Ingenuity or Stupidity?

This is just mind boggling to me.


Adam has been designing amusement park rides in the yard ever since we got back from Dollywood. Today I heard an ear piercing screech from outside, which isn't really very unusual, so I went out to investigate. And this is what I found.


Adam had hooked the dog's chain to the top of the play set. He then used the other end of the chain to chain Evan into that milk crate. Then he pushed him down the slide. Yes, he chained his brother into a milk crate and pushed him down the slide. And they both thought this was a great idea.

I didn't see it but I guess Evan flipped over the side and landed on the ladder? The chain pulled tight and we could not get it unhooked. I had to use pliers to bend the clasp. The saddest part? I'm sure they'll try it again as soon as Evan stops crying.

Baby Worms

Yesterday was trash day. It's Evan's job to bring the trash cans back from the curb. He was outside doing that when he came rushing inside all excited about the "baby worms" he had found. He insisted I come outside and admire the baby worms.

You guessed it, the emptied trash cans weren't totally empty. They were full of nasty little maggots. I'm not sure why caterpillars are so cute and maggots are so gross but I doubt I'd find anyone to disagree with that assessment. Evan and I dumped the maggots into the street for the birds to eat. I hope they got them all. All the while, we talked about insect life cycles, in particular the life cycle of the fly compared to the butterfly (which he is already familiar with).

He claims he doesn't want to start school but he certainly enjoyed that science lesson. :)

Pyramid (Not the Egyptian Kind)

I just taught Evan how to play Pyramid. It's one of my favorite math games. He totally kicked my butt. I'm almost never able to get rid of my whole pyramid but he did it both times he played! To play, you need a traditional deck of cards with the jokers, kings, queens, and jacks removed. Then arrange twenty-one of the remaining cards in six row pyramid, like the picture here. Each row should overlap the row above it.

The goal is to remove as many cards as possible from the pyramid starting at the bottom. To remove a card, it must be fully exposed. When the game starts, only the six cards in the bottom row meet this requirement. You can only remove fully exposed tens or two fully exposed cards whose sum equals ten. So, if you have a six and a four exposed, you can remove them.. or a two and an eight or a seven and a three or two fives, etc. You get the idea.

After removing all exposed matches, you can play off the 19 cards still in your hand. You turn these cards over one at a time. When you turn a card over, you can use it to match any exposed card in the pyramid. Cards that don't form matches are put, face up, in a discard pile. You can go back to the discard pile any time you want and use the top card. Actually, I allowed Evan to keep three discard piles so he would have more cards to match. I thought that was probably the secret to his success. But no, when I tried it with three discard piles, I still had oodles of cards left in my pyramid.

The game ends when you've turned over all nineteen cards that weren't part of the original pyramid. Your score is the number of cards remaining in the pyramid. I usually have a handful of cards left. Evan had none. You can use a cheat sheet with the ten addition family on it for new players. It makes the game less of a chore and more fun. It doesn't take very many rounds before they aren't looking at the sheet at all (and I'll brag and say Evan didn't use one at all).

This game, and many more elementary math games, is from Games for Math by Peggy Kaye. I copied a lot of her instructions word for word. You can find excerpts from the book, along with some of her other books, at the web site linked above.

Home Again

We're back from vacation. Pigeon Forge was fun but not a place to visit unless you have your pockets full of cash. Luckily for us, my parents provided the hotel so we could use our money for lots of fun stuff.

The boys loved Dollywood, though I wouldn't recommend it if you're a roller coaster fan. Ryan is definitely NOT a roller coaster fan. He loves the speed but not the heights. We convinced him to get on the log flume. Jeff and Adam hopped in the front seat. Evan and I were in the second seat. Ryan was in the third seat by himself. About halfway through the ride, we saw the final drop. It's a big drop. Ryan was in a panic, "I'm getting off. Stop the ride. There's no seatbelts! I don't want to do it." He whined his way around several curves and then I heard Jeff yell. I looked behind me and Rye was GONE! He'd jumped off the ride. I instantly jumped off after him and then we stood there. There was no way out and Ryan was practically in tears at the idea of getting back on that ride. I must have looked lost b/c a voice came over a hidden speaker telling me to stay where we were. Several people with Dollywood shirts appeared and took our names for the incident report. They shut down the whole ride and made everyone get off. Then they had to run it through empty before they would let anyone else ride. All because my 10 year old did not want to ride down the hill.

We also went hiking in the Smoky Mountains, played putt-putt, rode go-carts, visited The Comedy Barn, and went swimming and shopping. I won't mention the kid who complained about hiking. Or the other kid who complained about swimming. Or the other kid who complained about putt-putt. Or the other kid who complained about shopping (they all did that!). It was a nice vacation, but I'm glad to be home. :)

Now, it's time to start thinking about our new school year. I placed an order at cbd.com last night. Yay! I ordered Sequential Spelling 3, Advanced Winston Grammar, and Studying God's Word F. These are all curriculums that we're carrying over from last year. I hope they get here this week so we can get started.

Thank-You

Well, after four offers to replace my tv, I feel the need to tell you all of the demise of my bank account. It was also destroyed by the four little angels fluttering about my house. :D

Thank you all very much. My niece, who still lives at home with her parents and therefore has more money than she knows how to spend, recently bought herself a huge tv. Her parents were glad to unload the old one from her bedroom. And so, we have a tv to get us through until Jeff finally breaks down and buys one bigger than his niece's. It's very emasculating to think your 23 year old niece has a bigger tv than you do.

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

Testosterone

My Rye is now in the double digits. He turned 10 this past week. Though we didn't have a party, we did allow him, and Adam, to invite a few friends to spend the night. They wanted to do a Playstation-a-thon all not long. The craziness in my house was out of control last night. Instead of the normal four little boys in the house, we had eight! Footballs were flying. Nerf guns were shooting. And the playstation was given a workout. Unfortunately, the testosterone was too much for the tv. It gave up at about three o'clock in the morning; a pop and puff of smoke and the tv is dead. I admire those people who can live without a tv but I am not one of them. We're substituting a portable 13 incher right now but I miss it in my bedroom. I guess we'll be tv shopping this week.