Saturday, March 9, 2013

Donation

I have to be honest I haven't donated to places all that often. Sure I have, but it's not a regular thing that I do.

I donated to Trisomy Tea. Trisomy covers a lot of things. I have a nephew that has Trisomy 18. Down Syndrome is Trisomy 21. There are others as well. It's just extra of that particular chromosome.

By donating to Trisomy Tea part of the money goes towards Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and Hope for Trisomy. They sent me these cute paper mugs in the mail with tea for donating:


Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is an organization that has volunteer photographers that help take pictures of babies in the hospital that may not make it. It helps with the grieving process. Hope for Trisomy helps with research, education and awareness for Trisomy 13 and 18.

I wanted to show you an amazing photo called Tim's Place.  It's a must watch!

First Grade Conferences

We had Mica's 1st grade conferences on Thursday. It isn't like the old days. My parent's used to get a babysitter when they had conferences for us. Now we just set the boys up in the hallway of the school with the portable DVD player, and they are entertained the whole time. It works out great because then Mica is able to show us his artwork on the walls. We don't got to go into his classroom all the time because that to is different then it used to be. Daddy drops him off and he waits outside until it's time to go in; the teacher brings the whole line of kids outside when class is over. I assume because they want to keep traffic flowing through.

Little man is doing great! It's hard to say if he's an A, B, C, or D student because they don't give grades like that anymore. They don't even give 1, 2, or 3s either. It's more O for outstanding and A for average. I don't even know the other letters, because that's all he got.

We were a little worried with Mica on math. He shows no interest in doing math at home. One day he came home from school all sad because he wasn't finished with a math worksheet and couldn't go play with an iPad. His teacher says that he's really good at math. He just takes his time, unlike some of the other students. He wants to make sure he's right. I'm happy to learn they are doing touch math. Back when I was in school touch math was just beginning. In fact I only learned it because I was in the chapter 1 classes, otherwise known as the classes where the kids went that haven't picked things up yet. Touch math helps kids understand math visually.

Mica runs so hard during gym that he's sweaty when he comes back to class. That's one area I'm surprised he gets a Average in. His favorite is gym.

He's at the end of 2nd grade or beginning of 3rd grade in reading. The boy loves to read! Mica generally has one love for awhile, then he moves onto something else. It first was Fisher Price Little People, then Thomas and Team GeoTrax, then puzzles, then drawing, then writing, then Legos and now reading. He hones in on that one thing like crazy. His nose is in a book 80% of the time at home. The other 20% are playing with Legos and eating. He eats a lot!

Here's a classroom project I was excited to see:


It's a brown paper bag city. Mica worked on the state capitol. He made it Adam's capitol after the school. He also worked on a few others.


He also created this monster:


I know a lot of words are spelled wrong, but his handwriting is really good. One word you may not get is Monntens is "mountains". Here's what it says:


He also created this lion:


Here's a poem he wrote. One word you may not be able to get is forda is actually, "Florida".


Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

I thought of Isaak when I saw this next video. He's always making something, then making something out of that something he made the first time. He likes to make pretend fires outside to. I'm going to show the video before I talk about the band:

Catch the Light

The band is called Sin Fang. They are an experimental, Icelandic Indie Pop with beautiful folk in the mix.

Sin Fang is the solo project of Sindri Már Sigfússon, the founder of Iceland’s Indie outfit Seabear. I talked about Seabear in the fall on this blog. Ironically Seabear also started as a single member project later developing into a 7 piece band.

Carry Me up Smell a Pine

Skinkership

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Preschool Conferences

I had Isaak's preschool conferences on Monday. Then we have Mica's first grade conferences this Thursday. A busy week indeed!

Isaak is doing very well. The little man is ready for the big Kindergarten. He still needs to learn how to tie his shoes. That's always so hard at this stage.

This time around they didn't have too much to tell me. He could do most of the things on their list. 

  • He mixes up q and d. That's normal on up to 2nd grade. 
  • He skips 12, but can count to 29. He can keep counting if you help him move on to 30, then 40 and so on. 
  • He knows all his colors, shapes. 
  • He understands how to make a pattern. 
  • He can read some small words.
  • His most recent things to do are that he can snap well and skip. 
  • He writes good on line paper. They practiced that at school.
I shared with them some ideas to make things better. 
  • I had given them a list of computer games to try out with the little tikes last time. Mrs. L lost that, so I gave her a new copy.
  • I mentioned that they could just ask people for additional money every week for field trips. Then they wouldn't need to hit people up for exact change and check people off for paying and not paying. They are looking into that, but thought it was a good idea. It totally doesn't effect me, but I just think it would be easier. I said, "You could charge more than what the field trips cost, so you know you have enough. The rest could go for a donation." 
  • I also talked to them about this paint clear medium that I gave them. I gave them more ideas on how to use it.
The funny story:

Isaak was at the sand table with his friend we'll call M. Isaak told M to dump sand over his head. Mrs. L saw him doing that. She yelled, "Stop it!" She says she never yells, but did this time. Both boys looked up at her. M said, "But Isaak told me to dump sand on his head!" Mrs. L asked, "Isaak did you tell M to dump sand on your head?" Isaak started shaking his head as if to say, "Yes". Of course as he was shaking his head sand was going everywhere.

That's totally Isaak. He tells Mica to battle him. Then Mica gets scolded; when it was Isaak that brought it up.

Isaak loves sculpture and collage. Here's a project he made with Daddy this week:


The  mushroom carton isn't part of the sculpture. It was just helping it all dry. It's a bunny make out of popsicle sticks and rocks.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

WW: Vikings {Linky}

I painted these viking shirts. Finally I figured out how to put rivets on them. :) You can see part of the process here if you are interested.


Isaak's shirt is a bit big.




Here's Daddy acting like a mad viking:



You Can Follow Me Here:
The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel'sThe Apel's

Monday, March 4, 2013

Drumming On Buckets

Daddy set this up for Isaak in the garage. How fun!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

The Y had a party for Dr. Seuss on Saturday. It was for ages 2 to 5. Isaak went with his cousin Elijah. They were pretty excited.

Here are the boys before the party:



I didn't get pictures of the party because adults didn't stay. I did what a good girl should do and went to exercise, have a cup of coffee and made a pit stop to No Name Nutrition, which is a local health food store.

I did get out of the boys that they made Dr. Seuss bracelets, read books, colored on coloring sheets and ate cake.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Blast Off!

Daddy took Isaak to a gallery last week. There was a painting of a rocket there. Daddy brought paper and crayons for Isaak to draw. Isaak immediately drew the rocket he saw. 

I so wanted to include this in a WW; just to see the comments I'd get. I've been taking too many pictures, and hate putting up pictures of too many themes. I didn't want to wait any longer to post this.

It's a pretty good drawing for a four year old. I'm just going to come out and ask: Is it a penis or a rocket? Sigmund Freud would be proud.



A Breakfast Shish Kabob

Isn't it funny how you can serve something to kids in a different way and they get all excited? Mica helped me put French Toast and fruit on a shish kabob. Daddy on the other hand thought it was a waste of a stick and time. My thought is what's the point of shish kabob sticks if we don't ever use them? It was a task that kept Mica busy for awhile. To me, that totally made a breakfast shish kabob worth it! Mica's help attention span is his weak point. Isaak has a longer attention span than Mica with help related things.

Breakfast included: Spinach leaves and almonds for hair. Grapes, French Toast, blueberries, and apple pieces for the shish kabobs. The little red thing by his chin is a daily vitamin.

Pizza Tour

Isaak got to go on a tour to Godfather's Pizza with his preschool class last week. You might be thinking, "A pizza place for a tour?"

Isaak being a goof!


It was actually fun. Mica had fun when I went with his preschool class many moons ago to.

This time we got to walk around the kitchen and see the freezers, the oven, the dough maker and their party rooms. The kids got to add the sauce to the premade crust, then add the toppings. I got to make one to. It was only 10:30 AM and Isaak ate 2 pieces out of his personal pan pizza! I ate and then snacked on snap peas and grapes later on.




Midterms

I've been wanting to post lately, but I've been so busy. Last week I took nearly 1/2 a day off to go on a pizza tour with Isaak's preschool class. This week is midterms at where I teach. I have a stack of illustrations to grade, another stack of papers to grade, and exams to finish writing.

Two things annoy me about midterms and finals time: 1) The Education Director keeps wanting to add points into the exam. I know it's college, but I have them for computer art classes. To me their work is what matters; their tests should be a side note. Here I am adding questions to their exams. 2) I get students that tell me they have appointments every year on Friday. That's the day I have my class. They want to take the test early. When one student does that, others want to follow. Of course I'm a bit*# if I don't say, "Yes." For some reason it's only 1st year that asks to take an exam before it's time. I hate giving exams out early because there's a possibility that they can talk about the exam to others in the classroom. At least this semester they have computers; that means I can give them a test on a program that randomizes the questions, and I don't have to hand grade a stack bigger than a phone book!

I have a student this semester that keeps crying on me. It's nothing I have personally done. I really truly think something is wrong with him. He's a bright 19 year old. He gets really emotional when students are loud around him. Noise isn't a problem when I have class on Tuesday; it is a problem on Friday. Everyone is rearing to go on Friday. They so want the week to be over with. I've watched the student in concern nearly blow up because he was trying to concentrate, while a girl was tapping her pen against the table. I really don't think the girl was meaning to be annoying. She didn't even realize she was bothering anyone. I saw the boy student's face get all red; like he was going to freak out. I quickly tried to ease the situation before it got out of hand. I said, "Whoever is tapping, could you please stop? I'm trying to grade up here." She was apologizing. I knew she didn't mean to annoy anyone. I was just trying to prevent the boy student from having a melt down. Instead of asking the girl himself nicely to stop, he'd blow up. Well many things like that have happened. I notice he taps his own desk when he's aggravated, his face turns red, he cries and he asks really random off topic questions in class. Questions that barely relate to what I'm going over. Nothing is in his chart from his previous history. I just feel for him. Much of me thinks he has Aspergers Syndrome. I'm not a councilor; I'm not even supposed to council the students. Our school is too small to have a councilor. I moved his desk; like he's a little kid. Now he sits in a quieter part of the room. Part of me has sympathy for him; another part of me wants to be real, and treat him like anyone else. He'll be in the work force in a few years. If I hold his hand, am I doing him any favors? Uggg!

He's not the only student with issues this semester. I could go on. I have an adult student that is one of the more needy ones in the class. He wants an A on everything, but doesn't want to spend the time to get an A. I have a student who's boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend; then held a knife up to her. Another student who's house burnt down to the ground. Seriously there were just ashes left. :( At lease his whole family is ok. It's been a rough year.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com