it was a dirty job...

...but somebody had to do it.  If the teacher had done it herself, it might have been done by the beginning of 2013, if she worked on it during her holiday break.  Seth's school is one of the first in the school district to convert to blended literacy from the AR program.  AR is a number system, where the kids take tests and earn points after reading the book.  My understanding is that those books have you regurgitate information, and don't really test for comprehension.  

   At the first PTO meeting, the principal explained the blending literacy program, and I was quick to drink the Kool-aid.  He said, "What do avid readers have?  A nightstand full of books.  They don't want to take a test after they finish a book.  They want to grab another book.  We want to raise avid readers."  Rather than take tests, the kids are given post-it notes to jot thoughts on as they read, and after reading time, they have little discussions about things like point of view, characters' feelings, etc.  It's supposed to help them create the inner dialogue adults have while reading.  

  Seth classroom has a TON of books.  About half of them were leveled to AR.  I had to look at the AR level inside the book, find the sticker with the coordinated blended literacy letter, then sort them.  That took about two weeks, with me going in anywhere from one to three hours a couple times a week.   For the books that didn't have numbers, I started carrying two reusable shopping bags full of books home daily, and at home I would try to find levels using two websites.  It took ten days of popping into school each day to swap out books.  That leveled about two-thirds of those books, which I had to sticker and sort.  The remaining books I checked on a third website I could only access from the school, which only helped find with a couple dozen more books. 

Once all the books were leveled that could be, Seth's teacher asked if I would make some interest buckets too, books of all levels on the same topic, like dinosaurs, biographies, fall holidays...

  In the second grade, the kids pick out six books for their book baggie each week.  They can pick two interest books and four "just right" books that are at their assigned reading level.  The teacher listens to each child read at least once a week to see if they are ready to move up the following week.  Seth can read higher than the level he is assigned, but after a long day of school, it's nice for him to have some easy reading, and the books he selects usually interest Amelia, too.

  This project was way better than making copies or cutting things out for the teacher, but I had a skip in my step when I finished on Thursday.  That was one dusty job, and I sat on the floor listening to more vocabulary and spelling lessons than I care to count.  The timing couldn't have been better, with Halloween right around the corner...

...until the next day, on Seth's field trip, when his teacher said, "I found another bag of books for you in a closet at home...." I guess I'm not done yet.

we've been boo'd!

Monday after work Nathan went to the driving range.  I had chili in the crockpot, and the kids and I weren't starving after Amelia's tumbling class, so we decided to play outside until Nathan got home.  Well, the kids played.  I bagged up some of the leaves the boys had raked the day before.  Anyways, we ate dinner later than usual, and when I was cleaning up the kitchen, the doorbell rang.  It sounded like a kid, so I assumed one of the neighbor kids was selling something.  I turned on the light, opened the door and saw that we'd been boo'd!  The kids were tickled to get baskets of goodies.  They tore into them right away, so I didn't get a picture, but I reused the containers for our boo baskets on Tuesday:

Right after dark, clad in her jammies and sneakers, Amelia boo'd the 4-year-old boy who lives up the street. Their front door was open, but she sneaked on the steps, left the basket, rang the doorbell, and ran like lightning.  I couldn't believe how fast her little legs were moving!  When Seth got home from Cub Scouts, he boo'd our next door neighbors, because he has been talking the poor woman's ear off every time she is outside.  They had their door open too, and he thinks they saw him, but since they no longer have little kids, I'm sure they thought it was cute.  We're going to miss the neighborhood fall festival, but we're looking forward to trick-or-treating with our neighbors!

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!

On Sunday the kids and I ventured into the big city to see our first play.  I had received an email earlier in the week with a code for half off tickets, which was all it took to twist my arm.  We decided to go during the Panthers game.  I figured this way, the worst thing they'd probably hear was, "good grief".  My bad.  They said the word that rhymes with "oo-pid" four times, which to my kids is way worse than anything that they might hear yelled at the TV during a game.  (It just sounds bad coming out of kids' mouths, you know?  I'm going to try to keep that word out of their vocabulary as long as I can.)  We had general admission seats, and to my delight, there wasn't a bad seat in the house:

The show was fantastic, and the ninety minutes flew by.  I'm glad I didn't pick the other show that was in town this weekend.  Unbeknownst to me, it had come to Amelia's school earlier in the week.  She told me all about it when she saw the poster advertising it.

After the show, the kids played around the library for a little bit.  Hopefully we'll be able to make a show next month, too!  (Come on, half price tickets! You know I love a deal!)

his first regatta

Seth had his first big Cub Scout project...a boat for the rain gutter regatta.  For a good week straight the kitchen table was boat-building central.  We made a trip out one day to buy paint and accessories (he chose a bright royal blue and pirate transfers, if you can't tell in the picture).  Last Tuesday night all the packs got together to compete.  Seth had fiddled with his sail while he was waiting, and it wasn't in a great position when he raced.  He was disappointed with his race, and kept sending a big bottom lip across the room to Nathan, but he didn't cry, and there were some tears in that room.

My boys are already developing a strategy for next year...to be continued...

found one!

I saw a blip in the newspaper about a pumpkin patch in South Charlotte.   Last weekend we checked it out, and I think we found a winner!

Here we are in the corn sorghum maze.  This one had mailboxes at each station, with tape and a piece of the map.

We flew through the maze.  Mostly because it was Nathan's first time in a corn maze, and he did not want to get lost, so he took a picture of the map and followed it turn for turn on his phone.  I'm not kidding.

But that didn't take any of the fun out of it:

The owners had already picked the pumpkins that were for sale, but left them in the patch,

so it was u-haul.  Amelia couldn't pick out one near Seth's so here's a picture of them hunting from my vantage point with the wagon:

 The kids wouldn't cooperate for pumpkin pictures this year, but I did get pictures of them in the hay house:

We bought three huge pumpkins, a carving kit, and another jar of local honey.  The farm also has a strawberry u-pick in the spring, so we'll be back then!

Disney on Ice

Last Friday night we pulled off our second Disney surprise of the year.  We bought tickets to see Disney on Ice, and the kids had no idea where they were going until we handed them their tickets at the turnstile.  Here is Amelia, still in shock:

Girls' pic (sorry, no pics of the boys):

We saw all our Disney friends, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald:

 Tow Mater,

 Lightning McQueen,

 and all their friends...all the high points from the Little Mermaid,

Tinkerbell and all her fairy friends...

and then there was an intermission.  The entire second half was Toy Story 3, and it was awesome!

The kids could barely keep their eyes open when we stopped at the condo to validate our parking.  They may have been asleep by the time we drove out of the parking deck.

little pumpkin project

I had seen on pinterest that you could allegedly cut the top off a pie pumpkin, add dirt, and the seeds would grow.  I invested $1.50 in the pumpkin, and after three days in the kitchen, the rim of the pumpkin got moldy.  I was going to chuck it over the fence for the deer to enjoy.  But Nathan is smart you see...he put it in the garden.  Day 10:

That was a couple weeks ago.  The pumpkin itself has now disintegrated, but we have half a dozen healthy pumpkin sprouts growing in its place.  Seth checks on it religiously.  It's been a nice little experiment!

swinging away

The previous owners of our house had a wooden swing in the backyard.  I had crossed my fingers that they would leave it, but they didn't.  They did leave the nylon attachments, though, and after a little research, we decided to get a disk-style swing which will hopefully be kinder to our landscaping.  It is a HUGE hit.  The kids go out every afternoon.  They take turns, and then after a while come and beg for a parent to come up so they can swing higher.

 Even mommy and daddy have been known to take a swing or two across the backyard!

another bike boo-boo

If you click on the picture below of Seth with the bee, you can see his Charlie Chaplin-esque scab above his lip.  The night before he had been riding his bike in the driving, babbling about riding "moderato" and "presto" (he has music on Fridays), when he turned too sharply and went over the handbars.  From my angle, it looked like he landed on his nose.  The end result was some small scuffs on both knees, small scrapes on both hands, and two deep bleeding cuts under his nose, and a bloody nose.  As I have done almost every time he has taken a bad fall, I freaked out.  In the span of five minutes I told Nathan I thought Seth needed surgical glue, had a broken nose, and had a concussion.  (I still stand by the glue comment, although the cuts healed nicely from the inside out, and a week later only a faint pink scar remains.)  We were not home to ride bikes this Friday night.  Hopefully the cycle is broken.

Stingerfest

Last Saturday we went to Stingerfest at Seth's school, the school's version of a fall festival.  We didn't win any of the raffle baskets, but the kids played a few games, played in a few bounce houses, and we shared some shaved ice on a sunny afternoon.  Seth and the mascot:

 Seth "winning" the Olympic race against Nathan:

I was impressed with his accuracy:

inner peace

One night the kids were running around the house like hooligans.  I cracked open some brand-new watercolors and told them to sit down and paint.  They may had been rambunctious on the outside, but they were peaceful on the inside.  Look what they made:

L:  Amelia, R:  Seth

camp week

Amelia's teachers went big for camp week.  On Monday morning, I saw this on the classroom door:

The classroom had a tent in it all week, and the walls were decorated with hunting camouflage.  One day we found a "campfire" in the room (real logs and tissue paper flames).  The kids made trail mix one day for snack, and on Thursday they went on a hike.  By the end of the week, Amelia had brought home a camp t-shirt, binoculars, a magnifying glass, a map, and a bag full of leaves she had found on her nature hike!

it's such a little thing...

...but I'm glad it's fixed.  

There was a gap under the storm door, and Nathan's dad made a comment along the lines of, "One day you're going to open the door and a snake is going to be sitting there."  Yuck.  Needless to say, we haven't been keeping the front door open.  But a quick trip to Lowes for a $10 purchase and a little work done by Nathan has given us a sealed storm door:

I still don't keep the door open during the day, but we keep it open a lot on the weekends.  Sorry, snakes, you're not welcome here.

ice cream social

Friday night we went to an ice cream social at a neighbor's house.  Three couples made homemade ice cream, and the rest of us brought toppings.  I didn't take any pictures because it started after dinner and got progressively darker as we stood around socializing.  There are three things to note about this event:

• Nathan has a lot in common with the men on our block.  Most of them work in finance or IT, and most of them are either runners or triathletes.  (I had met most of the women already, either at Bible study or impromptu play dates in the afternoons.)
• Seth has a new aura of bravado these days:  rather than playing with the other kids, he spent most of his time trying to conquer a bike ramp.  Yes, a bike ramp.  Who is this kid?  (And of course that means our evening ended with Seth wiping out and needing some minor first aid on his elbow...by morning light, it was apparent his ego was bruised more than anything else.)
• There are a lot of freakin' kids around here.  Last night at Bible study they said the final head count at that party was 33 kids.  We are in the minority with two kids.  The family that hosted has six!  

trailblazer

I think I mentioned that Seth has joined the Cub Scouts (anybody want some popcorn?), and Saturday we had the opportunity to attend an adventure day at scout camp.  We were there about four hours, and Seth got to try his hand at shooting a BB gun and fishing, and we went on a boat ride, ate lunch, and did a few crafts.  

Even little sisters got to join in on the fun!  Seth got a patch for his efforts, and we decided we need a board for his room to display all the things that don't go on his uniform.

so glad they like each other

...well, most of the time.  This is from a Friday night, after we went to Charlotte to pick up Seth's Cub Scout uniform and met Nathan for a fancy dinner in uptown.

our new niche...

...is very similar to our old niche, in more ways than one...