Day 143

Just had a moment of realizing that I've blogged 143 times since January 1st 2011. Crazy! Anyway, it's officially part of my routine now, and it's nice to have time to just collect my thoughts and write everything down from the day. Who knows if it'll be interesting to read in the future, but for now, hopefully it lets my readers know what my day was like. I'd say, "Like they care" but obviously they do or they wouldn't be reading!

This morning I could have kept sleeping but was up at 7:45. I can't complain too much since it was a little later than usual. Gus and I headed downstairs and he had breakfast. He was in a GREAT mood this morning (all day really) and so I took some pictures:

 

For breakfast, Gus had a cereal bar, 1/2 an English muffin and then some applesauce. He ate all of it, as well as some milk to drink.

After breakfast, we went into the livingroom to play.

Gus was ready to swim!! I told him that he needed to wait until it was warmer outside (and I needed to fill up his pool so that the sun would warm up the water). I wanted to take him out to swim after his nap and lunch.

We watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he played with Purry and on his gym.

I needed to fill up the pool, so I headed out to start that process while Gus was inside watching tv. He kept his eye on me, just as much as I kept my eye on him.  ;)

 

Taken from outside... him inside watching me

Around 11ish, I took him upstairs for his morning nap and he fell asleep instantly. While he napped (only for an hour and a half today), I created more fonts (I may be addicted). Since I have been asked about the site that I used, it's www.myscriptfont.com and it's free. All you do is upload their template and then print your handwriting as neatly as you can. Then you scan the template and save it to your computer. Then you open their page and upload the saved template, rename the font and then hit "send file." They'll convert it and then give you a link to your font. Once you've got that, you save it under your fonts folder (or any folder really will work) and then right click on it and hit "install." That's it! You'll be able to use your new font!!

I want to learn how to do this myself though... without having to use a template. I did go a little crazy and I made one of dot letters, one of curly letters, one with cursive, one with thicker letters, and then one of all doodles. :)  You can only see my font if I save what I'm typing and either print it on a printer, or save it as a .pdf (a great FREE program for creating/writing .PDF files is called CutePDF). Otherwise, unless the person has your font installed on their computer, they won't see it.

Anyway... Gus got up and we went down for lunch. This is what I saw when I walked into the livingroom:

All five cats all close together (Eddie is under the table on the right). It made me laugh!

For lunch, Gus had some carrots and mashed potatoes from last night (he doesn't like mashed potatoes apparently), some Cheese-Its, some smart sips juice (it's 1/4 juice and 3/4 water), and a Gerber Fruit Strip. While he was eating, we practiced eating with a fork and he did a GREAT job!! I was so proud I took a video... the video is great, but he didn't put food on the fork in the video like he did before I was filming. I was so proud and excited for him!

Lunch was over and it was time to go out and swim!! I put Gus in a Little Swimmers swim diaper... and they're too big for him. I actually have a swim diaper that I got for free at the end of last year, and I'll use that for a while instead of the plastic, saggy disposable swim diaper. I wasn't sure how Gus would feel about the pool, since I have friends who put their kids in water and they flipped out. Not Gus... he LOVED it!!!

 

My footprint and Gus's print

 

Saggy-Bottom Boy

 

It was a 1/2 moon today!

Gus was probably in the pool for an hour and then was totally pruny so we went onto the covered porch and played with the water table for a little bit. Once he was dry, we came inside and had a snack.

If you haven't tried the new Colby Cheese-Its... you are missing out!! They are heaven!! 

I watched the rest of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" (LOVE that movie), and then the rest of "Our Family Wedding" which was funny. Then Steve got home from work and I made dinner while he and Gus played in the livingroom.

After dinner, Gulbike and her mom arrived and I took Gulbike to the FROG while her mom went on a walk. She didn't take Gus because Gus was REALLY crabby and tired. Steve put him to bed at 7:20 and I finished tutoring Gulbike at 8:00. I'll see her again on Wednesday.

I got a little annoyed with her teacher... not that I expect everyone to do things as I did them when I taught, but I kinda do. Maybe it's the "extreme rule-follower" in me-- but I always did things by the book and as I was taught, and I expect others to do that same. It's a personality trait that I cannot control, but one that causes me grief and stress. 

So... her teacher assigned homework for her and her classmates... and when she asked me to help her, there were things being asked of her that she had NO clue how to do. It was a story problem that said there was a circular pool and the distance around it was 21 feet... what is the measurement of the widest part of the pool? She said she had not learned about Circumference (the area around the pool) and had no idea what the diameter was.  Circumference = Pi x Diameter.   So I had to help her divide 21 and 3.14. It was a bit ridiculous for a fifth grader and when I asked her, "Did you learn about Pi?" She said, "We learned something about it at Pi Day (3/14/11)." Anyway... we figured it out, but I had to think... how many of her classmates will understand this or even get it correct? If homework is supposed to be "practice and meaningful" shouldn't they have learned this stuff recently? She had no idea what circumference was or diameter, and didn't know the formula for solving the problem.

Which brings me to my next complaint. When I went to school to be a teacher, I was taught that you ALWAYS review homework TOGETHER as a class the following day so that you can answer questions and provide guidance where needed. Her teacher posts the answers on the wall and they're responsible for checking their own homework and then turning it in so she can mark that they completed it. They don't review it and she doesn't answer questions unless someone brings it up (I told Gulbike to ask about it).

My last complaint is this... if there's stuff on the homework that you didn't teach your class... tell the kids that they don't have to do it. It made me think that her teacher doesn't even look at what she's assigning... she's just assigning homework for the sake of homework. WHICH IS WRONG!!! Grrrrrr....

Okay... I think I'm done bitching about that for now. I did stumble upon a page on Facebook called "In Lieu of Preschool" and it's a mom (former teacher) who isn't putting her kids in preschool, and is writing about what she does all day for their learning experience. 

I loved it... so I wrote her a message and asked if she had a blog or website... she wrote back and said not at this point, but maybe. I told her that I had a website (and shared it) and that I used Blogger for my blogs. I said if she decided to start blogging to let me know so I could follow her. She wrote back and commented on my website, and said that when her kids are school-aged, they'll go to Oak Grove (SMALL WORLD)!! 

Anyway, she started a blog and told me about it later tonight... here's the link: In Lieu of Preschool. Definitely follow her if you've got little ones!!! I told her that she's my inspiration and I'll most-likely do what she's doing with Gus. I figure, I've got the background needed to be a preschool teacher... and I've got the time and resources, why not? As for the social things, we've got our playgroup and other friends that we can hang with!! It's not for another two years, but I'm figuring it'll save us a lot of money too!!

Okay... I'm going to bed.

>^..^<