To get where?

This morning on the way to work, I saw a bunch of chickens crossing a road.

And it bothered me.

Because I didn't know why.

The coolest people

have birthdays in September.

I don't need to name names.

We know who we are.

seven squared

They used to call them "slumber parties"

Tonight, in honor of Ab's 11th birthday, there are 4 little girls having a sleepover our house. They made their own pizzas for dinner, did the gift thing, watched a movie and ate popcorn, had cake and ice cream, and are now in the midst of sleep stuff, and DS games on the floor of the guest room. It's a lovely tangle of friends, pillows, comforters, quilts, slippers, blankets, and glowing handheld games, and it is one of the things I looked forward to the most when I became a mom.

I remember when I turned 10. Mom let me have a whole bunch of friends over for night. She served dinner and Coke floats in real Coke glasses. It was such a blast! We talked and giggled way too loud- my poor dad came out to the living room in the middle of the night at least three times to warn us to go to sleep. I knew he wasn't really mad, just awfully tired, and I knew I'd still be able to have other slumber parties- despite the infractions.

I'll probably have to get up once or twice tonight to "whisper" to the girls that they are being too loud, but I don't care. It's what moms do- they make memories for their kids.

I hope they talk and giggle half the night and I hope Abby will have wonderful memories of her first sleepover.

UPDATE: Note to self: next time, don't make eggs, sausage, and hash browns for breakfast. Instead, buy a variety pack of overly sweetened cereals and a gallon of milk. Put them on the table with some bowls and spoons, and head back to bed. ;->

Math Help

Today was kiddo's first day of school. My first day will be next week. In honor of the new school year, I thought maybe some of you might want some internet sites to help your student(s) with some of their math.

Not all of these sites will help all levels of math, and some sites are more appealing to parents and teachers than to kids... it's just a menu... pick and choose...

FREE SITES

xtramath.org Elementary level. Timed skills practice. Keeps track of progress. (Abby likes it.)

www.mrnussbaum.com Elem/Middle level. Good games for many subjects- not just math.

www.thinkingblocks.com Grades 3 - 8 THE BEST SITE for problem solving and visual thinking. You will enjoy working through the problems with your kids.

www.mathplayground.com Elem/Middle level. Lots of math games.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives Parents should get familiar with this site- especially if they homeschool. Lots of different math activities. You DO NOT have to download or purchase- you can use it straight from the site.

www.coolmath.com and www.coolmath4kids.com Good explanations of math topics from fractions to algebra and beyond- even finance. Lots of links and games.

www.teachertube.com Hundreds of thousands of videos with all levels of math explanations. Some are excellent, some are dismal. Parents might want to weed through to see what is useful.

www.khanacademy.org Instructional videos on many topics.

SUBSCRIPTION SITES

www.ixl.com Pre-K to Algebra. First 20 problems per day are free. Subscription gives access to hundreds of practice problems by grade level and state standards. Well worth the price. Keeps track of progress, good communication with parents.

www.indianmathonline.com Grades 1- 10. (I have no personal experience with this program, but it appears valid and has three different levels of subscription.)

Of course, you can do an internet search and see how many other sites will help you with your math, but these are good starting places- especially if you don't have a lot of time to spend searching.

Best wishes to you for an excellent school year!

THE TRIP- part 4

All the places we went this summer... all in the pink or red zones on the weather channel right now. All have extreme or high risk of high winds and/or flooding. Gettysburg and Hershey might be far enough from the coast, but everything else will feel the effects of Hurricane Irene.

Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown are closed for the weekend.

Washington, D.C. has battened down the hatches. The Washington Monument is closed indefinitely due to cracks caused by the recent earthquake. I hope it doesn't topple in the winds.

My brother and his family have secured the lawn furniture, stocked up on batteries, gas, sandbags, and canned goods, and plan to hunker down tonight.

Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Plymouth, Boston, Portland, Bangor... It's going to be interesting.

I can hardly tear myself away from the weather channel, even though they show the same generic, non-relevant video clips over and over and over... You know- the one with the lady who has a brace on one wrist and she's reaching into her shopping cart to put her bags and bags of supplies in the car. Nothing in that clip tells you what to purchase for a storm. Nothing in that clip identifies it as specific to this storm, and yet they keep showing it over and over and over and I think I saw it 27 times yesterday and I only watched the weather channel for a little over an hour! That lady is famous. (Ooooooh- I just realized that today they might have guys with microphones standing in the surf wearing blue parkas with the weather channel logo! That will be good viewing.)

Anyway, I'll get more trip photos to you soon.

Project Before and After- Chairs

I like to have rolling stools for the computer stations in my classroom. It's easier for the kids to push rolling stools under the counter than to push in regular chairs. Once the stools are all under the counter, it gives my classroom a cleaner, less cluttered look.

Last summer, I went on craigslist and asked for inexpensive rolling office chairs- I didn't even care if the backs were functioning, I basically wanted a seat and good wheels. I got three of these for $10, and the fourth one just showed up in my classroom one day. I didn't have time or money to do anything other than dust them off, but this year I decided to spiff them up a bit. I took off all the seats, sprayed them liberally with Lysol, waited for them to dry, and covered them with gray vinyl. I removed the dust covers on the bottoms, and put them back on after I stapled on the vinyl, but I didn't remove the old fabric. I guess I didn't really want to see how disgusting the foam might be...

The metal bases got a good cleaning and a solid coat of gray primer before I sprayed on two coats of the metallic blue. For the most part, the painting went very well, but occasionally a wrinkle appeared in the paint. So I had to sand out the wrinkles before putting on the last coat of blue. I hate it when paint does that, because I hate sanding. The weird thing is there was no rhyme nor reason to the wrinkles- they were just random. Argh.

Here are the finished beauties in my classroom- just waiting for new 6th grade butts to support:

THE TRIP- part 3

Days 6 & 7, July 14, 15 Washington DC

Did you know that Ford's Theater is part of the National Park Service? Yup. The people who work there are park rangers. Seems like the least out-doorsy job for a park ranger...

When you visit Ford's Theater, you are first directed downstairs to the museum which houses great information and artifacts connected to the Civil War and Lincoln assassination.

After you have spent time there, you may go through the back hallway (where Booth went on his deadly deed), and up to the audience section of the theater.

From there, you can see the President's box and the stage where Booth landed after he shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis" and jumped out of the box.

At designated times, a park ranger will come out on stage and give a description of the night of the assassination. These rangers are very well versed in the events of that fateful night, and their talks always leave me with a chill down my spine. I've heard the talk about a dozen times, from about a dozen rangers- and each one is a master storyteller. (That's the kind of park ranger I would want to be- an indoor one.)

After you see and hear what Ford's Theater has to offer, you can go across the street to the Petersen House.

This is where the men carried President Lincoln after he was shot. They laid him on a bed in the back bedroom, and somewhere, in some museum display, is the pillowcase with his blood on it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the Petersen House this time in DC because it was being renovated. The part of the street that is between Ford's Theater and the Petersen House is usually paved with red brick- a symbol of the Lincoln's red blood that dripped across the street. Since they are working on the Petersen House, it looks like they might be doing something with the red brick as well.

Ford's Theater is a must-see if you ever get to visit our nation's capitol.