Fleas!

Cr & I noticed that Maggie and Chewy were scratching a lot. We realized they had fleas, most likely picked up while being boarded at the end of May. I decided to give them a bath with flea shampoo yesterday, thinking I'd finish quickly and be able to move on to the other chores I had planned for the day.

I was wrong.

I bathed them, but while bathing Chewy I realized how bad the fleas were. They are American Eskimo dogs, and have really thick fur, and I came to the conclusion the only hope I had to actually get the shampoo down to their skin would be to shave them.

I started with the first bath at about 9:15, and decided to shave them by 9:45. I finished shaving Chewy at 12:30. I figured I'd have lunch, then shave Maggie and be done by 2:30 or so, and have some time to get other things done. It turns out, however, that Maggie's coat is much finer and softer than Chewy's, which means I couldn't shave it down with a guard on the clippers. In addition to looking like she has the mange now, it also took my until 4:00 to finish, and then I had to give each another bath in the flea shampoo.

The only bright spot I could think of while I was working on them yesterday was "At least the boys don't have head lice".

Stinky Baby

All of the boys need a bath. They are sticky and icky and well...kind of stinky.

N climbed up in my lap, and I was kissing on him.

Me: You're my stinky baby.
N: Das right, Mom, das right.

My Mom likes to point out I don't have a baby anymore, but I'm still claiming him as my baby and he agrees with me. Just the other day I was carrying him up to bed for his nap and he told me "I you baby, Mom. I you baby". Who am I to argue with that bit of cuteness?

Leave It to M

On Friday, M wanted to drink some water out of one of the little medicine dosing cups that is including with children's liquid medicine. I gave him one and he took it into the bathroom to get some water. I heard a bunch of slurping and sucking, finally got annoyed and told him that was enough water and to bring me the cup.

He emerged with his mouth looking like this. Evidentially all of the sucking and slurping I heard was him creating suction to stick the cup around his lips. He's been walking around all weekend with a self-given hickey. I've been fighting the urge (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to refer to him as "hickey-lips".

Words Again

J: "Is is bad to say dumbbucket?"
Me: "Well, it's not kind..."
Z: "What about duncebucket?"
L: "What does dunce mean?"
Z: "I don't know. But I just said it."

Recurring Conversation

I've had a variation of this conversation at various times with the older 4 boys over the past few years. Most recently it was with J when he felt the need to touch an empty bullet casing to his lips (the bullet casing was from a Memorial Day service).

Concerned Boy: "Mom? If I [lick, touch, eat] [whatever the item in question] what'll happen?"
Me: "Probably nothing"
Concerned Boy: "Would it kill me?"
Me: "Probably not. Why?"
Concerned Boy: "Because I just did."

Explain this to me--if an alarm bell goes off in the boy's head after he does this thing why does he not have the same alarm bell go off before he does it?

The Love of a Two Year Old

Last night after dinner, Cr went out the back door to turn off the sprinklers. He then went through the gate to put the trash at the curb and pull the van in the garage. He re-entered the house through the garage door after being outside for only a handful of minutes.

When Cr came through the door, N's face lit up like a Christmas tree and he started exclaiming "Daddy's home!!!". Thrilled, he ran across the room and gave Cr a hug like he'd been gone all day, or even days.

That boy loves his Daddy.

School Plans for the Remainder of 2008

Even though our new school year doesn't start until August 1 (our school year runs from August 1-July 31), we're going to start our new books next week. At the beginning of May we dropped our regular work and spent the time preparing L for the standardized test he has to take (he starts today) and drilling math facts with L and Z. They did some Latin and Greek review, and some spelling, reading, handwriting, and logic, but most of this was independent and I'm ready to get back into a school groove. L is 4th grade, Z is 3rd grade, J is 1st grade, and M is K4/K5ish (he turns 5 in January, but is eager to do school). Here are our plans (which are always subject to change):

Math:
L: Saxon 6/5, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 3
Z: Saxon 5/4, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 2
J: Saxon 2, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 1
M: Kumon workbooks, start Saxon 1 when he's ready

Latin:
L & Z: finish Latin for Children A, start Latin for Children B
J & M: Song School Latin

Language Arts:
L: Classical Writing Aesop (possibly changing to Poetry for Beginners after Christmas), Rod & Staff English 3
Z: Classical Writing Aesop, Rod & Staff English 3
J: Explode the Code 4 and up (I don't know how far we'll need to go)
M: Phonics Pathways, finish Explode the Code Primer A (he'll either continue with Primers B & C or begin with Book 1 depending on when the blending switch flips)

Greek:
L, Z, J, & M: Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, Song School Greek

Spelling:
L: finish Spelling Workout C, start D
Z: finish Spelling Workout B, start C
J: Spelling Workout B (when I don't think he needs Explode the Code anymore)

Copywork & Dictation:
L, Z, & J will either use good sentences/passages from their reading or selections from The Harp and Laurel Wreath. M will continue to work on letter formation (Kumon workbooks). I'll use StartWrite to create copywork pages for all of them.

History:
We'll finish up Story of the World 3 (I'm aiming to be done by Christmas) and start Story of the World 4.

Geography:
We're going to study the US States until Christmas, and then I plan on studying World Geography. We'll also use Legends and Leagues for a general introduction to maps and globes.

Memory Work:
We'll memorize poetry from The Harp and Laurel Wreath (I'd like to have us memorize at least 6), the US States, and the Presidents this year.

Science:
L & Z: Science Detectives Beginnings

Assigned Reading:
This year I plan on having L, Z, and myself all read the same books and discuss them. I've got 4 books picked so far: Andersen's Fairy Tales (we'll start with this one), Tanglewood Tales, A Wonder Book, and Tales from Shakespeare.

J will continue with the various Easy Readers and Beginning Reader books we have. Once he's reading well I'll come up with a plan for his reading.

Logic:
I've got a few resources to choose from here: Mind Benders Beginning Books 1 & 2, Primary Analogies Book 1, and Critical Thinking Activities for K-3 & 4-6. L, Z, & J find the logic activities to be fun, so I'll include 1 or 2 worksheets with their independent work.

Music:
We'll continue listening to selections from How to Introduce your Child to Classical Music in 52 Easy Lessons. L, Z, & J will continue with piano lessons.

I think this covers it all. I'll update the sidebar with links soon. It looks like a lot, but we won't do everything everyday and I still plan to finish our lessons by noon, with an hour of independent work or reading in the afternoon.

Life After Vacation

We're back from vacation. We spent last week in Wisconsin with Cr's parents and siblings and their families (there were 28 of us total). We rented some cabins on a lake to help celebrate Cr's parents' anniversary. It was a good time, even though the weather was cool and damp with an insane amount of mosquitoes and ticks. The boys got to fish (didn't catch anything), go out in a canoe, reconnect with cousins, toast marshmallows over the campfire, and Z ate 32 cookies over the 5 days. He's the only one that counted, but his brothers couldn't have been that far behind. Add to that the cases of soda they drank and I figure they'll finally crash after the sugar high sometime this week.

I really need to update our curriculum on the sidebar. I think I've got it all picked out for the 08/09 school year, and much of it is here. Cr will be giving L his state required standardized test next week and we'll start back up after that's out of the way. Our new year doesn't officially begin until August 1st, but we're going to get a head start on the new books. I also need to spend some time really training M & N (and reminding J) how to behave during school hours, so I'll use this summer to work on their behavior.

Sixty Years

Cr and I are both blessed with parents who haven't divorced. Cr's parents are celebrating 60 years of marriage today. Happy Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa L!

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

We often call J "Ralphie" (to which he responds "Don't call me Ralphie!"). We call him Ralphie because he looks an awful lot like Ralphie from the movie "A Christmas Story". You need to be familiar with the movie to understand this post, so if you haven't seen it you might as well stop reading and go watch the movie.

On Sunday, Cr was in the backyard planting strawberries, the boys were playing, and I was downstairs in the schoolroom working. J entered the room crying with his hand cupped over his eye.

My wonderful Ralphie-look-alike nearly shot his eye out with a Nerf dart gun. Once I stopped laughing (after I checked to make sure J wasn't blind), I had to explain to the poor boy why I was laughing at his misfortune.