April Fools

April Fools!  But, it's not a joke.  There were Bloodroots bursting into bloom, a full three weeks ahead of schedule.  Here's a photo I shot with my iPod while I was out running.

It's terrible shot, I know, but I just had to have proof in hand that these little guys were really there on April 1. 

Compliment Gone Awry

Whenever I see Christian get that look in his eye and make a beeline to talk to a stranger, I know it's not going to end well {for me}. Tonight after church was over, I saw him heading toward a man getting up to leave. I trailed Christian just in time to hear him say with much enthusiasm, "You could be on the Biggest Loser!" Are you imagining me cringing? Oh my word. But let me backup and say that Christian meant this as the highest compliment. My kids love that show. Of course you can imagine it might not have been so well received. Thankfully for me, the man happens to have a son with Asperger's. I don't really know the family, but I'm hoping he didn't take the comment too personally, and maybe, just maybe, he even went home and had a little chuckle about it.

Christian does not have a mean bone in his body. He would never intentionally hurt anyone's feelings. It's just that he sees the world so differently than the average person. After all, how could anyone not want to be on that popular TV show?

Leap!

Anna has begged to take dance forever {too many Angelina Ballerina books!}.  Finally this winter, we let Anna step into the world of dance via a community education class.  The students had their final class today and got to show the parents a few moves. 

I was a little frightened at how well Anna had this move down.  Look at her shaking those hips!

Even though the kids didn't learn anything very technical, Anna gave it her all.  Her enthusiasm was something to be proud of.

But truthfully, I wish I had signed her up for the six-year-old class because being with a whole lot of preschoolers was a little boring.

Crazy Day at School

Cursive

I remember last year, one of the boys told me, "[classmate] writes her name in cursive."  They were impressed.  But hey, she had an older sister to teach her, and her name is only four letters long.  The other night Christian showed me he could write his whole name in cursive.   For some reason, I think he's starting to like cursive, even though he dislikes writing in general. 

Then last night, Ehren came home with his name written in cursive on both of his math worksheets.

I like it!

Anna Hits the Slopes

Please, Dad, please.  Will you take me skiing?  When, Dad, when?

Even though her brothers didn't get to ski until they turned seven, Dad finally agreed to take Anna skiing for a few hours on her day off school. 

Lucky for Dad, Anna's a good student.

Lucky for Anna, Dad used to be a ski instructor.

Ready?

Here we go!

This is the life, baby!

Midterm Update

While school takes effort for Ehren and Christian, they both brought home a glowing mid-term report this week with mostly A's and a couple of B's. 

I was hoping that would be the case since they've continued to have many perfect spelling tests and have been scoring 97-99% on recent timed 100 Math Facts tests.

Their teacher works hard to devise creative, engaging learning opportunities for the class.  She recently brought her two dogs, Rocky and Lexis, to class as subjects for a descriptive writing exercise.  Since then, every Friday, two students are selected to bring home a stuffed animal version of Rocky or Lexis for the weekend.  They write in a class journal about their weekend with their stuffed animal sidekick.  Writing is definitely the big challenge of second grade.

Next up, they have to power through writing their first big report on a historical figure and giving a presentation to their class.  Ehren chose George Washington, and Christian chose Thomas Jefferson.  They have finished reading the book they chose about their historical figure and have found one alternative source of information from the Internet.  They need to find one more.  At school, they're taking notes and preparing their reports.  The final presentation is coming up in less than a month.  More on this to come, but in the meantime, wish them luck!