Quick Micah funny...

Lest you think that the kid has stopped being hilarious...thought I'd share this little story from earlier today. First, let me remind you about the "place game" that we play as a family...a simple way to pass the time and sneak in a little geography. ;) Well, given that Micah's only just 5 and all, we make allowances for him to make up a few of his own places for the sake of the game. One that he's kept coming back to time and again...Dingdongia. Yes. Really. 

Anyhow. Today we somehow got onto the topic of "if I opened a restaurant..." and Micah's, obviously, was going to be called "Dingdongia." What will Dingdongia serve, you ask? Well, he says...cheeseburgers, ding dongs, ice cream, mac & cheese...and a number of his other favorite foods that he went on to list. After learning from Noah what a slogan is (Noah, meanwhile, was talking up his own "Tacomania" where the slogan would be either "Mmmm...tacos!" or "We love tacos. You should, too."), Micah decided his would be "a ding dong with every meal!" Yup, ding dongs as the side item instead of fries. That's what he said.

Doesn't it make you want to go buy a box of ding dongs right now? ;)

Snapshot of our morning...

This is how our home looked this morning...

On Wednesday mornings, I don't have scheduled school work, as I believe the boys benefit from having a bit of a break at least one morning each week...helps keep us all sane. ;) The story behind these pictures begins yesterday, though. Yesterday (which, btw, was our "official" start of the school year...feeling a little blue that I didn't do something cool to commemorate it, though) I introduced two new things to our school routine:

1. Calendars. Once upon a time I did a morning calendar with the boys...the type you see in classrooms everywhere where a kid gets to add the number in the correct day spot. Then I got tired of doing that and just stopped. This year, though, I'm having them each keep their own 8x8 calendar. At the start of the month, we'll sit down and write out what they have going on that month. When the year is over, I'll have a quick calendar page that can be added to each boy's school album that not only shows what went on but also captures his handwriting progress. Coolio. As an added bonus (and really my true motivation), I'm hoping it will help stop the constant line of questions about what today is and when such-and-such is and how many more days until the thingamajig. ;) And maybe, just maybe, it will be the start of some good time management skills. ;)

In any case, the middle picture up there is Micah working on filling in his calendar with Options, karate and soccer. Isn't he cute? :)

2. Reading program. Remember when I was telling you about the awesome summer reading program our local library does? Well, I actually followed through on that thought and started our own monthly reading program. Yay, me! So, yesterday, I presented each boy with his monthly tally sheet that has a bunch of little "clocks" to be filled in as they read and a list of possible "prizes" for different amounts of reading. The prizes are things that I'd honestly probably get the boys in a given month anyhow (shhh...don't tell them) and that extra little motivation seems to be making a world of difference.

(We're talking things like an ice cream cone or dessert at a local place that they love or going to lunch just with me or Nathan or, of course, a small Lego set...had to make sure they really would want something, right? LOL. And, yes, they immediately latched onto that particular prize and began asking what constitutes "small" and whether they could use the cash value of that and add their own money to get a bigger set and whether if they read twice as much as that level they would get a set twice as big. Nothing wrong with their bargaining skills, lol.)

In any case, we're looking at this first month as a trial run to work out kinks and have explained as much to the boys. So far, though, I think it's going well. Definitely better than my attempts last year at having them read the same amounts and keep sort of a reading journal with books read and such. Apparently just having a list of things read and knowing you'd read a certain amount isn't enough motivation for my very science and math oriented boys, lol.

So, with visions of prizes dancing in their heads, they've been reading since we got home from the library yesterday. :) (I'm sure it will taper off but am just so delighted to see them excited about it.) Asher and Noah appear to be in some sort of race to see who can read the most (hence the pictures above). I find it awesome (and very true to form) that Asher gravitates toward the stories and chapter books and likes to read with the character voices and emotion. Noah, meanwhile (and also incredibly true to form), is much more likely to be reading non-fiction...the one above is the Physics book in the line we really enjoy...he finished the Chemistry one last night. ;) (Also, notice that Asher tends to prefer to do any of his schoolwork and such sitting up while Noah has almost always preferred to lie on his stomach. Odd.) Micah, though not pictured reading, has also been reading, though he refused all of my offers at the library of the nice easy readers like Bob Books...claiming they were just too easy and he didn't want to bother with those. :)

Anyhow. That's what our home looked like this morning. Happy sigh. :)

Yesterday.

In case folks were wondering, we didn't really do anything in particular for Labor Day. Growing up, Labor Day was called States Day and was a big deal in my little hometown. We always had a big parade and carnival and it was great fun. My sister says they had a blast there this year. I miss that. :) 

Sigh. We did, though, manage to go on a bit of a family bike ride yesterday:

Okay, so it wasn't really a very lengthy ride. Asher's training wheels somewhat limit how far we go right now. So, we all biked to the neighborhood park...the boys played some soccer with Nathan...and then we split up. Nathan and Noah took the bike path to its southern end while I led the other two home. It was good. :) Hoping to manage more and longer rides this fall.

Also, did you notice? We bumped all three boys up on bikes. Asher's now on Noah's old 18" bike (still with training wheels, though he's working on that)...Noah's on a new 20" bike complete with gears and suspension and all...and Micah's on Asher's old 16" bike, though for any distances we stick him in the trailer for speed's sake, lol. 

And, yes, this transition on bikes prompted numerous complaints about the justice of hand-me-downs, since Noah continually gets to pick something new and the other two settle for what's been outgrown. As neither Nathan nor I ever really had to experience hand-me-downs (being the only and the oldest children), we do feel for the boys. But. As we pointed out, in this particular case, all the bikes involved were really in very good condition, having been used infrequently. Plus, it's generally only bigger things like this that get the hand-me-down treatment...I still have a tendency to buy them all clothes (since I like them to coordinate, lol) and such. And our neighbor even chimed in about how her younger brother always complained about getting *her* hand-me-down bikes, so we pointed out to the boys that at least they like the things Noah picks. Still. As you can guess, Asher and Micah are a little irked. But they'll live. ;)

Happy Cakes!

Just a quick picture from yesterday...was called upon for some impromptu girlfriend time with two of my best friends (have known Melissa and Molly since undergrad and am so glad that we all ended up here in Colorado)...

We gathered at my pal Molly's place and then did lunch, window shopping and dessert. ;) The first part of our dessert was stopping at Happy Cakes and each getting a cupcake. Just outside, I realized that their purple brick wall would be a great place to take a picture, so here we are, holding our bags with our cupcakes. (Yes, you may bow down to our patience...we took them to go in those little bags and didn't actually eat them until later, lol.)

For the record, we contemplated taking a jumping picture (scroll down) since it was such an awesome wall, but I wasn't confident that I could land in the wedge sandals that I was wearing without twisting something, LOL. 

After that, we headed to Little Man Ice Cream and enjoyed some delicious ice cream yumminess before going back to Molly's for some good girl talk. ;) Happy day!

More than ready...

So. Local public schools here started two weeks ago. We've been homeschooling through the summer. Asher will bump up to doing karate twice a week now (Micah's still at just once a week). Our first soccer practice of the fall season is later today. But. The boys' Options program (one day a week during the school year) doesn't start until September 13.

The boys are tired of waiting. ;) 

On the plus side, yesterday we had the Options "orientation" to pick up class schedules and all. The boys are stoked. Noah's pleased with his schedule...he got most of the classes he wanted and will be taking:

• Investigative Science 
• PE
• Art
• Gadgets & Gizmos
• Music/Drama
• Ameritowne

Technically, this year Noah is in fourth grade. At Options, all classes for that age range are 4-6th grade combined classes, so it works well for us. Asher's similarly happy. Though this is technically his second grade year (given that summer birthday, we'd have waited a year to keep Asher and Noah two years apart in school), he takes third grade classes at Options. He'll have:

• Science
• Reading
• PE
• Recorder/Chimes
• Music/Drama
• Math

And Micah. Well, Micah's pretty much thrilled that he gets to go this year.  We went over to meet his kindergarten teacher (one we have experience with, as she taught Noah a couple years ago for science and reading). Got to talking (as she was gathering information on her students). And, apparently, we're going to bump Micah to the first grade classes for reading and math. He'll stay with the kindergarten class most of the time, but will join the first graders for those two classes, as he's already beyond what she'll be teaching in kindergarten. :) Yet another reason I love this program. So willing to work with the individual student needs. :) Hopefully it'll all be good. (I think so.)

Sidenote. Part of me is reluctant to let him join the first grade classes. He only just turned five at the end of July after all. If we were enrolling him in public school, we might well wait another year before starting kindergarten. Okay. We probably wouldn't wait with this one. ;) But. It's only one day a week and I already do higher than kindergarten level stuff with him at home all the time. So. I suppose it just makes good sense to continue to challenge him while he's willing and able. Just hard to think about my baby being ready for kindergarten, let alone first grade. Sigh. :)

As further proof that the boy is just growing up too fast...here's a replay of a conversation overheard yesterday:

Noah: “What’s 9 times 9?”

Micah: “81. I know because there were two tree houses and one grew 8 apples and the other grew only 1. That means that one tree house grew 7 more apples than the other.”

Noah: “How did you figure that out?” (I *think* Noah was looking to see if Micah knew that he'd multiplied and subtracted.)

Micah: (looking at Noah in a baffled sort of way) “With ease.” Duh.

(Note: Micah's "story" that helped him figure out the multiplication problem comes from Times Tales. The boys use Times Tales as a math supplement and it’s awesome…has a little story for each multiplication problem...totally easy and quick to use. I think I neglected to include this in the post I did on what we use for math...serious oversight.)

So. Yeah. They're ready. ;)