Huh, Creative Math Learner, What?

The more I learn about giftedness and education, the more I come across all kinds of new lingo. It seems A. is a Creative Math Learner type of kid meaning he learns through story and application rather than worksheets. I want to be one too! It sounds like so much fun. Well, when I was at the CAG Conference I was quite unimpressed with the exhibits except for King Joe. King Joe is a set of texts that are in storybook form. I purchased the text that teaches problem solving and it is a huge hit. Both boys love this story and beg for more. At some point I may order the remaining texts.

www.kingjoe.com

Our small town, Sunland is actually part of the City of Los Angeles. Home Depot has been fighting to place one of their stores withing 1/2 mile of our house. Here is a great video displaying the characteristics of our town. Tomi is a local realtor and representative to our Neighborhood Council and she put this together.

McGuffey's Readers

Did you know that you can download the McGuffey's readers from this site?

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14640

Click on McGuffey, William to see the other downloads available.

Lunar Eclipse Dress Rehearsal

Did you know there was a dress rehearsal for this evenings lunar eclipse! There was!

Here is the sun, a very small sun.


Here is the little moon. Isn't he a cute little moon!

Here is the little Earth. Ahh, what a sweet little Earth he is!

Can you see how the Sun's light shines on the Moon? It's faint but it's right there in the middle of the Moon's chest.

Hey, what happened? The Earth slowly moved in between the Sun's light and the Moon. The poor Moon is all dark now. You can see how hard the Earth had to concentrate to pull this off. Good job Earth.

I don't have a picture of this but I bet you can imagine what happened next! Yes, the Earth continued moving over, allowing the Sun to shine it's light on the little Moon!

Now, try not to miss the real lunar eclipse this evening!

Happy viewing,

The Sun

Two Happy Boys

When I pick up the boys from preschool each day I ask them what was the favorite part of their school day. A., my dear, always says "You, Mom, you are the favorite part of my day." R., my dear, always tells me what he ate for lunch. Food is the favorite part of his day. Ahh, the simple life-family and food. Come to think of it, family and food are way up on my list of favorite things.

Here are a few pictures of happy boys.

A. after excavating and building his T-Rex model. Satisfaction!

R. preparing to eat his morning pancakes. Mmmm, happiness.

Who Ya Gonna Call - CLUMP BUSTERS!

Today we added some soil to our new raised garden bed. Big A. assembled the bed using premade corners. Here are the corners now!

Everyone participated.

A. was the designated clump buster. See that clump right there? It's about to be destroyed!

I was the dirt leveler in charge as well as documentarian and R. was my trusty assistant. He took his role quite seriously.

Big A. was the dirt dumper. He's so strong. He wowed us by carrying 6 bags of stinky dirt to our work site.

Voila! The dirt is in place! We have about 4 inches of dirt and need another 4 inches before planting.

CAG Conference

I co-presented with Dr. Barbara Klein at the California Association for the Gifted Conference today.

http://drbarbaraklein.squarespace.com/

http://www.cagifted.org/

It wasn't something I normally would do but Barbara asked for my help and I did have a good time. It was nice to step out of my normal role for the day.

Butterflies!

A. and I really enjoy Journey North and their education programs on the subject of migration. Today we watched the amazing videos of the Monarch butterflies.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/PoetrySanctuaryVideo.html

Chinese New Year

Did you celebrate Chinese New Year? We started attending the Families with Children from China Chinese New Year banquets once R. came home to us.

http://www.fwcc.org/

The boys wore their vests again this year. These are magical vests as they never seem to grow into them. I think we'll get a third year out of them!

Year of the Rat Stamps

The United States Post Office offers stamps each Chinese New Year.

http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=18401&productId=35901&langId=-1

This year is the year of the rat! I have purchased a sheet each year for our son R.

The New Century Jelly Glass?

Well you know, I'm always up to trying something new especially if it's on sale and I have a coupon. Alan picked up some Hillshire Farm lunchmeat. Typically we don't eat lunchmeat unless it comes from real meat, lol. Alan loves peppered turkey sliced from the deli but it just isn't in the budget. In comes the Vons flyer and the Hillshire Farms coupon for lunchmeat. I bite on the deal and Alan heads out to Vons to do the shopping. So today I try the new lunchmeat. It's so-so, typical suspicious water-added lunchmeat but it does come in reusable Gladware. Now we use Gladware all the time for packing our lunches. I would buy this again for that reason alone. I'm a sucker for Gladware. Aren't the folks at Hillshire Farms smart!

Baby Birds

Who doesn't love baby birds! If baby birds are good then baby bald eagle birds are the best. Please take a look see at these little guys. Look early in the day as it gets dark in Florida before it does out here on the west coast. A. and I kept the birds up on the screen for several hours waiting for the adults to come home and feed the fluffy little babies.

http://www.audubonofflorida.org/friendsoftheeagle/cam.html

Ni Hao Kai-lan

Ni Hao Kai-lan finally premiered. I haven't had a chance to see it yet. Have you? A. saw a bit of it today and was very excited to tell me about it. I'll record an episode for him on Monday.

http://www.nickjr.com/shows/ni-hao-kai-lan/index.jhtml

CVS Deals!

I swear by the deals at CVS. If you have the time for reading the adds and you don't mind buying in advance of your actually needs, you can save lots of money. Today I made my weekly run and saved so much. My total came to $24.24 after saving $52.43 with coupons and sales. In addition to this I earned $9 in Extra Care Bucks to use next week. Basically this was a net $15 purchase, less than the cost of the diapers alone which were originally $10.49 each (see below).

I bought 2 boxes of facial tissue, 2 packs of batteries, 2 bags of diapers, 1 dishwasher detergent, 3 cold medicines, air sanitizer spray, breakfast bars, etc. These are all things I'll use, maybe not all this week, but I'll use them. We have a section in the garage where we shelve these things.

Final note: I know what you're thinking, why do my kids need diapers. They're for night time only okay. I like to think that they're too busy dreaming up ways to save the world and solve complicated math formulas that they don't wake up to go to the bathroom - sometimes :)

Coupons and Savings

I heard a radio program where the value of coupons was being questioned; does anyone really save with those silly things? The host thought someone should keep track of their annual savings so we would know the truth. Of course, I thought that sounded like lots of fun.

Today my total at Albertsons was $107.09. I saved $50.66. This brought my total to $56.43. My weekly budget is $40.00 so I went a bit over but in my defense, I did bring my little boys with me and my brain was getting a little tired. I was bummed that they were out of the Peter Pan peanut butter on sale for $0.99 since I had a $1.00 coupon. Oh well. Let them eat Nutella!!

The kids are excited because we bought marshmallows for their marshmallow shooters.

Jingle Cats

Did anyone say Jingle Cats? My Jingle Kid loves this clip...



http://youtube.com/watch?v=GPp0g0A_6x8



Here's my Jingle Kid now

Intacs

I just wanted to post how excited I am about the news I received today from a fellow sufferer of keratoconus. Since I received my intacs implants I've made myself available through two internet forums and through my surgeons office to answer questions about Intacs insertion. Today I received news that one of the patients with whom I've been corresponding will be having the procedure in January. I'm so excited for her. I do hope that her experience is equivalent or better than mine. Here is the website for my surgeon. He's quite innovative.

http://www.boxerwachler.com/

Today's Grocery Deals

I have been couponing in a serious way. Here is what I got today at Ralphs for $24.48:

4 boxes of Bisquick

10 cans of tuna

1 can of coffee

1 cake mix

1 frosting

1 lb of ground sausage

1 coffee creamer

2 loaves of bread

I saved $25.61 with sales and coupons. This is my first time over the 50% savings mark at the grocery store so I'm a bit excited.

No Child Left Behind

Why, oh why are our schools in such poor shape. Could it be that it starts from the top?

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2007/11/05/the-education-secretary-talks-about-nclb.html

Victoria Magazine is back!!



http://www.victoriamag.com/