Friday, July 30, 2010

Some Awkward Situations

Ever since Roo was a baby she has used her middle finger to point at things. I have tried to gently correct this over the years to no avail, the middle finger is still her finger of preference. I have always gotten dirty looks from people when she sticks her hand up to point at something high. Almost like I purposely taught her to unknowingly flip people the bird.  I remember saying to my husband when we got my ultrasound with her that it kind of looked like she was giving us the finger. Years later I can admit she probably was (but not on purpose people). Several other notable things that make me look like a bad parent..........she pronounce chipmunk as chinkmunk, again we are trying to gently change this without making it a big deal. Next her pronunciation of Texas. I have no idea why she even talks about Texas since we live in Canada, but she mentions it several times a week. I think that she might have gotten it from Sponge Bob Square Pants because I believe Sandy the squirrel may be from Texas, correct me if I am wrong though.  If she says it slowly enunciating both syllables it comes out as Tex-as. But, if she says it quickly for some reason it comes out as testis. I have no idea why. Lastly we were doing a reading lesson yesterday of words that use the or sound. She was reading the list corn, horn, torn, worn and then pork came after those. I assume she was on a roll with the orn words and said the last word as porn. A high pitched cackle/shocked laugh came out of my mouth uncontrollably and I corrected her mistake without referring to the wrong word. I'm glad she didn't question what it meant, because I'm not too sure how I would explain that one. Am I the only one who gets the pleasure of dealing with these awkward situations?

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Self Portrait

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Yet again another picture I found on my computers webcam photobooth. For some reason she likes to turn it on when no one is in the room and have photo shoots with herself, the cat and dolls.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Weekly Schedule Template

I was playing around with excel and Word and finally came up with a template that will work for us. I hope, if not that was a lot of wasted time. Anyway here it is. I do have this in both Excel and Word, so if your are interested in having a copy I will email one to you. Excel is easier to use and more practical since you can can manipulate the cells into the sizes you want to use. Let me know if you would like a copy.



Grade_1_Weekly_Schedule

Wordless Wednesday - Helping Mom Unpack

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I think some words are needed to explain the pictures context. We recently moved and Roo decided that she would help me by unpacking her room (without telling me). The result was everything, everywhere all over the floors and in piles. The room is currently a catastrophic disaster area.

Monday, July 19, 2010

New School Year Weekly Schedule........Hopefully

I made a tentative weekly schedule for our new school year. My goal was to plot what subjects would be covered on what days and approximately how long each subject will take us. So this is my rough outline of what I hope our days will look like in order to accomplish all that I hope we are going to. I am going to make detailed weekly schedules of what we will be covering in each subject daily as well. I hope to start these and get them posted very soon. Maybe I will do them in six week increments so I am not biting off more than I can chew at the moment. These darn things are time consuming.


Schedule Layout Gr. 1

Saturday, July 17, 2010

What a Dreamer



This is one of my life long dreams. To live in an apartment in one of these colourful harbor front buildings in Denmark (insert sighing smilie here).
But if you know me well, then you would also know that my life long dream will be extended to cover living in Europe in general. Without being too picky about the colour of the building or if the location is harbor front;)



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Thursday, July 15, 2010

I Have Found Guilt Free Book Buying

 I will build my library, guilt be damned. The next time my husband rolls his eyes when an Amazon box shows up in the mail, I will no longer feel guilty. I will no longer try to intercept the mailman before he knocks on the door, in order to smuggle books in quietly.  According to this article they are a great investment in our childrens education.  I feel free.....almost;)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

And the Beat Goes On

So we have been moved into our new apartment for almost two weeks now. There are still boxes floating about, but not too much to inconvenience daily living. We realize that we are going to have to invest in some kind of kitchen shelving unit. Too many kitchen boxes left and not enough counter top and cupboard space. It becomes kind of annoying to try to make a meal in a 1ft x 1ft square of available counter space. Not that we have been making major meals since the weather has been so hot lately, I have placed a ban on oven cooking. Have I mentioned before how much I hate summer time? At least there is a great little take out restaurant downstairs that has yummy Asian noodle and rice dishes served out of those great little boxes. I totally ruin the effect though, when I dump it into a bowl, put the chopsticks in the drawer and use a fork to eat it.
School, school wherefore art thou school? Just kidding, we are still doing school daily, but have cut down and shortened the lessons enough (for summer) that it makes it seem like we aren't. We get in our reading lessons, math, spelling/handwriting and french (which I still need to cut out and laminate the flash cards if I can remember which box I packed the lamination stuff into). It's funny to watch her putter around the house repeating "le stylo est bleu". It's even funnier to watch her face when she actually came across a blue pen when she was saying it. I love to watch the progress of reading but get bewildered when she has no problem with the word, playing or sunshine, but when she sees a cvc word instead of sounding it out she will make a bizarre random guess. For example bad became cleaning, I think she sometimes makes random guesses based on the pictures in the stories. I'm waiting for the light bulb to go on though, I can actually remember the moment that it went on for me when I was 6.  Now scheduling, online vs paper? We have a Mac so many computer based planners won't work for us, but I like the idea of being able to move lessons forward or back without the use of an eraser or white out. I need to get my butt in gear and figure out how I want to go about everything. I see people on a forum that I frequent (TWTM Hive) and they have these fabulous detailed plans for their new school year and  I sit back in awe and reverence. By the way, does anybody know if Staples laminates huge wall posters (39x55)?

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Oh the perils of moving.....

We moved on the first (Canada Day = Bad day to move). It took all.day.long from 9:30 am to 9:00 pm to get everything over to the new apartment. Then we stayed up until 2:00 am trying to get the basic necessities set up and put away so we would have things for when we woke up. The next morning my dh had to get up at 5 in the morning to leave for the entire weekend. Which totally sucked because it left me alone to start attacking the boxes. I had to sit at home all day on Friday waiting for the satellite guy to show up because he was to be there between 8am and 5pm. It would be nice if they could pin point a more accurate time. He didn't show. The excuse of the company when I called was, there was no one home when he came. What? I stayed within 15 feet of the front door all day to ensure I wouldn't miss him. Now we won't have cable until Wednesday. Also, my phone and internet didn't transfer to the new house on the first like they were supposed to. I had to wait at home again today for the phone guy to show. He just came and he had to install a new jack because there wasn't a working one in the apartment apparently. This sucks. I am unpacking all by myself assembling beds and moving boxes and it is hot as hell outside. Although I will admit that this apartment is way less hot than the other one was. I managed to make a dent in the dining room/office/school room (a completely multifunctional room;) to hopefully get back into summer lessons on Monday, much to Roo's chagrin.  I would have posted pictures but the piles of boxes were too horrifying to keep documented. I just want to get into bed and sleep, but I probably won't from over stimulation and new surroundings (because I'm weird like that). At least I can hopefully sleep in tomorrow since I don't have to get around and wait for anyone to show.