Sigh. Tom called shortly ago. Seems Boeing is sending him off to Baltimore tomorrow morning and he won't be back until late next week. I can only hope that he will be back in time for the end of the season soccer party and final game. As it is, I shall have to cancel PT for the rest of this week and next and shall have to figure out how to handle Tae Kwon Do, Soccer etc. I shall also have to deal with littlest boy tears. Sigh...
On the other hand, Jason has undertaken to teach his little brother to read and his little brother is delighted. I can only shake my head in bemusement because, of course, WHAT Jason has chosen to use to teach Xander -- Pokemon books -- are not standard equipment but I am staying firmly out of it. Xander is happy to have his brother's attention, Jason is pleased to be 'teaching' so since both are satisfied with the arrangement, who am I to argue?
In other news, yesterday Jason and his cub scout den met at our little lake park and practiced tying on fishing hooks, baiting hooks and casting their lines. All the boys had a great deal of fun though I noticed that when it came to selecting bait, the boys all used the modern hi-tech stuff and left the earth worms to myself and their den mother. Oh, they were happy enough to use an earthworm baited hook -- and they were quite successful at 'drowning' worms but they couldn't bring themselves to rip earthworms in half and stick hooks through them. Amazing to think that seven year olds can be squeamish but this lot are. At any rate, they all enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Xander -- on the other hand -- was working his hardest to keep mom bald. If I made the mistake of turning my attention to a scout, Xander would wander out onto the doc or take his shoes and socks off 'to go paddling, mommy!' or sit down in the wet, muddy grass and sand to examine rocks or, memorably, pick up something interesting looking only to discover that it was 'YUCK! GOOSE POOP!'
This morning we worked on Place Value. We began by having Jason read to Xander from 'Mr Base Ten invents Mathematics' then I had Jason fill out a numbers chart, we discussed HOW one went about doing so, and we played 'Guess My Rule'. That garnered a few laughs. Following that game, Jason worked manfully on finishing his letter to one of his pen pals while Xander made monsters. Then, while the boys built with legos, I read the first few chapters of 'Farmer Boy', the next in the 'Little House Series.' In that book, the author commented that you could add an equal sized glass of popcorn to a glass of milk without disturbing the milk. I asked the boys if they thought that was true and had them make predictions of what would happen. I wrote those down and then we did the experiment. Wonder of wonders, the thing worked! So now I asked the boys why they thought it had worked. Jason's theory is that there is something in the difference between the temperatures of the two items. Xander was just disappointed that the glass hadn't exploded. So I suggested my own theory and told the boys that they could ask their father HIS opinion when he got home this evening.
At the moment, the boys have just gotten up from their rest period. I need to print up a picture of Pretty Kitty to send with Jason's letter and then we need to go to the library and the bank. Fun, hmmm?
