Science, Spelling and Pill Bugs

We are having all kinds of homeschool fun today! Dids' science lesson today is streaming from Yahoo Kidstudy via K12  It sounds like a 1970 something movie day in my living room. I love this kind of lesson. It requires the minimum from me and Dids enjoys just sitting there passively acquiring knowledge too. 

I found an app for my iPad that lets me enter a spelling list with words, sentences, synonyms and antonyms and has practice each day and tests him too! Princess Beans played it this morning with the levels 1, 2, and 3 Dolch sight words. She knows them to see them, but if you ask her to spell them she has some difficulty saying the spelling without looking. She was so proud of herself when she could spell a word and  even more proud when she could write it on the whiteboard in the app. The app is called SpellBoard by Palaware. If you home school and your kids hate the normal spelling activities it's worth a look. 

PB spent some time outside looking for Pill Bugs. Did you know that Pill Bugs (we always called them Roly Polies) are not insects? Kirsten has to to an oral report, complete with presentation board and book with references, that she can read at her level. She's in KINDERGARTEN! This is one of the sort of projects that makes me hate sending my kids to public school. She didn't get to pick her animal because it's virtually impossible to find a book at the Kindergarten reading level about a very specific animal. She got the only book that was suitable at Barnes and Noble for the price of $7.99. We couldn't find anything suitable in our home library or at the used bookstore. This is a parent project. One that tests how resourceful the parents are at finding the things expected for the project, and how pretty the parents can make the board. It annoys me to no end. The sheet explains that for every day the project is late, 5 points will be taken off. Really? In Kindergarten? Is this going to affect her ability to get into Brown when she's a Senior? Okay, yes...she needs to learn the responsibility of turning in a project, but not a project her parents did. Stupid public school. Why don't they ever get it?

The last thing of the day...where did the phrase, "Mad as a wet hen," come from? Jordan left the chicken coop open today and our hens are happy as pigs in poop cruising the back yard for every sprout of new grass they might find. They certainly don't look mad, I couldn't force them back into that coop if I wanted to!

Manicures, iPads & Hockey

Yesterday my friend the roller derby girl gave me a shellac manicure. It's so pretty and shiny, even on my clipped shorty-short nails. Tonight at work though, something in the
skin prep wipes I use made my right thumb nail really dull. I keep wiping it with alcohol, but whatever it was ate the top layer of polish off, I think. Bummer.

I'm composing this entry on my new iPad using the touch screen keypad. My wrists are getting sore since I have to hold my fingers up to see where I'm touching since there's no sensory input for where you fingers actually hit. I bought the iPad on eBay, took the chance because the seller was very close and the price was very good. There is a scratch on the screen, but I'm hoping when the Invisible Shield goes on the scratch will disappear. The seller did disclose it in the auction listing, it's only a tiny bit worse than the auction led me to believe. All in all I'm pretty happy with it since I only paid $257 for an $800 piece of electronic equipment I'd been trying to convince myself I didn't really need. It's pretty. In every way. My kids are each going to want one next.

Today is the first practice of spring hockey. It's Dids' first day as a Pee Wee, let the checking begin. Most of the team is first year Pee Wees. I think there are only 3 on the team who played this level in the fall. Scott got roped into basically coaching the Squirt team as well since none of the dads stepped up to volunteer. I wonder if any of them can even skate. Jeff, the owner of the arena is officially the "head coach," but he told Scott he doesn't think he's going to get on the ice today and asked Scott to be there at 1 for Squirt practice. I guess it's extra ice time for Dids. He's going to be a tired boy after 2 hour and a half practices today. He could use the practice though, maybe it will improve his stick handling. He's still a little unsure of himself there and can't turn on his jets and skate around anyone with the puck.