Nothing too eventful today. Lessons, horseback riding, piano practicing. I got a haircut. The girl who cut my hair told me that I could "rock this haircut" just like Victoria Beckham. She said, "She's got nothing on you!" I replied, "No, but I've got about 20 pounds on her!" I do like my hair short.
We keep getting teased for rain. Huge black clouds rolled in this afternoon, complete with thunder and lightning and that enticing ozone aroma. But no rain. It is so sad to see all the dead and dying lawns around here. I think we're supposed to be on once-a-week water restrictions around here. But we're sort of ignoring that. I haven't actually heard any official news. Just what "people" are saying. No notice in the mail or anything. So we'll keep watering our lawn as we have been and then plead ignorance if we get in trouble. Is that awful? I just can't stand the idea of our lawn totally dying and then having to re-sod.
It turns out that Mosey is a great speller! He got out his spelling book we bought yesterday and did a few pages, and then got the CD with spelling games that came with the book, and played spelling games for a couple of hours. Poor Brigham is the only one who struggles with spelling. It's sad and funny. Sad because he gets soooooo frustrated and down on himself. Funny because he's just so predictable in his misspellings. He is a chronic phonetic speller, so most of his mistakes are words that he's spelling the way they sound. Too bad we speak English where every 3rd word is some kind of spelling rule exception. But then sometimes he'll overthink himself on words that ARE spelled the way they sound. For example, he spelled "great" as "grate," but then spelled "grade" as "gread." He spelled "rain" as "rane" and "made" as "maid." Poor kid. He's really amazing in math and thinks up all these mental tricks for remembering his multiplication tables. I'm trying to help him apply this technique to spelling, helping him come up with mnemonic devices and such. Poor kid. He does almost everything else so well, he has a hard time knowing how to deal with something he struggles with. Ben was working with him on his spelling tonight, and Brigham kept telling him that his kindergarten teacher must have taught him wrong, because he was SURE she told him "rain" was spelled "rane." I highly doubt this. Brigham is practically perfect in every way (as his Grandma camp certificate states), but he definitely has a hard time admitting when he is wrong. I can't imagine where he gets that from. :-) He'll blame his mistakes on the fish if no one else is readily available. It's kind of funny, though, because he'll be blaming some teensy mistake on someone else, when it is hardly even a mistake! No one would even blink about an 8 year old misspelling "rain." He doesn't need to blame his kindergarten teacher, no one thinks any less of him. I tried to convince him that it was a good thing he is misspelling these words because it proves that we are on the right level for him in our spelling book, and he isn't wasting time on words he already knows. I don't think he's buying it.
Did I write about Joseph's new pet? I don't think so. On Saturday afternoon (his birthday), we went to eat at Texas Land and Cattle, and then pulled into a parking spot in front of Pet Co (same shopping complex as the restaurant). Joseph got excited about going to Pet Co, so I joked with him telling him we were going to the sewing store instead (a sewing machine repair store is right next door). Joseph said, "Yeah, I thought we were," but then I told him that no, we really were going into Pet Co. He's been wanting another pet for months. He's been going back and forth between a leopard gecko, a bearded dragon, and a snake. Ben and I decided to let him get a leopard gecko since they can live in the same tank as the tortoise. They are way more work than a tortoise, though. They eat crickets which have to be dusted in this calcium powder before being put in the cage. So in addition to the gecko, we had to buy a cricket house and cricket food and cricket calcium powder. It's more like getting a bunch of pet crickets and then buying a gecko to go with them. Anyway, Joseph loves this gecko whom he names "Spots." To go along with the other very creatively-named "Torty." :-) I hope we can keep this guy alive.
4 comments:
What a beautiful creature! And what a good sport you are to let your boy have a reptile in the house - that was more than I could handle, I'm afraid. Tell Brigham he is in very good company with his spelling challenges -- Grandpa Hansen is a terrible speller, but just like Brigham, he can design anything and is the most inventive, creative, visionary person I know. That's why SpellCheck was invented:) Love, Mama
wow, that lizard is so beautiful! i can see why joseph wanted him. and tell brigham that i'm a terrible speller, too, but not nearly so inventive or so good at math :]
oops, "not nearly so inventive, NOR so good at math" there's an example for him
Well, where's the picture of the haircut?
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