Disney Earth

I took the kids to see Disney Earth with the homeschool group yesterday. I love movies like that. Even back in the 70s when The Wonderful World of Disney used to show a short clip of animals in nature with that cowboy narrator on Sunday evenings. This movie was very cute. It was also sad, watching how the circle of life can be cruel. The footage taken was incredible and we got a glimpse at the end to see the cameramen in action. J was glad her friend L came, so they sat together, and W had a couple friends there he sat with as well.

I mailed out their 3rd quarterly reports last week and I'll just assume it was received. I also ordered J's CAT-E, the test she'll be taking next month. J has been going over lots of 7th grade math over the weeks to make sure she's ready. W is moving along well with his AO Yr1. I found 2 old CIMS 2nd grade math workbooks that J's 2nd-grade teacher let her have when the school completely changed the math curriculum. We have Part 1 and Part 2. W loves them best of all now. They're plain, no color, very to-the-point, and have these exercises that seem to get through to him. Not something I would look at from the cover and say, "hey that looks great!". We're almost through the first book after just starting a few weeks ago with it. So, I am convinced now that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, heh heh. I don't know if these books are available anymore, but I'd like to seek out the higher levels for him.

Meerkats

W had his zoo class today and they talked about animal behavior and enrichments. Enrichments are what zookeepers put in the animals' cage that will create a positive reaction. The main one being appropriate food, and the other one being toys. The instructor put some stuffed monkeys in a glass pen and asked the kids what kind of environment they would need. The kids said things like "trees", "water and food", "places to get out of the rain", and "stuff to play with". We had walked around the zoo earlier and noticed the monkeys have baby toys, the goats have what looks like punching bags (for them to butt into), and the parrots have lots of fun-looking hanging things. The instructor brought in a hen, put her in the pen and tossed in some mealworms. The hen started clucking loudly and gobbled up every last one. It was obviously a "good enrichment" since it evoked a cute positive response from the hen. Common sense, yes, but still a lesson in there.

The kids then made some fun things for the meerkats. They put mealworms in a toilet paper tube and wrapped the whole thing in decorated paper. We went over to the meerkat pen and one of the zookeepers walked right in there and strategically placed all the "enrichments" around the pen. The kids watched as the meerkats found each one (and climbed high to get a few), rip them open and reach in to eat the mealworms. This proved to be a good enrichment since the meerkats got very active and playful. Cool class. Would have been even cooler if it wasn't pouring rain outside.

Before we left, W did 2 math pages, 2 reading pages, some copywork, read an A.A. Milne poem with me, and narrated back a story from Fifty Famous Stories Retold and one Aesops fable. B read the stories to him and as luck would have it, one story included this line: "the boy named Richard was called Dick" and the other one had this one: "The farmer took his ass to the market". From the other room I hear this riotous laughter. I think B was laughing harder. After a little while, B called to me, "OK, we're done reading about Dick and ass now." (insert more riotous laughter)

Men.

I took the girls out to a jewelry party at my sister's house last night. It was a cool party with lots of women and some gorgeous bling. My little sister (the chef) made incredible finger foods and desserts: skewered chicken, rice paper beet/cucumber wraps, smoked cheeses on crackers, and so much more. I bought an ankle bracelet and my mom got the girls something each. We left after 11pm and I don't think I got to sleep til after 3am. I'm not cut out for late-nights anymore. Ugh, I was a tired mess all day today.

We slept over my mom's and went out for breakfast this morning. Then I dropped the girls off at home and I went to work. J and K went over their friends' houses this afternoon. W spent the day at the playground. He had a huge game of freeze-tag going on with over 10 kids. In the evening we played chess - he loves it. Then we read together. AO gives a list of "free reading" that I just figured we'd never get to. But since he was sleepy and mellow, I suggested something light like Little House in the Big Woods. J loved that book and I think he likes it now too. It would be so great if we can get back into the evening readaloud. It mellows my kids out even more - and me too.

Week Recap

Last Wednesday was a nice relaxing day at home. W did A.A. Milne copywork, 3 math pages, lots of reading, reading comprehension games, and we read some Ben Franklin bio, Aesop's, and Our Island Story. He played Wii for a little while after that and spent a few hours wit B at the playground. J spent the day at a friend's house and slept over. Thursday the kids had 4H club.

Friday W went to the homeschool group book club. They read The Lorax and I now love that story. W had cub scouts that evening and J went with her friend to see The Hannah Montana Movie. My sister picked me up around 3 and we drove up to Warwick, NY to see my cousin D do an acoustic set at a local coffee house. He played guitar and harmonica and sang with an adorable girl from the neighborhood. I was so proud of him and happy that I got to see him before he heads to the Navy. Saturday, the girls enjoyed a day out with friends, I worked, and W and B went to the park and cooked dinner together. Sunday was Easter and we all went out to my mom's house. Yesterday, W did more morning academics - B has been home for a while and can see what W does. We were supposed to go to the zoo class, but there was an accident or something bringing the BQE to a complete standstill, so we didn't make it. W went to the playground instead. It's teeming with kids since school is off this week. K has been busy, too. She's spending lots of time with her friends and is getting ready to be "in the court" at a sweet 16 later this week. She and 4 other girls (with matching dresses and shoes) and 5 guys are helping the birthday girl "debut". I think there's even a waltz involved. Tanning and getting a mani-pedi are in her plans for the week.

W has been really getting into his workbooks and readings. He still loves math and is now starting to really enjoy grammar. He's moved on from phonics and has started with punctuation and parts of speech. He flipped his book right to a short test and got everything correct - even though we never really went over much about sentence formation and past tenses. I guess all that reading and copywork really sinks in! With our history readings, he asks to look at a map to understand more about the countries in the stories. It's so interesting how he just gets it. We're both having a lot of fun together with it all.

Beczak on the Hudson

We drove up to the Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers this morning. W was part of a class about food chains in the Hudson River. The view of the river and Palisades Mountains was absolutely breathtaking. The class was held inside the center. They learned about how striped bass eat atlantic silversides, which eat amphipods (like sand fleas), which eat zooplankton, which eat phytoplankton, which drink drops of water which may contain the PCBs from certain factories. So since people eat striped bass, people are also ingesting PCBs. They also discussed (and demonstrated with a large model) how fresh water from the Adirondack Mountains flows down the Hudson into the Atlantic Ocean. We were in an area of the river where the water is partly fresh and partly salty - "brackish". I forgot my camera, so I found a picture on google of what the view looks like (although this one is in the fall, and it's now spring, well, you get the idea, lol).

After the class, a few of us hung around and went down to the shoreline to climb on the rocks and throw pebbles into the river. It was pretty windy and chilly, but the kids didn't seem to notice. It took less than 30 minutes to get home. I love that there are so many new places to see so close to our house. I feel we haven't even scratched the surface of all that is out there!

Owls

Today at the Prospect Park Zoo class the kids learned all about owls. The instructor gave a wonderfully indepth presentation on the characteristics of owls. The kids, once again, were very eager to ask and answer questions and all seemed so fascinated by the information. She gave each group of kids a field guide and they had to identify the owl in the picture she was holding up. W was so proud that his team got them all right. Then the kids went to the tables to dissect owl pellets. It was so great so see how much the kids loved that. W had a couple of rodent skulls in his. They all got a laminated page to identify the different bones they picked out. Who knew owl vomit would be so cool? We still have the pellet he got at Urban Rangers - we're so gonna hit that one tomorrow.

Weekend Madness

J had another dance competition on Saturday. Friday was spent with me at home organizing the costumes, accessories, and supply trunk and B out running errands, food shopping and picking up last minute items like white bobby pins and "diamond" earrings. J had a birthday party Friday evening and it was nice to see K helping her with clothes and hair. I love that they're so close.

I went out around 10pm to pick up J from her party and K from her friend's house since we had an early wakeup in the morning. At 7am we were all up, B packed a huge food bag for us (sandwiches, sodas, waters, snacks), made us all breakfast, and packed up the car for me. He's amazing. He usually comes with us to competitions, but W had his Communion Retreat from 9am-1pm. B brought him to that.

We got to the venue within 30 minutes and set up all our stuff in our studio's dressing room. J had 2 hours of workshop classes before the actual competition began. This was from 10am to noon. The dancers ideally need to be ready an hour before performance time. We were all a bit worried about the program schedule since 4 of J's numbers were to go one between 1pm and 2pm and her other 4 numbers were scheduled for 7pm to 8pm. Needless to say, the costume changes were a whirlwind. But J and I have done this together for so long that we can go from a head to toe tap costume to a jazz solo costume (that is getting a bit small), with different shoes, hairstyle, and undergarments in about 2 minutes.

During the long afternoon break, we ate lunch and K and I zipped back to Queens to pick up B - and get back in time for the first set of awards (which were at 4:45). First my car battery was dead, so I got a jump from one of the dance dads. See, this is the stuff that totally stresses me out. I'm in a hurry and things like this always seem to happen. But it only delayed us for about 15 minutes. I picked up B at about 4pm, he dropped W off at MIL's (where W was taken out to eat at a nice restaurant), and off we were back to the venue. Then there was traffic all of a sudden. An accident on my highway. Ok, now it's like 4:30 and I know we're gonna miss the awards. I don't know how we did it, but we got there, parked, ran in, and just made it.

The evening set went about the same way. A little less hectic than the morning. And then it was finally time for the evening award ceremony. Our studio did really well. This competition has awards as follows: Bronze, Silver, Sterling Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Here are the results for J's numbers (don't forget, "Open" means a mix of dance styles, "Small Group" means 4 to 9 kids, "Large Group" means 10 to 15 kids, and "Production" means every studio team is in it):

Jazz Solo - PLATINUM (2nd Place overall for Junior solos)
Musical Theater Solo - GOLD
Lyrical Small Group - PLATINUM (1st place overall for Small Groups)
Open Small Group - GOLD
Tap Small Group - PLATINUM (2nd place overall for Small Groups)
Open Large Group - GOLD
Open Large Group - GOLD
Production Large Group - PLATINUM

J's studio's older team (14 and 15 yos) won just about all the Diamond awards given out (about 5 out of 7). They also won overall high score of the day out of the 102 numbers from 4 different studios. J had such a good time all day. She never stresses at all. She just laughs and eats and enjoys herself, all while getting into another costume. I laugh right along with her as I'm panicking inside that we won't be ready in time. I know I should be used to it by now. All in all it was a great time and we were home a little after 10pm. My parents came to watch both sets of J's numbers. After the final awards, they took K and J home with them. The rest of us will go out there today. Full, wonderful weekend as usual.

Head Heart Hands Health...

...and Homeschoolers!!

J and W are now part of a brand new homeschoolers 4H club. 4H is a very old organization with a focus on "hands-on learning". Wikipedia says it's slogan is "Learn By Doing" - gotta love that. 4-H programs can be found in three expansive mission mandates: Science, Engineering, Technology, Citizenship, and Healthy Living. While originally a group revolving around agriculture, animal husbandry, and farming, 4H continuously develops new programs like photography, conservation, cooking, public speaking, history, art, and more. What a great opportunity.

The kids had a really good time with it. At the initial meeting there were about 10 kids. The woman running it was such a pro. She had awesome activities planned and kept the kids very engaged. J wasn't sure she'd be into it, but is eager to go back next week. Several of her friends were there which made it more fun. W really loved it. The activities were so cool for him. He certainly loves science and this class was full of that. Afterwards many of us walked to the playground and the kids just let loose for an hour or so. That's when a wise girl in our group said it should be the 5-H Club - for Homeschoolers! LOL.

Seussical!

Yesterday the kids and I went to see Seussical the Musical at Queens College's Colden Center. We met up with a bunch of our homeschooling friends and we all sat together in great seats. I never got to see this on Broadway, but was always interested. J and W loved it and I actually thought it was pretty funny. When we went to the Museum of the City of NY last month, we got to see the actual costumes from the Broadway show. These smaller shows are through an organization called "Theaterworks". Many of the shows are geared toward the younger audience, but the acting and singing were so phenomenal that we want to see all of them, lol.

J and I had a talk and she seems excited to audition for certain performing arts high schools at the end of the year. She prefers one in particular because it's very well known and it's the probably the best public performing arts high school in the country.  She loves how it not only focuses on the arts, but heavily on academics as well. I looked at her like, "huh?". I honestly had no idea she had any significant interest in school academics. Interesting. She was then ready to create a schedule for herself and get cracking on preparation for this year's CAT test. The first thing on her handwritten schedule is copywork. That's funny, because it was the first thing on W's too. Then the rest of it is all math, reading, vocabulary, spelling, language arts, "and other stuff". She wants to keep a few of the AO readings, too.

So, both kids have created a wonderful activity list/schedule for themselves. I couldn't have done a better job myself, lol.

Prospect Park Zoo

Today, W went to the first of a series of classes at the Prospect Park Zoo. He and about 11 other kids had a wonderful time learning about animal adaptation. They saw which covering (fur, feathers, or scales) keeps water temperature the warmest - which would be comparable to which keeps an animal's body the warmest. They looked at different animal skulls, talked about its characteristics, and guessed what they were. They also got to pet a blue-tongued skink. The class is for 2nd to 6th grades and W loved seeing some of his friends there. The instructor was fabulous and really knew how to reach the kids. Even though it's set up a bit like "school", it's very relaxed, interactive, and so interesting. All the kids were eager to answer questions and volunteer. She couldn't believe that everyone's hand went up when she asked about the eating habits of a polar bear or how a porcupine uses its quills for defense. I was so impressed at how much they knew. We had never been to this zoo before. I'm glad we get to keep going for the next few weeks!

Random Weekend

W spent much of the weekend at the park - tag, cops & robbers, and basketball are his usual games there. He finally found his skateboard (we left it at my mom's, oops) and he's ready to learn some more moves with that. There are a couple of kids on our block and in the park around his age who skateboard, and I can tell he wants to join in. Other parts of his weekend included the Friday cub scouts, Sunday CCD, and suit shopping for his First Holy Communion in 5 weeks. We're having no luck with that yet. MIL offered to buy it, so we're heading out to one more store this morning.

He decided to make a list of his favorite things to do and keep it out so he can remember to do them, lol. This includes bike riding, skateboarding, gardening, going out to cool places, playing Wii, and cooking. It also includes science stuff (nature walks, readings, experiments, etc), math workbook, reading his books (alone, silently), readalouds like Paddle to the Sea and Aesop's Fables, and copywork. The academic stuff he wants to keep doing in the mornings.

J had dance rehearsal on Friday for a couple of hours and then a sleepover. On Saturday she had 2 birthday parties: one at a restaurant at 2pm, and the other was a house party at 7pm (to midnight!!). And Sunday she was webcamming with her friends all day. She's still figuring out a schedule for herself. I'm curious to see what she does. She has another party this Friday and another competition this weekend as well.

Worm Composting

Yesterday W and I went down to the Lower East Side to a worm composting workshop. We met up with about 20 families at the Mulberry Street library. One of the moms read us all a story about recycling. A woman from the LES Ecology Center came and talked all about recycling, composting, organic material, living/nonliving things, and worms, of course. The kids were great. They were all eager to answer questions and were very into the topic. She sprayed all the kids' hands with water and they all got to hold some worms. Each child also got his own mini composting bin. They ripped old newspaper pages into strips, wet them, wrung them out hard, and lined their bins with it. Then 3 or 4 worms were placed in everyone's bin. All we have to do is feed it something a couple times a week and keep it away from too much heat or cold. Since compost is basically worm poo, it's starts being made right away. I think we'll try growing some vegetables this year in containers in the backyard. We used to grow peppers, zucchini, and herbs years ago. I think we should do it again.

A few more books are disappearing from our AO schedule. And the AO schedule has been disappearing too, lol. J decided she wants to create her own schedule, using most of the workbooks and some of the reading books she uses now. I know she prefers more control over how she utilizes her time so I'm kind of surprised she went along with a pre-set schedule for this long. I'll see if W would like to continue with (the perpetually shrinking) AO schedule or make his own like J. I'm thinking the latter would be way more fun for him. Then again, he may not even want a schedule. It's all good. The kids have been learning so much lately - even more now that the weather is better and we can hit the city. I'm looking forward to a fabulous spring.

Competition Fever

We spent the weekend at a hotel in New Jersey for J's dance competition. She did 3 solos on Friday, 2 group numbers on Saturday, and 4 group numbers on Sunday. NINE numbers - the most she's ever done at one comp. The scoring for this comp (from lowest to highest) was Honorable Mention, Bronze, Silver, Elite Silver, Gold, Elite Gold, Platinum, and Platinum Plus. Here are her scores for this weekend ("Open" means the dance style falls into more than one category. "Production" means it usually includes a combination of different-aged teams from one studio):

Jazz Solo - PLATINUM - 2nd place in category
Musical Theater Solo - PLATINUM - 3rd place in category
Vocal Solo - PLATINUM PLUS - 1st place in category
Lyrical Small Group - PLATINUM - 1st place in category, 5th place overall (out of over 40 small group numbers)
Open Small Group - PLATINUM
Tap Small Group - PLATINUM
Open Large Group - PLATINUM
Open Large Group - PLATINUM PLUS - Best Costume Award
Production Large Group - PLATINUM - Most Entertaining Award

J (and only about 15 others out over 100 solos that night) was selected for something called "Power Pak" which is the competition's own touring group of dancers. It's similar to the other performance team ("Team Rave") she was on a few years ago. Basically for $$ you spend a week with them taking master classes, doing various activities, and performing. As wonderful as it sounds, I couldn't get another week off (I already have a week off for Nationals) and the price is fairly outrageous. But she feels honored to have been chosen based on her solo performance.

The hotel was nice and J bounced around to all her friends' different rooms. She went to the mall with them one day and out to eat another. The competition venue was a local tech high school that had a really nice auditorium. Dressing rooms were 2 flights down - which kinda sucked, especially for me with my rac n roll costume trunk. But it all worked out great.

W had a great time out in Long Island with my parents. He went out for breakfast, bowling, to the movies, to dinner, played with his cousins and the neighbors, and just had such a better time than if he had come with us. He gets so bored at J's competitions and feels obligated to play with the other little brothers who aren't nice kids at all. I'm finding that a lot of traditionally-schooled kids (boys mainly) W's age (up to like 11yo) have something they feel they need to prove to their peers, try way too hard to look cool in front of others, and feel good about acting as nasty as they can and laughing about it. I saw so much of that at the competition this weekend. Thankfully W sees right though that, although he does give too much "benefit of the doubt" in my opinion. I love that W has an incredible sense of self with no pretense or showing off. He is such a good person, with his head and his heart always in the right place. I sometimes wonder if he had stayed in school, would he be just like these other boys? Thankfully I'll never know.

Bayside Historical Society

W went on a cool trip to the Bayside Historical Society in Queens. The area called Willets Point was bought by the US Army in 1857 and they built Fort Totten. It was used by the military for over a hundred years for so many different purposes (army hospital, training base, underwater technology testing area, and in 1944 it was named headquarters of the North Atlantic region of the Air Transport Command. It finally closed in 1995. The Society's mission is to preserve the rich history of the Fort and the surrounding area of Bayside. Yesterday they conducted a living history class based in 1906. The girls got to wear long dresses, hats and gloves and the boys got to put on sailor suits, complete with neckerchief and knickers (W preferred to remain in his jeans, thank you). They kids ate finger sandwiches (I wonder whose fingers they used, hah hah hah) and chose their own tea bags for tea. W remembered a lot of what was said and really enjoyed it.

Tweaking

As much as we love AmblesideOnline, I will admit we have been dropping some of the scheduled readings. First we dropped all the religious ones. My kids have plenty of outside religious instruction already - don't need it. We've also dropped some books with somewhat disturbing religious undertones. Sorry, don't need that, thankyouverymuch. Then there are some books that are just so uninteresting, that I see no reason to continue with them. I dropped 2 like that from J's list, and may drop 1 from W's list. I'm proud of myself that I've loosened up enough to change pre-set things around to suit our needs. It is OK to mix in more contemporary books - even a bit of twaddle, gasp! - among all the classic stuff. Also, it states right on AO's introduction page that "Parents may use as much or as little of the booklists and schedules as they like". I've gotten over that feeling of "blasphemy". Feels good. :)

J has another competition this weekend. This is gonna be a biggie. It may be the one who's Nationals we're doing. W will stay at my mom's for the weekend and B, K, J, and I will be heading out to NJ early Friday afternoon. J has all 3 solos on Friday evening. Her five group numbers go on Saturday and Sunday. We're still stoning costumes and buying shoes and last minute supplies, but the hotel is booked and it seems the comp schedule gives J enough time for outfit changes. 2 new group numbers are going out this weekend and I'm so excited to see how they look.

W's Weekend

It was Pinewood Derby Day at cub scouts yesterday. B and W made an awesome car out of a block of wood, some wheels, and some paint. The race was great! The Tiger and Wolf dens raced together. There were at least 20 contestants. W was undefeated for 10 races until there were only 2 cars left - his and Noah's. It was tense. It was exciting. And then it was over. Noah beat him twice and won the trophy. Then the Bears raced, then the Webelos. The 3 winners went up against each other for the final round. The ultimate winner got the nice trophy and bragging rights for another year. W was very pleased with his 2nd place finish. I was proud of him for being proud. Inside though I wanted to scream and throw things. So close, ugh, so close. We'll get 'em next year.

This morning W celebrated his first Sacrament of Reconciliation. We got to the church by 11, had a short mass, and about 30 kids got in line to get some sins off their chest and says some prayers for penance. W was so nervous about it, but afterwards said it was easy. He memorized the entire new modernized Act of Contrition and was proud to tell it to the priest. This is the precursor to the next Sacrament - First Holy Communion - in May. MIL offered to buy his suit, so I need to start looking for a nice one. We're off to my mom's tomorrow for W's birthday.

Queens Historical Society

Yesterday, W went to a homeschool group class at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing. They discussed the Underground Railroad and made paper quilts. After the class they took a tour of the rooms. The house is almost 250 years old. I found it fascinating to learn about the history of Queens as I walked around the place. I met several homeschooling families I hadn't seen before and it was great. It's a wonderful feeling to have conversations with people who are on the same page as you. After the class and tour, many of the kids went right over to the playground next door. All the kids were between the ages of 5 and 9 and W could have stayed there all day.

We left around 4 to go pick up J at her friend's house. She had gone to a different homeschool group's event out in Long Island. This was a drama class led by her friend, A. J enjoyed it a lot and loved seeing all her friends from the big homeschool dance the week before. We haven't done much with the Long Island group lately because, well, everything is in Long Island. I'm burnt out with the 30-45 minute drives. But since J can catch a ride out there, she can go to more things with them. So, I picked her up and took her to dance class. She's finishing up a new group number that will go out to competition. During her class, W had cub scouts, so I dropped him off next. Yay that his meetings are right around the corner. I then got to read and relax for an hour.

At home, the contractor and renovation guy are back. It seems that one of the electrical outlets in the kitchen has to be moved. AAARRGGHH! So after the whole kitchen was done, more holes are being opened and more plaster and dirty friggin fingerprints are covering my freshly-painted walls.

J is singing tomorrow for a mini-recital show. My mom and sisters are coming in from LI to watch. I found out I'm allowed to videotape, so I'm thrilled to use my new camera I got for Christmas. I'll see how that goes and if I can post a video on here.

Hall of Science

K was off all last week and it was so nice having her home. We hung out so much that week. J had the week off from dance (I don't think that's EVER happened!). Since her school friends were off, too, she got to spend a lot of time with them (at their houses, the mall, etc). W played with friends at the park a lot and started getting more into playing chess. He's really good at it now. I'm going to see if I can find an afternoon chess club for him.

Yesterday W participated in a great class at the NY Hall of Science. It was called "Diversity of Life" and was geared toward 3rd-6th graders. They used microscopes, looked at one-celled animals, did a yeast experiment, and discussed living vs. non-living things. He loved it. While he did that, J watched a demonstration on math (it was actually very interesting!) and one on the dissection of a cow's eye (again). We stayed at the HoS for a couple more hours afterward. W practiced his pitching again as well.

Weekend Fun

The weekend was great. On Friday, W had cub scouts. He missed the blue and gold dinner last week since we were at J's dance competition, so he's slotted to get a couple more patches. He's starting work soon on his pinewood derby car. B is so thrilled about that (B still has his, lol). After the meeting, we went to the bank and the kids deposited their "Pennies for Peace" into the coin counter machine. Each boy got a chance to empty a bucketful - twice. They ended up with over $100 in pennies. The bank manager gave the kids some candy, a coloring book, and crayons to take home.

On Saturday, B and the kids surprised me with lots of chocolate and cards. I got B a bag of 70% pure cocoa dark chocolate squares and the kids got a heart-shaped box of assorted stuff. A boy that K sorta kinda likes ("but is sooo cute") came by to give her a single red rose for Valentines Day. She's on the lookout for someone new since the other dude didn't work out. She enjoys the attention and I'm watching like a hawk, lol.

J went out with her friend, S, to a concert. This one was for a ('nother obscure) boy band called PushPlay. It was at the Crazy Donkey out in Farmingdale and she had a blast. They went with her friend's mom and it was pretty family-friendly. They also had passes for the meet-and-greet afterwards. J got autographs from all the band members, but unfortunately they weren't letting cameras in.

S came over the next day and we all went out to the movies to see Coraline. I loved it. It was scary-ish and in 3-D. $100 later, we got home and S slept over. today we relaxed. The girls hung out, K was at a friend's house, and B took W to the park. This week is President's Week - which used to be called Energy Conservation Week when I was a kid - and K is off. My younger 2 will continue with the AO schedule this week. We've fallen a bit behind again, but not by much. J has a standardized test to take in a couple of months and she wants to hone the math skills. W's new favorite show is the Electric Company (my fave back in the day as well) and I can already see the impact it's had on his reading. The show rocks. Too bad it's only on once a week. We're DVR'ing it though.

Playground Politics

I was in awe of my son yesterday at the playground. We got there around 3, when it's packed with kids. Within seconds, W had 3 kids with him by the swings. Then a new kid comes by and starts bullying a smaller child who looked about 5 y/o. W gets off his swing, pushed the bully off the smaller kid, then gets back on the swing. A few minutes later, the smaller kid is on the swing and the bully is now back shaking the swing telling the kid to get off. The kid didn't move, so the bully kicked him in the head. W went right over, grabbed the bully by the shoulders, threw him back a few feet, and told him to leave the kid alone. W and his friends soon left the swing area exchanging words with the bully for the next 15 minutes. The bully's older brother eventually showed up and they told him what happened. We didn't see the bully again after that. I purposely stayed out of it (and back about 25 feet), but kept a very watchful eye on what was going on. W came over once to me and said, "Mom, it's OK, I can handle it". I trusted he could.

So now W has about 7 boys and 2 girls (all look from 7 to 10 y/o) and they start up a game of cops and robbers. W is robber captain for the first round, and when other kids are the captain, W is picked first to be on the team. That alone got me choked up a bit. The game is so fun to watch. The kids are fair, supportive, and couldn't care less that all 10 of them represent 10 different countries. After a while I see the bully returning. I got a bit nervous but then the kid turned and left again. I see W look at his friends, say something, get nods from them, and then dart after the bully and disappear behind the park building. My first thought was that this was going to be trouble, but then I see W and the bully walking together back to the group of kids. W then says, "Hey guys, we got another player!".

I was like WHAT?!?!! He canNOT be serious!

I found out later that the bully had walked over to apologize, turned around and walked away again. That's when W decided he was OK after all and ran over to invite him to join the game. The game went on beautifully for another hour til it started getting darker and colder out and kids started heading home. I learned a lot from my son that day. He taught me about forgiveness and acceptance and living in the moment, all through the best game of cops and robbers I ever saw.