"Love Your Teacher" Day

Apparently, that's today.  Zoe woke up at 6:00 this morning and while I was snoozing away, she was setting up my desk, arranging my breakfast, writing a card and arranging roses in a vase.

I'm speechless.  She couldn't have given me a better gift than the card and the poem she wrote in it.  If there was any second guessing about homeschooling her, it's gone.  I've never seen Zoe so happy.  Thanks Zoe. You're teaching me way more.

This is how I found my desk this morning.

Zoe's Poem

A visit to Sonoco Recycling

The field trips are so much fun.  We went to a recycling center in Raleigh yesterday.   Zoe and I were once again amazed.   Who knew you could knit purses out of plastic bags?   And who throws a bowling ball in the recycle bin?

It was so interesting to see where our recycles go and how they are traded like a commodity.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the assemble line as the conveyor belts were running and men were sorting through the recycles, but my first thought was Lucy and Ethyl in the chocolate factory.   The conveyor belts move fast and these men have to know what to eliminate.  By mid morning they had already handled 16 tons of recycles.

There were a tons of plastic bags on the floor.  We asked why they were taken out.  Our tour guide said they jam the machines so they toss them on the floor and then they're sent to the landfill!   Apparently, the bags are not profitable for the middle man like Sonoco.  They're too light, a pain in the neck on the conveyors and the return on their investment is lousy so it's easier to send them to the landfills.  You can't recycle pizza boxes either.   Good to know.  I"ll keep taking them back to Harris Teeter.  They recycle the bags and work with a company in Wilmington.  Or I'll learn to knit a plastic bag.   :)

We're scheduling a field trip to Holly Springs to see the landfill.  That's where all of Cary's garbage goes.   They said the kids can actually get inside a little tractor and ride up to the top of the garbage.  I can only imagine how nasty that smells, but maybe it will really hit home and we'll realize how much we waste and work on it some more.    Birkenstock Barbie is in Da House!

Euuuuu....Cyclops.

You would think the really scary picture of Cyclops holding a few of Odysseus's men and getting ready to eat them would be scary enough for Zoe.   His face alone, with that big eye in the middle of the forehead, does it for me.

Nope.

Zoe says....."Could he put on some clothes.  I mean, really?"

Teaching her makes me laugh.  Every day.

Perpetual Motion

I'm in a state of perpetual motion now.  It's not a complaint.  Just stating a fact.   Every minute of the morning, afternoon and evening is planned.   I'm a little annoyed because there are too many things that I like to do that I cannot do and do well while at the same time taking care of the kids and house.

Ok so this is a griping session.  Beware.  I'm premenstrual.  

I've always had such a problem sharing.

And whoever decided to get the most hyper dog on the planet to join our ADHD family is insane.

Oh.  That would be me.

No more time to write.  In perpetual motion.  Back in the car for the fourth time today.

A Keeper

"Elements of Style" by Strunk and White has always been a favorite book of mine, but I found this great little red book at a garage sale.  You open it up to the title page and it elaborates:  "for the use of STENOGRAPHERS, STUDENTS, AUTHORS AND PROOFREADERS".  It's compiled by Louis A. Leslie.   It was originally copyrighted in 1934.

Thank you Louis A.  Leslie.  Not only because you narrowed down the English language to 20,000 words, which were carefully selected to represent the "useful part of an ordinary dictionary vocabulary of several times that number," but you have this nifty appendix of rules on spelling and grammar.   Really nifty.

I'm going to review one spelling and grammar rule each week with Zoe.  This is a fun way to learn it. Rule number one is already on the board. The book is the size of a three by five card, too.

I love garage sales.

The Mad Scientist

I think the kitchen science experiments rock.   Honestly, I don't know who loves this more.  It's so fun to teach her.  Even when I have my moments, and I do...like yesterday...and that's when I imagine I'm one of her old teachers at school.  I know they wouldn't say:  "Use your common sense, Zoe."   Okay, maybe they would, but she doesn't like to be spoken to like that and I don't like how it sounds either.

I'm a good teacher.  I'm not going to beat myself up here.  I work my tush off reading and planning lessons.  So much material out there that sometimes it's hard to know when to turn it off.

I'm still learning to juggle this while keeping up with the daily grind of raising all three kids, without the help of a housecleaner.  That's about to change. I need a clean house.  I can't keep up with it.

I started laughing at my schedule yesterday.  I think I was starting to lose it.  Wednesdays are my crazy, busy days.  I was in and out of the car driving Zoe to tennis, the cooperative, picking up Hank and Lucas at school, taking Lucas home, picking up Haleigh at school, running back to pick up Zoe, and then back to middle school so Haleigh can go to the first evening football game. In between that,  a food run to Food Lion, donation drop-offs, gas, and getting dinner together.  I started planning out the dinners.  The crock pot is in use.  Tomorrow, "Shredded Chicken Tacos".  Made Shepard's pie tonight.  It was delish.  Nothing like homemade Yukon Gold potatoes mashed for the pie.

We started new classes at the Learning Cooperative yesterday.  This time I get to assist in one of Zoe's class.  It's a physics class for the 7-9 year old level.   We learned a ping pong ball and a tennis ball will always land at the same time because of gravity.  Maybe most people already know that, but if you asked me that on a quiz show, I'd stammer.  The class is led by another homeschooling mother named Sheri.  She was fantastic.   And so were the children.  Again, the same observations about these homeschooled kids.  Doesn't seem to matter which age I'm with.  I'm seeing the same thing here: bright,  thoughtful, happy and curious children.  They're so confident and comfortable with themselves.  Always a ton of interesting questions and observations.  Like this one by a 7 year old boy named Noah: "What if we went all the way to center of the Earth?  Would we still be held down by gravity?"
Three Noahs in a class of ten.  What's up with that?

So this above picture was taken Tuesday afternoon.   We learned you get a chemical reaction when you mix bicarbonate sulfate (baking soda) with ascetic acid (vinegar or lime juice).   Carbon dioxide gases are released.  We captured the gases in our balloon.   How cool is that?  

Thank you, Monty Python

Our math problem for the day.  How many ways can you say "Spam, bacon, sausage, eggs and baked beans"?  You have to always include "Spam" in the order, and you can repeat it as many times as you want, but you can only use the other foods in the list once within the order and you can't come up with the same list twice.

Oh, I didn't explain it well?

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE