All of the Sudden It's Spring

It's really hard to believe that just over two weeks ago we made snowmen in our backyard because we've been enjoying 80 degree weather for a week now.  We've been spending HOURS outside every day.  The kids are wearing shorts and I need to get some.  It's so perfect, and I have to enjoy it before it becomes miserable.  I wonder if this means we'll have an unusually long, hot summer?  I hope it just means an unbelievably awesome spring.

Anyway, I've been eager for a warm day when it was my turn to host playschool just so we could use the bubble machine and play with ooblick.  I got my wish last Tuesday.  Note: 8 small children + 1 bubble machine + 1 pan of ooblick + 1 unfenced backyard = bad pictures

Here's the bubble machine.  I love this so much better than using a bubble wand for two reasons: 1. I don't have to do it.  2. The kids can fulfill the urge to blow bubbles in their drink.   

 Ooblick is corn starch and water.  With the right amount of water it becomes a cross between a solid and a liquid and feels SO COOL.  You can grab it in a ball, but if you loosen your grip, it will drip through your fingers.  I haven't done this much because I had this funny idea that it was messy.  It turns out I was right and wrong.  These kids COVERED themselves in it, and I was wondering if any parents were going to be upset with me.  They put it in each other's hair, on their faces, and all over their clothes.

Here's Logan trying to show me his mess (before he got a lot messier).  Well, after the ooblick was gone (because it was all over them) I just let them play outside for a while.  Then I had this idea to try a dry washcloth on the kids.  It was magical.  Every bit brushed off their skin, hair, and clothes; I didn't even have to rub!  There was no evidence when their parents arrived.  I'm definitely doing this more often!

Playing outside was seriously so fun last week.

I've been amazed at all the trees and bushes that are blossoming already with this weather. 

Outside, wearing shorts, eating apples, and new leaves growing in the background!  Yes!  I think a trip to the arboretum may be due in short order...

An Alex Post

Alex has noticed how Logan and Annie make letter sounds when they work on reading, so he's jumped on the wagon.  He is SO funny.  Anytime he looks at a book, he goes, "Aah, ay, ooh, ee, oh, aah, etc..."  I love it!

Math

Last Thursday after a good school session I put Annie (who was grumpy) and Alex down for naps.  Then I went to work in the kitchen.  Pretty soon, Logan appeared with a piece of paper and a pencil.  He wanted some math problems.  We haven't been working on math during school at all.  Sometimes he's asked a math related question and we've answered him (like when he wanted to figure out his tithing).  We don't have a textbook yet, and have never written problems down for him to figure out.  So I didn't know quite where to start with him.

I initially wrote some single digit sums.  He did those in his head.  Then I wrote some harder single digit sums.  He did those in his head as well.  So we moved on to double digits.  After he was finished, he told me that he was done, but next time he wanted some HARD math.   

It's hard to see, but I took a picture of his page.  I was quite impressed with his ability considering we've never focused on math.

He was SO pleased with himself, and has been asking to do math every day since. 

On Friday, I went looking for some math pages in the workbooks we have (which we never use).  I was quite surprised that he's already at the end of 1st grade math without even trying!  (At least according to those books.)  Wow!  Inspire not require!  Yes!

P.S. I sent him outside to play a bit ago and before he went he asked, "Mom, after we go outside can we do some math?"

Youth Vs. Teenager

Here's an article for the day by Michael Platt, PHd:

“We have two teenagers,” I sometimes hear parents say. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” I sometimes reply. Although I say it with a smile, the truth is sad.

Teenagers are not inevitable, natural, or God-given. The Teenager was invented, fashioned, permitted—let loose you might say—by the generation of our parents and grandparents. Discovering that may help us to raise our children differently.

There were no “teenagers” before World War II. Ask those still living who raised their children before then. Or spend a rainy Saturday in the basement of your library, comparing old Life magazines from before the War and after.

Instead of Teenagers, there were Youths. Youths were young people who wanted to become adults. However confused, wayward, or silly they acted, however many mistakes they made, they looked to the future, wanted to make it different from their youth, and planned to. They were aware that life is more than youth. The Teenager has no such horizon. Beyond the “Teeny” world there is no adult life, no past with heroes, no future with goals.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.tjed.org/2011/04/youth-versus-teenager/