for two days and then began to feel better, so much so that I went to the gym on Saturday night. Then on Sunday afternoon I felt queasy, and felt worse and worse as the evening wore on. The snow began around 7pm and was very heavy by the time I went to bed. I had a rough night, and Matt knew his office was closed before we even went to bed, so I slept till 10 without worrying about it....and woke up to a foot of snow!
The day went on, and I was sorry to miss it. The kids played, Rachel and Julia shoveled, and I...was sick. I had a fever, a blinding headache, and ended up sleeping a great deal. By the time I was a bit coherent in the late afternoon, we had nearly 18 inches of snow...they are saying more snow than we've had here in 20 years! I really regret that we have not gone sledding this winter--I got so used to our winters being comprised of four or five tiny snows that melt in a day or two that we haven't gone sledding since Rachel was 6 or 7 years old--and this would have been a perfect snow to head to the public golf course and gone down the hills with the kids. Unfortunately, I was not willing to freeze to death while sick in order to do it, and though I am on the mend today I have a feeling that by the time I feel up to it, the warming trend is going to have melted it all. I have to keep sledding in mind for next year!
Will post snow photos later!
--Jen
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Castle Cats
Just thought I'd post these pictures Rachel took of our kitties in Emma's princess castle. This is Molly, asleep on the ground floor...notice she is right by the radiator, so I'm sure it's a very inviting place to curl up! She probably thinks of it as an actual cat bed....
And here is Bo, on the second floor this time. He really is cute! Makes me forget all the times I'd like to toss him out a window!
--Jen
Spring, Spring, Spring, Spring......
Here we are in the last week of February. It has been quite a while since I've blogged, mostly because we've been busy and because I am addicted to Facebook and find most of my computer time sucked up by it. I have been faithfully going to the gym, too, and so that takes up time--in addition to lessons with the kids, activities and running the house, it seems like the days should be four or five hours longer for me to get everything done! Don't get me wrong, this is wonderful in January and February, which are in general the longest and most dismal of the entire year! I guess I am simply making my excuses as to why I'm not blogging. I will try and post more, even if it's short. (I tend to think if I don't have a tome in mind it isn't worth putting up. I'm sure people would appreciate fewer words!)
Today we went ice skating with a group of homeschooling friends. Normally, we go to Greenport and skate at the little outdoor rink they put up every winter, but this time we traveled about 40 minutes to go to the Rinx, an indoor rink at exit 58 on the L.I.E. We have been a bit under the weather this week, with colds--mine showed up this morning, and Ben was running a slight fever yesterday morning, and he and Emma are coughing a lot. I probably would have stayed home for this reason, but out group was too close to the minimum for a group rate, and taking the five of us out would have made the price jump up, which I didn't want to do to everyone. So we went, me cautioning the kids not to breathe on anyone...
I haven't been skating on an indoor rink since we lived in Iowa, ten years ago. I'd forgotten how much smoother the ice is than on an outdoor rink. It was really very nice. While I love Greenport, where we skate on the harbor, much more than the warehouse-like Rinx, it was great to be able to go faster and feel more competent. If only we could have that ice outside in Greenport! This ice was so smooth that I was able to hold Emma by the hand and tow her along quite handily--she hardly ever even lifted her skates. In Greenport if I skate that way it doesn't work very well...but in Greenport they also have those excellent ice carts that the kids who don't skate well can use to hold themselves steady. I'd also forgotten how very cold they keep indoor rinks! We wore coats and gloves, but didn't bundle up the way we do for outdoor skating (hats, scarves and snowpants, plus two pairs of socks and usually long johns, too) and this made all the difference in how cold it felt. I was thinking, no wind=much warmer, but really the cold temperatures made up for no wind....anyway, we had fun, I just would have liked being a bit more snug!
When we got outside I was shocked how warm it felt--it was in the mid-50s and the kids asked if we could go to a playground. I said that we'd drive back to Riverhead and maybe we could go to the playground there--and then Ben pointed across the parking lot and lo and behold, there was a beautiful playground waiting. So over we went and the kids climbed a rock climbing wall, went down the slides, played on the swings and in tunnels, mastered the monkey bars and even dug in the sand a while. This was our first trip to the playground this year--we have had such an uncharacteristically cold winter this year--and it felt good to be outside. Rachel and I talked on a bench in the sun, and finally everyone wanted to go and we drove home. It was a little taste of spring to get us ready for the real thing in a few weeks. We can't wait!
--Jen
Today we went ice skating with a group of homeschooling friends. Normally, we go to Greenport and skate at the little outdoor rink they put up every winter, but this time we traveled about 40 minutes to go to the Rinx, an indoor rink at exit 58 on the L.I.E. We have been a bit under the weather this week, with colds--mine showed up this morning, and Ben was running a slight fever yesterday morning, and he and Emma are coughing a lot. I probably would have stayed home for this reason, but out group was too close to the minimum for a group rate, and taking the five of us out would have made the price jump up, which I didn't want to do to everyone. So we went, me cautioning the kids not to breathe on anyone...
I haven't been skating on an indoor rink since we lived in Iowa, ten years ago. I'd forgotten how much smoother the ice is than on an outdoor rink. It was really very nice. While I love Greenport, where we skate on the harbor, much more than the warehouse-like Rinx, it was great to be able to go faster and feel more competent. If only we could have that ice outside in Greenport! This ice was so smooth that I was able to hold Emma by the hand and tow her along quite handily--she hardly ever even lifted her skates. In Greenport if I skate that way it doesn't work very well...but in Greenport they also have those excellent ice carts that the kids who don't skate well can use to hold themselves steady. I'd also forgotten how very cold they keep indoor rinks! We wore coats and gloves, but didn't bundle up the way we do for outdoor skating (hats, scarves and snowpants, plus two pairs of socks and usually long johns, too) and this made all the difference in how cold it felt. I was thinking, no wind=much warmer, but really the cold temperatures made up for no wind....anyway, we had fun, I just would have liked being a bit more snug!
When we got outside I was shocked how warm it felt--it was in the mid-50s and the kids asked if we could go to a playground. I said that we'd drive back to Riverhead and maybe we could go to the playground there--and then Ben pointed across the parking lot and lo and behold, there was a beautiful playground waiting. So over we went and the kids climbed a rock climbing wall, went down the slides, played on the swings and in tunnels, mastered the monkey bars and even dug in the sand a while. This was our first trip to the playground this year--we have had such an uncharacteristically cold winter this year--and it felt good to be outside. Rachel and I talked on a bench in the sun, and finally everyone wanted to go and we drove home. It was a little taste of spring to get us ready for the real thing in a few weeks. We can't wait!
--Jen
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Silly Girl
Rachel took this picture of Emma and I think it captures her spirit remarkably, so I thought I'd share....
--Jen
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