Great day for schoolwork :)

Last night on the way to music class, my car lost power in the middle of the road :( Fortunately, it restarted and I got around the corner and into a neighborhood. The check engine light was on, so I called to see who could come help and dad was closest. He switched us cars so we could at least make it to the last half of music class (thank goodness!).

Today, he ran the code, found the problem and replaced a faulty sensor. The car is running great! But it's already 3 p.m. and we've missed Spanish, Kids' Club and Drama, unfortunately.

On the upside, though, we did manage to get a bunch of schoolwork done! We literally sat for 2 hours and did Science (finished up our weather chart and talked about the 5 senses; Maisie drew a picture of herself in her favorite weather: snow!), Writing (practicing numbers for Math), Math (we skipped ahead to lesson 9--place values tens and ones since the lessons were too boring for her), and now the kids are enjoying some cutting, pasting, and coloring time.

It's been a nice pleasant afternoon. I finished up some lesson plans and tomorrow we'll work on Geography, Writing Strands, and Art. I'm sad we missed our activities today, but relieved to get so much done.

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Spelling Lessons from a 5 year old

Maisy: "Mom, I think you spelled it wrong. It should be "O-U-T-U-M-N"

Mom: "No hunny, it is spelled A-U-T-U-M-N, I promise."

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The English Language

Maisie was practicing her writing today and wanted to write the word "cut." She spelled it "K-U-T." I started into the explanation that the letter "K" always sounds like the hard K sound, but that the letter "C" also sounds the same and has an alternative sound of "ss."

Poor girl, how confusing!

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The power of not talking down to children

I've always been a big proponent of using mature vocabulary with children. Though I've done my share of "baby talk," it's generally in my tone of voice--not in the actual words I use--that constitutes baby talk.

In our home, we use proper words for things. Perhaps some day, hearing the word vagina, penis or breasts from a 5 year old might get some stares from other parents, but we really believe in using proper names and hope there will be no need for those proper terms with other small children, which might make other parents uncomfortable.

We also use the mature adult words for things. Though there are times we have to explain to our children what the word used means, it's well worth it.

We were going to a local pizzeria/game room the other day that we rarely patronage and we said to our 5 year old: "Do you remember the crawly tubes they have there? You and your sister really enjoyed it last time."

To which she replied, "no, it's NOT crawly tubes, it's a PLAY STRUCTURE."

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