What Spawn is Reading This Week

It's been an eclectic week here at the old RR Ranch. ;) This week's books were allover the map:

We started with a classic and an old favorite of mine - Blueberries for Sal. I can still remember my elementary school librarian reading it to us in the tiny school library when I was in second grade.

Blueberries for Sal (Spawn's LA teacher used this as part of a lesson to illustrate the change you need to make to singular words that end in y when adding -ies to make them plural.)

Next is a series that's also an old favorite of mine - The Berenstain Bears. Spawn has a nice little collection of these books because I just can't prevent myself from buying them when I see them. ;) Did you know Jan & Stan Berenstain are from eastern PA? The RR is just a few miles north of their homebase of Bucks County along the Delaware River! Anyway, Spawn requested this one at bedtime this week and I thought it was VERY appropriate. ;) The funny thing is - no matter how many times Spawn asks to read this book to put off bedtime, the lesson just doesn't hit home. ;)

Spawn has been doing a little more independent reading lately, too. He's been opting not to have a bedtime story every night. :( Now he tells me about what he reads over breakfast in the morning when he reads his own bedtime story. =) For those who don't know - Club Penguin is a social networking site for kids ages 5 - 12. A SAFE social networking site. I can set et Spawn's account so he can only use a prest list of phrases in conversation with other penguins - to avoid having him give out ANY identifying personal information. It keeps Club Penguin fun AND safe for him to use.

He's really into Club Penguin's 'Pick Your Path' book series and The Secret Agent Missions on ClubPenguin.com. Lucky for us, they make the Club Penguin Secret Agent Handbook. ;) The 'Pick Your Path' series is wonderful. If you've very read one of the classic 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books, you know exactly what I mean. (Spawn does have some of the original 'Choose Your Own Adeventure' books,too. ;)) Club Penguin has produced several of them and they're wonderful, fun stories to read alone or with a friend or group. And a great value, too - it's the never the same story twice! =D

I ♥ cyberschooling!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

The Creature from the Unscrubbed Bathtub...

Lesson Learned: Never ever forget to clear all the toys and detritus out of the tub after a 7 year old boy's bubble bath.

So there I was  - minding my own business - about to take a shower yesterday afternoon while Spawn worked on a few lessons with CS Dad. I'd been dreaming of a long, screaming hot shower for days and the best I can usually manage is 3 - 5 minutes under whatever hot/lukewarm/room temp water is left. :p

I grabbed a big, fluffy beach towel and my pricey and precious Bio shampoo and conditioner (which Bath & Body Works no longer makes >:( ) and made a mad dash for the shower before someone found something they desperately needed me to bring them or some such. I brushed out my hair, brushed my teeth (while I'm there I might as well, ya know ? ;)), and did a quick Swish & Swipe ala FlyLady. I reached over to pull back the curtains and...

..let out the most horrific, bloodcurdling, embarrassing, girly scream the world has ever heard. :o Because this is what was waiting for me in the tub:

I know what you're thinking, but it's not a little squid! It's huge! And it was attacking this poor pirate ship:

It's one of Spawn's new Mega Rig sets that he got for Christmas. We just got it out for bathtime a few days ago and I forgot to have him put it away after his bath that morning. Trust me - I'll never forget again! =D It's a wonder it wasn't CS Dad who left it there to see what would happen. He likes to booby-trap things he knows I'm going to be the one to open next. Ask me sometime how he booby-traps my car - and I fall for it every time. >:(

I also get startled by cats who hang out in the bathtub waiting for spiders and dark shadows in the laundry room and a creeped out feeling when I'm in the laundry room when the cats stare at me while using their litterbox. (Ew. :p)

Spawn took his dojo patch test last night and CS Dad video-taped some of it, so keep an eye out for that in the next day or so. I'll try to get some of it up on our YouTube Channel tonight.

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

Compostable Drinking Straws?!

I can't tell you the joygasm the words above bring me when I say them..."Compostable Drinking Straws"... ::sigh::

We got a snotty letter around the first of the year reminding us that drinking straws are not recyclable and fines would be assessed to those who tried to recycle their plastic drinking straws. Meh. >:( Charlatans! Heathens! Lovers of waste and overflowing landfills! I abhor thee! >:(

But I can't give up my drinking straws. So what's a drinking straw-loving girl supposed to do? I can' just throw away plastic straws. The landfill would be overflowing if I threw away everything plastic that the recycling company doesn't take...But then...oh, then...fate intervened!

Today, I saw a photo over at Be Different...Act Normal and in the photo was...a striped paper drinking straw! :o It made my compost-loving heart go pitty-pat I tell you! I haven't had a paper straw in my drink since we went on a choir trip to New York in 9th grade to see Tommy on Broadway and had lunch at The Hard Rock afterwards. The flavor of The Hard Rock Cafe will always be ginger ale sipped through a paper straw to me. I had completely forgotten about paper drinking straws! I must have some!

The most common purveyor of said straws is Aardvark, but their prices nearly made me choke. Yikes! :o I'm not made of money! Then, I stumbled across these wrapped, striped, paper straws - 500 for $14.50 and these unwrapped, striped, paper straws - 500 for $13.25 from Can Do Chefs. Woohoo!!! I kan haz strawz again!

I had to update this post. Look what I found on the same website: http://www.candochefs.com/White_Birch_Wooden_Cutlery_p/g-10-x.htm Compostable, biodegradable, white birch wooden cutlery!!! 100 pk. for $5.90?!?! That's cheaper than what I'm paying for the plastic ones now!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

Snaggletooth, Mullet, and Scooby-Doo

Spawn's Art and Music theme this marking period has been puppetry and characterization, so we've been making puppets! I think the best part of these lessons has been sharing my love of the Muppets with Spawn. His teacher has assigned videos of behind-the-scenes footage of Jim Henson's Muppets and earlier work (before color tv!) and Spawn is so engrossed, engaged, and in love with these puppets! Construction paper puppets are SO easy to make. I'll have to put together my own videoso I can share the process, but I do have some photos of our finished work ready to share with you all now. =D

Mama has a go at some sharp, reptilian teefs. (Please excuse the horrid desk mess in the background. It's the end of the marking period. I'm only sleeping like 6 hours a night due to the amount of work that needs to be finished that we fell behind on during our 6 (!!!) illnesses this quarter. :p Even my Christmas tree is still up. :p)

Spawn's little Snaggletoothed reptilian hand puppet with angry, Russian unibrow 'like Daddy's'. You know I'm not making this up. He totally calls his father's eyebrows 'angry Russian eyebrows'. =D I especially love the fringed mohawk and crazy eyes. (Add some liquor breath and happy hour and you have a certain someone's mother-in-law... ;) ...well, minus the mohawk. ;))

My puppet, Mullet (I ♥ his Burt Reynolds 'stache.):

My puppet Mullet's mullet:

Spawn also got to make his first diorama this quarter. Having never made one before, this was more of a lesson about HOW to make one (with a bit of home facilitator help) and what his teachers will be looking for in future dioramas, so he can make them more independently in the future. He made the decisions about what scene to do, what to include in the scene, did all of the coloring, most of the cutting and pasting and wrote the title and author, so I felt pretty good about his understanding of the process and we had a lot of fun trying to duplicate the scene from the book. =D

I ♥ cyberschooling!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

For My Friend, Eileen

A little bento porn. =D From: http://www.mediamolecule.com/2009/10/01/sackboy-bento-box/

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom