Of shoes and ships and sealing wax...

Dusting off the blog after a long summer vacation while the kidlet was away at her Dad's house.

Getting back into the school routine. She's jumped right into history this year, picking up where she left off with the Sumerians and hedging into India.

Math we've spent quite a bit of time on currency. She seems to be having a hard time remembering that a dime is 10cents, thus 6 dimes is more than 6 pennies. I saw a set of realistic looking play money last time I was at Target, so I think I'm gonna pick some up. Also got her a math bingo set, and a telling time bingo set.

Her psychiatrist/therapist/whatever you want to call her is encouraging group therapy with a group called the ClueBreakers, however, the registration fee is $300 for either 6 or 8 sessions (the page is at home and I'm not) It would be other children her age learning about social interactions in a setting where they won't be made fun of. I would LOVE to get her into it, but unfortunately an upfront fee is out of my budget right now.

Her therapist has also reminded me the importance of having a written routine to follow, so we're going back to a chore chart and routine chart; Grandma is doing better about following my routine for schoolwork.

Kidlet has been wanting to watch Bridge To Terabithia so I decided to adopt the principle my freshman english teacher used. Read the book first. Still battling on that one, but until such time as she starts reading again, she doesn't get a movie.

She briefly had a computer to play educational games on. And then the processor or motherboard died in my computer, thus causing the Husband to go into another round of shell swapping, giving me Kidlet's former computer, and grabbing one of the spare mini towers, and using software to create a series of Virtual Drives on it to trick her computer into thinking it has that many CD-rom drives, and that each one has that disc in it. It is having sound card issues, and since all of her games are sound based, this is quite sub-optimal.

A Gluten Free Birthday

8 years ago, a new person was brought into the world. There are times I wasn't sure we would make it to this point, but we did. 4 days ago, we celebrated Brittani's 8th birthday. We made a gluten-free, casein-free vanilla cake, with gluten free/casein free dark chocolate peppermint frosting, and she blew out the candle herself. She quite enjoyed her cake. Her birthday present is still in progress in my knitting bag, it is this jumper, in black with lime green skulls, as a tank top, rather than a dress.

Also for her birthday, we sat down as a family and watched Avatar, which she was quite enthralled with.

and eating her cake and Rice Dream (dairy free gluten free ice cream)

January 04 update

Ancient History, Brittani has moved into studying Egypt, so we are printing maps (She LOVES maps) and follow up stories, and taking a detour into hieroglyphics.

My dad is a truck driver, and has been making semi-long hauls. He calls me when he goes out on a run and tells me WHERE he is headed to, and how far away it is. Brittani finds that city on a map, and is working on the math to tell how long until Grandpa comes home to Phoenix. (This is Pre-Algebra, by the way) Knowing that the state law only allows Grandpa to drive 600 miles in a day, she is able to figure out how many days he will be gone.

Literature, we were going to have another week of The Nutcracker since she is enjoying it so much, but since we've moved into Ancient Egypt, I think we will read The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Science, studying mummification, and why it worked; what happens to the body when it is mummified;

Spelling, pulling words from history and lit reading;

PE, She still enjoys her yoga for kids dvds on days that it is too cold to go outside, but also runs about in the backyard and plays on her swing. She is learning to pump her legs to get herself going on the swing, and as it gets warmer, I'm going to draw a hopscotch board on the patio.

For those who worry that my child will not be "socialized" enough, #1, school is not for socializing, it is for learning. There is plenty of time outside of school for socializing. #2, she has a few good friends that come over for playdates or that she sees at friends houses AT LEAST once a week to hang out with. She is also learning her manners and carrying on a conversation, with Grandma, with Mommy and Sterling, with our friends, with Grandpa, etc.