Oh, For The Love Of Pete!!

Yeah. That's a pile of hair on the floor (and a snippet of red paper, too, I see.) *SIGH* And yes, it's Annie's.

And for Annie's next trick....

To The Max!

I happened upon a blog today that I had never seen before. You know when you google a phrase, you can find yourself on quite the adventure, visiting all types of places - some are interesting, some are scary, some are right what you're looking for, some are, uh, not. And some are absolutely serendipitous! I'm glad I scrolled down the page with my search results and clicked on the bottom link. I'm doubly glad I read one posting, then read a few more. Because the author? I think we might be enrolled in the same program at the inaccurately called School of Hard Knocks. It should really be called something like The Opportunity and Happiness Academy....

Okay, I'm not a magazine editor, so my musings aren't as charming as Ellen's (and probably not punctuated correctly, either,) but I encourage you to peruse her blog occasionally. And smile for me and Ryan and Emi and Annie, because we've found ourselves working a small plot of rich soil in a magical land. Sometimes, dark clouds gather and fierce winds howl across the landscape, and it might rain heavily for days on end. But then, oh, if you could just see the riot of colour sweeping across the fields and inhale the heady scent of fresh blossoms and feel the warmth of the sun smiling out of a bright blue sky, you'd know why we keep planting seeds in our little garden.

To The Max

If They Don't Know, Can They Be Held Responsible?

It's spring break. And cloudy. And 42 degrees. But to help spring break feel like spring break, the girls are attending the annual Spring Break Nature Quest at the Schlagle branch of the library, where the focus is more on nature and the environment than on books. I'm just letting you know so you don't drive out there hoping to find a copy of Twilight - 'cause you won't!

Anyway, the spring break day-camp has become a tradition for our girls. The two-hour daily sessions are filled with activities and workshops covering a variety of subjects, from astronomy to archery. On Monday, which happened to be astronomy day, the girls made constellation guides, which required the use of scissors (definitely) and pen (apparently). When I picked the girls up that day, I immediately noticed a nice hole near the knee in Annie's purple leggings. However, it didn't look quite like the type of hole that results from scraping a knee. It's edges were a little too neat. In fact, it looked like it might have been made deliberately!

Wanting to get to the bottom of this mystery, I pointed out the incriminating hole to Annie and asked her what happened. She nonchalantly explained that she ended up with an ink mark on her legging and cut it out to get rid of the offending stain. Did she forget we have a washing machine?! This is, of course, the kid who will happily cut any paper into confetti and who is periodically reminded that she, herself, does not have a hairdresser's license therefore she is not allowed to take silver blades to her own tresses (or anyone else's) simply because it's fun, so I'm not really surprised that she chose to cut a chunk out of her own clothing. Except that she's seven! Annie, naturally, added to her explanation by saying - with reference to the adults running the program, "They don't know I'm not supposed to have scissors."

What's the Kanji for Orthography?

I was scrolling through my postings menu the other day and found this one from over a year ago. I am not sure why it didn't see the light of day, but am leaning toward the "I-forgot-to-click-on-the-Publish Post-button-excuse. Fortunately (or not), it's as relevant today as it was when I actually wrote it:

Emi has an incredible appetite for learning. For a kid who insists she doesn't like school, she certainly thrives on filling her mind with all sorts of new ideas. Emi spouts off trivia like I draw breath, things like, "Did you know that Kansas used to be part of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea?" and she's continually advancing her reading level. Even math and science are clicking pretty well - she's learning principles at earlier grade levels than those of us of a certain age did.

But have I menshuned her speling? Orthography is not Emi's strong sute. So I had to laugh when Ryan shared this with me a few days ago:

Among Emi's varied interests is anything her dad is interested in. Ryan enjoys studying kanji (the japanese writing system) and Emi is tickled that one of the reasons we chose her name is that "Emi" is also a fairly common Japanese name. And the kanji that Ryan chose for her name means 'laughter."

Anyway, the other day, Ryan found some of his kanji flashcards and was showing a few to Emi. She looked at them and started to get very excited. She suggested, "Hey, maybe I can use these cards and learn new kanji, like one everyday!" to which Ryan replied, "Maybe you should work on your English spelling before you start to worry about Japanese spelling." Emi considered this and gave a small grin as she answered, "Yeah, maybe you're right."

The Importance Of Being Annie

If Annie (who is very keen on a particular canine housemate) could post, I think she'd present something like this: