Leap Day!

Today, being Leap Day, we headed to the zoo to look for animals that hop or leap. I gave Julia a clipboard and lots of paper and she eagerly wrote down animals that we came to that hop, jump, or leap. The zoo also had a special talk today on frogs and toads (amphibians in general, really) and conservation. We were able to get all of our routine school work done in the morning and spent the rest of the day at the zoo. It was a warm spring day, perfect for going to the zoo. The three of us cheered that we were some of the lucky few that did not have strollers and diaper bags in tow. But of course there were the nearly consecutive five or so trips to the restroom.....

Julia's finds today include....

snow leopard
jaguar
red kangaroo
wallaby
Western toad
dart poison frog
fire-bellied toad
jumping pitviper
Colorado River toad
green tree frog
squirrel frog
Pacific tree frog
chimpanzee
river otter

Mommy, how old are you???

When a young child, particularly a three year old, asks you this question it is usually a safe bet that when you ask them to give you a guess that they will have a fabulous answer like 22 (or maybe even 12!). Unfortunately for me, when Karley and I went through this exchange a few days ago she came back with......35.....my precise age!!!! Ouch!

Ok, ok, I'm sorry....

I know it has been a long, long time since my last post. Heck, I almost even forgot how to find the blog myself! Just kidding. It has been a busy and somewhat eventful month. I can't believe its been a whole month since my last post!!!! To be honest for awhile now I have had things come up that I've said, "Oh! I need to post that on the blog!," but the problem is that by the end of the day blogging about our day just feels like too much work! At the end of a busy day when the kids are finally in bed, the only thing I seem to want to do these days is to curl up in bed with a good book (and John will tell you that I usually don't last too long before I'm in a deep sleep).

Our semester is going well. I am dealing with a bit more attitude the last few weeks, but we are still managing to get work done. Julia learned that one of her friends in several of her classes turns out to be a pretty close neighbor of ours. An added bonus is that she has a younger sister, a little bit younger than Karley. The other day we met them at our neighborhood park and the four girls had a great time running and playing in the sandbox. Why is it always my kid that decides to talk the others into burying her in the sand?? The two of them were sooo sandy that they went straight to the shower when we got home. It took multiple shampoos to get all the sand out of their hair. But I know they had a great time "digging for treasure."

Karley is doing super at preschool. Her teacher told me that Karley knows the days of the week in order and that she also knows the pledge of alligence (home video to be posted soon).

So things are good...we're still here....just busy as usual.

Natomas Charter School Poetry Jam

Last week Julia won second place in the K-2 group at PACT's (one of the four "schools" on campus) Poetry Jam. The top three contestants in each category (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) moved on to the campus-wide competition which was last Tuesday night. Now since only PACT has elementry age students it really only meant that the first, second, and third place winners were competing against each other again, but this time at night, on a stage with house lights, and again with a microphone.

Julia decided that she wanted to try to win first place after the first competition and I told her that I thought she should use her other poem since it was a bit more complex and longer (and she already had it memorized as well). So she worked on Keep a Poem in Your Pocket all week, including memorizing the author's long French name. All was going well. I turned in a copy of the new poem at school earlier in the day only to find out that SHE COULD NOT SWITCH POEMS!!! So with only three or four hours before the big event I had to break it to her that she had to go back to the first poem. She, of course, was not happy about this. We practiced during the short time she had left, including her new intro. She was frustrated because she was saying things like either the wrong title or the wrong author's name.

But when the big moment came, she marched up to the microphone and "forgot" her entire intro including saying who she was and jumped straight into the turtle poem. She did a fine job. Her voice was steady, clear, and not too fast. She really did a great job, but she forgot the intro and so she was docked a bunch of points. In the end she took third place. But she was awarded with a giant white ribbon and her mouth dropped and she squealed, "I won a RIBBON?!" The audience got a good chuckle out of seeing her excitement and true joy. It was a great moment. Of course I had planned to share it all with you, but the darn batteries died just before Julia took the stage..........

New Stuff

This week was our first week of new classes. On Tuesdays Julia still has her Kindergarten class, then off to pick up Karley from preschool and lunch at home, then back to school for her Music Appreciation class. She LOVED the class. She told me that it was a lot like Kindermusik and that so far it is her favorite of the new classes. On Wednesdays she has a drawing class first thing in the morning, then home for some more work and lunch, and then back again in the afternoon for Spanish class. I think she will really get a lot out of the drawing class. All the students draw an object (usually an animal) from an overhead projector image. Julia couldn't believe that the whole class all they did was draw the eyes of a panda! I can't wait to see her finished project. The Spanish class seems to be continuing from the first semester. Perhaps this is the reason that she says it is her least favorite class so far. I think she is realizing that it is going to be a little work.

Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays we have free to get our things done at home. Thursdays Karley also has preschool, so we still have to get up and out of the house early. At home we still are doing math, language (alternating between phonics, grammar, vocabulary, and handwriting), ancient history, and life science. The girls still have gymnastics on Saturday mornings, and next week Julia starts piano lessons.....whew!