He Remembered!

Evan, pointing at the moon, "Look Mommy, there's reflected sunlight."

Hmmm, I guess he really was paying attention during Science. ;)

Saturday

Saturday means soccer, and now, football. Evan and Adam both played soccer this morning. For once, their games didn't overlap so I got to watch both of them. Unfortunately, there was an hour to kill in between games. That's just enough time to drive home and turn around to head back to the fields. So we decided to get some hot dogs from the concession stand and hang out. It was 12:30 but the concession stand had only two hot dogs left. What kind of planning is that? But I didn't need both those hot dogs I was planning to eat anyway! Evan was happy with nachos and Adam and I had hot dogs. Luckily, I'd remembered to pack some drinks and chips so our lunch was CHEAP, not good, but cheap. LOL

Ryan got more playing time in his football game today. They ended up winning 50-14. A question presents itself: Did the team stomp their opponent b/c Ryan was playing more or Did Ryan get to play more b/c the team was stomping their opponent? Okay, it's not really a hard question to answer. Ryan didn't really contribute much. He's still a little timid but he did recover a fumble... a fumble that was later ruled not to be a fumble b/c the ball carrier was down before he dropped the ball. But it would have been awesome had it really been a fumble!

Soccer pictures (click to make them bigger)...

Just Another Day

The boys are being bookworms this week. They don't think they like to read but once I get them started, they go crazy. They are required to read independently for 30 minutes a day. Adam read two complete chapter books yesterday! They weren't award winning literature but he enjoyed them. Ryan started his 30 minutes of reading an hour ago and he's still reading!

I found our Leap Pad today and gave it to Evan to use for math. He did a monster money book with the Leap Pad. After fighting with Matthew over it and then playing with it for almost an hour, he informed me that, "It's stupid. I don't like it." I wonder how long he would have played with it if it had been FUN! LOL

Poor Ryan has some sort of ailment that only flares up when it's time to do school. The poor child somehow manages to come down with a headache when it's time to do spelling. Or his elbow starts hurting when it's time for our Bible lesson. It's amazing the way the problems never appear when he's playing football or eating lunch.

Band Pictures

We didn't do much today. My niece and nephew were visiting from Florida so the kids played most of the day. We did do Bible, Spelling, and Reading. Adam and Ryan also attended their second band class.

WHA-A-A-T??

The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic? Today, Adam and I learned the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. This is sixth grade. How can I be encountering things I've never heard of? And why do sixth graders need to know the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic? Why does anyone need to know the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic? And how can a 36 yo woman with PMS be expected to deal with the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic?

I thought about cancelling math for the rest of our lives but instead I pulled out the teacher's manual and muddled through. It's really not complicated at all, as you will learn when YOU get to sixth grade.

Miscellaneous

We've switched from History to Science this week. The boys like it so much better. They like it so much I can barely read a sentence without someone interrupting me with a question or comment. And the questions are always about what we're reading! That's not usually the case when I get interrupted. LOL

We managed to get every subject done today with a minimum of fuss. Easy days make me nervous. I wonder what we forgot. ;)

We had our second co-op session yesterday. We're studying our state and surrounding states this semester. Yesterday's topic was West Virginia's involvement in the Civil War. There's a couple pictures at Crystal's blog. She's much better at remembering her camera than I am! That's my kid acting goofy in the first picture. I've never seen a scrawnier kid try to show off his muscles! LOL

Thank You, Public School

Not that they would ever do anything to help me intentionally, the PS has done me a favor or two lately. First, they scheduled their open house for tomorrow night. That happened to be the night we had three practices scheduled at three different fields. Because of the PS open house, football practice has been cancelled. Problem solved!

The biggie favor though is b/c they haven't funded middle school soccer. I didn't realize it but there are NO public school soccer teams in the middle schools of our county. That's why the YMCA has such a huge, and I'm finding out, AWESOME, middle school soccer league. If the government funded middle school soccer, there would be no need for YMCA soccer and Adam would not get to play. Instead, he has an awesome coach and a terrific team. Three cheers for underfunded schools! LOL

But I am beginning to see why extracurriculars like band are the first ones cut when money is needed. Here I thought it would pretty cheap for Ryan to learn drums. We have a drum set and a teacher (dh). I found some yard sale beginner music. But what's the use of playing drums if you have no outlet for your music? So, I talked the boys into joining the homeschool band. One borrowed trumpet, a new (used) set of bells, two music books, and $145 later, they're almost ready to fly. I still need to get some music stands... hopefully borrowed! LOL

I was really impressed with their first band meeting today! The band actually started while we were out of town so today was just our first day. Adam loved it. Ryan liked it. The impressive part was all those different instruments learning to play a recognizable melody in only two sessions (one for my kids). Now I need to figure out how to get the trumpet from Jeff so Adam can practice! ;)

Duh!

This morning, Adam and I were reviewing factors. I'd give him a number and he'd give me the factors. I wrote the factors, using commas to separate them. Then he would choose the greatest common factor between two numbers. I write neatly and legibly btw!

Conversation, as he looked at my list of numbers:

Adam (pointing vaguely): What's that?

Me: That's the comma I used to keep the factors separate

Adam: No, I mean after the comma

Me: That's a 10

Adam: Oh... well, the way you've written it, it looks like a one and a zero.

Weekend in Review

I used to love soccer on Saturdays. It was a great time to hang out as a family. But now that Ryan is playing football, Saturdays feel more like a rush around and do nothing. Yesterday, Jeff had Ryan and Matthew at the football game. I had Adam and Evan at the soccer fields. Their games overlapped but I thought I'd get to see the beginning and end of Adam's game (Evan's team plays much shorter quarters). Instead, the game started late and I had to leave before it started to take Evan down the hill to his field. Evan's coach was late so we were missing Adam's game to wait around on the coach. Evan's game finally started and I watched the whole game... by myself, with no one to appreciate my soccer commentary. Then we rushed back up the hill to see the last 30 seconds of Adam's game. :( Poor Adam had no one to cheer him for the entire game. :( He said he played forward and mid-fielder... two new positions for a kid that usually plays defense! And I missed it. :(

Saturday evening, Jeff took the older two boys to a Marshall game. They lost miserably and Ryan has not stopped griping since he got home!! While they were gone, I took Evan and Matthew to play putt-putt. Then we got Chick-Fil-A for dinner and headed home to play playstation.

Sunday afternoon was spent correcting the mistakes we made while building an outdoor play set for the boys. We made the tower deck too high so we decided to lower it. This is after we already had the floor, rails, and slide in place. :oO It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be but it did take the whole afternoon. Adam and Ryan were supposed to be helping us but they're really not.much.help.

But now the weekend is about over and I need to start getting ready for s-c-h-o-o-l tomorrow. After a two week break, that should be fun!

Pictures Tell the Story

All Work and No Play...

Well, you don't want us to be dull boys, do you? Sorry to leave you hanging, but we had a vacation to take! Here are few of my favorite Myrtle Beach pictures.

Busy Bee

I'm so busy I don't even have time to post how busy I am! We have had soccer, football, Labor Day guests, Evan's birthday, and now our homeschool co-op has started. Busy, Busy, Busy!