Our lives have been so upside-down and stressful to the point where I don't really want to talk about it. The short version is that we're still not in the new house, but it's very close now. And as long as we're in this apartment, we are severely limited in terms of what activities we can do. We're all feeling the stress and irritation at this point.

I honestly couldn't say what we did in the last month, except that I know it's contained many park dates, a few trips to the local cultural center, a visit to the public gardens and a trip to the aquarium. And my in-laws visited for two weeks. Oh, and B made many things out of paper like he does. Many Lego and K'Nex structures were made. We've lived life and learned through it, while trying to remain patient about the new house.

After watching a "Smash Lab" episode about sand-pit construction, my little mad scientists immediately constructed a mock sand-pit from pillows. Dh had to disassemble it because it was a little too functional and therefore dangerous. I'm not sure what neat little educational box that fits into, but it's learning for sure. If my kids could use nail guns and welding equipment, I think we'd be in trouble.

I also meant to mention that when we went to the public gardens, both boys sketched nature pictures.

It's about a month early to be doing end-year assessments, but I thought I'd start one simply because I have some recent benchmarks. B would have been in First Grade this year, based on the school district's birth year rules. I get really confused when people identify their kids by grades that they feel they are working at, rather than legal definition. By legal definition, B was in First Grade this year.

As for reading, he can do it and yet he doesn't do it. He does not read for pleasure or information yet. But he reads things around him and he can read at least on grade level. As proof of this, I have two recent examples of his reading level. He brought me a book with ambiguous cover art and told me it was about hydrogen (which is what the title was). And at the Aquarium, while looking at a random bit of bone, I asked, "What does that say next to it?" He replied, "Whale." "Whale what?" I asked. He quickly and casually replied, "Whale vertebra". So there you go. He can read but he just doesn't sit and do it yet. From everything I've heard about boys, including my book-addicted husband as a child, most boys don't sit and read at this age unless forced to.

I have a recent writing sample that I'm including in the mandatory end-year assessment. He wrote a little book called "Tommy and Horses Invnchr". That's "Tommy and Hornsy's Adventure". Hornsy is a beloved toy triceratops. I will write his text, followed by translations. I feel compelled to say that we haven't done formal spelling lessons or practice so this is organic learning on his part.

Chapter 1:
"Oen dae Tommy wus in his haoos."
(One day Tommy was in his house.)

"Noc noc. Cum in."
(Knock knock. Come in.)

"'Hay Horse.' 'Hay Tommy.' But Hornse wus warnig a soot."
(Hey Hornsy. Hey Tommy. But Hornsy was wearing a suit.)

"And Hornse sed lets go icsploing. Tommy lict the ideeu."
(and Hornsy said, "Let's go exploring." Tommy liked the idea.)

"Soe Tommy sed Oca Honsie. Ua Uahoo. Facuoo Tommy."
(So Tommy said, "Ok Hornsy." "Yay! Yahoo! Thank you, Tommy.")

"The frgot sootcasise."
(They forgot suitcases.)

At this point, B dictated the next 3 sentences to my MIL and then copied what she wrote.

"Suddenly they remembered their suitcases so they went back inside."
"Thas you for reminding me Hornsy. Youire welcome Tommy."

Chapter 2:
"Weer going too the gunge."
(We're going to the jungle.)

"AAAAA" (There's an illustration showing them being swallowed by a whale.)

"WYYYYYY"
(Wheee!!! An illustration shows them going down the whale's throat.)

"Wut isdis"
(What is this? An illustration shows them examining a blood vessel inside the whale.)

"I no clim"
(The illustration shows them deciding against climbing up the whale's throat.)
"Ticl ticl."
(Tickle tickle.)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
(An illustration shows them being sneezed out of the whale.)

"Wy mad it"
(We made it.)

"Cum on Hornsy. But Hornsy is lucnig at the chree frog."
('Come on, Hornsy!' But Hornsy is looking at the tree frog.)
"Gribit."

Chapter 3:
"AAAAAA"
(An illustration shows something nearby with huge teeth and a menacing face.)

"Hoo or yoo"
(Who are you? Quite possibly my favorite part of B's book, there's an illustration of a strange police box in the middle of the jungle.)

"Im the doctr. Bie bie"
(I'm the doctor. 'Bye bye!' This is a Dr Who reference. Apparently, the Doctor saved them from the menacing jungle creature.)

Chapter 4: An illustration shows Hornsy and Tommy sleeping in their beds.
"Eet fast Tommy."
('Eat fast, Tommy.')
Other illustrations follow.

Chapter 5: An illustration shows the Zula Patrol arriving on the scene.
Another illustration shows Tommy and Hornsy and a big heart.
"I lov uoy"
(I love you.)

Another illustration shows Tommy and Hornsy eating donuts.
"Hi. Im Spidr-man. Im Bat-man."
Other illustrations follow.

"Dis book has bin ilustradid bie Ben. Tommy is mie bruvr."
(This book has been illustrated by Ben. Tommy is my brother.)

We've been watching the two best kids' shows lately. Normally, I don't have a lot of regard for kids' shows. But sometimes, I see that my kids learn from them. Like when B was figuring out reading but didn't want us interfering, "Between the Lions" helped him make a lot of connections on his own. TV has its redeeming features.

Anyway, they started watching this really sappy show on Disney (ugh) called, "Little Einsteins". The title by itself is kind of obnoxious. The show seemed pretty harmless, however. I swear that most little kids' shows now seem to use the "Dora the Explorer" formula; if you watch kids' TV then you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, they have learned so much from this show; I was really surprised. First, T started going on about "adagio" and "allegro", etc. I don't know what most of that means tbh, so I was a bit confused when T would urge us to go adagio. He really got into that. And second, they've started recognizing pieces of classical music. Some were pieces that most people know, like the Nutcracker stuff. But when I had a classical music station playing the other day and something from Handel came on, B yelled, "That's Annie's Love Song!" (a LE episode) and they were both so excited. One time when they were watching the show and the cartoon characters introduced Schubert, B turned to T and said, "Oh Schubert. We know Schubert".

So, sappiness and obnoxious title and all, my kids are learning a lot from this show.

The second show is one that an online friend told us about the other day, a Nick Jr show called, "Ni hao Kai-lan". It's like Dora the Explorer, but with Mandarin. She seems to use a LOT more Mandarin than Dora uses Spanish. I was really impressed with it. I'm studying Mandarin right now and I've been teaching some to the kids. So they are obsessed with this show now and they recognize some of the words that I had taught them like "ye-ye"/grandfather.

This morning, T asked me how to say "slippers" in Chinese again. They had watched their first episode yesterday, one that used the word for slippers and we had only seen it once. I honestly didn't remember how to say "slippers. Then, B piped up with, "It's duo-xie". I don't know if those are the words but that's what it *sounded* like he said. I couldn't believe he remembered how to say "slippers" from one viewing of one episode!

Anyway, those two shows get a thumbs-up from me for now.

I'm trying to remember what we've done lately. We recently saw a live production of Pinnochio. All four of us went. It was really good, perhaps the best production I've seen from the Children's Theatre so far. Dh thought it was remarkably similar to British Pantomime. British Pantomime is a weird Christmas play ritual that features a traditional fairy tale where the leading lady is played by a man and the leading man is played by a woman. There's lots of audience participation ("He's behind you!!"). I've been once; it was a blast. With any luck, we'll be in England this Christmas and my kids will finally get a chance to see a real Pantomime.

T is really enjoying his drama class. I arrive to pick him up before the class is actually over, so I can see what they're doing through the window. He's always really into whatever they're doing. My father said, "Does he need any more dramatics??". This class is right up T's alley.

I think B and I are going to the open art gallery night downtown. Both my kids like art but it's more of B's thing and it's just nice for us to do something together. The weather is great and downtown is so beautiful. We've looked inside the windows of various galleries before but it will be great to actually go inside and see what they do. I hope to go by my photography instructor's studio, but her studio is a bit further away from the main area.

Speaking of photography, my recent revived interest in photography has passed on to B. They kids got a V-tech toy digital camera for Christmas. B has been making full use of it. If I can find our old, original digital camera (which is very light), I'll let him use it. One day while T was in class, B and I took our cameras to the park. He took some great pictures. He has a good eye for things. I copied at least one picture idea from him and we both raced toward another thing (the base of a suspension bridge) at the same time because we simultaneously saw its interesting geometric shapes. When our lives calm down with moving madness and such, I plan on taking B downtown really early in the morning when I retake some of my downtown shots. I figure it would be a fun photography outing and then we could get breakfast afterwards.

I think we're going to the park today. Earlier today, T was building a Lego pyramid and B was making a Dalek puzzle. I think they're playing with the Playmobile airport right now.

Well, my kids are still sick. And I hate it, because I feel motivated to go places but instead, we're stuck at home. We're all starting to get on each other's nerves.

Yesterday, they did a page or two of "Explode the Code". Then, they got bored and put the workbooks away. B really loves the absurd questions that he has to answer in the workbook. Normally, he would balk at reading something like that but he laughs a lot at the funny questions. T is getting bored with "a", "at", "ag", "ap" and all things "a". We're skipping ahead, because he clearly knows "a" cvc words backwards and forwards and it's just unnecessarily repetitive at this point.

Afterwards, they drew and wrote on their own. B wrote "The Umazing Spidrman" and drew a picture. T wrote "Batman" and decorated it with stamps. Then, he got upset that he couldn't draw Spiderman's web like B.

Honestly, they're driving me a little nuts. They're fighting more often, because nobody feels well and we're all tired of being stuck at home. You know it's bad when introverts are desperate to leave the house. Sigh.

Yesterday, B asked how much 3 30s were, because he was trying to figure out roughly how many days were in 3 months. After I told him, I asked him to tell me how much 3 3's were. We also used 2 3's to determine what 2 30s were. T announced that 2 5s were 10 and I taught him that 2 50s were 100.

I brought home workbooks from my Chinese Mandarin class. The workbooks are actually designed for Chinese children, so they have lots of cute cartoons in them. My kids loved the books. They were insatiable in wanting to know what all the words said. It's good for me, but it's not pleasant when it's 7am and I'm still struggling to wake up. It is really good for me, however, and they enjoy it. They learned words like: butterfly, big, "the Great Wall", flower, green, etc.

I taught them the words for Grandpa and Grandma, the father's parents only. When I said 'paternal grandmother': nei-nei, B heard me speak in the third tone and he used his hand to make the third tone gesture when he repeated the word. I was pleased that, even though they only remember a few words, B can hear and identify the 4 tones. I wish he could take my class; I think he'd love it.

I finally left them to look at the workbook by themselves and I heard B tell T, "Oh, that's ge-ge, older brother." I had taught him that a a few days ago; he used the correct tone, i.e. the first tone.

Languages are sooo much fun. And even though we're not aiming for fluency, I'm sure the multiple language exposures are good for their brains. They'd never get this in school. They'd get one Spanish word a week, which used to really upset my oldest niece because it's such a tortuously slow way of being "fed" a language. Although, I should say that they could do an immersion magnet school if we could ever get off the wait-list. It's a trade-off, whichever education method we choose. Oh well. So far, they've had good exposure and language practice with Spanish, German and Mandarin. They've had minimal exposure to a few other languages like French and Polish. I don't know what we'll try next.

Well, we went to the opera the other day. It was so good. T, in particular, really enjoyed it. He loves any kind of musical production, whereas B could take it or leave it after a point. I think that last year's opera might have been better, but this one was still very good. After the opera, at T's urging, we met the "princess". And then we briefly got close to the villain, who waved at T. I have a feeling that T is going to be my little opera/concert/musical/ballet buddy, whereas B will be like dh and just not get a lot out of it.

T also loves old musicals on TV whereas B gets bored with them within 2 minutes. The last time I put on a Gene Kelly movie, T was trying to imitate their dances. I keep meaning to look for "Singing in the Rain" for them, because after the slow intro, it gets really interesting and engaging.

Both kids have worked on some "Explode the Code" workbooks recently. Because we don't know how much B can read, we started him on a basic level to fill in any gaps and to build his confidence. I think the activity was on 'silent e' and he's apparently good with that. T is plugging away on his "Explode the Code Level 1". He really surprises me with what he can read.

T can glance at a picture with three word choices and, even though the picture is very vague, he immediately says "pat" which means that he's scanned all three words and selected the one that most closely suits the picture. We did a sentence activity but he got frustrated with the sentences so, instead of reading them, he just pointed to the sentence that had the noun that matched the picture. So, for example, a picture of rat has two sentences: "The rat is fat. The cat is fat." I ask him which sentence has the picture word and he immediately points to the rat sentence.

The issue he has, which B had and most (?) little boys have, is that he just doesn't have the patience to sit and do it. He CAN do it but he just can't keep his attention there for more than a minute; it's probably a developmental readiness issue. I think that most little boys are too wiggly and disinterested to do that sort of thing. Even with mine having freaky attention spans, neither had the focus to do workbooks for more than a minute at this age. The issue is that B wants to do workbooks and whenever he does them, T wants to do them too and he doesn't want to stop even when I can tell he should.

T gets frustrated when he can't do what B does. He puts a lot of pressure on himself and he has high expectations of himself. And, based on multiple comments he's made, he doesn't think he's very smart. I have "The Optimistic Child" and I keep meaning to read it. It's funny; you're not supposed to praise kids, but what do you do when your child thinks he's not smart? I see that a kid who isn't even 4 1/2 typically doesn't teach himself to read, but all he sees is that he's not reading books like us. He's really hard on himself. I have to read that book.

I don't know what our plans are for next week yet. It seems like the month of February has flown by!

We have made a bunch of field trips lately that I need to mark down. We've been to the Science Center a few times. On one trip there, B made a hand-dipped candle. Dh wants to make a fire pit at the new house. I think we could easily do hand-dipped candles there.

We've had a field trip to the main police station. A lot of it went over my kids' heads, but they still enjoyed it. A highlight was meeting a canine unit.

We visited a new cultural center nearby that has a small art museum, history museum and science center. The science center was the highlight for both kids. B loved the bone room and the Tinker-Toy exhibit. T loved a giant semi-customizable marble run machine.

B's finished his pottery class and we're evaluating other options. T is taking a drama class.

I think that's it for field trips. Oh! We're going to the opera soon, a kid-themed one. We attended one last year and it was a HUGE hit with my kids. We're looking forward to this.

We've been working on the "Explode the Code" and Singapore math books here and there. Dh had the chance to work with both kids over the holiday, just so he could get an idea of what they are doing. So far, they still love workbooks and get upset when we put them away. But T is resisting the writing portion of his "Explode the Code" book. Based on his age, we're letting him skip those sections. With B, we encourage him to do them simply because his pen grip and letter formation is not typical (and he's much older). T has a great pen grip, but I can't convince B to change his.

Dh was surprised at what T did with his workbook. There was an assisted spelling activity. A drawing is shown (e.g. hat) and for each of the 3 letter places, several letters are given. The child has to choose the "h" from a few other letters and then choose an "a" from a selection of letters and then choose the "t". T did it very quickly; dh was surprised at how well he did. Because T wants to do everything that B does and because he's doing some things that are a bit unusual for his age, it's hard to remember that he's not even 4 1/2 and that we should back off him. If he doesn't want to write, it doesn't matter. It only matters that he enjoys himself. Of course, it's the same for B, but since B is 6 1/2, I'd really like to try to correct some of his penmanship issues before it becomes even more of an ingrained habit.

For B's math, because he thinks he's not good at it, we decided to just start from the beginning in workbooks, so he could develop confidence. I figure it didn't hurt to give him some easy math so he might feel more confident. So, he's doing Singapore Math from the beginning, but dh works with him on other math topics on his own. B is good at calculating sums in his head, but I've noticed that he often calculates for simple sums. I think that once he memorizes those and has to calculate less, it should be easier for him. So, we play the quiz show game with the Magnadoodle, in which I fire off quick and easy math questions, in addition to sight words. He enjoys it and it seems to help him.

From the math quiz show game, I've learned that he knows addition doubles (e.g. 2+2, 4+4) up to at least 20. I've also learned that if we ask him in progression (first 2, then 3s, then 4s) that he automatically just gives the number that is 2 up, i.e. you simply skip count by 2s to 20.

The other night, dh used the Magnadoodle to do some extra math with B. He asked him what 3+3+3 is, to which B immediately replied, "9". Dh showed him that he could write it as 3*3. They did the same with 2s. I think B answered "5" for 3 2s, before correcting himself. They practiced writing these in multiplication formats. Dh gave him the trick question of "3", to which the answer he was looking for was "3*1". It all seemed to go well.

B also did some "Explode the Code" workbook work. I'm using a similar approach of starting him on an easier level, not only for confidence but to see if there are any gaps.

We don't have a regular time when we do these. We just do them when the kids feel like them, at this point. I'm not sure if we'll develop a routine or not.