Goldfinger

First haircut in a salon: $5
First manicure: $5
Awesome quote of the day: Priceless

"Do you know why I chose gold? Because gold is my favorite color." Gold fingernail polish, ladies and gentleman. Gold. GOLD. Go 'Dores!

We also started going to Wednesday night Bible study at church tonight. Above all the obvious benefits, there was cake. CAKE. Bonus! And, she was chosen to be the line leader. Possibly a greater honor than its dessert equivalent.

We also played a rousing Chutes and Ladders game today, practiced counting by 10s (again-sheer drudgery) and listened to a really neat story, The Witches of Venice, set to music by Phillip Glass. We read the story, ingeniously provided in the liner notes, then tried to decide which part of the story we were hearing through the music. We did a pretty fair job of matching story to song.

She also played the Reading Island game, but she's getting a bit discouraged. It takes several iterations of each game in order to achieve the number of tickets to advance to the next level. She's gettng bored with some of the games because they aren't challenging enough. If only I had known about this web site a year ago! A friend recommended Reading Eggs and I'm inclined to sign up for the free trial. Our goal for this year is fluency and we're getting there, slowly but surely.

I can't believe I forgot about the healthy lunch she prepared for us. I was skeptical, but luckily, I kept my negativity to myself. She fixed us a really healthy lunch: one square of granola a piece, four pretzel goldfish and a handful of currants. She fixed our plates and carried them to the table. Hooray!

Dark Thirty

I know, I know. It's not THAT early. But it is dark. That should count for something.

We've been busy these past few weeks. After reading this post, I decided to check out Kid's Island, the new reading site from PBS. It's very well done, DD loves it, and it's free. One drawback is that players, as far as I can tell, are forced to start at level 1. These games are geared toward the very littles, although DD enjoyed playing them. She did have difficulty understanding Elmo and that caused some frustration. She finished two levels yesterday, so I'm curious to see the games level 3 contains.

We've been practicing counting by 10s. I made 10 paper squares labeled 10 through 100 and covered them with contact paper AFTER they had been hopped on. The squares are slightly more durable now. At first, we called out the numbers and DD hopped to them. Now she is calling out the numbers to us. Sometimes we time each other to see how quickly we can hop from 10 to 100 in the proper order. Once we master 10s, we'll make more squares to practice counting by 5s.

At night, we're reading a terrific book called A Lion to Guard Us, by Clyde Robert Bulla. It's about two sisters and a brother who travel from England to Virginia in search of their father, who left for Virginia three years earlier to make a better life for his family. I'm also looking for some good Thanksgiving books. Do you have any favorites?

Soccer season ended last week and we went to an "important deal" Monday night: the end of the year celebration. Soccer was a big success for her. It was so neat to see her confidence grow. By the end of the season, she was going after the ball and she even scored a few goals.

And phase one of operation Build Homeschool Community started last night. We actually had friends over for dinner. Get out!

Caution: Mamas can say mean things

Shocking, but true. This little gem was delivered after I reprimanded her about taking off with the new phone. The new phone that I absolutely canNOT lose, damage or destroy.

She also informed me (several times) that she was just having a bad day. We desperately needed to get outside, but a pending appointment for teeth cleaning at 2:50 pm had a seemingly immobilizing effect on us. She finally changed out of her pajamas at 1:30. Is it any wonder we have difficulties getting anywhere on time? We're only able to make it to Sunday School on time (most days) because of the lure of the doughnut. I get in serious trouble if we're not early enough for snack.

She did voluntarily read one of the stories from Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat. And we timed ourselves to find out how long it takes to put the Tinkerbell puzzle together (8:33, in case you were wondering). She also tried to make a bookmark, instructions courtesy of Highlights magazine, but became extremely frustrated with the results. I'm tempted to place a moratorium on crafting until we get this straightened out.

Lovely and Amazing

We spent a wonderful (and cold) day at the NAIA PowWow. There was so much to see and do. We watched a woman weave a basket from swamp cane, women strung bead necklaces and weaved blankets. There were so many storytellers, musicians and dancers. We were even able to meet the actress who provided the voice for Disney's Pocahantas. It was an especially nice day because we shared it with friends. It's such a pleasure to see DD blossom with her friends. We all had a great time in spite of the cold. Did I mention it was cold?

When we got home, we turned on the heat in the house and stood on the register until feeling returned to our feet. Okay, it was mostly me. Then she opened a store where she conned Daddy and me out of $2.00. But it was good practice for later, when the sums will increase... Also, we were able to practice counting by 5s, 10s, and identifying coins. She's getting pretty good at identifying money. Always an excellent skill to have.

Oh Plump Mommy

Oh dear. It has been a few days (ok 1.5 weeks) since we've been able to get out on the greenway, but plump? Seriously? Egads.

We had a nice, relaxing day today. I've been perusing a copy of Games for Math by Peggy Kaye and I'm planning on buying it. It's a terrific book, full of easily implemented suggestions and lessons. Today we played Penny Toss: a fun little game that gets kids counting. We incorporated a few extra tosses to increase our counts. Later, I tried out a technique she calls number stories. You make up stories. About numbers. D'oh! (Explaining it seems a bit pedantic.) However, we were able to play on the trampoline today. It was a nice PE/math combo. Take that, public school!

Now if only I could increase the socialization, all would be perfect. We're still trying to build that community. We've definitely found some kindred spirits; I just want a few more. Don't I always?

You Are So Nashville If

the Kidman-Urban clan drops by the story hour at your library. It's true and you can imagine how cool-less I was. I happened to look up as they entered the room and was completely gobsmacked. But wait, it gets better. I casually (ha ha) lean over to speak with my friend.

Me: (stage whisper) I don't want to alarm you, but Nicole Kidman just walked through the door.
My friend: What?
Me: (now making use of my nonexistent ventriloquist skills) Nicole Kidman is here at storytime.
My friend: Now?
Me: (more ventriloquism/hissing) Yes. Now. On the back row. Be cool.

I tried to be so cool that I didn't even snag a look at their daughter. I was just thanking the lord that I had taken a shower this morning and was wearing clean clothes. Not that they cared, of course, but it certainly made me feel better about the whole encounter.

It was an excellent story hour, hosted by VOLUNTEERS. Our city has difficulty providing funding for anything beyond the most basic needs and this mother-daughter duo volunteer their time to provide an entertaining and educational story hour. Kudos and thanks to these amazing women. And they can tell their friends they performed for Nicole Kidman. Bonus.

We took the kids to picnic and play at Dragon Park. They had a ball, except for the strange individual who commandeered the teeter totter for the entire time we were at the park. That would be three hours, people. Someone boldly placed her daughter on the other side of the teeter totter, but he continued to stay on. I'm just calling it determination and moving on.

Teaching and Learning

We went to Nature Circle this morning and listened to reminiscences of the president of the Native American Indian Association's president. She brought handmade toys, clothes and jewelry for the children to see and told the kids about growing up on a reservation near Philadelphia, MS. The highlight of the morning, however, was the park manager preparing and shooting his flintlock rifle. It was easy to see the differences between the boys and the girls. The boys were all right in front and ecstatic about guns, shots, powder, etc., and wanted to know what critter the park manager shot. The girls huddled around their parents and waited patiently until the show was over. A few of them wanted to be sure that nothing had been shot.

Afterwards, we played with some friends at the park. On our way out, DD read one of the signs and then spent some time "teaching" the youngest how to read. He told her to "sound it out" and she patiently read all the words she could to him. Ok, semi-patiently. She did tell him "I already read you that word" a time or two.

Rocking and Rolling

Although I couldn't record them via transcription or recording device, at least I can record the memory here. DD sings all the time, but today she composed two unbelievable songs. One was a riff of "On the Road Again." The second one was the most memorable for me. She said "This is a sad song about a cherry tree that has died." She accompanied herself on her recorder, so she was playing it very softly, just a few tweets here and there. The cherry tree died, then someone came over, smiled at the tree and it came back to life. Cue racuous recorder music. Totally awesome.

She also scored her first soccer goal of the season. You know those totally obnoxious parents you loathe sitting near at any function? Yeah. That was us.

She also performed a ballet and conducted a symphony. It was a busy day.

FREEDOM!

After too many days of upper respiratory yuck, DD was finally able to venture out amongst people again. Aaahh. We went to visit The Hermitage today, smack dab in the middle of the "severe" thunderstorm we were due to receive. We managed to avoid most of the rain, and enjoyed our tour of the home. We weren't able to walk the grounds, but we may try to do that another, sunnier day. DD wasn't as intrigued by this historical home as she was when we visted the Croft House at the Nashville Zoo. When we toured the Croft House, we could actually walk through some of the rooms. All the rooms at The Hermitage have been sealed behind plexiglass, which makes it difficult to get a really good view. And we are really nosy.

Note the boots. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

We went to see the movie today. We asked DD about her favorite part of the movie. Her response? "The end." Ouch.

Totally Tom Sawyer

We went down to NCT this morning to see The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Two thumbs up. If you get a chance, you should see it. It was wonderful. DD liked it, although I do think she was humoring me a bit, as she could tell that I LOVED it. The music was great. The actors were wonderful. Blah blah blah. It was excellent.

As we pulled up, there were several school buses in the parking lot, which were of major interest to DD. "I wish I could go to school and learn to read and write and ride the bus." What?!?!? My precious darling 5 y.o. wants to go to SCHOOL? Ride the BUS? Something I vowed she would NEVER do, based on my own bus experiences. I was shocked. Later on this evening, after the oxygen reignited necessary brain function, I asked her how many days a week she would like to go to school. Two. Two days a week. I told her we could probably arrange for one day a week. She seemed satisfied by that. Me too. Whew!

Thursday in the Park with Friends

We enjoyed a lovely few hours at the park this afternoon with some of DD's homeschool friends. It took her a bit of time to warm up, which needlessly stresses me out. First we had to deal with the snack situation. We made buttermilk scones this morning to share, and I left them in the car so the kids could play a bit. Wrong.

DD: Where are the scones?
Me: In the car.
DD: Can we eat them?
Me: Not yet. Go play.

Five minutes elapse. Repeat conversation. And so on, until I finally broke down from the strain and retrieved the scones from the car. Miraculously, she went to play after scone consumption. She did, however, return a few times to attempt to wheedle more scones. Her new rationale is "nobody's looking." When did she become a politician?