Dr. Seuss for the common man part Deux:

I know you all have just been shaking with excitement just waiting for the next installment of Dr. Seuss for the common man, so here it is.

Remember:
Big A, Little a, what begins with A? Ant, Apple Alligator, A, A, A.

Big E, Little e, what begins with E? Egg, Elk, Elephant, E, E, E.

Now:

Big I, Little i, what begins with I? Igloo, Ink, Iguana, I, I, I.

Enjoy.

Teaching letters and sounds

I have always liked the rhyming of Dr. Seuss. I have made up my own for a couple of the alphabet rhymes that he has from The Alphabet Book. At least my things actually exist. I will have a hard time explaining someday what a zizzerzazzer zuzz is. At least I can say something like zig-zag zebra. Anyway, here is my first installment of Dr. Seuss for the common man.

Big A, Little A, what begins with A? Ant, Apple, Alligator, A A A.

Big E, Little E, what begins with E? Egg, Elk, Elephant, E E E.

stay tuned for future installments for your enjoyment (yeah right).

Funny jokes from Reader's Digest.

I live in Illinois so I am surrounded by Bears, Packers, Cubs, and White Sox fans, so this was quite amusing when I read it the other day, especially since I am fan of none of the above. Oops, I just upset the one Bear fan who reads my blog.

Taken from Readers Digest September 2007.

"I thought when the Chicago Bears got into the Super Bowl, perhaps my Wisconsin neighbors would bury the hatchet and root them on. How wrong I was. A sign at the local insurance agency bellowed, 'Go Bears.' The rest of it demanded, '...And Take the Cubs With You.'"

Here's one for those annoying telemarketers. From the same magazine.

"When I phoned a friend recently, I heard the following message on her answering machine: 'Hi, I am probably home--I am just avoiding someone I don't like. Leave a message, and if I don't call back, it's you.'"

Here's one for the society that we live in. This is a quote from Late Night comedian Jay Leno.

"I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, 'I'd like some fries'. The girl at the counter said, 'Would you like some fries with that?'"

here is one for those of us who don't really care for Math (at least the hard Math, most people can figure out 2+2. and everyone knows it = 5).
This quote is from Larry Miller

"As long as there is algebra, there will be prayer in school."

Finally, here is another one for all the tv lovers out there. This is from Jay Leno.

"NASA says they have proof that parts of Mars were once submerged under water, which means it could have supported life. Of course, water doesn't always mean intelligent life--you remember Baywatch?"

thanks, have a nice day. :-)

Interesting story from the Dells weekend

Right now, I still have most of my fat left over from pregnancy, so I am not a small person, so I thought this funny.
As I was waiting in line for the water coaster at the water park, a girl, probably about 12 years old walked past as she had just gotten off of the ride.
She looked at the boy behind me and said that they would not let her ride the ride by herself anymore because she did not weigh enough. I had to laugh.
Having never been on the lighter weight side, I can only wish I had that problem.

First week of school

The great thing about homeschooling is that you can start whenever you want to and end whenever you want as well as go as short or as long as you want during the day.
Obviously having preschoolers I am VERY new at this. I do have high expectations and I had to have those cut down as I thought my preschoolers knew more than they actually do. I have to remember that they are only 4. When I realized that, the days went much better.
On Monday, I was so stressed out that I was almost in tears. I called my mother in law, the kindergarten teacher and home school pro (having homeschooled all three of her children--at least through 9th grade) with an SOS signal. She called me back and gave me some great advice which I have taken and used. A big THANK YOU to her.
Once I got a daily theme, such as Alligator on Tuesday, Apple on Thursday, and Ant today, it seemed to go soooooo much easier.
Today was our big finale on the letter "A", so we made A shaped cookies. I found a package of 100 cookie cutters which included alphabet cutters at Bed Bath and Beyond on Tuesday and decided to use it as part of our curriculum. They loved it today, but knowing that they were going to do it, they did not put as much effort into the other stuff. In that I was disappointed.
I decided to do school four days a week so that I have the fifth for house cleaning. I plan on joining a home school group for the moral support, socialization, and group outings (as well as other adult stimulation for myself).
I will post pictures of my kids in their desks, provided by a wonderful family in our church, once I get them downloaded from the camera.

Family fun at the Dells

In the upper Midwest there is a well known tourist attraction called the Wisconsin Dells. The Wisconsin river is banked by sandstone cliffs and you can take boat tours up and down the river for a fee (of course) and see some of the marvelous sandstone sculptures. There are also several waterparks and resorts with indoor waterparks and various other amusements for our entertainment driven society.
Every year my husband's company has a company picnic and the past three years it has been at an indoor waterpark there and last weekend was our weekend.
The past two years we have gone to a place called Great Wolf Lodge. Check it out at (www.greatwolfresorts.com) which has been fun. Last year we had this great room with two beds, and a fireplace living area. This year we tried a new place called Chula Vista Resort. I was kind of disappointed at first as I really like the Great Wolf, but once we entered our room, my whole outlook changed. First, we checked in and she read our room number. It was four digits. Those of you readers who stay in resorts on occasion would recognize four digits as a condo number. I thought "that's interesting". We made our way to the room and my husband opened the door. The shock of a large jacuzzi was just so amazing that I was awed by the room. It was a condo, complete with a king bedroom with fireplace and master bath. It also had a second bedroom with two queen size beds so each of our kids had their own. They had their own bath. We had another fireplace in the living area and a dining area. There was a tv in each room which made it nice. If we wanted to, we could have watched three different programs, though we were not there to watch tv. We also had our own kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances. I have never stayed in a room this nice before, check it out at www.chulavistaresort.com the el grande condo.
For a year now, my kids have been talking about the bucket of water dropping on their heads. They would not go under it, so we grabbed them a couple of times and made sure they stood under it while it emptied over the top of us.
By the end of the weekend, the kids were going down the slides with us. Most of the slides were too big for them, but they went down the kidde slides and a couple of the bigger slides on our laps.
Overall it was a great relaxing family weekend.

In Remembrance

The age old question among those of our generation will always be "Where were you...?" Where were you when the plane hit the North tower in New York? Where were you when the towers came crashing to the ground on that infamous day, six years ago? It is hard to believe that six years have all ready passed and that so many Americans have forgotten why we are now fighting terrorism. We were attacked on our OWN soil six years ago, this day.

Where was I? I was a first year teacher at a school here in town. The principal of the school did not like the teachers to be late for the morning meetings which started at 7:45 am CDT, so I strived every day to make sure I was on time. That particular morning I was rushing around trying to get to school so that I would be on time. I was, right on the dot. A minute later the attack begun, unbeknownst to me. That is one day that I wish I would have been late.
I went through my morning oblivious to everything and teaching my students like usual. We celebrated one student's birthday all ready that morning as I usually would have done.
Around 10:00 am our class took a break and I was greeted at the drinking fountain by a Jr. High young lady who asked me if I knew that planes hit the twin towers in New York and the twin towers collapased. I told her that it was not a funny joke to play on someone. She was serious, as I was about to find out. She told me to check the tv in one of the high school classrooms which I did immediately.
I was so shocked that I was glued to the tv for the next 30 minutes. Someone else substituted in my class so that I could get the latest information as well as take the time do make sure that I could gather my composure enough to finish the school day as I was fighting tears of shock.
Of all days to leave my cell phone at home. I did so that day. I borrowed a cell phone to talk to my husband (this is before the kids, thankfully).
The principal informed me that he did not think it was a good idea to inform myclass who were all in the 10-12 year old range because of the trauma that it might put them through. He wanted them to be able to go home and talk it over with their parents. That was the hardest thing that I had to do that day.
I went home that evening still stunned and shocked. I remember watching the coverage far into the night.

Busy weekend

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but I like to only post when there is something to say.
My husband went to Michigan on Labor day weekend and attended that history making football game between University of Michigan and Appalachian state. Bless his heart. He returned home and said that it is only a game. That is a huge surprise for a fan of the Maize and Blue. It is basically a thing of a little hurt pride.
I spent the week visiting with my mom who accompanied my brother as far as Illinois in his trek to Florida to attend his Junior year of college in Pensacola. We had a good time of visiting and shopping.
She left today so it is back to the old schedule.
Today I am preparing lesson plans for preschoolers. That is an area that I am not as familiar with as my college degree is for jr high and above. If anyone has any good ideas for teaching preschoolers, I am welcoming all comers, though I may not use some of them. I am scared to death to teach a kid how to read as by the time they get to me, they should all ready know how.
I will post next week on how our first day went along with a picture as well of them in their desks.