Ten on Tuesday.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 09:06AM 1. Here's that pile of Lego instructional booklets that I threw out last weekend:
;)
(The pic doesn't really do it justice...there are hundreds of booklets here, piled within and on top of and next to each other.) And. Don't judge me, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to throw them all away. As it turns out, Nathan's parents had felt the same way...because I found all sorts of vintage instruction booklets in the pile. (They belonged to the sets Nathan had growing up...the sets that the boys inherited years ago...that Nathan at one point had thought would be plenty to last them for years of play, LOL.) So, I pulled the older booklets (because I just thought they looked cool) and saved the cover of each of the other booklets. I figure one day I could wallpaper the Lego room with them or something. ;)
2. Micah's "R" word this week in kindergarten was "rhombus." (I know you were wondering, lol.) For the record, we've not covered shapes like that in Micah's math lessons as of yet...he got it out of Noah's lesson book, which he apparently likes to look through for kicks.
3. Just gotta pat myself on the back for a moment because during the last couple weekends, amidst watching football playoff games, I managed to sort, reorganize and finally label all of my scrapbook albums and also finally put all of the boys' school work and such, that I'd had in boxes, into binders by year. Woohoo!
4. Does anyone have any experience with whether teaching kids another language will confuse their learning of English spelling and phonetics? I really want to start Latin with the boys but am concerned that new rules for what the letters say and whatnot will possibly set us back with our English lessons. Input? Hmmm. Actually, I think I'm just going to go for it. I can always stop if it becomes a problem. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Would still love any input if you do have some!
5. Watching the Seahawks lately has reminded me of my dad. :) So. I made this layout:
;)
(Click on it to make it larger...you can read the journaling then.)
6. In case you were wondering, Asher and his casted arm are doing fine. My paranoia and stress level, on the other hand, could use some TLC. The boy just isn't built to be still or "safe" or calm. I know this. I do. I've been trying very hard to stop cautioning him, particularly of late. But today the boy found himself falling/slipping while playing tag outside...obviously couldn't catch himself with his hands...so decided to somersault out of it. Oy. Really, really looking forward to the start of February when this is hopefully all over. :)
7. I'm hereby taking any recommendations on places that print digital scrapbook layouts. In reorganizing my albums earlier, I've realized that I have a number of layouts that I've done digitally but never printed. I'd like to print them individually and slide them in with the other layouts rather than print them altogether into a book of their own. Suggestions?
8. I just realized that in my zeal to get the house back to rights after the holidays, I neglected to take pictures of some of the ornaments that made their debut this Christmas. Poo. Remind me next December, okay? Thanks.
9. Later today, I really am going to have the boys diagram Yoda dialogue for part of our grammar lesson. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)
10. No particular reason but I just felt like saying how much I appreciate our local library. Love it there...love that I can reserve things via their online system and then just pick things up there...love that if they don't have something I can still usually get it via their partner libraries...love that the branch we frequent is right next to Spooners... ;) (Yes, we're likely headed to the library this afternoon...)
How's your Tuesday going?
Reader Comments (4)
Hey Amanda,
Just some info for you.
1 - My parents tried teaching my sister German when she was young (maybe 3-4 ish?) and it caused her to begin stuttering. She wasn't sure which word to use for something, and she tripped and stumbled over the words. They gave it up pretty quickly, and figured they'd get her to master one language at a time. On the other hand, I have a girlfriend of mine who is bilingual, as is her spouse, in English and Dutch. They have taught their children both languages from birth. Mom speaks only English to the children, Dad speaks only Dutch. This has worked REALLY well for them!
2 - I believe COSTCO prints 12x18 pages so you can print a 12x12 scrapbook layout tiled with three 4x6 prints in one sheet, and it's fairly cost effective! I haven't done this myself, but know somebody else who's a digital/hybrid scrapper, and this is what she does!
That's my two cents! Hope you have a great day! XXOO,
-Val
I think when it comes to teaching young children languages it is helpful if one or both of the parents is fluent. I think that the difficulty with Latin is that it's not a commonly spoken language. It's more used in research and the like. I have the feeling your boys will handle it well and like you said, you can always try again later.
I am so glad I am not the only mother with an action packed boy. My 5 year old Simon is forever jumping, tumbling and running. It never stops. Did you notice any difference after putting Asher in martial arts? We have been thinking about it but wondering if 5 is too young.
I have all my enlargements printed at scrapbookpictures.com. They do excellent work, the prices are great and I love that they a a local 'mom and pop' shop here in the Portland area. I've had stuff printed at Costco and it's just too hit or miss for my taste when it comes to my enlargements.
My son's middle school required Latin for two years. Their reasoning was that 90% of the English language has its roots in Latin and they found that it helped later on when the kids are taking SAT's and ACT's in the vocabulary portion.
Same son is now an English teacher (and Star Wars enthusiast). I was reading him your post the other day about 'Yoda Speak' and he said it might be a fun activity to have them diagram similar sentences in 'proper' grammer and 'yoda' to see the similarities and differences. He thinks there would be more similarities.
Hey Amanda; Re: your language quesiton. I am a BIG fan of teaching languages young. When we were in high school it started then; but now my middle school kiddos take foreign language. And Latin would be a HUGE help with vocab. I have a friend who's local district gave each new kidnergartner a Rosetta Stone software kit in Mandarin Chinese. And P.S. TOTALLY jealous of the family who knows English and Dutch...Sean and I just bought ourselves Rosetta Stone in Dutch :-)
Tot ziens!
:-)Michelle