Math, Reading, Randomness

Today, the girls and I went for a walk on this trail that goes around part of the lake. We had heard of it, but never checked it out. It is beautiful and SO close! We will be going back there often, I'm sure. Well we passed a lady walking two dogs and Bekah said "two dogs!" Super cute! It's the first time I'm aware of that she has just pointed out that there were two of something. She usually counts "one, two" as we put her shoes on or put her arms in her sleeves or her feet in her pants... =) But she gets what two means! =) At least, that it's more than one.

So, speaking of math... In Sunday School, the kids (and leaders) each got two teddy grahams on their cookie. (Yeah, I am not in charge of snacks - I reeeeally don't like that my kids get junk in SS and junk in AWANA but I live with it.) Anyway I covered the tray up and asked Em if there are 6 people and each person gets two teddy grahams, how many teddy grahams are there? She said 12. I said how do you know? Her answer totally surprised me. She said "Well, because 5 plus 5 is 10 and 6 is one more than 5, so it would have to be 2 more, which makes it 12." She does not have all her math facts memorized (something we'll be working on this fall, for sure) but she definitely understands the concepts and it didn't take her long to figure out the answer. Then I asked her if 5 people ate theirs, how many would be left. She said two. I said how do you know? "Because then only one person would still have theirs and they got two." =P I like to know how she thinks!

Em had her reading assessment the other day at the library. The lady that did it said it is the most widely used test and has an error of half a grade level. Crazy. Well Emily was off the chart for some of the exercises because they only went up to a 4th grade level. They thought it was going to take 10-15 minutes for a 5-year-old, but it took closer to an hour. They just had to keep going and going! We were there for an hour and 10 minutes. The lady was super nice and went through all Em's answers with me and just praised her nonstop. She said she's at a strong 5th grade level, going into 6th grade. Her comprehension was 6th grade. And she said if Em likes it, to go ahead with the 7th grade Grammar book that I have. It's not too hard for her. Wow. She got 75% of the 7th grade words correct, too. There were 20 for each grade level. She made me smile when she said she didn't recommend putting her in public school. =P

On Saturday, we drove down to Heyburn State Park and met Vickie and Jerry and Eric and Molly and Baby Micah. =) It was so much fun! We went tubing and I tried wakeboarding, but after getting water in my face three times, I was done. =P I got up for a few seconds, wobbled, and fell down. So I don't know if it's fun. But getting your face slammed into the water isn't fun. So I opted for tubing the rest of the time. =P

Next week is the county fair. We've never entered anything in anything, but Harper is going to enter some beer and some mead and I'm going to enter a scrapbook and some photos. And I might enter something in crocheting. I think I will. I just have to decide what. =)

Oh! Bekah is talking a ton. I mean, she has been. But she is using more complete sentences. "Hold this, Mommy!" Oh and she distinguishes between "nas-ee wow-ow" (nasty water, like from the lake or river) and "wow-ow, sink." So when she wants a drink, she asks for "wow-ow, sink." The other night, she was in bed and we had left the room, and we heard "juuuuuice?.....wow-ow, sink?.......pop?" lol She was sooooo tired. =P

Bekah saw a picture of Dora today and said "be-bums!" We have Dora Band-Aids. =P

And "be-bup" (clean up) has turned into this song, "be-bup, be-bup ca-nunna" over and over. We don't know what the ca-nunna part means. =P lol

Oh and Bekah has all her non-molars now. =P

Okay Emmy and I are going to make some tortillas. We've having chimichangas tonight, so we're making the tortillas early. =)

Funny...

We thought we were going camping this weekend. Turns out I had it on the calendar wrong and it's not for a while. =P Oops! Good thing we are still free the weekend of our reservations.

Today I took the girls to the beach and we went swimming in the lake. Lainey swam all the way out to the logs and back. She was so proud of herself! I said "Yay, Laina!" and Bekah said "Yay, Bekah!! ...Yay, Naina!!" Hehe! Bek's used to praising herself, lol.

Bekah has started saying "Bekah Jane Abbot" randomly and "oh my goodness" and she repeats whatever she hears at dinner, as if it was her original contribution to the conversation. =P

Tonight, Bek took a piece of chalk and drew on the speaker and then turned around and smiled and Harper and said "Bekah Jane Abbot." lol

Band-Aids

Are "be-bums." =)

Camping

We went on the church campout last week, from Wed-Sat. It's the longest we've been camping and it was so much fun! We borrowed a friend's kayak (thank you, Sunny!!!) and had so much fun kayaking around the river. Another friend took their boat and we all got to go tubing. Bekah kept saying "Fun!!!" when I took her in the tube with me. As we were packing up to leave on Saturday, she kept saying "Boat!!" in this sad little voice. She wanted to go in a boat again. =P She will have fun when we go meet Vickie and Jerry and Eric and Molly and Micah in a couple of weeks!! =P Oh and she loves babies, too, so it will be awesome. What could be better than a baby AND a boat?? lol

Yesterday, Harp and Laine were eating together and Lainey said "Why are you sittin' next to me, Daddy? 'Cause you love me?" He said "Of course I love you!" She said "And why wouldn't you?" (in a that-would-be-absurd voice) He said "Maybe if you were a mangy beagle that belonged to someone else!" lol I'm glad I have such a funny family. =P

Bekah says "bee-bup" for clean up and she says it over and over when she's cleaning up. =P Bandaid is something really cute too with a "bum" in it - I'll have to get her to say it when she wakes up so I can write it down. =P She's been doing a decent job going potty! Not fully trained for sure, but she goes many times a day on the potty. So yay!

I've been getting things ready for school and meanwhile Emily has gotten to page 19 in her math book with no problem. I figure I'll try starting Lainey at the beginning of it and Emily will be a few units ahead. I'm using sheet protectors and dry erase markers and just taking pictures of completed pages. Not that I need to keep records in Idaho... So I don't know why I am bothering. Maybe I will get sick of it and stop. Emily has also been sneaking and reading her history book and begging me to do Science... This will be fun.

Harper started reading The Chronicles of Narnia to the girls and Em's been sneaking that, too. =P

Oh, while we were camping, Emily gathered a bunch of her friends to read By the Shores of Silver Lake. =P They took turns reading chapters. All the other moms told me their kids didn't normally like to read, lol. I guess Emily is convincing. =P They sat in the hammock together to read.

The kids all loved the hammock, too, that was at the campsite. Bekah asked me today for the hammock. =P

We had dates on our campout and when Harper gave Bekah one, she called it a hot dog. lol! I guess it looked like a Little Smokie.

That's all I can even think of to write for now. =P Later!