Everyday life.

Just a few snippets of everyday life.  Today I walked up the stairs to find this:


Stuart is doing a book for Which Way USA.  He loves them and has been completing many of the state books lately.  Marcus was reading a book he borrowed from Stuart.  Here's the loan slip.  Yes, Stuart rarely remembers to capitalize anything.



Spike has taken to sleeping at the foot of our apartment stairs.  The boys jump over him all the time.

 

Halloween costumes!  Stuart was thrilled to finally be Robin hood.  Marcus, inundated with change lately, chose to wear a costume he got for Christmas almost two years ago.

 

How to observe tadpoles

How do you observe tadpoles?  Well, first you catch some tadpoles.  There are many places to find tadpoles.  Near our house is an actual "tadpole pond".  That's where we go; there are other places.

Okay, so you stand in the water with your aquarium net until you see something.  Then you try to catch it in your net without hurting it.

 

Once you have actually caught something, you take it back to the plastic shoebox.  Did you know that Mom has learned from last year's outings and now fills the shoebox with water before any boy steps a toe into the pond?

 

Then you carefully release your tadpole (water strider, water boatman, mosquito larva, mud, whatever) into the shoebox filled with pond water.

 

If you look carefully, you can see a frog tadpole along the right edge, and a salamander tadpole along the bottom right.  Plus small sticks, debris, insects, and snails.

 

If you want to observe something more closely, put it (carefully!) into an observation jar.  See how this salamander tadpole already has four legs?



Little brother may choose to stay out of the pond entirely, eat his snack, and merely observe creatures as they appear in the shoebox.

   

Very important:  if you catch something that *might* be a bullfrog tadpole, completely flip out about it.

 

You can at least have your picture taken with the tadpole!

 

After returning all the water creatures (gently) to the pond, you can ride your bike home, stopping to enjoy the scenery.

 

Letting a bug crawl on your arm so that Mom can take a picture of it is optional.

 

Horsetail Falls/Ponytail Falls again in August

Stu asked me to post pictures of Stuart's first soccer game.  Yikes, do I have a big backlog of unblogged stuff.  These aren't soccer game pictures, they are from our vacation in August.



So my Mom came to visit and we dragged her all over the place.  This is a quickie last-minute late-night post, and I didn't ask her if I could post pictures of her.  So this is only pictures of the four of us.  But she was there!

I have so many pictures to post (over a month of backlog), and little time to blog, so just take these pictures without commentary.  The commentary wouldn't have been witty anyway.

          

Who Cares if it's Summer, or Math Games are Fun.

We did a little school Monday morning. This morning's math review is a multiplication game, and is the exact opposite of slick, professional design.  I looked for something online, but couldn't find a game like this.  This homemade game has the following features:

• Hand drawn with a Sharpie;
• Straight-ish lines made without a ruler (couldn't find one);
• Game tiles are ceramic mosaic tiles bought at Michael's;
• Game board is unlaminated construction paper; and 
• Taped to the back of a Scrabble board.

This game was primarily for Stuart, who I hope will not forget his multiplication facts over the summer.  Large multiplication table, drawn (in Sharpie!) on construction paper.  Answers written (also in Sharpie) on tiles.  Here's a bag of answers.  Find their place on the table!

Here's the end of the game.  I forgot to get a picture at the beginning, sorry.


I realized that I could include Marcus by having him take the tiles out of the bag and read out the number on each tile.  For Marcus to be able to control a game is heaven.  At least for him.






I did not anticipate the giggling.







This is such a flexible game that you could play any way you like.  I just let Marcus draw random tiles out of the bag.  After a while, he was seeking and pulling out small numbers so that Stuart could fill in the first row quickly.  You could set out just a few tiles for your student to put on the board, to concentrate on specific facts.  Like The Trickster!  (7x9=63.  Stuart gave it that name.)  I suppose I could line up the tiles in order, then have Stuart call for certain numbers (and have Marcus find them in the lineup).  So many different ways to do this.

As Stuart got near the end, Marcus was handing over the tiles too fast.  Stuart lined them up in numerical order at the bottom of the board.

I love it when my boys get along.  Especially when they're doing what I want them to do.

             

I would make this next picture the new blog banner if there wasn't stuff piled on the table behind the kids' heads.  See, Grandma, your package really did arrive!  And we have lots of books!

  

After a while, I had to give Marcus something else to do, so he started "writing a poem" on the chalkboard.

   

And...ta da!  Completed game!  (Yes, this is the exact same picture as the first picture.)



Fun was had by all.  I think they enjoyed this game more because we created it together, using simple supplies we had on hand.  I did buy the tiles for the game, but they're not what you'd expect for a game of this sort--just the best option I could find while walking around like a zombie in Michael's one evening. 

Definitely more fun than Stuart's nemesis--copywork.

A few pictures of summer fun.

Here are a few more pictures of what we've been up to.

A friend gave us caterpillars!  Here is one of them, the day it emerged from its cocoon.  Inside:



And outside, after we set it free.

 

Marcus, hanging out while we were waiting to see what the butterflies did.

 

Stuart used to be a morning person.  I think he's growing.



See?  Still not a morning person.

  

Now he's had a chance to recover a bit.  This is after Marcus' follow-up visit with the doctor.  For those who don't know, Marcus had his first ER visit.  He fell down in Nordstrom and he teeth went through the skin below his lips. 



Marcus didn't need stitches, they were able to glue the wound from the outside.  It wasn't pretty, but the glue has fallen off and his wound is healing nicely.


Stuart at the park later.  I had accidentally switched to black and white on the camera.

   

Marcus at the same park (George Rogers Park in Lake Oswego).

 

Marcus putting a "belt around Owl's neck" with ribbon and tape.  Yes, his desk is usually that messy or even more messy than that.



He's very proud of his work.  Also he's super cute, that boy with the mangy stuffed owl.



And he knows that he's cute, too.