This morning J and I did our LHBW reading and then she couldn't wait to grab that globe and locate more countries and capitals. I found another website that shows you a blank map and asks where a country/state/ocean/etc. is. She played that for about 45 minutes. She is really remembering most of the countries' capitals and where everything is. It's pretty fascinating. It's been over a week since she's looked at the globe and she was pround to tell me that the capital of Germany was Berlin and the capital of Jordan was Amman. She remembered over 20 of them. FUN is the key with her (and for all of us, I guess). I think I might make anything that's usually boring, banal, and aggravating as fun as possible. The kids would totally respond to that. I convinced K that fractions were my favorite thing and how fun they were and now it's her favorite, too. (and every math topic she had to do after that was also my favorite - decimals, exponents, geometry,). And ever since that, she has been making straight As in math. Hmmmm.

We all went to Barnes and Noble this afternoon. W was asleep, K wanted clothes instead of books today (I got her a cute new sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret), and J was the one to ask for books for a change. She got a puzzle magazine, a LHBW paper doll set, a "dream journal", and I got her a book on 3rd grade writing. It was a fun one and she seemed excited about it (we'll see). She wrote a journal entry on Sunday and another one today (in the car). This kid hates to write. So, since I'm finally noticing a small spark if interest, I thought maybe I'd feed the fire a bit and see where it leads. I won't feed it too much, though, or it will probably go out. I know her. Then, at the customer service desk I asked about the "educator's discount" (since I'm now entitled to one!). The guy said all I have to do is bring proof that I'm an educator and I get a nice little card that gets me 20% off all educational purchases. Then I asked if they had an "educator's week" where even more is taken off purchases. It so happened that the flyer for that was right next to me and educator's week takes place at the end of this month!! YEEEEFREAKIN'HAAAAWWWW! Talk about fate!! Then I found "Teaching Your Own" by John Holt - a book I have been looking for for months! It's weird how things just fall into place for you sometimes.