What a summer- part 1

As I get some time to write as Pat sits next to me doing a book report and baby Aidan take a morning nap. I probely should be doing the wash but, I haven't blogged in a while. Well I guess I will start with the major events outside of our family this summer. The first was the hunt for Bucky an escasped convit, we had to lock our cars and homes, something we do not normally do here. And to get from my home to church we had to pass through 3 check ponits. Were the troopers would stop you and search your car. The kids got to the point were there kept asking did you catch him yet.

 

And we thought this was going to be the biggest thing this summer, well not 3 weeks after Bucky moved on to another area of the state. We had rain ,lots of rain. I am talking lots. We ended up with a 200 year old flood this was after a 100 year old flood the year before. While our home was OK, many had lots of flood damange. Our Church had water up to the celings of the basement. We lost all of our Sunday school ,craft stuff, files,everything but our puppets. Some one had saved them and washed them for us over and over agian.

 

Our town Garage

This is a road the metal at the bottom right corner is a guard rail.

 

It wasn't just the water it was also the fact that it was river water, sewage, mud, fuel oil. It is now October and people are still living in FEMA trailers, which may be ok in the south but are not made to live in through a New York winter. People our still trying to get there heat on. Our church is doing ok, we are doing Sunday school in every nook and corner of the Church. And we do have the basement srubbed down and are deciding on what to do, weather to rebuild or do somthing different.

 

I do have to say that the churches have come through on this one, the local Presbytary has set up a village for workers to live in as they go from house to house repairing and cleaning out.

 

For my family it was the damage to our church and the fact that there was no way out of town for three days as all the roads out were washed out, that affected us the most.

A long time

Well I will be writing more about the past year later, but we did add a new baby.

Nolan's Birthday

This year due to Dh being on active duty we are doing family only birthday parties. When Nolan was asked what he wanted to do for his birthday his answer was rollar skating and Taco Bell.

 

So on Sunday night we headed to Taco Bell were I have to say the kids finished every bite of their meal. Then it was off to the skating ring were the price was right 13.00 for the whole family and this included an extra 1.00 for the younger ones to play in this big indoor playground.

 

I was very surprised with Nolan's skating he usally gives up on gross motor activities that he can't do like riding a bike or tying his shoes. But every time he fell he got right back up and tried agian for over an hour. I was so proud of him and rollar skating is on the list of things to do agian this year.

Reading to the Childern

I have gotten out of practice as the children have all grown to read on there own, but I used to read to them each night and have come to the conclusion I need to find the time to do this again.

 

What happened was Nolan found the book Mother West’s Children and said to me “ Mom remember when you read this book to us at night “ then Conner piped in “ yea mom remember when you read that book about King Arthur. “

 

That was only last year but they make me feel as if I haven’t read out loud to them in forever, but from their point of view it has been forever. So I am going to make the time to read to them at least 3 times a week and hopefully every day.

What is Pat currently reading

Our son Pat is a boy who cannot get enough to read, he switches between modern science fiction and the classics. Currently he is reading stories from the Junior Classics published in 1912, as I like to collect older books. He just finished reading a section on Arabian Nights including Ali Baba and the forty thieves, The story of Aladdin, and Sindbad the sailor.

 

He has also just finished the first 6 books of the Pendragon series. This year he has also read Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe, and Twenty Leagues under the sea, and a bunch of stories about the Greeks.

 

His other favorite series are all the Redwall Books, each year he cannot wait for the next one to come out.

 

What we did to get him to read the classics was when he was younger he read the children’s version, then when he wanted more detail we handed a harder version of the book, until he could read and understand the unabridged version.

 

Now just to get his younger brother Nolan to read a longer chapter book with out having a panic attack. I am thinking of reading My Father’s Dragon with him, as it was one of Pat’s favorites at that age.

Hands on Spelling ideas

I thought I would share some ideas that I will use for hands on spelling, this summer to help the kids. We will be trying them out Easter week, and I have seen most of them used in my son's 2nd grade classroom.

 

1. Shaving cream - I use a placemat, and shaving cream.( placemat free, shaving cream .99 a can )

 

2. Bumpy Boards - Plastic Canvas (from the craft department), plain paper and crayon. The child writes each word out on the white paper that is on top of the plastic canvas, and then runs their finger over each letter. ( plastic canvas .25 )

 

 

3. Abc order – they have to place the words in ABC order, for those with trouble handwriting they use index cards with their words written on them.

 

4. White board – they write there words 3 x each on a white board (more fun then paper)

 

 

5. Magnetic Letters – I use a clear craft sorter divided into 25 spots, and on top write the letters in sharpie. Then I have about 5 sets of magnetic letters sorted into the container. And they use a cookie sheet from the dollar store to spell their word out on. For the older kids I sometimes use scrabble letter tiles instead. ( total cost to make 5.00 for dollar tree letter, 4.00 for 2 craft sorters, and 1.00 for a cookie sheet)

 

 

6. And lastly I made up a simple game board, and each child has a pile of there own words written on index cards, starting from the beginning and adding as time goes by. They take turns rolling the die and spelling the words from there pile. And for wrong answers they have go back one space. My Kindergarten child sometimes spells the word or I may have her read it to me instead. A great way to review words.( index cards .99, foam board 1.00, stickers 2.00, scrap paper free )

 

Except for the game these are all activities that they can do on their own and must do each activity 1x per week, I will make a check list that they can use to keep track of which ones they have done.

 

I will be using the Spelling Power book to place them on the right lists and using the lists for their words. I will modify it some by giving them 10 words per week, so over a 6 week summer learning period they should do 60 words.

 

Weekend plans

Weekend work list

 

Outdoor work:

 

Small trash pick up along edge of property (driveway, backyard)

Rake trash in large trash area.

Restack un- stacked wood

Van clean out and vacuum

Measure and plan spot for shed

Burn cardboard

 

Indoor work:

 

Dad – paint wall in living room

          Rest of carpet out and bagged

          Fix wiring in kitchen

          Change light bulb in Garage (mom can’t reach)

 

Mom- feed everyone

            Keep kitchen clean

            Supervise kids work indoors

 

Patrick – help dad with outside work

               Keep family room clean

 

Sarah- Help dad with outside work

           Keep living room and dining room clean

 

Conner – Help dad with outside work

                Keep upstairs bathroom clean.

 

Nolan – Help dad with outside work

              Keep stairs swept, and hallway clean

 

Kathryn – Help dad with outside work

                 Help mom with jobs

 

              

Fun stuff –

Saturday – Sarah All- County Chorus – concert at 3pm (Norwich)

Sunday – Church 9-12

               Puppet 12-1

               Nolan Birthday dinner 5-6pm (Taco Bell)

               Family Skate Oneonta – 6- 8:30 (family of 4 – 8.00, 1.00 for each extra) (total cost 11.00)

              Bedtime

 

And hopefully baby won’t decide to be born this weekend, as there just isn’t time to fit it in.