New Bed

Kiddo has a new bed.  She has been wanting to give up the toddler bed for a while now, and there are bunk beds in her room, but Dearie did not want to share the bunk beds.  Actually Dearie just does not like change and this was a big change.  So finally Dearie decided that Kiddo could have the top bunk (the original plan was for Dearie to have the top bunk, but she didn’t want to move) and after about a week of putting it off, she cleaned all of her stuff off of it for Kiddo. 

Last night, I didn’t even tell them to go to bed, they just did!  I think they like the new sleeping arrangement.

Honey wanted to say Hi!

Honey took this picture of herself the other day.  I said, “Hey!  I can put that one on my blog.” 

 (That’s a pine cone that she is holding.)

The new background playground.

The first part of the new play-setis up. Their grandmother (Dh’s Mom) wanted to get them a group present for their birthdays.  We decided on some new backyard play stuff, but couldn’t find anything in her price range (which was not cheap) so my dad agreed to put it up.  He designed a very unique play-set, and the kids love it.  My dad took some rope and made a rope bridge that makes a triangle between three trees.  The kids love it!  Dearie has complained of being nauseous couple of times now.  I think that she is getting sea-sick from walking on the swaying rope.  I’m sure that all of the kids will be sore tomorrow.  The rope has already stretched some, but they don’t seem to have any trouble walking on a very loose rope (as long as they have the guide ropes to hang on to).   The best part is that there are still a couple of more things to come!  It should keep them busy all summer.

Life Lessons

Some things can’t be learned in school, even in homeschool.  They are learned though experience.  Some that have been learned today…

Nail polish is best put on outside so that Mom doesn’t complain about the smell.

When you put nail polish on your knee, it stings when Mom takes it off.

When you put nail polish on your sister’s face, and she has a scrape near where you put the polish, she will SCREAM when Mom takes it off.

It is best to only put nail polish on nails.

If you don’t put the wet clothes in the dryer when Mom reminds you to, you might have to stay home from the Dollar Store so that the laundry can get done.

It is best to do your chores when you are told to do them.

Unloading the dishwasher is more fun if you have help.

 

 

On the school side of things, Kiddo finished her phonics book today.  There are several books left in the series, but she is not going to start another one until fall.  She will work on math all summer, but we will not make a big deal out of it.

Honey is doing well with her new Spelling program.  It goes a long way towards teaching phonics, and I hope that it will help her reading.  She is reading easy books right now, but there is still a lot of challenge in them.  We will keep reading all summer.

Dearie is getting close to finishing up Science and English.  She still has a month or so in each, but the end is in sight.  History is going a bit slower.  I haven’t decided if we should work all summer so that she can finish, or just take a break and pick up where we left off in the fall.  It doesn’t really matter if you learn American History in third, forth, or fifth grade as long as you learn it. 

 

The girls and I are talking about doing our own ‘Summer Reading Program’ this year.  It has several advantages over the library (or other) program.  The main advantage being that it can be customized to each kid.  Dearie will have to read 100 books of at least 100 pages.  Kiddo will have to read at least 100 books of at least 60 pages.  And Honey will have to read 200-300 book (I haven’t decided yet) with no page limit.  There will be prizes along the way and a big prize at the end.  (Honey really wants a new fish.)   The advantage of counting books over time (the library records time) is that the kids can read whenever they want and just show me the book at the end.  It is harder for them to keep track of time.  I think that it will be a big encouragement to them to read this summer. 

Kiddo is still having a hard time understanding why Honey gets to read “easy” books, but I have told her that each person has to read books that are good for them. I don’t think that she understands, but for now she trusts me on it.

But Mom…..!

I just told Dearie that she could have a recess time.  She yelled back, “But Mom…  I’m on the second to last page!”  I told her to finish the book and then go outside .

Bad Day.

Screaming at the top of her lungs. 

Throwing things.

Kicking things.

Crying over math.

Crying over reading.

Throwing a fit over having to clean up.

Insisting on doing things her own way.

Not getting Science done… again.

Not getting History done… again.

Lots and lots of tears…

(And not all of those things were me today, LOL.)

Just so you know, it would cost less than $16,000 to send them all to the local Christian School.  Looks like a bargain to me.

Peanuts.

Dh bought some peanuts (in the shell) the other night.  The girls were excited about them, so at dinner time Honey asked if she could have some.  I said yes, and she went and got a few out of the bag. 

She tried one and said, “These are really salty Mom.” 

Even though I had not seen her eat it, I knew.  I said, “You don’t eat the whole thing Honey, you have to take the nut out of the shell first.” 

“Oh…”

The girls all had a lot of fun eating them after that.  Honey did eat that first peanut whole, shell and all (ewww), but after that she only ate the nuts.  She said that they are better without the shell.  I think that outside is a great place to eat peanuts, so watch where you walk if you come to visit us.

We’re home.

It is good to be home.  Kiddo and I had a nap and now the kids are all next door playing. 

The kids were all so great this past week, and now some of that is wearing off.  In a way it is a good thing, I guess.  It means that they are comfortable being themselves again.  

The pediatrician’s office called and said that the culture did grow staff.  I was surprised, last I had heard it had not grown anything.  I wonder if it was the staff that caused all the problems, but I will probably never know.

The leaves on the trees are big enough to block the back neighbors now, we could still see the houses at the beginning of the week, but now they are gone.

I guess that I am still pretty tired, as this post is jumping all around.  I will try to write more about it when I can put more than two thoughts together.

KIDDO IS GOING HOME!

Thanks everyone for your prayers! 

Kiddo’s foot is looking almost normal now, and she is going home this morning.  I also got a lot more sleep last night than I had the other nights.  (A very good thing.)  She will be on oral antibiotics for the next week, but they are mostly a precaution.

Afternoon update.

The resident came in and said that we will probably go home tomorrow, early afternoon.  Kiddo’s foot is looking great!  The swelling has gone down and the redness is fading.  It is still out to the line, but it is not nearly as red.  In fact it looks almost normal.  The resident said that one of the meds she is on has an oral version, and there are some oral ones in the same class as the other one.  They may try to find one that will work instead of two, but I will just be happy to take her home.  I told them that she can swallow pills, I don’t know if that will help their decision or not, but it would sure taste lot better. 

I know that this is jumping around, lack of sleep is starting to get to me, but it is almost over.  There is light at the end of the tunnel now.

Sorry for so many posts, but since I can’t call all of you this will have to do.

Kiddo’s foot is doing better, but we will be here until at least tomorrow.  The Dr. came in this morning and said that it is looking better, but he wants to see more progress before he lets her go home.  Also, he needs to find an oral antibiotic that will cover the same germs as the IV antibiotic.  If all these pieces fall together, we could go home tomorrow.

You can send Kiddo an e-mail.

I just found out that you can send Kiddo an e-mail.  You will have to google ‘our big city’ Children’s Hospital, on the left side of the main page click on Patient and visitor info.  When you get to that page click on ‘email a patient.’  Just fill in the form and hopefully Kiddo will get it.

(Sorry to those of you who don’t know us IRL, but for those that do this will be fun.)

Thursday morning.

Kiddo is not awake yet, but I thought that I would tell you how the night went.  She couldn’t go to sleep last night, was up till after 10:00pm.  I was hoping that she had missed enough sleep to be able to go to sleep at a more reasonable hour, but it didn’t happen.  They started her meds at around 1:00am I think.  Around 2:00am, halfway through the second one, she woke up crying.  The IV was burning again.  The nurse came in and flushed it and then decided to add IV fluids to it to make it go in a little easier.  She had to get the doc’s permission, but it didn’t take long.  That helped a lot and Kiddo was able to go back to sleep. 

I will try to update again after the resident comes by.

Well, I was wrong.

The redness came back and spread beyond the line that the doctor drew.  We went to the ER again.  The ER Dr. drew another line around the red spot, it had expanded a good bit.  Kiddo was admitted to the hospital and started on IV antibiotics.  They do not seem to be working and one of the nurses drew yet another line on her foot this afternoon.  She was started on a new antibiotic.  We are praying that this one will work.  Kiddo is tired and worn out, but in good spirits.

Trip to the ER

Yesterday morning I decided to work on the garden and other chores instead of school.  Well, we didn’t get much school done, but the chores didn’t get done either.  Kiddo had a run-in with a rake (actually it was more like a pitchfork).  It got her between the toes.  I debated what to do, I ended up taking her to the ER and we spent about 3 hours there.  They just cleaned it up and put her on antibiotics.  I thought that would be the end of that until she got up this morning.   Her foot was red, tender, swollen and draining some.  I took her into her regular doctor today and the Dr was very concerned.  She drew a line around the red part of Kiddo’s foot and told me to watch it.  If the red spread beyond the line I have to take her back to the ER.  They also gave Kiddo a shot of wide spectrum antibiotics. 

It has been a couple of hours since Kiddo got the shot and her foot is still swollen, but the redness is fading. It looks like the antibiotics are working.  Maybe we won’t have to go back to the ER.

Can I do Math?

Yesterday afternoon Honey came up to me and said, “Can I do math Mom?”  I looked at her and said, “Why?”  I mean, this was Honey after all.  She has NEVER asked to do math before.  Cry, run away, refuse to do it, yes she has done those, but never ask to do math with a smile on her face.  She just asked again, “Can I?”  I said, “No chocolate chips!”  (Yes, I have been known to bribe her to do math, sigh.)  She said, “That’s OK.  Can I?”  I kept pushing and it finally came out.  When she does a test in her math book, (about once ever two weeks if she does a math lesson a day) she gets a prize, and she really wanted her prize.  So I said, “OK”  and she did a lesson before dinner (took her less than ten min.) and did the test after dinner.  She did a total of 3 1/2 lessons and the test yesterday.  (She did a lot during math time too.)   This is how math is supposed to be, easy and fun! 

This is really making me re-think what curriculum to use for next year.  Horizon’s (what she is using now) is back on the table.  Now the section that she is working on now, is doing a lot of “fun” topics: fractions, time, place value, and shapes.  She has not had any drilling of the math facts in this section.  (I’m sure that it will be back.)  I think that this is why she is suddenly interested in math.   It does not mean that I have suddenly changed my mind.  It does mean that I won’t be buying any curriculum for Honey at the homeschool convention.  I will look, I will see what is available, but I won’t buy until she finishes this year and I see how the rest of the year goes.  If I don’t have to switch, I won’t.  Horizon’s is a good program, and I truly believe in not fixing what is not broken.

Go Wide

One of the recommendations for gifted children is to “go wide and go deep.”  This means that instead of just going faster through material, to learn more about a topic (go deep) and to learn more about related topics (go wide).  This takes a lot of work for the teacher because most available curricula are not designed for children who can and want to do more.  Some topics are easier to find supplemental work for than others.  Math is one of the harder topics to supplement. 

It hit me last week just how early Dearie could finish the traditional high school curriculum.  She could be done with Calculus 1 by high school, then what?  I think that one of the things that really scared me about this was that I really did not like Calculus.  There are a lot of upper math classes that I really did enjoy, but not Calculus.  I don’t know how Dearie will feel about Calculus, but it seems a shame that it would be her only option. 

Yesterday, I found this article:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/AoPS_R_A_Calculus.php  called “The Calculus Trap.”   Wow, someone put into words what I was feeling, and they had a solution!  The article explains how advanced children often have no option other than to go ahead to Calculus. This works for regular students because they really don’t have a lot of time to do anything else. But kids who finish algebra and geometry early, have time to study Discreet Mathematics. (I remember this as a fun class in college. They offer several Discrete Mathematics texts that can be used for home-school students. This is a perfect example of going wide. I am feeling a lot better about upper level mathematics for Dearie.

New Math Games

Honey is working on subtraction now.  It is not hard for her unless you ask her to write it down.  I “know” that she will willingly do subtraction problems as long as there is no paper and pencil involved, but I don’t really understand it.  So anyway, we are both getting tired of Chutes and Ladders, so we practiced by playing bingo.  I wrote the numbers 1-12 on a grid and you could cover up a number whenever you rolled that number.  (Roll a 12 sided die and a 10 sided die and subtract.)  It went well and she is memorizing some facts.

The next game we played was a little more inventive and a lot more fun.  We used attribute blocks (pattern blocks would work too) and 2 die (20 sided and 10 sided).  It is hard to give rules, so I will just walk you through a game.

First we rolled the dice.  Say Honey got a 12 and 2.  She subtracted 2 from 12 and got 10.  Then she had to choose enough blocks so that she had a total of 10 sides.  (1 square – 4 sides, 1 triangle – 3 sides, and 3 circles – 1 side each)  We used the blocks to make a picture.  Each roll gives more blocks for your picture.  There really is no winner to this game, but it was fun. 

 

Games make math doable for Honey.  Without them there is nothing but tears.  She is doing more of her workbook now, but only if someone else does the writing.

Dearie Dethroned!

Yesterday, Kiddo was asking a lot of math questions.  (We even did math yesterday, but she is really into asking addition and multiplication questions.)  She really does understand multiplication, so I thought, “Why not teach her some of the hard facts, then it won’t be so hard when she is older and doesn’t want to drill.”  So I asked her 7 X 8, and when she didn’t know I told her.  Then I told her to go ask Dearie, and when Dearie didn’t know I told Kiddo to tell her.  Oh my, Dearie was so mad!  She spent about an hour in her room calming down.  She later told me that she was the smart one and Kiddo was not allowed to know more than she did.  We had a long talk about that, and how she doesn’t like it when people get mad at her for knowing stuff she isn’t supposed to.  She has calmed down, but she still doesn’t like it when I ask Kiddo the “hard” multiplication facts.  On the other hand, Dearie now knows (and will forever know) 7 X 8 .

Problem solving. (Monday update)

We started a unit on problem solving today.  (Yes on a Sunday, don’t tell the kids that it was school though, they thought it was a game.)  I have several problems lined up for them to solve, but I am still looking for more.  If you have any ideas, please leave a comment.

Cold and Hot jars:  This one was way to easy for Dearie, but it was fun for everyone.  I put two jars on the table, one full of hot water and the other was full of cold water.  Without touching either jar the girls had to figure out which was which. 

—They did this one very quickly.  They saw steam rising from the hot jar and knew that it was hot.  When I demanded proof they put a thermometer in each one and proved it.  Then I dropped a few drops of  food coloring in each one and we watched as the hot water turned pink much quicker than the cold water did.

 

Take the animals across the bridge:  I will ask the girls to bring me a stuffed rabbit, a stuffed dog, and a stuffed horse.  Then I will grab two boxes and we will go across the creek.  I will put a box on each side of the creek and tell the girls that they have to move all three animals across the creek.  The rules are that only one girl can move animals, and she can carry only one animal at a time.  The rabbit cannot be left with the dog (dogs eat rabbits) or with the horse (rabbits scare horses).  This is an old puzzle, I originally heard it as a man in a boat and the animals were different, but the logic is still the same.  It will be interesting to see how they solve this one.

The girls liked Sunday’s activity so much that they were begging for more. (I don’t think that these activities will last us two weeks!)  I refused to give them another activity, but I did tell them about today’s activity so that they could think about it.  This morning we had to leave early, and in the car the girls were talking about how to get the animals across the bridge.  Dearie was using stickers to act it out (they were in their car seats), and everyone was trying to figure it out.  I gave a hint, “If you are standing there with the animals they can be together.”   All of a sudden Honey says, “I got it!”   And she did have it.  When we got home, we went into the backyard and acted it out.  Kiddo carried her rabbit across and left it in the box, then she went back and got the dog, carried it across and put it in the box and got out the rabbit.  She carried the rabbit back and traded it for the horse and then carried the horse across.  Then she went back and got the rabbit.  Each girl had a turn acting it out and then I gave them some variations. 

I gave the girls a “pass” and said that the pass will get any combination of three girls or animals across the bridge.   They could never have more animal than people, or more people than animals, but only people or only animals would be ok.  They applied this rule to both sides, but not to the bridge.  It did not take them long to figure that one out.  So then I told them that the rule applies to the bridge as well.  They needed the hint that the animals could walk on their own (they are stuffed and the girls had been carrying them), but they quickly got this one too.  They can’t wait for tomorrow’s puzzle!

Get the paper towel wet:  I will put a paper towel down on the ground and on it I will place a salad dressing jar that is 3/4 full of water.  I will tell the girls that they need to get the paper towel wet and that they are not allowed to touch the jar or the paper towel.  The jar is also not allowed to be tipped over.  I expect that this one will take them a while to figure out, but I’m sure that they will.  I have read them the Aesop fable about the crow how drops rocks in the water to raise the water level, but I’m not sure that they will remember it.

 

 

Get the paper towel wet 2:  If they use rocks the first time, I will put the jar on the driveway and draw a big square around it.  (I will also make sure that  there just happens to be a stick in the square.  There are a lot of sticks around here so that shouldn’t be a problem.)  They will have the same instructions as before, but this time they are only allowed to use what is in the square.   —– If they use the stick the first time, I will still draw a square, but I will make sure that the square has rocks in it.  ——  If they come up with some other method, then I will just let them go at it again, with instructions to do it a different way.

 

Counting by 1s, 2s, and 3s:  For this challenge, I will give the girls felt squares with the numbers 1-12 written on them.   Then I will tell them to line the numbers up so that while holding hands, and each girl moving only one square at a time, they can each move as follows: Dearie by 3s, Honey by 2s, and Kiddo by 1s.  This one will be as much about cooperation as it is about logic.

 

Squared X:  I will draw a square on the driveway and then draw an X inside it.  I will tell the girls to walk on all lines, but to only walk on each line once.  This is not possible, and it will be interesting to see how they react to it.

 

Moving marbles:  For this one, I will put 15 marbles on the deck and 10 rocks on the ground.  The girls will be given a bucket and told these rules.  1) The bucket has to have 3 rocks or marbles in it to go up.  2) It has to have 5 rocks or marbles in it to go down.  3) The bucket can not go up or down if it is empty.  4) Move all of the rocks to the deck, and all of the marbles to the ground.  — This is one that I think that I will have them work it out with paper dots before they start.  It could take a really long time otherwise.

 

I will add to this post as we do the activities.  You will find how the kids did in red.

Negative Numbers

I’m a math geek.  Its true and I am turning my children into math geeks too! 

Ever since Dearie announced that her favorite number was -18, there has been a lot of talk around here about negative numbers.  I got to thinking about negative numbers and Chutes and Ladders.  I thought, “Why do we always have to put the bigger number first when we are subtracting.  Wouldn’t be fun to sometimes get a negative number and have to go backwards?”  So we did!  First I asked Honey what 3-5 was.  She thought a while and said -2.  So since she “got” it, we played the game.  I used a 20 sided die (1-20) and a 10 sided die (0-9) so that we would get positive numbers more often than negative numbers (didn’t want the game to last forever).  Even Kiddo got in on the fun (and had no trouble with the negative numbers part).  The best move in the game was when someone got a -3 and landed on the big ladder.  That never happens in ‘regular’ Chutes and Ladders.

Crazy week!

Sorry that it has been so long since I posted.  It has been a crazy week!  My sister came to visit last week, that was a lot of fun, and then we went to the children’s museum with her on Mon.  We had a regular day on Tuesday.  The girls had piano practice, and their teacher was telling me about trying to get more students.  She had posted on Craig’s list, and received a strange reply.  Someone in another country trying to arrange lessons for their son.  The more she told me about it the more I was sure that it was a scam.  I told her that it was a scam and how it would work.  She was already suspicious and totally believed me, I’m glad that she won’t get taken.  It is nice to be able to use some of the useless information floating around in my head.   Wednesday we had company.  They had never been here before, so we took the day off of school and cleaned house, it was still none too clean.  Thursday was our only totally regular day this week.  (Tuesday was normal for Tuesday, but we have to re-arrange some things for piano, so it is never totally normal.)  Today was another crazy day.  I have a friend who is going through Chemo, and I watched her twins today so that she could somewhat recover from the Chemo.  The 6yo twins got here early and they played a while.  I gathered all of the kids and played a math version of Chutes and Ladders and then I took all five girls to the library.  We must have made quite a site because someone who lives behind the library offered to let us go through his yard straight into the library parking lot!  It cuts a good 5 min. off of our walk.  I also read to the girls after lunch and they played a lot outside.  It was not a school day, but it was an educational day for everyone.  Maybe next week I will find the time to write more than just a summery of our week.

Consumer Math

The other day the Alpha Omega catalog came, and I was leafing through it.  We do use a couple of AO products, but none that I am thrilled with.  As I looked through it I was teasing Dearie asking her if she wanted to do more Life Pacs, or this or that…   Then the Consumer Math caught my eye.  I plan to have her do it in a few years as it covers a lot of practical stuff.  So I told her that some day she was going to do Consumer Math and she replied that she was not a consumer!  (She was teasing.)  I told her that she bought things so she was a consumer.  She then gets this big grin on her face and says, “I’m a consumer!”  I looked at her and she says, “I’m an omnivore!”  She laughed and laughed, it was rather funny.  (Her science book has just covered consumers (animals) and producers (plants) and omnivores and herbivores.)

Dearie took the AO catalog to bed with her last night.  I can’t imagine why, its not like it is interesting or anything.  Now when the Sonlight Catalog gets here, that is some good reading.

I wonder what they think.

Last night was home group night.  The people who usually host the group are re-doing their bathroom, so the group has been moving around a lot.  We were at a new house last night.  The couple has a son who is about 12 or 13 and he brought out his Rubik’s cube to show off.  It was a solved cube, so I picked it up and quickly produced a pattern.  He was a little miffed, I stole his trick!  He also had a 4 X 4 cube, and I started to work it, but I stopped when he asked me how I was doing it.  I showed him the first couple of steps.  (I can’t solve this one all the way, but I can get really close.)  He was trying, but I don’t think he really got what I was trying to show him.  Then I showed him another trick on the regular cube.  I’m not sure if he got that one or not. 

Late last night as I went to bed I was wondering what the other ladies must have thought.  They have no interest in things like Rubik’s cubes, and they must think I’m a little weird (the ones who have known me a long time already have this figured out I’m sure).  Then I wondered what they would think if they knew that after we came home and put the kids to bed, we sat down to watch a video.  The entertainment for the night?  A lecture series on Calculus. 

No wonder our kids are a little weird.

Practice with adding double digit numbers.

We played a new math game today.  Honey’s math book has been reviewing double digit addition, but she hates to write it down in the book.  So today, I pulled out the dice and the white board and the base 10 blocks and started a new game.  This game reviewed place value and addition.

To play, I found 2 dice that would only add up to 9 if each die rolled the largest number.  This was a 4 sided die, and 6 sided die with the numbers 2,3,3,4,4, and 5 printed on it.  I am still using only dice with printed numbers, I want to focus on addition not counting dots.  Then I found two 6 sided dice with the numbers 1-6 on them.  All of the dice look a little different (one blue, one green, one small white, one large white).   I drew blanks on the white board to represent a double digit addition problem and rolled the dice.  Each die was assigned a blank (so that the ones place could only get up to a 9, we have not started regrouping or carrying yet) and I worked the addition problem.  Then I took that number of base ten blocks and added it to my pile.  The first player to get the thousand block, wins.

Of course we ran out of base ten blocks about halfway through (there are only ten 100 flats), but we just pulled out the cuisenaire rods and kept playing.  Honey won, of course.  She had no problem working the problems, so I won’t make her do the ones in the book.

Introducing double negatives.

Yesterday’s math lesson with Dearie turned out to be rather interesting.  We were going over a review page and the question was to find the side of a square if given the perimeter.  She made the mistake of thinking that the perimeter was the area and came up with the wrong answer.  It was not an understanding mistake (she just mixed up the perimeter and area), so I just gave her a few more to help her remember the difference.  She realized that I was making them up and called me on it.  I said yes, and that I was sorry that I couldn’t use her favorite number (-18) in any of the problems.  After all, the side of a square cannot be -18.  But then, being the math geek that I am, I did give her some problems with her favorite number. 

20+(-18)=  She thought a while and said 2.   Correct

-18 – (-18)= She was puzzled by this one.  She said -36, and I replied, “Nope.”  She thought a while longer and with a smile on her face said 0.  Correct

I was really surprised that I did not have to explain this concept to her.  Double negatives confuse a lot of people, and to figure it out on her own was pretty amazing.  No wonder she is bored with the multiplication and division of decimals that her math book is covering right now.  I am trying to compact it for her, but it is still not fast enough to get to the good stuff.

I’m glad you’re teaching me.

The last couple of reading lessons have been rather hard on Honey.  She gets frustrated and wants to quit.  We have moved from the more “game” type of lessons to more traditional lessons.  There is still a lot of hands on, moving letters around, but we are at the edge of her understanding and it is hard for her.  Yesterday, through tears, she told me, “I’m glad you’re teaching me.”   WOW!  Sure its hard, but it is worth doing, and I think that she gets that.

I really think that in the long run, these difficulties are a benefit for Honey.  She is learning how to work hard; how to do hard things.  Things come so easy to the other girls that they have never really had to struggle through the desire to quit.  (Dearie has had some of this with piano, which is why we do piano, but not to the extent that Honey does.)  I think it is a life skill that will help Honey all her life.

Joke from Dearie.

Why did the dog want the apple core?

So he could eat the meat off of it!

The voice of reason.

I was talking to a friend today about Dearie’s test results.  Her reply was, “I’m not surprised.”  Even when I pointed out how well she did compared to other gifted kids, her reply was, “I’m not surprised.”  At first I was rather taken aback.  After all, the results surprised me, but my friend has a more objective view.  She has known Dearie all her life, and could probably see more than I could.   It was good to hear a calm, yes she is smart, but you can do this.

Favorite numbers

Today I was doing math with Honey while Dearie was in the room.  I was reading numbers to Honey and she was writing them down.  (There are still several numbers that are a challenge to her, especially the teens.)  So I am reading the numbers:

“Twenty”

“Twelve”

“Eighteen”

When I hear, “That’s my favorite number.  Well, actually negative eighteen is my favorite.”

What!?! 

So then I did an inventory of everyone’s favorite numbers.

Dearie: -18

Honey: 14

Kiddo: 5

Well, at least Kiddo has an ordinary favorite number.