1. Whitney learned about Claude Monet and Impressionism this week in her art class. She loves this class so much that she cried the week of Fall Break when it was canceled. I don't know why I never thought to put her in art classes before, signing her up was a total fluke because of a friend from church mentioning her son taking classes. What's wrong with me? By the way, she painted this with a Q-tip.
2. Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended that means the sun goes down during the hour I spend sitting in the car reading while Whitney is at her art class. I came well prepared with my headlight though and was able to see clearly while I read. I was just glad that the people who live in the house I park in front of didn't come out to investigate. I actually enjoy this hour of uninterrupted reading time and love the feeling of not having anything else I need to be doing.
3. I made Wimmer Truc and it was so good. I bought a baguette at Wal-mart of all places and it turned out to be sourdough (a very mild version) but Randy and I were very pleased with this easy, new dinner and will be adding this to our small repertoire.
4. This is embarrassing to admit, but I had to go online to learn how to cut a red pepper. It was my first time ever using one, so as I started to slice into it and saw its strange innards I ran to the computer to see if there were instructions...oh how I love YouTube!
Sidenote: I had placed the red pepper and an onion on the stove top after buying them, and when the kids came home from school and saw them they were totally confused and looked at them like they were some alien life form. Oh dear, we have really got to branch out around here.
5. I fear that helping Whitney with her 3rd grade math is going to put me in an early grave! I blame the fact that I moved so much as a child to my having poor math skills, but this is ridiculous. I can do her math, I'm just not good at explaining how to do it. They seem to be learning all kinds of different strategies at school, but my main strategy is the good ole "carry the one" or "borrow a one" and she looks at me like I'm crazy whenever I tell her that's what she needs to do. We're hosed! (This photo was taken at Great Clips while Landon was getting a haircut.)
6. The menagerie on Whitney's bed is out of control, but is so her. She always puts that creepy, white tiger at the end of the bed and I always turn it around during the day so that its freaky, blue eyes aren't watching me as I walk by the room; on this day she faced him the other way while making her bed...I found this funny.
7. I sent the kids outside to pick up the many apples that had fallen off our apple tree and it turned into an impromptu game of apple baseball. It was surprisingly fun and satisfying each time we whacked the guts out of one of those apples (these were all inedible apples by the way). We got apple bits all over us and left the backyard messier than it started, but it was a seriously fun half hour.
**How are your math skills?
Have you ever looked online
to learn how to do something?
Have you ever played apple baseball?
Are you more appalled by my public headlight wearing
or my lack of experience with red peppers?**
Comment Window Tidbit: Landon and Whitney both got haircuts this week and I must say I love it when their cuteness is restored. I wish that's all it took for me!
18 comments:
Whitney reminds me of Luci . . .
the animals, the drawing, the math woes! Luci gets staright A's but math is definitely not her forte. I have a hard time explaining it to her also, esp. when it seems she wants me to just do her homework for her.
Whitney's drawing is fabulous!
I had to go online to find a video tutorial of how to cut an avacado just this week. We eat avocadoes all the time, always have, but I wanted to see how to do it the "right" way. The video really helped plus I ordered a new kitchen tool to help.
My kids spent days online learning how to moonwalk- they are all good at it now - which can be very cool & hip when you are a teen... I still can't do it...
Math + mom or dad = disaster (most of the time) it's so frustrating & hard! Still it's 3rd grade- why is it so hard to help? It's a universal problem.
Apple baseball & reading in the car sound fun.
I should have just commented again instead of deleting my comment...(I always wonder who deleted and why, so I deleted because I wanted to say something more and didn't remember that it left a note that I deleted!)
So...here goes...(this should be on your post below about walking...but oh well!)
What I wanted to add is this: I have always just picked up my walking tennis shoes from any random store and at the cheapest price. I never had well fitting walking shoes, and therefore, always dreaded the "exercise" because my feet hurt at the end of it. This spring, at my husband's insistence (after the prodding of his brother) we went to a store that analyzes your feet and bought our shoes there. That is the most I have ever spent on shoes (the analysis was free), but I have NEVER regretted one penny of that money spent. I enjoy walking, and put my shoes on regularly...they make such a difference when I'm standing for long periods. So...you've got a Fleet feet near you...I'd suggest you go and get your shoes there...even if they seem pricey! You are worth it...and if need be, you could save a little at a time to get them. (For me, it's easy to spend a little here and there, but to spend a big chunk is much harder...mine cost about $100...ouch on the pocketbook...but never ouch on my feet!) OK. Enough of that.
The other thought I had was that you should see if youtube has someone explaining 3rd grade math...whatever the specific concept is. I'll betcha there is something out there to help kids with math...because it is such a hard thing for so many parents.
Oh, and who'da thunk that apple baseball would have been so much fun. Seriously awesome.
I am laughing at your math woes with Whitney, as we have the same troubles here...I wish the schools would tell us what these new math solving skills are so that we could be more helpful.
Oh, and by the way, my math skills are abismal too!
Never played apple baseball before, sure sounds messy! :)
I had to laugh when I saw you had to look up how to cut a red pepper on Youtube...but thank goodness we have the internet now to save us when we need to know how to make or do something.
So funny that you have to turn that tiger around every day! I totally relate to the pepper--cutting veggies in public is one of my fears. I never know which way to cut first.
I love that Whitney loves her art class so much (l love anyone who loves art because I love it.)
So, with Holidays coming in which there might not be an art class to attend, I found a GREAT!!!! blog full of art projects for kids. I have taught art to elementary kids for years and this blog has some of the best projects I have seen. I am currently teaching my 5th graders the one point perspective floating cubes and they are loving it.
Here is the link:
http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/
I love reading your blog, you are so funny and I can relate on so many levels.
Keep up the good work.
Isabelle watched the Apple Baseball video with me and we both cracked up simultaneously at the very end when the apple explodes and gooshes everywhere.
Isabelle wants to be pen pals with Whitney, but is feeling shy. So I am assigned to ask if Whitney would think she is a weirdie if Isabelle sent a KidGoodMail letter.
Apple Baseball?! What a fun mom thing to let happen!
My math skills are terrible! Sometimes the kids at work will ask me for help with their homework, and I'm always humiliated that I have no clue how to do their math assignments. I have accepted that math is just not my thing, but even still, I am dreading Daniel going to junior high. Actually, his math skills will probably surpass mine long before junior high. And his computer skills, too...
I am a huge fan of YouTube. That is where I learned how to tie Daniel's karate belt, and curl my hair with a skinny flat iron (it works, I swear!)
My repertiore is small where dinner is concerned, too...
I forgot to say that I'm very impressed that Whitney managed to do that picture with a Q-Tip! Nicely done!
I'm sorry, I can't seem to get past the fact that you have never used a bell pepper before... that is cracking me up so hard! Hooray for YouTube! (And, I can't wait to tell Kendall that WimmerTruc made it all the way around Europe and then back to Utah.)
I'm impressed with Whitney's creative flair! And I love the headlamp reading in the car. I'll read whenever I can, especially when waiting. I almost always have a book with me, and you're even more prepared with your headlamp!
Just wait until they hit high school. Seriously - I had some of this math in college. Think my littles are too advanced in math too young. Must get that from their Dad!
I love your apple baseball! That is so fun for us when we do apple shooting with a slingshot and smack a huge board. ONly at the pumpkin field...gotta love that satisfaction of the contact it makes! Love that you did it in your backyard....
I love youtube too. Cracked me up that their is a video on bell peppers. Ha! Have you checked out the one how to cube a watermellon? Think this girl is from Utah. Pretty entertaining... ha
My math skills are so appalling that I can't even refer to them as "skills"!!! Yikes, it's a good thing I could do the language route at BYU or I would be seriously hosed. I am afraid for 4th grade math. I'm afraid for Austin!
I love that the kids played apple baseball!
About the alien red peppers, it's a good thing your kids don't live at my house!! Last night we had couscous with a curried chicken tagine on top containing chickpeas, sweet potato, peas, etc. It was delicious! Really!
I like to think that I have math skills. I am better at doing than explaining though too.
I would like an exact recipe for that sandwich. What is the spread? It looks good.
Jill..we are so in the same boat! My kids are learning math and using a completely different vocabulary as well. The 'carry the one' is now called 'regrouping' - at least with our curriculum.
Never played baseball with an apple, but I only imagine the jubilation in Ian if he watched this video. The wheels in his head would turn.
Here's my red pepper story: Terry and I went to Cancun on our honeymoon. Upon arriving home I had to impress him with my homemaker skills. I found a recipe for Cod Cancun and was so excited to make it. The recipe called for 1/4 chopped red pepper. Well, I had never used red pepper, but I had red pepper FLAKES in my fancy new spice rack so I coated the fish with it. Needless to say the dinner was COMPLETELY inedible and Terry likes to poke fun at me sometimes for it. I have come a long way - we now grow peppers in our garden.
You Tube? I learned how to knit by watching you tube videos and checking out books from the library. Just last night I was working on a pattern and wasn't familiar with the stitch it called for, so I goggled it and found a 30 second video which taught me. What did we do before the internet??
I am not truly "appalled" by either your headlight wearing or your lack of bell pepper experience, however, I do find it quite hilarious that your kids looked at the vegetables as if they were something alien. My kids don't like peppers either, but I love red, yellow, and orange ones.
Once again, you earn the title of Most Fun Mother Ever for the Apple Baseball escapade.
I HATE the way kids learn math these days! I feel so stupid when I find it difficult to help my fifth grader.
The menagerie of stuffed animals is so like Sarah's room--and it drives me crazy, too. Your description of the creepy tiger cracks me up!
I thought for a long time about putting tess in an art class but I don't know how to find it or fit it in. I think this summer i figure it out.
I never would have thought to bring a head lamp, nicely done. I need one of those for late nights in bed.
Cracks me up the a red pepper would be foreign. Megan loves red peppers.
Math homework, argh! Hopefully there will be youtube videos when the math gets to be over my head. I love youtube.
apple baseball sounds fun to me. perhaps we can do that next year with our fallen pears...except we don't have any baseball gear. it does sound incredibly messy.
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