UNICEF 2009 Holiday Card Contest

For all you budding artists, there is still time to enter! Prize is a $5,000 scholarship and $500 in art supplies for your school (or, as the rules state, your "current educational classroom." I think that applies to homeschoolers!).

So, drag out those crayons, pencils, markers or paints and think back to the holidays -- not too hard to be inspired here in Minnesota as I gaze out at the EIGHT inches of new snow on the ground! This year's theme is "Joy to the World."

http://www.pier1.com/USCardContest/tabid/262/Default.aspx

Happy drawing and painting!

Awesome, Amazing Adjectives!

Continuing our Parts of Speech fun, we played a game with adjectives today. The kids cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines -- the only caveat was the photographs had to focus on clear nouns (a vase of flowers, a can of soup, etc. -- not, say, a whole crowd of people). They each cut out ten pictures and we spread them out on the table to look at. Then we folded up the pictures and placed them in a bowl.

Each of them took turns drawing a photograph from the bowl and then, using only adjectives, they tried to successfully describe the item they'd chosen. For example, Hayley used these adjectives to describe the vase of flowers:

multi-colored
scented
pretty


Nick used these adjectives to describe a jar of nuts:

brown
tasty


A snowman was:

cold
white
large

and a dress shirt was:

soft
warm
orange
long-sleeved

Now, I should say that the kids were not super-successful in generating their own adjectives or guessing correctly. However, by the end of our little game, they showed marked signs of improvement. Best of all, it made learning parts of speech a little more fun, which is all that really matters, right? And since one can only do so many Mad Libs, it's nice to have some variety......

Special Delivery!

It's Girl Scout cookie time! And being Cookie Mom means picking up 1000s of boxes of cookies. Minnesota has a terrific pick up system, I must say! I drove my car and Grandpa followed in the truck, just in case we needed it...we did. We drove to our pick up location, got in line and several nice men loaded all of the cookies into my car...much better than hauling them on my own from the fire station.


Once we got them home, we transferred all of the cases into the house. I'm pretty sure both kids claimed this as WiiFit credit in their accounts....it was hard work!


We brought them into the house and put them in stacks by cookie type.



And then we got to sort them by order form -- the totals for each Girl Scout. Nick graciously offered to help; actually, he was probably more excited than Hayley. I think he just may have a future in retail.....

We still have gobs of boxes to sell at cookie booths, etc. so if you are hankering for a Girl Scout cookie, let me know. The organization is being -- unfairly, I think -- blasted in the media by decreasing cookie sizes and quantities this year. After conducting a survey, GSUSA decided that, rather than increase the cost per box to deal with increased production costs, they would trim the size of the cookie and the units per box. Nothing was reduced by a significant amount -- no box was reduced by more than .5 ounces! However, this news, coupled with the recession, have really wreaked havoc on sales and guess who is suffering? Not the nationwide organization.....the GIRLS. Girls who have their hearts set on reaching sales goals and prize incentives, girls who have ambitious plans for community service projects, and girls who want to plan a fun, end-of-the-year event with hard-earned cookie money.

If you haven't purchased a box of cookies this year, please think about doing so. When you see those girls setting up cookie booths at grocery stores or other locales, please consider buying a box -- if not for you then as a donation to the local food shelf or nursing home. $3.50 goes a long way toward helping these girls reach their goal...each and every box helps!

Enjoy those cookies!

Growing Sea Monsters

Nick got this kit for his birthday last year and we finally have a stretch of time to devote to growing these little guys.


According to the package, these triops live in small lakes and ponds, not oceans (so sea monsters are a complete misnomer). The eggs can survive in soil for up to nine years, requiring just a tiny bit of water to hatch. We got the tank ready by washing the Chinese sand -- really, why does the sand have to come from China? Don't we have enough sand here in the U.S.? -- and filling the tank with distilled water (thanks for the water, Grandpa!)


It was finally time to eat (I mean, add the eggs). The package of dirt and eggs clearly says "Do not eat" which Nick found incredibly humorous.


We'll update when we have hatchlings!

President Obama's Address

It's hard to watch a Presidential address at 8 o'clock at night with a punchy three year-old. We decided to make it into a viewing event, popping some popcorn and snuggling in for the address. Julia still managed to talk through the entire thing but the parts I did hear left me encouraged, resolved, and inspired. I think we finally have a fine, strong leader at the helm.

Julia really got into the spirit and joined members of Congress with the repeated standing ovations -- it was her favorite part!


How is this for rapt attention?

Sentence Structure Fun!

We decided to have some fun with making sentences today. The kids know what nouns and verbs are and, although they usually write full sentences, we still have the occasional run-on or incomplete sentence. I thought creating some silly sentences would be a fun way to reinforce basic grammar.

I cut strips of paper and asked the kids to write down the names of people they knew -- friends, family members, etc. Then, on different sheets of paper, they wrote present tense verbs (laughs, kisses, complains, poops -- remember, I have an 8 year old boy!).

They folded these up, mixed them in the bowls and took turns drawing a noun and a verb. The sentences were obviously very simple: Nick laughs. Hayley eats. We talked about how these could be considered complete sentences because they had the naming part (noun) and the telling part (verb). Then we talked about adding descriptive information -- where does Nick laugh? What does Hayley eat? On more blank slips of paper, we wrote some descriptive phrases (at the fair, only on Tuesdays, etc.) These went into a third bowl and they proceeded to make new sentences.






The one above reads "Audrey listens during the tornado warning." Other ones that had the kids in hysterics were: "Max drives only while eating orange Cheetos." and "Uncle David kisses when scared."



Hayley's comment: "If school was this fun, I'd want to go every day!"

After playing this for well over a half hour, Hayley then sat down to practice writing guided paragraphs. Nick continued making sentences!

Some of Hayley's poems

Hayley dashed off a couple of poems the other day. I thought they were quite good!

Basketball

Basketball is fun
Bouncy, bouncy ball
Orange and black
Dribble, jump, shoot
Free throw!

Our team is in
the lead!
Defense
Offense
B-A-S-K-E-T
Ball!


Blue

Blue ocean
Blue sky
Birds and fish
Blue jeans
A lot of blue --
Blue everywhere --