T.V.

I usually never just turn on the T.V. and flip channels during the day.  Joey and I will record a show we like and watch it together after the kids have gone to bed, or we'll record and watch Discovery Channel, Animal Planet type shows as a family.  Although, the last few weeks I've been watching a lot more T.V.  I am either up in the night because for the life of me I can't get used to sleeping with this huge body of mine, or I have to sit down during the day and prop up my hot chubby pregnant feet for a while in front of the T.V.  Isabel is the only one interested in the shows I watch (that seem to always be on.)  Mostly What Not to Wear and Babies: Special Delivery.  If you've never heard of these shows, their titles explain them pretty well. Isabel will plop down next to me and if it's What Not to Wear, she will comment, "I liked her hair before they cut it."  If we are watching, Babies: Special Delivery, she will ask the usual, "How many babies does she have in her?"  And, "Boy or Girl?" Now everytime that Isabel and Sylvia are taking a bath together I hear Isabel coaxing Sylvia to push.  When I peek in, I see Isabel pretend to pull an imaginary baby out of Sylvia's crotch area.  Then yesterday Isabel and Luke were playing What Not to Wear with the wooden magnetic dress up dolls.  I think Luke was being a silly boy about the game and dressing the dolls up as ridiculous as he could.  Isabel was very serious and I would hear her comment now and again, "That is a wonderful office look!"  "That jacket slims your waist line!"

Sheesh!

Halloween Fun and Multiplication Stress

Today Luke, Isabel and Sylvia made Haunted Houses from Paper bags while trying to guess the answers to these Halloween jokes.  In Luke's opinion, only the "plumpkin" one was funny. Questions 1.  Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? 2.  What do ghosts serve for dessert? 3.  Why do witches fly on brooms? 4.  When is it bad luck to meet a black cat? 5.  What was the witch's favorite subject in school? 6.  What do you call a friendly dead Egyptian? 7.  What do you call a skeleton who won't work? 8.  What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern? 9.  Why don't skeletons like parties? 10. What do witches put on their hair? 11. What was the favorite game at the ghosts' birthday party? 12. Why are there fences around cemeteries?

Answers 1.  He didn't have the guts 2.  Ice Scream 3.  Vacuum cords aren't long enough 4.  When you're a mouse 5.  Spelling 6.  A chummy mummy 7.  Lazy bones 8.  A plumpkin 9.  They have no body to dance with 10. Scare Spray 11. Hide and Shriek 12. Because People are Dying to get in.

I also had a Halloween crossword puzzle for them to do but never got to it so, maybe Friday.  Other than that, we did bare minimum today.  Journals, math, clean room, practice instruments, and NT.

The last few weeks I have been using flash cards to help Luke memorize his multiplication facts.  I could really tell that I needed to try something different because it just wasn't working with him.  He is very bright and usually pretty good at memorizing, but I think the flash cards made him feel stressed and discouraged.  Today a friend of mine that used to teach third grade gave me a few suggestions.  One that I tried today was to lay out the flash cards on the floor, give him pieces of paper with answers on them and let him match them up.  I could tell that he felt encouraged and even asked me if he could do his flash cards like that all of the time.  If anyone has other suggestions about memorizing multiplication facts, let me know.

Something Funny to Make Your Kids Do