Alice Reads to Grandmother

Technology is amazing.  This is Alice reading to me.  She is at living in Annis Bay, B.C. right now.

The title of the book has something to do with Kittens and the book is from an "I Can Read" Series, for she is still in Grade I.

There is a picture of me in the far bottom left hand corner.  I am listening to her in Calgary.

You are looking at Richard's phone which is connecting to Miranda's.

Technology is amazing.

Arta

Alice Shovels Snow

Funny Dogs:  Book 11

The forecast is for 30 centimetres of snow in the next few days.

I like to go out and shovel snow when the flakes are falling and the earth is blanketed in white.

The doctor said I can shovel snow, but that I should use common sense, which I do.

I am slow shovelling because the loads that I toss to the side are only half loads.

Alice practising the letter O
in the reading workbook.

I knocked on the door of the house next to me to see if anyone of the children wanted to shovel snow with me.

Having no takers, I just continued until the walks were near to finished.

And then Alice came out saying she was ready to help me.

She took the ice pick and tried to get underneath the snow that was packed on the sidewalk.

I was enjoying myself.

She lasted about three minutes
and then she followed me inside so we read another book, which she is showing you above:  Funny Dogs.

"Can I take this picture home with me?"
"Yes, Alice, you can."

We closed off the day using a new set of gel pens I bought when I was out shopping with Wyona.

She finds the best of bargains -- half price and there are glitter, neon and metallic pens.  Alice and I have 48 gel pens to try.  We only got through 7 and that was collectively.

Living the good life which is reading and then colouring!

Arta

Batman and Joker - Lego Style

After Reading Club tonight, I sat by while Michael put together a Lego box called "The Joker Balloon Escape".

My kids may have played with lego's but I have no memory of sitting with them and going through the instructions, step by step, so that the prized toy comes together.

Tonight we did the Joker with his balloons and Batman with his grappling hook.

I had no idea such happiness could come from this toy.  We took it with us to see Grandfather yesterday, but we took it in the box where it was to stay.  Today I was just looking at the box and being overwhelmed with desire to open it.

That anticipation paid off today in double happiness.  Two parts of the toy are together.  Tomorrow we will tackle the third ... after more Reading Club.

Arta

Reading Club goes to Newsies

So few patrons at the theatre that we had
the snack bar to ourselves.

Reading Club met at Newsies at Eau Claire Cineplex for a night of song and dance.

When Wyona got to the theatre there was no one there -- empty seats all over.  I told her to save me at least one row.

The kids seemed to want to try out the seats right in front.  In fact, they were trying out the seats in every place in the theatre.  Why not? An empty theatre is a good place to practise that.

Audra also practise doing some cartwheels from the stage, going up the isle.  Michael said that was the favourite part of the show for him.  He wants to do that.  All Richard could tell him was to practise 100's of times.

The theatre foyer was empty during the intermission.
Alice is hanging on one bannister to the left of the picture.
Michael has his legs wrapped around another at the centre.
They skipped up and down the stairs and around the mall.

The club members are unfamiliar with the layout of the whole theatre so at some time before the first intermission, all of them needed an escort to the comfort station.  First a parent would pop up with one and then with another.

They also needed the break between Part I and Part II of the show, so they ran off their wiggles, around pillars, up and down stairs and even hanging from the railings.

"Come on, let's get back to the theatre," said Richard when he saw one of his kids balancing off of the metal bannister by the steps.

"I don't want to spend the second half of the show in the Emergency Department of the hospital."

... a drink and a bag of popcorn for everyone ...
... the straws were delivered later ...

Wyona purchased popcorn and a drink for everyone.  The hardest part of the evening was getting that snack to the theatre so that no one made any spills along the way.

Those confections were topped up with strawberry liquorice and skittles from someone's purse.

"Line up right here to tell me what you want me to buy."

At one point in the performance I heard Kalina making a noise and I leaned forward in my seat to hear what she was saying.

She was singing the tune that we had just heard.

I wasn't going to tell her she couldn't do that.

She has an amazing ear for a five year old!

Notice in the side picture, that Michael is almost as tall as Audra!

Arta

Dabbin'

Mary was telling me a story about her children and she said one of them uses the newest dance move: dabbin'.

I asked for a demo so she gave me one.

I tried to do it myself: head tucked down in one arm and the other arm stretch straight out and back.

 ... Mary and Arta practise dabbing ...

I didn't think much of this until we had Reading Club and I was studying Landon.

At one point he did well on the word families and was congratulated.

 ... Landon shows the dabbing move with class ...

He performed the dabbing move.

Where do little Grade I-er's learn these moves.

When I brought it up with his mother, she didn't know what dabbin' is all about.

Do kids learn it on the playground at recess?

We certainly aren't teaching it at reading club, though it is being performed there.

Arta

Spelling Cribbage

Chinese lanterns
decorating for Chinese New Year

My cribbage board surfaced when I opened a Chinese Chest that I am using for a decoration for the Chinese New Year.

I didn’t think much about it until Michael came over to read and began to beg me to play cribbage with him.

“Not until you are in Grade III,” I said.

The more he begged the firmer I was with my no’s, and absolutely not’s.

 But I did tell him I would give in and play just one game with him, and there would be new rules.

 The player would get to peg, the number of letters of any word that they could spell.

 Then I left the reading materials on the table so he would have a large pool of words to draw from.

... pegging is such fun to do .

First he pegged c-a-t right out of his mind. Then he pegged c-a-b from a word he could see on the table. It wasn’t long until he had figured out it was better to choose a long word like yellow, than a short one like cat.

There is nothing like the thrill of being ahead in a game of Spelling Cribbage. I stayed just a nose behind him as he worked his way along the cribbage board, learning to take the peg behind and count out the letters ahead of the next peg on the board.

... finding a word with a lot of letters to spell  ...

I pulled out all of the Valentine words we have been practising – even so that he could see them, rehearsing them for him.

I let him peg long phrases like “U R 4 Me”. 

Just as he reached the finish line, his mom called for him to come home.

I opened the door and watched him walk in the darkness, stopping to pick up snow and pitch it at some imaginary target. The day has been hot, but now it was freezing and the ice was crusty and sharp.

Michael didn’t mind his lack of mitts.

He had no anxiety about getting home sooner rather than later as he lobbed one snowball and then another. He called back to me, “Don’t mind. I can get home on my own.” I stopped watching him, at least so that he could see me watching.  When I could hear his feet tromping across their porch and I was sure his mother would know he was coming in the door, I closed my door.

Arta