Brendan has officially won NaNoWriMo 2009. He met his 1000 word goal and then some. He's even illustrated his book. I am at around 46,000 words and will definitely hit 50,000 before the end of November.
I tried to post his winner image, but I'm having technical difficulties.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Things that make you go Hmmmm....
Here is an exerpt from a site I just found:
How often do most kids tantrum? And how long do tantrums generally last? The parents in this study reported that, on average, tantrums lasted for:
* two minutes in one-year-olds
* four minutes in two- to three-year-olds
* five minutes in four-year-olds
and occurred:
* eight times a week for one-year-olds
* nine times a week for two-year-olds
* six times a week for three-year-olds
* five times a week for four-year-olds.
from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/temper_tantrums.html
Now considering that Bear has at least 4 of these short tantrums in addition to one to two mega-tantrums per DAY, something seems a bit out of whack. He's always been like this and we've been hoping he would grow out of it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I even did a tantrum log of just the mega-tantrums for a week and once I shared that with his pediatrician she referred him on to a group that tests for developmental problems.
We didn't do this earlier because both his pediatrician and I are very non-interventionist in our method of dealing with health care. She told me that his tantrums were severe, but still on the normal scale. It took the tantrum log for us to realize that he might have blown the top off the scale.
I don't want to stick a label on the forehead of a not even three year old kid, but if it will make life any easier for him or us at this point we really have to.
How often do most kids tantrum? And how long do tantrums generally last? The parents in this study reported that, on average, tantrums lasted for:
* two minutes in one-year-olds
* four minutes in two- to three-year-olds
* five minutes in four-year-olds
and occurred:
* eight times a week for one-year-olds
* nine times a week for two-year-olds
* six times a week for three-year-olds
* five times a week for four-year-olds.
from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/temper_tantrums.html
Now considering that Bear has at least 4 of these short tantrums in addition to one to two mega-tantrums per DAY, something seems a bit out of whack. He's always been like this and we've been hoping he would grow out of it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I even did a tantrum log of just the mega-tantrums for a week and once I shared that with his pediatrician she referred him on to a group that tests for developmental problems.
We didn't do this earlier because both his pediatrician and I are very non-interventionist in our method of dealing with health care. She told me that his tantrums were severe, but still on the normal scale. It took the tantrum log for us to realize that he might have blown the top off the scale.
I don't want to stick a label on the forehead of a not even three year old kid, but if it will make life any easier for him or us at this point we really have to.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
I'm SO excited!
I just got back from my conference and there was a package waiting for me. Inside of it was the book, "More Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage" from the Universla Life Church. What is so exciting is that three of my ceremonies are published in it!
Not only do I have published poetry from when I was younger and one article on shamanism in an international magazine, now I am officially published in a book!
Not only do I have published poetry from when I was younger and one article on shamanism in an international magazine, now I am officially published in a book!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Why I'm so frazzled most of the time
Bear is two years and eight months old now. He knows how to use the computer by himself and has been teaching himself sign language from a neat site called starfall.com. He also just counted up to 13 this morning and helped me read a book the other day not to mention playing Battleship and Bingo (which I think I've mentioned previously).
Wolf is five years and two months. He just finished the 2-3 grade logic book, will be finishing the first grade phonics book in about a month, already finished the first grade science workbook and is over half way through the second grade math book. He also loves chess and Sudoku. Oh and he is almost half-way through his 1000 words for nanowrimo.
Wolf is five years and two months. He just finished the 2-3 grade logic book, will be finishing the first grade phonics book in about a month, already finished the first grade science workbook and is over half way through the second grade math book. He also loves chess and Sudoku. Oh and he is almost half-way through his 1000 words for nanowrimo.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Cub Scout Den Leader
I have decided to become Wolf's Den Leader. Since he's in 1st grade he was able to join Cub Scouts this year in the lowest grade group, Tiger. We now have four Tiger's and two little brothers in our den. I question my sanity with this choice. It's not as though I didn't already have ten million other things needing my time and energy. It's not a commitment of one year, but a commitment to be leader until he graduates up to Boy Scouts at the end of 5th grade.
On top of all that it really is amazing how the attention span of young boys drops exponentially depending on the number of them in a room. Only a couple of things in the den have been broken so far...
On top of all that it really is amazing how the attention span of young boys drops exponentially depending on the number of them in a room. Only a couple of things in the den have been broken so far...
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Halloween
Halloween is one of our major holidays. Basically we are in costume and out of the house for most of the day. This year Bear went as a T-Rex Kitty-cat (he insisted). Wolf was Annikin Skywalker. I was a school girl and Dragon went as the Black Knight from Monty Python. It is a costume I made for him several years ago and it always gets rave reviews. As usual all of the costumes were home made or at least home gathered.
We first went to visit a good friend of ours at around 2:30, then off to lunch at Costco with some of our friends. After that we all caravaned down to the Wharf and went trick-or-treating there with some more friends. We ended up with group consisting of a T-Rex Kitty-cat, Annikin, a school girl, a fairy, the Phantom of the Opera, a Renaissance lady, Freakazoid, Awesome Girl and a witch.
It was sort of a shame that they didn't have the costume contest and free pictures this year, but it was still fun.
Next we headed back to Dragon's store, went to the Harvest Festival put on by a local church in the parking lot. The boys got to go down a huge slide, bounce in a bounce house, and play a bunch of carnival games for candy prizes, all for free! They had a great time. We took a quick break to eat something and then Dragon closed the store and we went trick-or-treating in a popular local neighborhood. Much candy was had by all, but Bear wasn't up to the haunted house one family always sets up.
Finally we loaded everyone up into the car and headed down to Pacific Avenue for the HUGE block party that goes on every year for Halloween. The energy is incredible, the costumes are great and it's just plain fun. Wolf was getting a bit tired of it all by that time, but both boys were troopers and we ended up getting home at around 11 pm.
We first went to visit a good friend of ours at around 2:30, then off to lunch at Costco with some of our friends. After that we all caravaned down to the Wharf and went trick-or-treating there with some more friends. We ended up with group consisting of a T-Rex Kitty-cat, Annikin, a school girl, a fairy, the Phantom of the Opera, a Renaissance lady, Freakazoid, Awesome Girl and a witch.
It was sort of a shame that they didn't have the costume contest and free pictures this year, but it was still fun.
Next we headed back to Dragon's store, went to the Harvest Festival put on by a local church in the parking lot. The boys got to go down a huge slide, bounce in a bounce house, and play a bunch of carnival games for candy prizes, all for free! They had a great time. We took a quick break to eat something and then Dragon closed the store and we went trick-or-treating in a popular local neighborhood. Much candy was had by all, but Bear wasn't up to the haunted house one family always sets up.
Finally we loaded everyone up into the car and headed down to Pacific Avenue for the HUGE block party that goes on every year for Halloween. The energy is incredible, the costumes are great and it's just plain fun. Wolf was getting a bit tired of it all by that time, but both boys were troopers and we ended up getting home at around 11 pm.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It's Official
I officially have my hands full.
Today I played Battleship and Bingo with Bear. He read the letters and numbers on the bingo chips (B-1-0, not B-10, but still...). He picked the letters and numbers for Battleship. Then he was looking at a pile of crayons, some of which were a particular brand of chunky style ones called "So Big," pointed and said "So Big!"
Pretty much everyone's response has involved blinking and "Oh boy."
Today I played Battleship and Bingo with Bear. He read the letters and numbers on the bingo chips (B-1-0, not B-10, but still...). He picked the letters and numbers for Battleship. Then he was looking at a pile of crayons, some of which were a particular brand of chunky style ones called "So Big," pointed and said "So Big!"
Pretty much everyone's response has involved blinking and "Oh boy."
Friday, October 23, 2009
Oh no, I have two of them!
During Wolf's martial arts class, Bear likes to play with an alphabet train puzzle they have there. Yesterday he put the whole thing together, almost totally by himself, and named all of the letters correctly except 2! He is two years and seven months right now. I might have to accept that Bear picks things up as quickly as Wolf does if he keeps this up.
A Day in the Life
This morning Wolf, Bear and I drove about an hour up the coast to meet up with with our Independent Study group for a field trip day. The usual crew was there, two 11 year old boys, their families, the teacher and us. There are more kids in the program but we're the core group that always shows up for the hikes and geo-caching. I don't mind though because the boys get along great and are a really good match even considering the age difference.
Today's trip was a visit to a couple of different beaches, finding four geo-caches and ending up at a pumpkin patch. The first beach had some pretty steep rocks so I put Bear's leash on. It might look silly, but he has a tendency to run off and intentionally ignore people trying to stop him. We walked down, looked at some of the rocks, learn a bit about them and then took a walk down the beach. Now, I seem to have developed an uncanny ability to spot dead animals and today was no exception. Part way down the beach I found a very dead seal. I'm certain that has an extreme EWWWW factor to many people, but as usual my first reaction was to yell to the kids, “Hey! Check out what I found! It's a dead seal!” All of the boys came trampling over ready for an inspection. It was missing all of one eye and most of another and some of its entrails were spilling out, but dried and there was no smell. We decided a bird probably took the missing eye and wandered off to the next adventure.
The boys stampeded off, except Bear who was literally attached to me at the hip. They ended up climbing on on some sandstone near the water and Bear wanted to join them so we walked over. We were deciding if we should let him join them when I noticed that the tide had decided to come in vigorously right then. I yoinked Bear off the ground and was promptly standing in shin deep ocean water. Hooray for wet sneakers... Bear was dry though and that was a good thing since he would have A. hated being wet, B. hated being cold, and C. hated being changed to fix the prior two problems. Luckily Wolf's teacher had some shoes she could lend me and they almost fit.
Oh and on the way back to the car we found a seagull head, mostly skull really. Told you I was good at spotting these things! Last week it had been a tiny dead mouse.
We found all the geo-caches we were looking for and we eventually ended up at the pumpkin patch. It had a corn maze. I have never been in one so I was all for trying it. It ended up being me, Bear, Wolf, the teacher, one of the boys from earlier and another one that had met up with us there. We got wonderfully and hopelessly lost very quickly and they boys spent most of their time running ahead and then waiting for the adults to catch up. Wolf had been told to stay with the boy from earlier and that boyhad been told to keep an eye on him. Bear spent most of his time with the teacher and I since the ground was very uneven and he kept falling over.
Finally we turned a corner and found the boys, well the two older ones at least. I asked them where Wolf was and they looked around, at each other, and pretty much shrugged. The teacher and the boys started shouting for him and we soon heard him yelling and sent the boys to retrieve him. He was a bit shaken, but not much worse for wear. His teacher was impressed at how un-paniced I seemed. The thing is that, honestly, it was a corn maze. It's not like he could have gotten far in the amount of time since we had seen him last and even if he found his way out we had parents waiting outside. Besides Wolf and I have been over what to do if (when) he got misplaced in situations like that.
After that we still had lunch, schoolwork, martial arts, more schoolwork and a good amount of brotherly bickering and wrestling before dinner.
So I'm sitting here typing this sometime after midnight with a sprained wrist that I got from grabbing Bear away from the water just so that I don't forget anything. Thanks to unventilated classrooms in painting classes in college my memory is unreliable at best and today I really do not want to forget.
Today's trip was a visit to a couple of different beaches, finding four geo-caches and ending up at a pumpkin patch. The first beach had some pretty steep rocks so I put Bear's leash on. It might look silly, but he has a tendency to run off and intentionally ignore people trying to stop him. We walked down, looked at some of the rocks, learn a bit about them and then took a walk down the beach. Now, I seem to have developed an uncanny ability to spot dead animals and today was no exception. Part way down the beach I found a very dead seal. I'm certain that has an extreme EWWWW factor to many people, but as usual my first reaction was to yell to the kids, “Hey! Check out what I found! It's a dead seal!” All of the boys came trampling over ready for an inspection. It was missing all of one eye and most of another and some of its entrails were spilling out, but dried and there was no smell. We decided a bird probably took the missing eye and wandered off to the next adventure.
The boys stampeded off, except Bear who was literally attached to me at the hip. They ended up climbing on on some sandstone near the water and Bear wanted to join them so we walked over. We were deciding if we should let him join them when I noticed that the tide had decided to come in vigorously right then. I yoinked Bear off the ground and was promptly standing in shin deep ocean water. Hooray for wet sneakers... Bear was dry though and that was a good thing since he would have A. hated being wet, B. hated being cold, and C. hated being changed to fix the prior two problems. Luckily Wolf's teacher had some shoes she could lend me and they almost fit.
Oh and on the way back to the car we found a seagull head, mostly skull really. Told you I was good at spotting these things! Last week it had been a tiny dead mouse.
We found all the geo-caches we were looking for and we eventually ended up at the pumpkin patch. It had a corn maze. I have never been in one so I was all for trying it. It ended up being me, Bear, Wolf, the teacher, one of the boys from earlier and another one that had met up with us there. We got wonderfully and hopelessly lost very quickly and they boys spent most of their time running ahead and then waiting for the adults to catch up. Wolf had been told to stay with the boy from earlier and that boyhad been told to keep an eye on him. Bear spent most of his time with the teacher and I since the ground was very uneven and he kept falling over.
Finally we turned a corner and found the boys, well the two older ones at least. I asked them where Wolf was and they looked around, at each other, and pretty much shrugged. The teacher and the boys started shouting for him and we soon heard him yelling and sent the boys to retrieve him. He was a bit shaken, but not much worse for wear. His teacher was impressed at how un-paniced I seemed. The thing is that, honestly, it was a corn maze. It's not like he could have gotten far in the amount of time since we had seen him last and even if he found his way out we had parents waiting outside. Besides Wolf and I have been over what to do if (when) he got misplaced in situations like that.
After that we still had lunch, schoolwork, martial arts, more schoolwork and a good amount of brotherly bickering and wrestling before dinner.
So I'm sitting here typing this sometime after midnight with a sprained wrist that I got from grabbing Bear away from the water just so that I don't forget anything. Thanks to unventilated classrooms in painting classes in college my memory is unreliable at best and today I really do not want to forget.
National Novel Writing Month
Wolf and I are signed up to participate in National Novel Writing Month ( www.nanowrimo.org ). Basically adult participants try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Wolf, since he is in the Young Writer's Program and only in 1st grade, will be writing a 1000 word novel. I think that will be an amazingly fun school project.
We already have our ideas ready to go. I am planning a sci-fi spaceship/station based Utopian/Dystopian novel and Brendan will be working on a fantasy novel based on a video game he loves to watch called Zelda.
We'll keep everyone updated on our progress and sanity.
We already have our ideas ready to go. I am planning a sci-fi spaceship/station based Utopian/Dystopian novel and Brendan will be working on a fantasy novel based on a video game he loves to watch called Zelda.
We'll keep everyone updated on our progress and sanity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)