Friday, February 11, 2011

Holy Randomness, Batman! This One's a Rambler . . ..

Almost Valentine's Day! This year I think Valentine's Day is getting the short end of the stick. We had planned to have a very special (with candlelight!) dinner Saturday night as a family, but then heard from my sister-in-law that she had extra tickets to the play my niece is in. So we're all going to go to the play Saturday night instead.

Our Valentine's Day tradition has always been that the boys get a stuffed animal and a book. Now that they're getting older, though, our tradition needs to change a bit. SportsBoy has asked if he can have a Ravenclaw t-shirt instead of a stuffed animal. I thought that was an okay trade. SuperKid will get a stuffed animal he's been wanting. And both will probably get a gift card to the book store for a small book. I guess things change . . .

So this week went by in a blur. I am having a very hard time thinking about what we did. SuperKid was sick at the beginning of the week, so I do remember some nonsense about a "sick day." :-) We did go to the doctor, but "it's just a virus and not catching." Right. That's why the rest of us are all sick now. Because it's not catching. So anyway, a sick day sounds good to me today, but we're too busy for that!

Wednesday was our homeschool webelos meeting. We finished up all the requirements for our Citizenship badge except one. The mayor is coming to talk to our boys at the next meetting, and then that badge will be a wrap! We played some great flag, state and national anthem trivia games and the boys reviewed the poem, "I am Your Flag" that they will recite at our Pack meeting next weekend for all the families. They are very excited!

I finally broke down and bought the Bananagrams for my kids. I think it's good for SuperKid's thinking skills, and I'm hoping it will help with SportsBoy's spelling issues. Goodness! Spelling his tough for that boy. He can spell the same word two or even three different ways in the same paragraph. Doesn't even know he's done that. And his teachers at school say he's right where he should be in spelling. Seriously? It's hard to make him care about it when his teachers don't. (Don't worry - I'm still on it!)

Oh yeah! The most important thing of the week was Middle School Orientation for SportsBoy. That was last night. I sniffled and shivered through it, but was healthy enough to get the gist of what was going on. Two big decisions he needed to make - music (he's decided to do both band and choir) and foreign language (Chinese).

You gotta love how a preteen boy thinks. SB was adamant that he wanted to do only choir, no band because he "loves choir." Uh-huh. He does like choir, but loves? I suspect what he loves is the idea of not having to practice his trumpet. My response - "No problem. Take choir and we'll sign you up for piano lessons. Not playing an instrument is not an option." I have a way of being direct. Mr. Wonderful was more thoughtful in his presentation of that decision. He explained how adults often wished they could play an instrument and much harder it is to begin an instrument as an adult. He talked about how important it is to learn certain skills when you are younger so you have options when you are older. SportsBoy is a pretty deep thinker himself, actually. He totally got that discussion. But what clinched his decision was when he learned that if you do both choir and band, you just rotate between the two each day - it's not an extra class.

Then came the foreign language discussion. A choice between Chinese, French and Spanish. Mr. Wonderful took four years of French in high school and I took Spanish two years of Spanish in both high school and college (I took two years of German in high school, too, but it was too easy since my parents and grandparents actually spoke German at home). So SportsBoy decided on Chinese. He admitted he's not sure about this one, but there are two things that appeal to him. First, he liked the presentation the Chinese class gave to the sixth graders. Second, and yes, he did admit this to me, he likes the idea that I can't review his homework or "help" him study for this class since I know nothing about it. Sounds like someone wants some independence! :-)  So, anyway, it looks like I'll be learning Chinese this summer!! :-)

Okay, not sure there's much here to help anyone out this week - but that pretty much sums it up! Today SuperKid is trying out a new Chess Club at our local library, going to martial arts and then heading to the club for a swim lesson. We'll fit some school work in there, too - and before we know it I'm sure it will be time to wrap up another week!

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