Perfectionistic DS4 made it through his first day of hockey!! With his SPD, I did not think we would be able to even get him in the gear (cup, shin guards, elbow pad, shoulder pads, scratchy socks, tight skates, heavy helmet with face mask, stiff gloves). And I figured he would fall once, scream hysterically and refuse to try anymore. He thought he would step onto the ice and skate like our hometown hero Sidney Crosby. Not only did he tolerate the gear, but he kept going back out on the ice after every bout of hysterical crying. He wanted to play hockey SO bad.

Now, he never actually stood up on his skates, but at the end he was scooting around on his knees and shooting at the net. He left with a smile on his face. May seem like a small victory, but it is huge for him!!

My DD8 lost another tooth last night. We told her that she is lucky and she was going to get money from the tooth fairy. She smiled and said the tooth fairy A.K.A Mom will put money under her pillow. We asked why she thought Mom is the tooth fairy. She said when she lost her teeth when she was 6, she googled tooth fairy and she was very sure then it was us putting the money and not tooth fairy. And the same goes for Santa Claus!

But she admit she likes getting money from tooth fairy or whoever and presents from Santa Claus or whoever :-)

Not quite a brag, more of a giggle:

Dad: conversation into "... Violence is never the answer."
Bear (5): "It is if you are in the Army."
Dad: "Ok well, violence is rarely ever the answer."
Bear: a minute or two later, "What about if someone is trying to kill you?"

And people tell me my kids are easy...

I think you have a hockey player on your hands!!

I can relate to holding my breath while I get my DS6 into his gear. I fear asking "too tight, too loose." but he gets out there on the ice and all is forgotten and he has never had a bad day on the ice.

What do you have on top of your refridgerator? (or just out of reach?)

I have a ziplock bag of rehydrated moss, a microscope, several "petri dish" containers of dirt, moss, rocks, etc. put up high so my DS6 will at least try to go to bed and stop thinking about finding tardigrades in his "discoveries".

Was just reminded of a funny one (this is for the Carrie Underwood fans)

DS was 7 and we were trying to impress upon him that swearing is rude. He had a frustrating moment, and thinking he was alone, said:

"Jesus!"

...then he looks up, sees me, and continues:

"take the wheee-eeel... take it from my haaaand... 'cause I can't do this on my own."

I was just contacted by someone hoping to schedule an audition for DD for an upcoming local theater company production (semiprofessional production, I guess you would call it--it's mostly adults with some small children's parts). She went to theater camp there, not this last summer but the one before. Unfortunately, she couldn't possibly do it--the commitment is insane and she would have to miss many mornings of school to perform in matinees (the play is performed for hundreds of school children during the holidays) not to mention daily 6-hour rehearsals and twice-daily performance on weekends for weeks. Her homework load makes it an impossibility and I doubt she has the maturity in any case. However, it's nice to be asked.

Me: Who is your favourite scientist?
3 1/2-year-old son: Copernicus, Galileo Gallilei and Newton because they studied the universe.

My kids just had birthdays.

My five year old is learning Kumon Division workbook using the khan academy method to work out the problem. He is solving 45'/.5=?, and such by drawing "ten-sticks" for 10s and "dots" for ones, and converting the sticks to dots where necessary. I posted a while back that he was watching the youtube Khan video and taking notes on how to do division.

He has the concept of fractions from the book Apple Fraction, so now I'm teaching him the adding decimals and fractions workbook.

He's doing the Kumon #s 1-150 dot to dot which has been awesome for visual digit discrimination. Whoever made that workbook made sure you have to pay close attention. They put numbers like 42 close to the 93 and other similar looking numbers, also clusters like 46, 47, near 84. You have to watch what you're doing with that dot to dot.

My two year old has just started the Kumon tracing workbook and also phonics, formally. She already knows a lot of phonics and a little blending from watching PBS.

My son's K teacher took me aside yesterday to comment on something "shocking" he said in class. I immediately thought he had said some horrible swear word. He has sort of grown up in a law firm and his language can be colorful at times. Luckily that was not the case.

They were on the letter "m" yesterday and at circle she was asking the kids to say "m" words. At first he said microphone which she thought was good but he followed that with macrophage. She thought he said microwave but he corrected her and provided the right definition. Anyway, apparently that was a first.