Though Jack is only four, I have found myself telling him many times something about "back when Mama and Daddy were little..." Today I added a new one: Back when Mama and Daddy were little, we would never have gotten a snow day if the roads looked like this! Here's an observation, school districts: If I can get around town (yes, even in the neighborhood) in my Corolla, I'm pretty sure that the buses and the SUVs can make it, too. Sheesh.
This morning we stopped by McDonald's before hitting the road back home. We all got our regular orders and started on our way. Jay and I were talking and Jack was making sounds in the back seat. We weren't really paying attention until we noticed he was saying, "guh-ooo-duh" and then, "goooduh" and finally, "Good! Does this say good?" He held up his hashbrown wrapper, and sure enough, right there on the sun is printed, "Good morning!" Jay and I looked at each other, pretty surprised. "Did you just sound that out all by yourself?" "Yes." Oh. Of course you did. Pretty cool.
Don't skip the park on any January days where the temperature is above 70 degrees. That would just be wrong.
I don't usually get political here, but I have been asked by several people if I've heard about Senate Bills 308 and 472. I have, and I've emailed my state senators and the education committee. I'm linking them here, though, so you can read about them if you haven't already. Not only am I opposed to these bills as a homeschooling parent, but as a former teacher in the public schools here, I have to wonder who in the district is going to be responsible for dealing with all of this new paperwork? Probably someone who is already drowning in unnecessary paperwork. If you are against these bills, please contact the appropriate people listed on the links. If you support them, please don't mention it to me! ; )
No, this isn't going where you think it is. I turned on the inauguration coverage this morning and tried to get Jack interested, but it wasn't going to happen. He was much more concerned that his Planet Heroes would like the menu I was trying to plan for the next two weeks.Tonight we began reading Farmer Boy aloud at bedtime. We looked at some of the pictures and talked about how this was a story about a real little boy who lived a long time ago. The story went into how Almanzo's mother made his clothes from the wool from his father's sheep, and it included a sentence that sent Jack into a tailspin. Are you ready? "His underwear was creamy white, but his mother had dyed the wool for his outside clothes."As soon as the sentence was out of my mouth, I heard, "What??"Me: His underwear was white, but his mom dyed the other clothes different colors.Jack: It was WHITE?? (This was accompanied by him grabbing my head and turning me to look him right in the eyes. Surely your mom can't look in your eyes and lie, right?)Me: Yes.Jack: Why?Me: Well, his mom probably didn't want to go to the trouble of messing with his underwear when she had a bunch of other work to do.Jack: It was white?This went on for about five minutes. He still didn't seem to believe me, but I tried explaining that sometimes people do wear white underwear. Not everyone has a dinosaur on their backside each day. Shocking. And now we know: Sometimes color does matter.
On one of our several days stuck in the house, we tried ice painting. I saw this idea on No Time for Flashcards and thought it looked great for an icy day (or a hot one, too). First, put paint in an ice cube tray. I just used plain old tempera paint--the kind you can get in a big bottle really cheap at Hobby Lobby. Fill the tray with water and freeze.
The next morning, the paint cubes looked like this. I took them out and let them melt for a few minutes before we started painting.
I did think that Jack might not like holding the ice, but he really enjoyed it. At first, most of the paint came out looking like watercolors, but as more of the ice was melted away, the colors were bolder.
This painting of Santa and his reindeer was Jack's favorite.
