COSI

This afternoon we took the kids to COSI - it seemed like a good way to get out of the house and have some fun after being snowed in for the past three days. We saw most exhibits - many we have seen before but as the kids age they have a different experience. Maria was almost too old for some things, but Sam was at the perfect age. Then again, Maria took time to read a lot and Sam mostly went from activity to activity. We even went into their "Test" center - they wanted families with 10 year old kids and Maria is close - and did a short activity while we were observed by a man with a clipboard, who then asked Maria questions about it. Sam's favorite activity was the ball exhibit in "Gears" - throwing balls into tubes and then shooting them back. Maria's favorite was the "Ocean" exhibit and getting into a submarine.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

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"I Don't Care"

Sam has started replying with "I don't care" to any request he doesn't agree with. For example, "Sam, you need to drink your milk," is replied to with "Why? I don't care." Or "Sam, pick up your wrappers, you're making a mess," is met with "I don't care." Telling him to stop saying it wasn't working, which meant Ben and I had to come up with a discipline plan. Maria has usually stopped such behavior after being asked, and Sam really hasn't misbehaved much since starting school, and the threat of an occasional time out was still working. But we thought he is starting to grow out of time-outs, so we came up with a punishment we thought would stop the "I don't care" immediately.

Of course it wasn't that simple. Last night after dinner was the first attempt at the new plan. Sam said "I don't care," and I responded with "You may not say I don't care to us anymore. It's not polite. Next time, you won't be able to play Super Mario Galaxy if you say that." He was playing at the time and has been playing that game a lot.

Sam: You mean I'll never get to play it again?
Me: No, just for the rest of the night.
Sam: So I will be able to play again when I get up in the morning?

And I can see where this is headed. He is trying to decide if getting his way is worth giving up Mario for a few hours if he knows he can get it back in the morning. And this is not a scenario we had anticipated, since we are somewhat inexperienced at this punishment thing. So it ended up he grudgingly drank his milk without saying "I don't care" again, and later he caught himself saying "I don't care" and quickly changed it to "I mean, I do care."

But I can tell we are going to have to have quite a plan laid out for the next time we need to enforce a punishment.

Snow Day!

Random Updates

Here's what's been going on here:

Sam's front lower tooth is finally quite loose - he showed it to me after school. I'm hoping it will come out very soon so that permanent tooth behind it can slide into place. Maybe I will have to help it along!

It's snowing here - we are supposed to get 10 inches by the time it's done tomorrow afternoon. I'll believe it when I see it, but school for tomorrow is already closed. It's Day 6, which means we make it up, but what can you do? Ben took Maria to piano and he said the roads aren't too bad yet.

We had Sam's parent/teacher conference yesterday - the first one of the year. Basically, he's doing well academically (he's reached the end of year goals in almost all categories), with a few small things he could work on. He needs to look for the Popcorn words on the Word Wall and spell them correctly, and he guesses quickly at words he cannot read instead of taking time to see if the words make sense. Also, he still gets distracted easily, and needs to sit near the teacher to keep on task. He doesn't cause trouble, he's just more interested in everything around him rather than what the teacher is saying. This is all very believable to me - it's exactly how he acts at home. Ben and I are trying to decide if it's possible to work on making him more attentive, but haven't come up with anything yet. Overall, we're very pleased he's doing so well.

Maria continues to do Wii Fit a lot. Ben and I play some each night, but Maria tends to rack up more than an hour's worth each day. It's going well - Ben likes the Yoga and I like the step aerobics. I'd like to start strength training but end up doing the aerobics and then run out of time! Only occasionally do I get the urge to punch the talking Balance Board. Maybe he should try working full time and raising a family, and see how much time he has to exercise!

Sam's Great Writer Award

I kid you not.

Just a week after Sam and I had a horrible time completing his writing homework assignment, he decided to start writing on his own. He does it in my classroom in the morning when the kids are waiting for it to be time to walk over to their school. In two mornings, he has completed an entire page about he and Maria and how they love their Bakugans. He is spelling most words by how they sound, which is what they are taught to do for most words, and occasionally asks how to spell some words, like "Maria" and "they." What amazed me was his use of correct punctuation all on his own - a question mark (although it was backwards) at the end of a question and an "exciting point" at the end of an explanation.

So after he finished his masterpiece, he showed it to Maria and I and Maria suggested he take it to show his teacher. So he did, and proudly brought it back this afternoon with a huge ribbon on it, stating it's a "Great Writer Award." I'm sure this encouragement went a long way - he really likes to please Mrs. Wilson.

But I kept thinking, why couldn't he do this when I asked him to write so much less last week?

Inauguration Day

I didn't think I could let today pass without saying something about what an historic day this has been. I unfortunately have not watched the actual swearing in of Barack Obama, or his inauguration speech, but plan to whenever Sam quits playing Mario Galaxy and I can actually get to the T.V. Watching at school was impossible - all the live feeds on the Internet were bogged down and not working, and we have no T.V.s with cable. It is difficult to believe that in this technology age I could not watch it live, but it's true.

I asked Maria if they watched it at school and she said a little bit. I also asked if she could tell it was a really big deal or just kind of boring, and she admitted that it was pretty boring. Of course, we are fortunate that the country's problems have not really affected her in her day-to-day life. No one has lost their job or their house here, and no one she knows has died whiling fighting a war, so she doesn't really understand why so many people in this country are looking forward to a change. I know it's going to take some time for any real change to take place, but for the first time in a long time, I have respect for and trust in the American president, and it feels pretty good.

Sam's Basketball Game

Here's a picture and short movie from Sam's basketball game Saturday morning. He did make one basket during the game, but we don't have that one on film. This was only their third game, and they went two weeks without playing because of cancellations due to weather, so I think they look pretty good considering. He's #2 in the black T-shirt.

Snow Day

Today was our fourth calamity day, but the first with actual snow on the ground. Unfortunately it was really cold. But the kids were still able to play outside two separate times for about a half hour each time. They are working on "forts," which are really little walls that they plan to hide behind during a snowball fight. Of course, they couldn't really make snowballs since the snow was too cold, but they're there when they need them.

We've already canceled for tomorrow, just like almost every other school district, or so it seems. It's already below zero here and that's not including the wind chill.

Ben went to OMEA conference in Columbus and he'll be there again all day/evening tomorrow, so the kids and I will probably go out shopping or somewhere later in the day, when it "warms" up.

The Exciting Conclusion

Sam and I just finished his homework. He grumbled about doing it a little, but not nearly as much as last night. His four sentence winter story:

"I like winter. Winter is fun. I like snowmen. I like to make snow angels."

I like that it's done.