NeW Do AnD DoO-dOo

Georgia got a new do! She looks adorable, but unlike herself...What do you think?

And...

Anyone with kids can relate to this story.

We get to our fireworks spot at BYU about 2 hrs before they start.

We chase ducks, we eat pumpkin cookies, we take pictures, we turn cartwheels.

The fireworks begin just as we were about to give up hope.

We snuggle, ooh & aahh, we take pictures

Olivia states, "I have to go potty."

we state the obvious, she argues, we ignore and hope she holds it.

She poops.

I say !stop! She holds it, we spring into action.

We strip her down and use the grocery bags from our trail mix and pumpkin cookies as a comode.

She squats, Naloni blocks, J uses the water from the water bottle to rinse out the undies, I dry heave. Helen wipes with a tissue from her purse.

We take pictures.

The Evidence

The undies, the water bottle and the wipe.

The Wilds of BYU campus where we parked ourselves to watch the fireworks.

The Dinosaur Museum

Amateur Archeologists and Dinosaur Wranglers

Gi' Me S'mOrE!

NObility

Nobility: the quality of elevation of mind and exaltation of character or ideals or conduct





We had a teacher training on Friday. It was about creating noble people of our children. Look around at the world and the people who fill it...not much noble about it, is there? Well, you just wait. Our children and those I teach will learn all about nobility...





dignity


poise


character


integrity


honor





We discussed what we read to our children. By the end of it we laughed out loud that in the pre-school we happened to have some books that said, "I like school. School. School. School."





Our kids should read and be read to from the best in classical literature (there are a few new books that are worth reading, but it's much easier to begin with proven works).





Here's a wonderful list we came up with...(the key is not to dumb-down what they read or what is read to them. If we treat them as if they are incapable, they will be incapable. Even my young children can sit and listen to The Wizard of Oz, or Charlotte's Web, without pictures!)

For Educators/Parents:


The Healing Power of Stories


Educating the WholeHearted Child





For a bit older kids:


Jane Eyre


Sense & Sensibility (or ANY Jane Austen)


The Lonesome Gods


Laddie


Frankenstein


The Death of Ivan Ilych





Younger Kids:


A Little Princess


Little Lord Fauntleroy


Betsy Understood


The Wind in the Willows


Just David


Any Mythology


The Secret Garden





Books teach our children that there is hope after danger, bad luck, abuse, any kind of sorrow. The characters in these books have dignity, conscience, morals, class, empathy.





Too often children read and watch stories that end with kids who distrust adults, are hopelessly selfish and hateful, and the list goes on.





A mother, noticing that her boy loved to read Harry Potter books would not read any of the other books on his summer reading list. She did some research in the library and noticed that since 1960 our adolescent and children's literature have contained the same miserable material I just referenced. She wrote a book about it. It seems it's a moral dumbing-down of children. For some reason (I'm not sure anyone really knows), we started to believe that it was too hard for them to learn to take the high road, to be accountable and to have good character. so WATCH OUT!





One of our teachers even commented on how her children learned to laugh when someone belched or passed gas, from a book. She said, "No wonder we have had generations of crass little buggers!"

Awethome FiReWorks VideO!

YoU CaN'T Be mY FrIeND iF YoU DoN't WaTCh!

You MUST watch this show!

Art City Days

Balloon Launch from the Middle School

The Rides - Georgia's a HUGE fan!

Our friends Jenny, David, and Elizabeth came with us to the parade and carnival (of course, the Carvajal's came too!)

Our very nice neighbor, Brian went to Evanston and brought us back some very cool sparklers. We almost had a Michael Jackson incident... several times.

Liv's Birthday !!!5!!!

Olivia's Birthday just happens to fall on the weekend of the Springville Art City Days celebration.

There's a balloon launch, carnival, parade, and fireworks. What a wonderful time to have a bbq and birthday party!

She got a charm bracelet...

Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Dan got her a treasure chest of jewelry.


At the carnival!


More pics to come of the most coveted presents, the JaM GiRl and a walkman with Cheetah Girl's CD!

Down By the Banks...er, Sod Farm

After Diane's daughter, Talia, got baptized last Saturday we all went to the sod farm in Wellsville and slid donw the hill on thick plastic with carpet pads. Di talked me into it, in my clothes. We had a ball!!!! The adults got in the game late, so we were going like crazy as the kids slowed down.
Even little George went down! One of those hills was incredibly steep!
Diane and Toady (Brenda, her little sister) going down the steep hill! The adults would slide clear off the plastic and we all got our shorts full of mud.
This is good, clean fun in Wellsville.

Swinging

Georgia will finally swing without holding her breath or crying! Even better, the big kids can now pump their legs and swing by themselves.

I's Easter

When you're cool, the sun shines on you 24 hours a day!

This kid can't get enough of the superhero crew!

Liv's Easter

Liv got lots of girly stuff from the Easter Bunny.

When we did our hunt (I'll add the video later),

Jason followed her and threw the eggs out of her basket

into the bushes and she thought she'd found another egg!

Never stand between a woman and her chocolate!

Georgia's Easter

Georgia opened every egg,

Removed each piece of candy,

and promptly ate them.

The Lunch LaDy

The kids love these lunch boxes. They enjoy being responsible for them.

I really sucked at making lunches at first. I would pack yogurt and not a spoon. I would pack peanut butter and jelly every lunch. The kids are not allowed to have sugar (sugar-added) items in their lunches, so I have to get creative. They don't normally eat a lot of it, but when it comes to packing lunches for school I was thinking fruitsnacks and juice boxes, pudding (of which there is one kind that is sugar-free). Anyway, you should see what some of these kids come with. There are some that are from India that have some things I'd love to trade for (no tradies).

Quote of the Week....

"Mama, why do I have balls on my pee-pee?"

Author Anonymous

Montessori

We have a new school! All of us (well, except Jason). My good friend Sarah's mom knows the director and has sent her kids to the school. It's exceptional, but exceptionally expensive. SO, I am going to teach in the older children's class so that my kid's tuition can be paid for. Sarah and her kids are working and schooling here too, so my kids are lucky enough to have some familiar faces!

Olivia didn't want to come home the first day!

I'll attach a link to some good articles on Montessori, there's just too much to go into and my brain is fried!

www.montessoriutah.com

www.montessori.org

A study published in the journal, "Science" in 2006:

On several dimensions, children at a public inner city Montessori school had superior outcomes relative to a sample of Montessori applicants who, because of a random lottery, attended other schools. By the end of kindergarten, the Montessori children performed better on standardized tests of reading and math, engaged in positive interaction on the playground more, and showed advanced social cognition and executive control more. They also showed more concern for fairness and justice. At the end of elementary school, Montessori children wrote more creative essays with more complex sentence structures, selected more positive responses to social dilemmas, and reported feeling more of a sense of community at their school.