So I'm not sure what happened to Blogger this week but I couldn't sign in!! so this post is a mash of all we did this week excluding spelling lists,reading chapters and exact exercises for math... Wednesdays story time we got to take Caiden's best friend Ashton ( his school is on spring break) they did the giant floor puzzle of the ocean after stories :) unfortunately my phone is no longer allowing me to download pictures and I forgot to take my mom camera :( so her is other things we did this week ......

bird house he painted...

cat house he built...

and they like it :)

growing brain plant

Caiden and my fish tank which required feed everyday; corals have to be target feed. That's Caiden's job :)

We have made it to book 3 of Dripping Fang Forest series. We read this at bed time :)

Caiden and his daddy (favorite person in the world)

This is the first time he has been clean shaven in 8 years LOL

and this is the poem Caiden wrote about his daddy (favorite person in the world). I love it!

Caiden on book two (he's on book three now) of Beast Quest series. This is his free reading book :)

Caiden's sister Brooklyn teaching him and his cousin Trace her track workout. Those boys were whipped when she was done with them :) LOL

and last but not least; Caiden's picture of cats on a fence with garbage piled next to it and dogs barking at them :) lol love his brain.

3/22 "I just want go back to bed". From caiden?

I knew from the moment he sat down today was going to be a long day. I made this decision based on many cues but the big one was when he thought he should just move his cereal bowl to his lap because he was to tired to pick his head up! ugh....yep that's how our morning went. to tired to get dressed, to tired to write, to tired to think...imagine my surprise when at about 11:15 he says "I just want to go back to bed". If you know my child you are in as much shock as me. Bed is something to be avoided at all cost read till you have to hold your eyelids up with your fingers, one more trip to the bathroom, dehydration caused by not drinking for 24min. one more drink. I can't blame him, ask my husband, he gets it from me. The later it gets the harder it is for us to fall asleep :/  SOOOO knowing it's going to be a rough one we start language arts, which today I thought would be relatively easy; he was writing a letter to his friend Rhiannon.

 I knew this would not be the case when he looks at me and says " I forgot how to spell dear". To which my reply was "That's a shame I think I forgot I was going to build with you after school work is done." Amazingly he instantly remembered the correct spelling of dear. This stubbornness of his I also cannot hold against him but I don't think I get all the blame for this character trait. There are 4 lines of genetics this particular trait could be blamed on  :) So dragging his feet and definitely taking his time he finished his letter with no free time left. So we start math, his favorite class. He did his fraction worksheet with ease and then I got out his timed math sheet and a noise cam out of the boy that would make you think I just cut his favorite stuffed animal in half! I look at him and ask if there is a problem? To which I get the reply "why do I have to do this again? I HATE them!" HATE is a bad word at our house the lecture goes like this: hate is a very strong word that can easily upset other people and hurt their feelings and you should only use it when you truly feel that way. There are few things in the world to truly HATE. This has also been turned back at me; my own lecture repeated to me followed by I truly HATE timed math worksheets! They make it to hard to think!He did his math drill but left me with something to think about.... science and reading of Who was Queen Elizabeth went quickly. Mainly because that is when I read to him. This is where we break for lunch and just talk. I love to listen to him ramble off his thoughts. Today was a discussion about smallpox(queen Elizabeth brought that on),Poland(Rhiannon is moving there),worms and if it hurts them when the birds pull them apart, how old Connie(a relative from Georgia) is in "regular people years" if she only has a birthday every 4 years and just had her 13th birthday, and how much he would rather go back to bed than finish the school day LOL. I suppose it was worth one more try. On to His reading: one chapter of Sherlock Holmes and I found a better website for kids news: http://www.timeforkids.com/news-archive/all?page=1 . So we hopped on there and read about a new search for Amelia's plane, and a girl that collects bikes and donates them to her local Chicago school where they are given out to kids with good grades and perfect attendance. The school reported it has been a wonderful incentive for the students to try harder. After this LONG HARD day ,it was 2:30, he went to relax in his lego pile and as soon as I am finished on here he plans on looking on the website that goes with his Hero Qwest books. They have mazes and problem solving games! Thank goodness he doesn't have to think anymore today ;)

NO thinking here! LOL

3/21/2012 storytime, a play date and new soccer nets :)

So let me start by saying story time does not start until 9:30, so I was quite surprised when I had to wake Caiden up at 9:10 so we could go! I should also say my boy has been continuously hungry and tired for approximately the last 5 days. I have very little doubt he is going to be taller than me by age 10 (that's his goal); in fact I will be quit surprised if he's not taller than me by age 9. He is 51 1/2" tall and growing like a weed and I am 62". Anyway like everywensday we headed to the library for story time. Today's theme was spring :) We didn't stay for chess or puzzles but went out to McDonald's for a play date instead (it was wet from all the rain we originally planed for the park). But Caiden had a good time; he and 2 other boys played star wars. I believe play time with kids he does not spend alot of time with is very important for his problem solving skills as he spends much of his time with adults ,who tend to just let him play with the toy he wants, and his sister age 16, who tends to let him play with the to he wants. It's good for him to wait his turn! We  also expect rational responses from him when we talk to him which causes him problems when he expects the same from other kids he is playing with. We have never excepted temper tantrums or fits, he is expected to talk to us and solve his problem respectfully. This causes him alot of confusion when he has to deal with someone his own age who throws a fit or name calls when they don't get their way but I find it very important he knows how to deal with "life" for lack of a better word. That parents raise their children in many different ways and that people have to choose to be kind, caring, and compassionate. OK. sorry rambling over....We can home and he finished off his "Globe Theater" out of the foam bricks grandma and grandpa peyton gave him.

 We put up our new soccer nets, HURRAY! So we spent some time practicing because as of today he is officially signed up with the cedar valley soccer association, and with the $'s we have spent I REALLY hope he likes it. Then (I mentioned the continuously tired thing right?) he took a long "rest" (I think he fell asleep for a few min.) in his inertube in the middle of the yard. Sorry I didn't get a picture of that! After his refreshing "rest" we brought the tortoise's out and cleaned their home. He is required to help as Darwin belongs to him! Delilah is mine :) They have come out of hibernation this week and needed cleaned and moved back into the sunny living room. One of our projects over the next couple of weeks(I hope) is to build a outdoor tortoise playground :)

3/20 and 3/21 a date with noodles and a new schedule

3/19/2012
 Today we were supposed to start our new schedule but daddy took a vacation day and told Caiden if he got his work  school work done soon enough he would take us to CR  to eat lunch and go to the book store. So we had a very basic school day: a timed math drill that again didn't go so well :/ Although Mrs. Olsen (our teacher who checks in with us makes sure Caiden is progressing well and helps me with finding resources) suggested giving Caiden the option of going back and checking his answers AFTER he had done them as fast as he can and the timer is off.  He read a chapter in Sherlock Holmes and I finished off Who was William Shakespeare; so for language arts he wrote his list of things he remembered about Will.For science we read Your Heart and Your Blood. ( I had no idea the sharp pain in your left side when you run alot is called a stitch and is caused by your spleen,you learn something new everyday!) and last but not least our new spelling list:
change
off
play
spell
air
bend
send
mind
offend
sand
land
draw
object
feature
label
steps
 First attempt 10/16 not bad. Daddy took us to Noodles and company for lunch yum yum, and at Barnes and Nobles Caiden got two books: every boy NEEDS a dictionary of knots lol :)

and Beast Quest by Adam Blade; which is a scholastic little apple chapter book. It only has 8 chapters 5 of which were done before bed time! Should have bought a thicker book but it is a whole series and he is definitely enjoying it :)

3/20/2012

I think I'm going to love this new schedule! We started with language arts: underlining titles of books and movies;which he used his entire hour(no surprise to me). So I gave him a 5 min. break and we did a math timed drill.He forgot a couple of times and I seen him double checking but much better with a time of 12.01 min. Thank you Mrs. Olsen! Now we just work our way to 5 min. (seems like a lot of problems and I may change it to a 50 problem drill at 2.5 min.) we will see how this week goes.We also did exercise 40 in his math book because he REALLY wanted to. The next 5 exercises are about fractions which Mini Mike (Caiden) finds fascinating..... I don't get the excitement but I'm glad he has it!He finished his math with 41min. to spare but had to finish what was left of language arts  before he could have free time; so in the end he ended up with about 27min. between math and science. Today in science we read Teeth and Where does your food go? I love the diagrams in these books.

We went ahead and I did my reading with science since neither take much time or deep thinking from Caiden(just listening skills). We started Who Was Queen Elizabeth and it was so interesting we read three chapters! Then time for a lunch break. 20 mins. for lunch 40 min. of basketball and back for spelling list which he got 13/16.

pinewood derby weekend (ya..not school)

Just wanted to share!

3/16/2012

Short and sweet today! This is the first time I have seen the inside of the house today besides grabbing things to take out :) Caiden did a timed math drill today's time was 12.43 min. (100 addition) With a lot of confidence boosts from me about the fact he knows the answers; he doesn't need to double check himself.......For language arts today we skipped our work book to write a paper for the new library contest: How the Independence Library has made my life better.

He got 15/16 on spelling; experiment has an "I" and according to Caiden that makes no sense! LOL

I am a little behind in our Who was William Shakespeare (first week of beautiful weather.Can you blame us) so today we read 3 chapters ,outside, and will be finishing it Monday. Mister is on chapter 5 of Sherlock Holmes and loves it :)  We practiced our states and capitol song and Continent song for ss and read about coughs, sneezes, and hiccups for science. Then off to play soccer and hunt for water bugs at the creek :)

3/15/2012

 Today we are going to split our day we have a lunch date with a good friend of mine; woohoo Chong Garden and lunch with another adult( have I mention I miss my husband ALOT this week, who has 50+ hours in already on a thursday morning!) A split in the day will be good for Mister anyway he is growing like a weed and he is ALWAYS hungry and tired!We are going to do math,spelling,and language arts before lunch and science ,ss,and reading after. The reading makes me smile knowing he will probably take a book to lunch and after telling Kristy everything important in his world he will dive into his book and ignore us :)
 For math we are doing timed math drills, which Caiden is not enjoying he is much more concerned with accuracy than speed. His statement to me was this " If I try to go really fast I might get some wrong and you always say do your best. My best is when I go a little slower and get them ALL right!" How do you argue with that? I hate when one of my own parental statements comes back to bite me in the butt LOL. The goal is 5min. 100 written addition  problems (we have done this with flash cards where I control the speed but not written. I watch him double checking every problem and don't know how to get him to just do them with speed :/ today's time 15.57 min........( please don't get me wrong I am very proud of my boy He has a very good grasp on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, beginning fractions and he can tell time. That being said I feel doing the timed drills WITH CONFIDENCE is also an important lesson)

 Language arts will be lesson 2.14 quotation marks in dialogue. To which I got the response "I know,I know those little marks around things people say." Amazingly enough this went very quickly today!

 Spelling list is more of a test for fun he got 16/16 yesterday, but I want to see if he can do it again with no reviewing between test ( normally we study missed words just like kids at school). I bribed him with a girl scout cookie,bad mom :)

 For science we will read our section in My Body and Me; which includes a activity. He has to sit in a chair for 1 min. and count how many times he breaths out then run around for  2min. and count again. We will also be starting some flower seedlings. His grandparents gave him a brain flower  and he is very excited to get it started! We will also "research" the flower :)

 The whole point of this blog is documenting so....enjoy:

 Tomorrow we will be trying something completely different in time management thanks to daddy :) Mike pointed out there is really no incentive for him to work quickly because after one subject is another ( sometimes one you like even less!) So starting tomorrow our day will be broken up into one hour blocks. An hour for math and as soon as his assignment is completed he can have free time until the hour is up them we begin a new subject.This should alleviate the excessive amount of time wasted, and our day really won't take any longer but should be more enjoyable for us both :) I hope!