Funny Conversations: Latin Vocabulary

Evan: Mom, I’m reading my Latin words from the next few chapters.  You’re my mater…
Mom: Yep.
Evan: …and Daddy’s a homo!
Mom: ::sputtering::  Um, right.
Glossary: mater=mother, homo=man

Funny Conversations: Spelling Lesson

Evan giving Kendall spelling words and using them in a sentence:
Evan:  DELIGHT. I am not the delight of your life. Am I?
Kendall:  D-E-L-I-G-H-T. No.
Evan:  HEART. You can never reach my heart.
Kendall:  I could if I had a knife.

Funny Conversations: Unusual Excuses

Mom:  Evan, I told you to get your math and get to the table.
Evan:  (with light saber in hand) But I’m practicing the Jedi arts!

Name two words…

I’m trying to catch up on paper-grading.  I’m really, really far behind.  So this morning, while Evan was having his piano lesson, I was trying to get through seventeen weeks of his Daily Language Review book.  I ran across this in week 6:
Name two words in the -ill family.
His answer:  Kill Bill
I’m sure he has [...]

Not Dyslexia, but Something…

Evan gets letters mixed up.  He always has.  When he sees “C”, he says “S”, and vice-versa.  When he sees “V”, he says “F”, and vice-versa.  If I question him, he is able to correct himself (sometimes after a couple tries).  It makes reading the eye chart at the eye doctor very interesting–I know he’s [...]

Why did God make me this way?

Do you ever think you know what direction a conversation with one of your children is heading, only to quickly be proven wrong?
Evan walked into my office one evening and said, “Mama, why did God make my eyes like this?  You know–” and he took off his glasses to indicate that he was referring to [...]

Carillon, Sukiyaki and a Lifetime Love of Spelling

Do you ever watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals?  I have always loved spelling so I try to watch it every year.  I am in awe of these kids.  I seldom recognize the words they are given to spell, much less know how to spell them.  Years ago, before I had children, I would [...]

Children’s Books: Discover America State by State

I discovered this series of books by Sleeping Bear Press before the kids were in school.  Now they’re coming in handy as a resource for our U.S. geography lessons.
Each state has its own “alphabet book”.  For example, Oregon’s is called B is for Beaver: An Oregon Alphabet and North Carolina’s is called T is for Tar Heel: [...]

Homeschooling when it’s Hot

Here’s Evan working on his geography notebook and complaining that he’s cold (he was sitting right in front of the air conditioning vent).

 
And here’s Kendall working on her grammar and complaining that she’s hot (but refusing to come indoors).

And here are both of them after I’d heard so many complaints that I gave in and let [...]

Children’s Books: The Sir Cumference Series

 Fun and math.  Most people don’t ever use those two words together.  Your kids will, though, when you introduce them to the Sir Cumference series by Cindy Neuschwander.
Using a picture book format, Neuschwander weaves tales of knights and dragons (all characters have names from math terminology) to teach kids math concepts while they enjoy the [...]