June and July -ish, 2015

I'm so bad at making myself keep up with this. But, as my friend is fond of saying, never stop starting!

So since the last time I updated, we...

--went on a nine-day road trip to Oklahoma and back. We went to a Lego Discovery Center and a children's museum, we met extended family (and she passed out her SWAPS), we visited her grandparents' new house out in the country, we went to several malls, she got to play in a cool little indoor water park thingy. Oh and she watched a bunch of Disney Channel in the hotel rooms, which resulted in about a week solid of watching the TV show Jessie on Netflix when we got back. And during this last week she watched Princess and the Frog about 10 times after catching part of it on TV while we were gone. Oh and she spent a lot of time in the car on a US geography puzzle and fact book.

--went to the local aquarium (which we hadn't visited before). They have a cool tank where you reach in and touch rays and little sharks, which was neat.

--more visits to the local children's museum. Gosh darn it we are going to wring every dollar's worth out of the year-long membership we bought, and also it's air conditioned and it's ridiculously gross and horrible outside here in the summer.

--attended a bunch of library programs. The Friends of the Library here fund great special programs here every summer. I know I documented a bunch last summer, and they're just as wonderful this year! We saw a two-person Robin Hood play, a presentation with live birds of prey, a local TV meteorologist came and answered questions, the lady from Gullah Gullah Island came and told us story and sang songs with us, and a guy from the city brought reptiles and told us all about them!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we've started letting her read with a flashlight in the little tent she has in her bedroom before she goes to sleep. She's never sleepy at the time the grownups would really like to have some time to themselves, so why not? She's been big on her Lego building books, her Pokemon book, the book about plants, one about like criminal forensics (fingerprinting and stuff)... still mostly non-fiction.

And speaking of fingerprinting, I found a cheap (obviously) fingerprinting kit at the dollar store so we did that one afternoon. It wasn't spectacular, but she seemed to get a kick out of it! She was looking for "loops" and "whorls" and stuff.

And then just general every day, lots of Legos, lots of TV, lots of playing in the sprinkler, a good amount of drawing. She's also becoming more independent in the kitchen, pouring herself juice (sometimes without spilling it), finding her own snacks, making her own toast... stuff like that. It's kinda nice!

Here are photos from the aquarium, and here are photos from the road trip.

And here is the woman from the birds of prey center with an owl:

And here is the time all of Lucy's stuffed animals were dressed up as detectives (purple unicorn = handcuffs, peace sign bear = badge, brown teddy bear = shades, minnie mouse = flashlight, moose under the blanket = deerstalker hat [which, yes, is actually a swimming bonnet]):

And here are some kids touching a tiny alligator:

And here is Lucy with the reptile stuff in her lizard shirt:

And here is the plant cycle she drew unbidden:

Oh and also yesterday she invented the lightning rod. Norman mentioned to her that lightning usually tends to strike metal things and tall things, so she was like, "So people should build tall metal things so those get hit instead of other things!"

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Watched Lego Friends while playing with her Friends Legos. (The one where they invent something to prevent dolphin bycatch and then go on a yacht cruise is her favorite.)

Helped me tie dye? Okay, no, I didn't let her use the dyes, but a few weeks ago at Target she picked out which things she wanted dyed, and today she told me what design she wanted and which colors.

Played with her learning clock a little.

Played with her tape measure a bunch.

Decided that she needed to search for something she lost under the couch a long time ago, so this is a the getup she came up with for that mission:

(LOL like possibly we should clean more. In fact this prompted Norman to take the couch apart and vacuum everything.)

She worked on this craft set that I bought at the thrift store a while back. She recognized and could name the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower.

Watched the Scrambled States of America Scholastic DVD she got from the library (twice -- once while reading along with the book).

Played in the sprinkler.

We watched several YouTube videos, including watching the old Disney short cartoon In the Bag, which of course she loved.

Found the mailing address of the publishing company that makes the Disney Fairies graphic novels she's been reading, so she decided she wanted to write them a letter telling them that she likes the books. This turned into a whole ordeal, but before she threw a fit and gave up because it wasn't perfect, she did some writing. 

She has these pads of sticky notes that say "Lucy" on them, so she took several sheets and wrote "Inn" after the "Lucy" and drew little pictures of what it's going to look like at her hotel.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Phineas and Ferb.

Mickey's House of Villains.

Bible study -- she played Fruit Ninja, hair salon, and Tetris (although she said it was too hard for her) on her tablet and worked on her KiwiCrate activity book.

She kinda worked on that all day -- learning bug facts and coloring and doing mazes and stuff.

Then she and Norman talked about kiwis and New Zealand and looked at maps.

Then she and I made the dragonfly shooters from the KiwiCrate.

[KiwiCrate is fantabulous. There's kind of a lot of value in one box and it's like its own little fun science curriculum. Use my link and get $10 off (because I get $10 too and I want more).]

She played outside in the sprinkler.

I showed her how to play pyramid solitaire, and then normal(?) solitaire (which she wasn't as interested in), and then War, which was too boring for her.

Watched a Christmas Winnie the Pooh movie. 

Played a game where she came around to each of the adults in the house and had us pick out parts for Lego minifigs and then we had to come up with a name and their "facts". I think she was planning to make a play with them like her theater teacher did with all the kids' made-up characters. But she said maybe it wouldn't work with only 4 characters, so Norman and I mentioned that there are plays with only two people (out of which came the name and basic plot of Waiting for Godot) and even one-person plays. She seemed skeptical.

Asked for a bath. Consented to a toyless bath. That's how much she needed a bath after playing in the sprinkler today. 

Disney World (Oct 30 - Nov 4, 2014)

Well, we went to Disney World! It's a short day of driving from our house, so it was great to finally get down there. This will be a Lucy-centric accounting of what went on.

[pit stop]

We met up with my mom, dad, and brother, so she got to spend some time with extended family.

[playing the dots and squares game with her uncle]

Grandma and Grandpa have been living/working in Trinidad recently, so they brought her a Trinidadian flag, a map, some currency, and a parrot feather!

She found a fountain/splash pad thing our first night there, and was way more interested in actually getting wet than any of the other kids there:

We had the opportunity to take several ferry rides and many bus rides. On one of the bus rides, it was standing room only, and we were standing in front of a boy her age and his mom. Lucy struck up a very pleasant conversation with him about their clothes and school and cousins and all sorts of things.

On the drives down and back, she worked on a road trip workbook I made for her (mazes, design your own license plates and road signs, finish the robot drawing, etc.), played some tablet apps (Word Girl design your own superheroes, Fruit Ninja, etc.), and somehow generally kept herself occupied and clear of any whining. It was great!

Our hotel's pool had a big slide, and after some encouragement from Norman (and some random ladies in the pool), and a polite request that the lifeguard let Norman and Lucy go down it together the first time, she was going down it by herself!

[That blur in the middle of the slide is the two of them.]

Speaking of our little daredevil, we took her on Splash Mountain (a glorified log ride), and she loved it. I mean, I'm pretty sure I didn't like it as much as she did. She said it was "stunning scary! But the good kind!" She also loved us spinning the tea cup ride as fast as it could go. Plus two different carousels and It's a Small World and the Dumbo ride. Pirates of the Caribbean, not so much, because we forgot her headphones. Loud noises -- no; steep fast drops -- yes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We rode Spaceship Earth and learned about history. We rode The Seas with Nemo and visited the aquarium and learned about fish and manatees and stuff.

She played Agent P's World Showcase Adventure and learned about Mexico:

She read the clues and multiple choice options herself, and it turns out her phonics must be okay, because she can also read "Adios Amigos".

We met Merida and she shot a bow and arrow. We met Tinkerbell (while Lucy was dressed as Tinkerbell), and Tinkerbell asked what kind of inventions *she'd* been working on, and I mentioned her lizard trap ideas, and Tinkerbell suggested maybe Lucy could help her with her ladybug spotter invention and they pinky promised and it was *adorable*. She met Sofia (big head -- can't talk) and insisted on showing her that Sofia was on her autograph notebook. (We met quite a few characters. Lucy did a great job, even if she was a little overwhelmed and didn't always know what to say or how to react.)

We went to the Lego store and she built her own minifigs (an astronaut who got beat up in space, a lady who is moving, and an economist), and spent her souvenir money on two Lego sets, one of which we put together the day after we got home (and she helped quite a bit with that -- she put together the little oven/stove by following the instructions before she even asked for my help).

We visited an Irish pub and they had some dancers who invited the kids to dance with them, and she definitely did!

[She's the one on the right in the purple dress]

Not that this is out of the ordinary, but she was very well-spoken and polite to all the servers at the sit-down restaurants we went to. She knew what she wanted, and she said it!

Oh, and she found a word in a word search on one of the kids menus! I don't think she's ever done that by herself before.

We played air hockey in the arcade!

And there was a candy shop where you fill out a form to pick which thing you want, covered in which chocolate and which topping, and she wrote her name on it (with the new creative spelling she's been trying out) and put an 'x' next to the things she wanted.

We saw a couple stage shows -- a Frozen one with live actors, and a Disney Junior one with puppets. She loved both of them (of course).

Hollywood Studios has this cool playground that looks like you're in Honey I Shrunk the Kids -- she really enjoyed that, I think. Especially with all the talk about lizards lately.

[see, it's a slide, but it's a roll of film. eh? eh??]

On our last day, she found a prop/photo op car, climbed in, and made Norman sit in it with her while she rattled off a long spiel that seemed to be a combination of the recorded announcements from the buses and the ferries. Very professional, apparently.

We saw several different types of lizards and birds around the property. The ferry driver said they had otters, but we never saw any!

She brought Magic School Bus books with her, so I read her at least one of those while we were gone. Volcanos, I think?

She drew this calculator on the last day while we packed up:

["In 'off', does the 'ff' come at the beginning or the end?"]

Week of September 29, 2014

Okay, we're gonna try this summing up the week thing.

She spent a lot of time outside this week. The weather has been lovely! She's been digging and "cooking" and swinging and getting herself all disgustingly wet and muddy -- it's great!

Still watching some Phineas and Ferb, but not as much as a couple weeks ago. It's cooling.

She asked to make gelatin, so we did that this week with grape juice. She decided she didn't like it.

She asked to make an apple pie, so we did that this week. She mostly just helped with mixing the ingredients for the crusts. Then I did the rest of it. But she came back to help use the cookie cutters on the extra pie crust to make cookies. She decided she doesn't like the pie. (??? It is delicious if I do say so myself.)

She wrote this on the calendar with absolutely no input from me (meant to say "driving eve"):

Still talking about the house lizards all the time. Here we have a note written in lizard tongue sticking out language (obviously):

Grocery shopping. Library. She played with that story writing computer game again. It's a big hit.

She also used her tablet this week to have Google translate say things out loud again. And she finished a section of her geography game. And she and Norman worked some more on the Phineas and Ferb game.

Girl scout meeting. She got inducted or whatever they call it.

Skating lessons. She's doing awesome. 

She wanted to try climbing the trees in our front yard. She got up pretty high in this one!

Lots of Duplos and Legos, as always. 

She tried to pour herself some juice. That was an adventure, but she got the juice out of the fridge and got herself a cup and everything all by herself without asking. Which I actually consider a step in the right direction.

Sunday school, we talked about St Francis and made bird feeders out of pipe cleaners and Cheerios.

Then we went to our church's Blessing of the Animals this afternoon. She got her teddy bear blessed and played on the playground for awhile. :-)

Bedtime reading has been books about Lego Friends and Disney Fairies and assorted other advertainment, but ::shrug::  

Oh yeah, and when Norman and I were cleaning her playroom, we found a strip of paper where she'd written all the numbers up to 20 or so out in a row, mostly correctly. This is a big deal! She didn't want to write most numbers for the longest time. And she's also been writing random letter and number combos on some old checks I gave her to play with.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Let's see, let's see... Some plumbers came today; she found that rather exciting and went around with her tools "fixing" things for a while.

She watched the Disney World DVD.

She watched some Phineas and Ferb.

She spent a good long while building with her Legos.

We watched some Kurt Browning figure skating performances on YouTube.

She played a geography game on her tablet. This was while she was hanging out with me in my craft room, which she pretty much never gets to do, so she was very excited about that. She was watching me paint a shirt with fabric markers and water.

So then she decided to make some similar designs with marker on paper and go over them with water and a paintbrush like I was doing.

She can draw a pretty impressive peace sign.

Spent some time playing outside off and on.

Asked to help make the pizzas for dinner, so I had her put on the toppings.

We read And Tango Makes Three before bed (in honor of Banned Book Week).

And then when he was tucking her in, she and Norman talked about who makes the laws, and legislative bodies, and Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and lava.

Wednesday and Thursday, September 10 & 11, 2014

Ehhhh it's Thursday. Oops.

Well, today she played outside a lot. Lots of fake food cooking and mixing. Crazy swinging. House lizard traps.

She spent a long time playing with her action figures. I heard a song she made up, some of the lyrics of which were, "Give thanks to Elsa!"

She played a geography game on her tablet.

She played Super Mario Galaxy, both by herself and with Norman. Both today and yesterday she spent kind of really long periods just reading the storybook that's contained within the game. And also the user manual.

I read her a book about Australia before bed. She was very interested in the info on the Great Barrier Reef, I think because they mention it in the game she was playing on the tablet.


Yesterday we went to the library. She played that story typing game again, except this time she figured out how to get the computer to pronounce the things she typed. Mostly nonsense, and also some very long numbers. She was delighted!  And then she was doing a coloring page, but instead she turned it over and copied the words "Weekly Events" from the dry erase board that they have up in the children's section.

She has been VERY into puns lately. On Sunday some kid said something about how flies bug you, and she's been laughing about that all week.  When she was copying the thing at the library, she pointed out that a "k" looks like a see-saw sideways, "but an underwater one. Sea-saw. Get it?" Ugh.

She's been typing messages on the Wii again. All the time. She spends a lot of time typing numbers in order. Like, up to 19. And sometimes the alphabet too. Or sometimes she wants me to spell long sentences for her.

After dinner last night we spent some time typing things into Google translate and then having the computer read them. Sometimes in different languages so it would have an accent. Good times.

We did a little bit of a sign language book before bed yesterday.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Well the first thing we were supposed to do today was go to a friend's house to have a Wii party, but they were sick, so we couldn't go. This was emotionally devastating to Lucy, so I offered to play Mario Kart with her, which I don't normally do because I don't really like it. Then she also raced by herself.

She spilled her cereal on the floor, so she got to practice using her little brush and dustpan.

She spent some time in the backyard. Not sure doing what, besides getting muddy.

We went to the library, and today was a special summer reading, eat ice cream, and watch Frozen party. Then at the end there was a lady giving out balloon sculptures (I mean, none of them were animals, so...), including Elsas. It was all super cool.

She watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (one about sharing).

She decided she wanted to (finally) treat our USA magnets like a puzzle, so I put it together while she consulted an atlas and her placemat map. We figured out which ones were missing. I told her I had to learn all the capitals in school, so she asked me a bunch of them (which I mostly knew). She wanted to know what else I had to learn about them, so I sang her the song, which is why I know all the states in alphabetical order. (Although now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I don't think she knows what "alphabetical" means, and she didn't ask.)

Then she wanted to borrow my calculator, and she wants one of her own. She asked Norman something about dividing? so he showed her 10 divided by 5 with some of her beads.

I read her a Doc McStuffins book before bed. (The problem with the toy is that she needed to be in the sunlight so her solar panel could charge.)

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Today we went to the library and saw a two-person play about King Arthur. Pretty impressive British accents on the actors, actually. When they talked about the round table, Lucy pointed out to me that, hey, they have one of those on Peg + Cat!! And during the Q&A after the play, some other kid was like, "Hey, those people were on Magic School Bus!" So Lucy and I got to talk about how the story is a legend, and lots of people have been telling it and talking about the characters for hundreds and hundreds of years, for so long that no one is sure if it's true or made up. And that people study to try to find out if it's true, but no one's really sure.

She had been playing a bunch of Mario Kart, but she's pretty much laid off the TV and video games for the last couple days. It goes in cycles like that.

Lots of playing with Duplos, and her beads. They kind of get mixed up together. The beads are food a lot. Actually so are the Duplos. She's been making some very abstract menu items out of plain Duplo blocks.

Before the library this morning, Norman took her to the comic book store, because it's Batman Day. She got a Batman mask and he bought her a Mickey Mouse comic or some such (which she was reading at dinner, because she wanted more summer reading points). Then when they got home, she decided she needed to dress up like Word Girl. Norman made her a star emblem for her shirt. Word Girl's sidekick is a monkey, and when he's incognito as just a regular pet monkey (?) he wears a diaper, so that's why she's got a monkey puppet in a diaper.

She went to the library this way. I'm so proud.

She's done some writing lately. She insists we spell for her.

This afternoon she spent some time with a kid's road atlas workbook thingy.

We've spent some more time with that sign language book. Making the "Y" for her name is giving her some trouble, but she managed to do it tonight.

Tomorrow is Learn Nothing Day, so I'll be sure to report back on our utter failure! :-)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Price Is Right. (They were giving away a trip to Tonga, and the moment I said, "Where the heck is Tonga??" a map popped up on the screen showing a little airplane flying from LA to Tonga. So helpful, The Price Is Right! Thank you!) 

She went to GrandMary's while I went skating.  She watched the Curious George movie, stuck her feet in a little wading pool, and pretended some sticks were a bow and arrow.  (Although she kept referring to the arrow as a "broken arrow" and the bow as "the weapon".) 

She did some sewing with this thing I whipped together that looks mostly like this. (I put a piece of the shelf liner in an embroidery hoop.) 

My 1960 Deluxe version of Hi-Ho Cherry-O came in the mail today!  We all played a round before dinner. 

Then we did burrito math during dinner. She called part of something that had been cut into three parts a half (reasonable), so I told her technically it was a third.  Then I drew fractions.  Pizza fractions! 

We both read this little touch-and-feel farm book that Baby Henry left here yesterday. (Oh, hey, Megan, Henry's book is here. :-) )

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Went to the library briefly to return a few books and pick up a few books on the immune system.  A librarian was decorating for the summer reading program. Lucy asked what she was doing, and the next thing I knew Lucy was signing up for summer reading!  LOL. I'm guessing the library in Charleston will honor her book log...

Then we went to the natural history museum. It's free for the next month!  Coloring, digging for bones, dinosaur toys, bug life cycles, puzzles, wildlife, caves, touch screens, anthills, giant Oklahoma map, traditional Native American homes, etc, etc, etc.

I read her Jessica's X-Ray (very cool book -- it has transparencies!) and Our Immune System. She reminded me to write them on the log.

I set her up to watch Blue's Clues on my computer (free through Amazon Prime), then I went to lie down. When I got up less than an hour later, I found her watching Dora, which she had bought.  She spent $10 total on streaming Nick Jr. videos. So I guess it could have been worse.  Gotta get her a tablet. With some password protection.

Also lots of drawing today. The door to Blue's house, people, some other stuff.

And more reading, of course. "Warning", "Disney", some stuff at the museum...

Magic School Bus video about the immune system.

I read her Doctor Meow's Big Emergency.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sunday School: They got to play with a sand box inside, and she wrote some name tag looking things in water language.

Church: She read along a little during the prayers of the people. Then during the sermon we filled out a visitor card together.

After church picnic: played with her Sunday School teacher, then played outside with some other kids.

Back at home, more water play.

Duplos.

I read her the story of Pentecost from her Jesus Storybook Bible (because it is Pentecost Sunday, and she was wondering about it during church).  Then she wanted me to keep going, so we read about Paul and Revelation also.

Then we had weather.  Serious tornado warnings.  She spent a good half-hour sitting in the hall closet talking to Norman. We talked a lot about tornadoes and wind and stuff.  Then after it passed, I brought some hail stones in for her to look at.

I read her Our California.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Coloring... inside the lines! This is new. Although it was more like small patches of cross-hatching inside a giant area of picture.

She can read the word "follow" (Tumblr). I was genuinely surprised at that one. 

Also spent awhile asking me about all the different tabs open in my internet browser and what happens when you click certain things.

Water play. Spent a good 15 minutes blowing bubbles/spitting into one of the cups.

Went with Norman to Braum's for ice cream and then to the park.

Duplos.

Helped me pack. Kind of.

Asked specifically to have pickles on her Five Guys burger because she's been wanting to try them. "What is that taste?" (me:) "Sour?" "No." (me:) "Pickly?" "Yeah! Pickle-y!"

Watched 1960s Batman.

I read her an easy reader book about South Carolina.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Library Day. Best outfit ever: "I <3 Hanson" shirt, Batman pajama pants, and silver glitter shoes! Played on the computers. Talked to the librarians about moving and stuff. 

Norman built her a sofa fort, and eventually she started decorating the walls (inside and outside) with paper.  Lots of practice using scissors.

She's been talking a lot more about "water writing" (the scribbling she does when she's pretending to write -- I think she started calling it that because it looks like waves). She also calls it "water language", and today she added a new one -- "fish alphabet!"  She has this whole mythology built around it.  It's what fish read, so sometimes she does it so that her fish friends can read it.  It's kinda funny to see her brain justifying it.  She knows her writing doesn't look like writing that people can read, and she knows real writing is hard, and that she can't do it yet (and doesn't want the frustration of practicing).  

Decided to write her friend Cora a letter.  She had to decide between giving it to her in person, seeing her open it, but *not* using a stamp, or mailing it, using a stamp, but not getting to see her open it. Decisions, decisions!  She went with giving it to her in person and using a sticker as a stamp.  

Can apparently read the words "Happy Birthday" and "The Breakfast Show". 

Watched Bye-Bye, Pacifier!: Big Kid Stories with Elmo thrice. (It has episodes about giving up your binky, getting a hair cut, and learning to ride a tricycle.) 

Googled the Eiffel Tower because of a TV commercial.

Also YouTube'd monster trucks. 

Then she spent quite a bit of time gift wrapping random stuff from her playroom in random stuff from her playroom. Did a pretty good job, actually.

I read her The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist (which also deals with loose teeth). 

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Read herself a Curious George book.

Water play (or possibly "serious science" -- hard to tell).

Played outside while Norman mowed the grass (major advantage of the reel mower). 

Watched Josh and the Big Wall (VeggieTales).

Went to the park with Norman. Met a very talkative 12-year-old boy. They talked about movies, Mother's Day, and divorce, among other things.

Watched the educational video about Indonesia that I picked up at the library, about 3 times through.

Norman read her "Go, Go, Go!" (Cars easy reader).

More water pouring. So much water.

I gave her a bunch of index cards, each with a different word related to weddings on them (long story how I got these) -- she read "kiss", "Bible", and "guests"! I was really surprised about "guests".

Watched 1960s Batman.

I read her a book about moving.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A friend came by to drop something off. Lucy talked and talked, and mentioned she was going to her Grandmary's house. The lady is a mutual friend, so Lucy got to deliver a message of greeting from her to Grandmary.

Saw a trip to Bali on The Price Is Right. Lucy wanted me to show her where Bali is. Then she wanted to know what language they speak. Then she wanted to know how to say "Hello" in Indonesian. Then we looked up a bunch of other words, mostly colors. We hit the little speaker button a lot (on both Indonesian and English) to have the computer read the words to us. 

She had me show her how to write checks again.

Legos.

Grandmary's: some Mater short cartoons I haven't seen, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, baking cookies, sofa cushion fort, fake garage sale.

Saw Harry Connick, Jr. singing a made-up song for Ellen, so she decided to make up own song with her piano. And she drafted me and Norman to play percussion.  

Legos.

I read her The Great Toy Escape.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Norman fixed her bank after she went to bed last night, so first thing this morning she sorted all her coins again.

Between the Lions CD. (The song about the sounds "g" makes seems to be her favorite.)

Got out her maps. (I think this had something to do with playing The Muppets, because she also got out the California magnet, and was singing some of the songs.)

"Read" her lighthouse calendar to herself.

Pretty long session of making up a story with her fairy tale dolls and Rapunzel and Eugene.

Spent about 1.5 hours at Grandmary's without me. Baked cookies, drew on the white board, used the Etch-a-Sketch, played with some Cars toys (!!!). Aunt Dotty showed up after a while.

Watched Brave.

Read Norman part of the "book" that Grandmary wrote for her (and about her) today. Then she got frustrated and let him read the rest. Then she told him a couple extra sentences for him to write at the end.

I read her the book again before bed.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Science kit first thing. We took out the penny that we left in the vinegar overnight. Overnight is too long, in case anyone is wondering. It was past shiny and on to... abrased.

Talk of how she wants to build a real tiny house with real kid-sized furniture in the backyard.

Also she wants a horse. After I cleared up why we can't keep one in our backyard, she started talking about us having our own farm. And cows. And milking cows. And taking the milk to Braums. LOL.

Between the Lions CD.

Grocery stores. Our checker at Target was named Jessie, so I asked Lucy if she could read her name tag. She could, and the three of us talked about it. Then the checker asked if Lucy her name and if she can spell it. Lucy proceeded to explain how she *writes* her name, including how she sometimes messes up the C by accidentally making another U instead.

Computer games: typing, coloring, animals, geography, etc, etc. 

"Helped" me make bread (mostly by playing with the dirty dishes I made).

Watched The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, plus the bonus feature about neighborhood heroes.

I was painting my nails, so of course she wanted the same. Black with gold glitter on top!

Got herself some water and played with her science kit.

Between the Lions CD again.

I read her another chapter from the Pooh book.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Was going around wrapping some of her stuff up in tissue paper and scotch tape to give as presents. (It's Curious George's birthday, apparently.)

The 1,000 was still there from yesterday. I heard her saying "This is ten, this is a hundred, this is a thousand!"

Field trip to the airport! (to pick up Norman.) Got a new map of Oklahoma to add to her map collection.

Showed Norman her giant pop-up book and read him the title.

Computer games: colors, animals, coloring (with her own narration), games.

Trip to the grocery store and thrift store we don't usually go to in the shady part of town. We saw cactus for sale with the produce. 

Watched The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

Half watched 60s Batman on broadcast TV while we ate dinner.

I read her We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers (Charlie & Lola).

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Played restaurant, store, etc. (Found an old checkbook I had left with her craft stuff -- was very excited.)

Got out the atlas to try to find Los Angeles on the map of California.  I showed her two other towns she had been wondering about lately.

Watched The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

Reading more.  Yesterday and today both she's been reading a few small words in a row on things, and then guessing at the bigger words.

I showed her how to write a check (including the concept of decimals).

 

Watched several episodes of Curious George. Clocks, measuring things, kites, science, the postal service, etc, etc.

Spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know George as an imaginary friends. At one point she had a toy wrench and a firefighter helmet, and she said she was going to fix the clock at the library because the fire department didn't know how.  She also wanted to know our house number (because of the episode about delivering mail).

I read her a Magic School Bus book about volcanoes.