It's That Time Again...

The week of December 14-18 I will be doing my annual Christmas Around the World unit. I am looking for 4 volunteers to present countries. I will provide volunteers with a lesson plan for a country and a craft idea. Volunteers will be responsbible for presenting the country to the group and leading the craft with me as the assistant. This is so that the "travel experience" feels authentic instead of me just leading group time as normal.

As a volunteer, your children are welcome to participate for the week, "traveling" to each new country with a "passport" on the "Polar Express." On Friday, we will wear our PJ's, watch the Polar Express, have P.E. themed treats, and have a $5 book exchange.

Please let me know asap if you are interested in helping so I can assign countries and get you the prep work.

House of Night series part 2

I started reading the second book, and while it is good, there are definitely some parts I have to skip. She gets a little sexual in content. It is definitely not as tame as Twilight, just wanted to warn you in case you were considering the book.

Looking for a good book?

I just started the House of Night series. The author is PC Cast (and her daughter Kristin). The name I knew her as was Ms. Bond, and she was my Creative Writing teacher at Broken Arrow's South Intermediate High School. (Also where my mother taught Intro to Law for about 20 years)

I just finished the first book, Marked, and I was hooked. It is a good book, targeted to young adults, much like Twilight. It is very much a mix between Harry Potter and Twilight, with the main character being sent off to Vampyre Finishing School after being marked with the vampyre symbol of a crescent moon on her forehead. She is deemed special because her crescent moon is filled in instead of just an outline like vampyre fledglings usually are.

The book is darker than Twilight and, at times, unnecessarily crass in my opinion, but the story is good. I was hooked and just bought the next 2 books in the series.

This was my first experience reading a book that was authored by someone I know. It is surreal to read a book that is set in my hometown, specifically in my high school, with teachers referenced that I actually had in high school. It is also strange that I can hear Bond's "voice" on every page. I can hear her sarcasm and disdain for men. I can hear her "what teens should and shouldn't do" speeches that I remember her going off about in class. She was that teacher who thought she was so in touch with us, but really she was only in touch with the popular kids. The rest of us, she didn't have a clue about. To be honest, she wasn't my favorite teacher, and actually laughed at some of the things I wrote as she was reading them (anonymously) to the class. I loved writing in my youth and she killed it a little for me.

That being said, she is a talented authoress herself and the series is good so far. I think she has excellent timing because right now the in thing is all things Twilight and vampyre-related so she'll get a lot of fans who are looking to capture the Twilight moment all over again. I wouldn't be surprised if we see these books out in movies soon, too. Well done, Bond!

Snapshots of our day

On the swings, during outside playtime this morning I heard:

Jackson (already on a swing, with me pushing him): Hi, L. Howa yeeew?

L (joining him on the swings): I'm good, Jackson. How are you?

Jackson: Ummm, I good. I had bites today.

I just laughed because that was so random. As if I don't feed my child every day, hah!
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Later Jackson was sitting in a chair and wanted K to come sit with him, so he kept hollering, "K!!!! Come sit wiff me!" She obliged, happily (she is an only child and loves Jackson like a brother) and when she got up several minutes later, S. came to sit with him and he kept pushing her off the seat because he wanted K. (or trying to, but I kept scolding him, telling him that wasn't nice and that S. could sit there, too.)
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This morning I had Sam on a blanket in the living room playing with some old toys that used to be Jackson's. He doesn't really remember them, but he thinks they are new toys so he is always all over Sam trying to take them away and play with them. I have let him play with them a few times so he would get it out of his system and not be curious, but today I had to keep an eye on the other kids playing in the playroom and so I closed the gate so Jackson couldn't get in there where I couldn't see him. He got so mad at me that when I was over in the art center helping L and S get out the paint, he came up behind me and slapped my back very hard. I whirled around and said, "Did you just hit me?" in my loud, "Oh, I don't think so" mom voice, and I put him in time out, all the while explaining that I was sorry that he was angry with me, but hitting is not a good choice. We don't hit our friends and we do not hit our moms. Hitting is not okay. So he was, of course, throwing a huge temper tantrum and trying to scoot himself out of time out when I was not looking. I kept telling him, "You sit there! You may NOT get up. You are not making good choices and you need to think about NOT hitting Mama."

After he was able to get up, we hugged and apologized to each other and talked more about how hitting was not nice, he went to play with "da guys" (action figures). I watched him put 2 action figures in time out and say, "No, no, guys, you don't get up! We don't hit! That is not a good choice! You think about it! You sit there!" haha, poor guy is the youngest one (except Sam) and I guess he needs to feel like he is the boss of SOMEONE. ;)

Happy Halloween

We went to Tulsa because Ben's mom invited us to a Halloween party for the grandkids. We didn't leave till Sat morning and get back home Sunday at 7ish, so it was a whirlwind trip. Although we had a great time, I am less and less motivated to travel with kids. It was a borderline nightmare. Sam got off his perfect schedule where he was sleeping 10-11 hours a night at the perfect times for me. Jackson hardly napped at all in the car so he was pretty cranky. I swear all our realtives are going to think our kids are brats!! On Sat night, we spent the night with Nana & Papa (Ben's mom & dad) and Sam WOULD NOT sleep. Ben and I traded off being up with him until 3:30 when he finally fell asleep (until 7:30 am). I guess he just didn't want to sleep in a strange crib! We tried everything. I even put him in the car and drove aroudn Owasso for ten minutes until he fell asleep, but 20 minutes after getting him home, he woke back up. That was hard to deal with because he is normally sucha happy baby and a great sleeper! He lays down and doesn't even cry, just goes right to sleep usually.


Anyway, we did have a good time, but it was a short trip and our kids were rotten! Here are a few pics of us trick-or-treating with family.