That’s a wrap.

It’s official, we are un enrolled! Kids are lighthearted and we can feel excitement crackling in the air. Maybe that’s the freezy breeze… lol I don’t know! But really we are all much happier already. I was expecting some teary goodbyes but they never happened. The smiles were ear to ear through every, “I’ll miss you!” Keek picked up a flurry of phone numbers and Fish passed out digits to a number of kids too. I imagine the phone lines will be busy this afternoon! Both kids were invited back to parties throughout the year. We’ll see!

ok so maybe it’s not all that bad…

Turns out Keek wasn’t just having allergies.  She spiked a fever on Thursday and then was all better by Saturday.  Of course on Friday I called the Dr. and made an appt to satisfy the school and b/c the fever had gone over that magic 100 degree line.

I also spoke with the nurse at school.  She was great.  Really helpful and attentive and said all I need to do to avoid any kind of truancy issues is keep in touch with her.  To legitimize Fish’ asthma they keep a rescue inhaler at school and I got Keek her own scrip for allergy meds.  The truancy stuff I was so worried about, a few posts ago, only applies if there is no reason for the kiddos to be absent.  Yes, allergies are a legitimate reason.

The 24 hour fever policy only applies to fevers over 100 degrees.  So if one of the kids has an allergy fever of 99.0 and is fine the next morning they are ok to go to school.  But if they are drowsy, in pain or in other ways sick they are ok to stay home with the only explanation being allergies.  And they don’t need a Dr.s slip either.  And Fish’s absences have all been excused, too… so that’s good.   Pretty cool, now that I talked to the nurse.

The nurse and I discussed the H1N1 letter also.  Turns out the few cases weren’t necessarily H1N1 after all.  One case has been confirmed and the other three were assumed.  Either way, those students left on Wednesday’s and were back in classes by Monday.  The letter was sent out as a preventative so no parent could hold the school liable for not disclosing information.  What a bunch of mess!

Keek   L_O_V_E_S   school.  They got progress reports and shes doing just great. She’s got a bf, who’s mom teaches at the school and who’s dad ran over the phone cord with the lawn mower.  Sounds all too familiar! 

Fish loves recess, pe, free time centers, computers and art.  The rest of school he could do without!    He likes to read to the other kids and but he doesn’t think they get to do that enough.  His progress report had only good news too.  He said the kids tease him about his glasses so he wants Harry Potter frames when he goes back to the optometrist. 

Met with the principal regarding music instruction at the school.  It was not my idea but dh, mind you.  Somehow it got around to her requesting the curriculum I had made for Keek and Fish and her seeking funding with the superintendent.  I/we could be teaching music history/ appreciation/ theory one night a week.  Surprise!  Because it would be an after school activity I/we don’t need any kind of teaching credentials.  The curric has to meet or exceed the current Oklahoma PASS standards and that’s it.  Hopefully this lead will go somewhere!

Haven’t subbed yet so haven’t applied at other school districts.  Once I get that call though!  Maybe this week… cross your fingers!

Our first three day weekend.

This going to school bit is not too bad.

Keek got 100% on her spelling tests… Yay! I can’t spell so she must’ve inherited that from her dad. 

She learned how to make an origami fortune cookie this week when she had a sub.  Evidently her teacher doesn’t allow them but all the girls have been…

“… Just dying to make them!  I learned from a girl in another fourth grade class.  She taught me at recess.  When the sub said we had free time I taught all the girls in my class and we all had so much fun!  I love substitutes!”

Fish is learning about econimics.  As the student of the day he gets to be in the front of the line, switch lights on and off and open the doors.  So when he was at the beginning of the recess line the boy behind him asked if he would trade hime places…  “He said he’d give me TEN DOLLARS!  But he only gave me two. “

“Did you give him his money back?”

“No, I bought these with it!”  He said while beaming at me with new vampire teeth.

“Who did you buy them from?”  I asked.

“Hailey.  She said she’d give me my money back but I told her it was ok.  She got them out of the treasure box.”

“Oh.”

“And I got her phone number too, it’s xxx-xxxx and she’s coming over this weekend.”

“Oh?”

“Yea, we’re having a bar be que.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“Yea, it’ll be fun!  Bye, mom!” and off he went to play.  So I guess he’s learning networking and pick up lines too?

Well, this pleasent Monday evening I am glad to report the kids are excited about going to school tomorrow.  They want to see friends and Keek wants to show off her new homework folder.  This is the second time in as many weeks that she has had some homework issue.  The first time it was her misunderstnding as to what, “due on Friday” meant.  She’s given weekly reading logs, weekly spelling practice wkst’s and four, one sided math wkst’s.  The first week she didn’t get all the spelling (I think it was) completed beacuse she thought it was just for fun.  “Due on Friday” somehow escaped her.  And on Wednesday of this past week she lost the whole homework folder on the bus.  I don’t know what her teacher will do about it but I suppose we’ll find out.  So now she’s got a pretty rose folder.  Hopefully too pretty to loose! 

Friday night Fish came in from riding his bike with tears streaking his little dusty face.  I asked if he was hurt and he said no, he told me it wasn’t fair.

“What’s not fair?”

“At school everyone listens to me and all my friends do what I say.”

“They do?”

“Yes, it’s like I’m the King.”

Turns out dear sis wasn’t such a loyal subject, nor should she be.  All of a sudden I understood why Fish loves school so much.    After much consoling and smoothing of royal feathers he went back out to play with his princess sister and understood that if he was of royal lineage then she must be too.  Now when one is high and mighty the other refers to them as either, “King” or “Queen” and gender specific responces insue.  Either the “King” grunts and harumphs until he laughs or the “Queen” pounts, cross armed, until she laughs.  Pretty funny stuff.

Been busy out here at the new place.  Woring on staining the deck, making a path to the mailbox and general moving around of stuff.  Ch and I mowed and weed eated (ate?) yesterday and finished up today.  SO MUCH GRASS!  We were warned by the last lawn slave but didn’t take him as seriously as perhaps we should’ve.  Painted a rug on the linolium laundry room floor… maybe one day I’ll take a pic.  Still have to seal it so laundry is done carefully for a while.  Painted the mailbox too, lovely large black swirls cover it, looking like iron scrolling, with holly and ivy on the door and a rooted tree on the back.  Sealed with three coats of spray poly… should do the trick!

No luck on the van as of yet but soon, I hope!  Can’t wait for the cooling of fall and the onset of firewood and sweeping season.  Have been doing more advertizing but with little luck.  Bid a job but didn’t get it.  Ho hum fall will come.

Still the same on the job front for me… empty promises of, “you’re on the top of the list” and “as soon as I have an opening.”  We did sell the other house though, on payments.  Our buyer is a seemingly reliable, retired, adoptive single mom.  Hope all goes well with her.

Enough of this… I’m off to have some decaf tea.  Ahhhh, herbal refreshment!

What school means this week

We four are sick with the ‘back to school cold.’  Yech… our noses are alternately faucets and plugs.  Ew.

Keeker wants to join everything they offer at school.  I limited her to two after school activities.  She chose Drama team and 4-H.  But forgot her drama tryout permission slip and that was a dramatic production in and of itself!  She had wanted to be in the student council but all the job descriptions I provided had, “too much writing” for her taste.  She’s got one side of a math wkst, 15 minutes (min) reading plus log and one spelling sheet to complete as homework Monday-Thursday.  She doesn’t like to do it that way though.  She’ll do the math every day, Spelling on Monday and Tues then reading on Wed and Fri. Her teacher just wants it completed by Friday morning so I guess that’s ok.  But it makes more sense to me, to do one of each, daily.  This is one of those ‘gotta let it go’ kind of decisions.  She can do it her own way and do just fine.  I suppose…

Fish wants to keep cows for 4-H.  I tried to explain our space constraints but I don’t think he was convinced.  hahaha  Hopefully I can sway him to sheep.  He could have two ewes.  They’d even help mow!  He got to get a prize out of the treasure chest day before yesterday.  It’s a reward/incentive for good behavior.  Then yesterday he got a “Best Helper” sticker.  Or something like that.  I asked who got to go to the treasure box and he said no one.  I guess you can’t go 2 days in a row… even if you are the best helper!  He really wanted to carry a cold lunch to school because then he won’t have to wait in line and he’ll be able to go out and play sooner.  So today both kids took lunches.  We’ll see what happens!

There is an elementary dance this Friday evening and both kids are excited about going.  I wonder if they’ll dance the hokey pokey??

School time Peace of Mind

School time is around the corner so I’ve printed off my “peace of mind” sheets! On this pile of paper I write what the kids do and learn daily. I’ll start recording information on August 18th and keep 180 days of records. I do this, totally, for my own comfort as my state doesn’t require records. Like the boy scouts say, “Always Be Prepared”!

I have been using Donna Young dot org printouts for the past three years. I have waffled back and forth on what is the most convenient way for me to record the days activities. I keep returning to the same four rows and five columns. This year (because I found the time) I added a pretty little picture and inspirational quote to the bottom of each page. Each page equates to a week of time and each kiddo gets two columns.

We are doing mandatory math. Mandatory meaning I really want them to do a page every day. Actually, I don’t so much care about a page a day… as long as they finish these little workbooks and understand the basic of math with which to build on. So I guess I’m aiming at a page a day! These are good little workbooks with color illustrations and enough but not too many problems per page. Keek has a minimum of 4 word problems to, at most, 36 memory (classic 2×2, 2×3, 2×4, 2×5…) problems a page. Fish has a story problem book (trying to tie in reading) with roughly 5 problems per page.

Also… I got my hands on a great reading list (by age- not grade) and have picked some books to plant around the house and at least, expose, the children too. I picked one a week all the way to Winter Break! When I start recording our activities I’ll post the books, too!

As far as science goes we have the “What Your 4th Grader Need To Know” and “What your 1st Grader Needs To Know” books by E.D. Hirsch. Keek has been carrying around the fourth grader book for a month now and keeps coming up with kooky science experiments. I’m not sure if she’s gathering them from the pbskids.org/zoom website, the mythbusters website, some other website or her 4th grader book! At any rate she’s excited to be the mad kitchen scientist once again!

Fish seems most interested in the History of Piracy. We’ve been watching pirate movies this summer and I have a sneaking suspicion that his love of pirates will continue into the fall. Perhaps it will segway into the Spanish Conquistadors and right into the 1st grader history section!

When school starts I’ll post the science and history discoveries and any other cool stuff we’ve found along the way!