J got back into the swing of things pretty quickly today! We have this advertisement in the form of a card. When you open it, a man's voice gives this promo about a new tv show (anyone else get this?). Well, we decided to take it apart and see the circuit inside. It's cool because it's pretty straight forward with a complete circuit that has a metal part that you push against another metal part which causes the the sound to form. There are wires and batteries and a speaker. I looked up a kids circuit/electricity site (so I could understand it myself). We talked about electron flow, closed/open circuits, positive/negative poles, and how it all has to do with the electricity in the walls. Both kids had a lot ot say about it and W just went on and on with his own opinions about how it all works.

W had a bath and we took him to preschool at 12:45pm. One little girl was crying so badly that it broke my heart. That is just so not right. It was terrible to watch her scream and scream and reach for her mother who turned around and (had to) walk away. W didn't like that at all and went in looking like a lost puppy. Another boy (4 y/o) was outside in a carriage with a pacifier in his mouth (WTF?), with his hands over his face, determined not to move. His mom had a hard time prying him off and getting him inside. Preschool should not be torturous and traumatic like this. The children who do go should want to be there and look forward to it. If W had a separation issue, believe me, I wouldn't think twice about heading right home with him - not to return. We wouldn't have shown up at all if he wasn't excited about it all summer. He came out smiling again, so I'm not worried at all. They played in the big jungle gym today and he made a couple of new friends, too!

When J and I got home, she put n the Annie CD and belted out every song from beginning to end. She sings so well. I'm glad she's taking the musical theater class this year. They're not gonna believe it when they hear her sing. I casually mentioned to her that she may be taking a test in the spring, and not to forget to brush up on some basic things. She said, "Oh yeah! I did forget! Will you watch me do some of the test-prep book?". Well, that was easy. She started at the first page and continued to do 8 more. It was the Language Arts section and she filled in the bubble with answers to questions on antonyms, synonyms, matching word meanings, fill-in-the-blank (comprehension), and analogies. She didn't want the analogies page to end so she got right up, went to the computer, and found pages and pages of analogies quizzes. Some were multiple choice and some were write-in-your-answer. I think she spent another 45 minutes doing that. She is so good at them, too. All the quizzes she found were for 4/5th grade level and she aced them all.

I noticed again today that when J is figuring answers out, she tends to think kind of out-of-the-box. One analogy was GREEN:COLOR as TRIANGLE:___ . The answer is obviously "shape" - except J wrote "polygon". J is technically correct. She does that often and it's one of the reasons teachers didn't "get" her. I told her she was absolutely right, but the tests usually veer toward the more obvious answers. She hates getting answers wrong, but she loves taking tests. Online tests, actually. Not the kind that the teachers made her do, but the ones she finds on her own about topics she enjoys.

At 4pm when everyone was home, W practiced Chopsticks on the piano keyboard (he's still trying to get it after a year). This time, I colored the correct keys for him and he got it on the first try. Why didn't I think of that months ago? J played some songs as well. It's a teaching keyboard and it shows you how to play all the song in its songbank (100 songs). She uses that to teach herself how to play. K had another good day at school. The boy she likes (ok, the one who asked her to be his girlfriend in June) is back from a long summer in the Bahamas. They resumed being a couple (god help me) and she has been in a good mood all day. Now 3 boys are calling my house for her and I'm getting ticked off. I am on her like a hawk, and although I do trust her, I don't trust the other kids. We did homework together (Cartesian coordinates) and had another talk about school, friends, boys, etc. (a happy, friendly talk - not a nasty, condescending one). I'm wondering when the time will come when she stops telling me things. I am nervous about the future. K has become the queen-bee in the popular group and I don't know if I should do anything. I wish I knew more moms of teens and almost-teens. I need advice through this phase.