Time to brag on Bethy for a bit. I've been amazed and really pleased with how far the twins' reading skills have come in the last three months, but Elizabeth has surpassed everything expected of her. Her teacher said in our last parent-teacher conference that in both reading and writing Elizabeth jumped ahead of students who started out the year ahead of her. She's reading at an end-of-third-grade level and has been willing to tackle some tough little books already this summer including a retelling of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse and The Little Mermaid, (not the Disney version.) We picked those because the story is familiar but there is a lot more detail and a larger vocabulary than the versions she's read before, plus it gave us a chance to explore some of the themes in The Little Mermaid including not always getting what you want and what happens when there isn't the happy ending you expected. Good stuff.


Wil's turn -- my boy can read! I'm so pleased. He's been cruising through 3-6 books a day. He agreed yesterday that some of the ones we borrowed from the library were too easy, but even a month ago he couldn't have said that. Yesterday he read to me for over half an hour and probably would have kept on reading except that Sean came home with the movie Sky High. (That's a post I'll save for later.) If he's up to it, I'm going to have him try some of the Henry and Mudge books that Elizabeth brought home. They're not particularly challenging for her, but she's enjoying reading them without my supervision. That's fun. Mudge makes Wil laugh. That's fun too!

Go, Wil. Go!

Wil rode a bike with petals without training wheels for the first time this morning! He's been practicing coasting, balancing and steering on his bike without petals. He'd liked it when I counted, "1, 2, 3, whee..." and gave him a push, but his favorite thing was the "Daddy Slingshot." Sean can push a lot harder, faster and farther than I can, so Wil got more practice that way. Now he's ready to go! It was a joy to watch. His face showed his delight. We went to Chik-fil-A afterwards to celebrate with chicken mini biscuits.

Our first day of Summer Break.

The twins and I are having a wonderful day together. I'm going to try to provide a better balance of structure and free time this summer. They mostly played "beach" this morning with the new beach towels spread out on the living room floor. Also Elizabeth set up their umbrellas to provide shade. They've got big plans for a "beach party" this weekend if one of them wins the Goblet of Choice tonight. They have both been extra good helpers today trying to earn points.

We also went to the grocery store together - something I've avoided as much as possible the past two years. It went surprisingly well. Wil was in charge of the coupons and Elizabeth crossed items off our list. I'm so pleased with their reading skills! After lunch we spent more than half an hour reading together for the library's Summer Reading program. As I write, they are writing in their Summer Journals. It's something their teachers recommend they do daily. Both teachers set home a variety of suggestions of things to do over the summer so "their brains don't get rusty" as Wil's teacher put it. Should be mostly fun!

The boys: Sean, Wil, and Mario

Wil's playing Super Maro Sunshine in the other room. Then I hear him yell: I jumped!

I say 'Wil, do you need help?'

'No, I totally know how to do this.'

I say 'I hear ya.'

Then follows more 'I jumped!' and some mumbling.

I'm proud of that boy. Like father like son ;-)

Finally, he accepts my offer.

Then I kill off all of his Marios trying to get through that screen. Not the plan :-(

Oh, well, not even Daddy as Mario can win 'em all...

Wil got C-3PO first on the Star Wars quiz, which he hated. So we retook it, trying to answer like Luke would, and got:

Your results:
You are Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker 78% Han Solo 72% Mace Windu 66% Chewbacca 65% Anakin Skywalker 63% An Ewok 60% Jar Jar Binks 60% Qui-Gon Jinn 57% Princess Leia 56% C-3PO 56%

You value your friends and loved ones, but can sometimes act recklessly because of your emotions. Occasionally you resort to whining. You look ahead to great things for yourself.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Test


Then Bethy got C-3PO, but she didn't hate it as much as Wil. Christine got Qui-Gonn Jinn. That's a pretty good one, too. Better than Han Solo, really...

Then Wil wanted to take the quiz as himself. He got:

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Robin 70% The Flash 60% Catwoman 50% Green Lantern 50% Superman 50% Iron Man 45% Hulk 45% Supergirl 25% Wonder Woman 20% Batman 15%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


Like father, like son. I am, of course, very proud. :-)

Then Bethy wanted to take the quiz as herself, but she didn't like the results, so here is what she got when we answered like Wonder Woman:

Your results:
You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman 85% Supergirl 75% The Flash 65% Superman 65% Green Lantern 60% Hulk 60% Robin 55% Spider-Man 45% Catwoman 40% Iron Man 30% Batman 25%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

I could have told you about the beautiful princess part. She has a lot of willpower, and we're working on the character part.

Wil wanted to take the Super Hero Quiz, and he wanted to be the Hulk, so that's how we answered the questions. Result:

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk 90% Iron Man 45% Spider-Man 40% Batman 40% Green Lantern 35% Supergirl 30% Superman 30% Catwoman 25% Robin 20% The Flash 20% Wonder Woman 10%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

1. Wil, especially, went through this funny phase of weird pockets of modesty. For example, I bathe him all the time, but he'd want to be in his room to change his shirt.

2. Wil, also, at the same time, went through a couple of weeks of asking me after we had laid down if we'd locked the doors. For awhile, I had to get up and check or have him go check. I even got to where I'd have him check before bedtime, like when I went to lock the door, I'd call him so he could confirm it. He didn't seem really afraid and didn't have nightmares or anything. Then he hasn't been asking lately. Maybe we satisifed him on that one.

3. Something I've struggled with is thinking Wil needs to learn to ride a bike in the spring of 1st grade because I did. Not that I'm trying to push him, per se, but that I don't want him to be behind. And his seemingly irrational fear is frustrating to me.

But, on the other hand, I was 7 that spring and he's only 6. Maybe he'll learn to ride this fall. Or after. Kids are different.

Driving home on Easter, the kids listened to an ok book in the car about a dragonslaying school. The best part, for all of us, by far, was when the wizard cast a spell on the pet pig, Daisy, and she started to speak... pig latin. 'Ellohay Yglafway.'

It never ceases to amaze me: how creative the twins can get in their play when I tell them they don't get to watch a video or play on the computer until they clean their rooms. Really.

We read the Palm Sunday story this morning at breakfast including the part where Jesus cleans out the temple. Wil had a lot of ideas and questions. He wanted to know just how many people had to stop praising Jesus to get the rocks to cry out. And he thought maybe Jesus let the animals out of the temple because they were "God's children that Noah saved on the ark." But the one that tickled me was when he said, "Now the churches pass a bowl." It took me a moment to realize he was talking about collecting offerings. He was satisfied with our explanation of the difference between the people selling animals for sacrifices in the temple and offerings given to God for a church's work, and he added his own point that churches give money to help poor people.

Wil noticed today's date was 4-5-6. We love number patterns at our house. I'm so proud.

Re: April Fools Day Edition

I did not know until this morning that April Fools Day could also be called National Holiday for First Graders. Bethy started working on her project last night (rocks on our dining room chairs). Unrelatedly, Wil woke up before 6 and would not go back to sleep. So he and I got up at 630. Then Bethy got up. I think she was too excited to sleep any more. So Christine had to get up to get 'fooled', she who stayed up late scrapbooking.

I did put one of my favorite April Fools on Wil before I got up: Did you know it snowed last night? He wasn't aware it was April Fools Day yet. Ha! Gotcha!

But the joke's on them: there will be mandatory naps this afternoon.

Here's a quick survey of Bethy’s favorite words:

Actually…
No.
What?
What did you say?
Apparently…
definitely

Bethy and Wil have been working on leprechaun traps for school. We were surprised today to learn that Wil's made The State newspaper today! Here's the link to the story:

THEY ‘LOVE RAINBOWS AND GOLD’
Tricky traps for leprechauns
Leaphart students need a little Irish luck to snare the elusive creatures

Here's the pic of Wil's trap (with caption):

Will [sic] Meade’s creation is engineered to catch a leprechaun when he goes for the coin on the yellow paddle. The paddle turns, and the leprechaun falls into the box.

We're proud of Wil and happy for him. Bethy gets recognized a lot at school, so this is fun for Wil. Plus, this kind of creativity is something he cares about, so it's good reinforcement.

The twins and I were talking at lunch about the Bible being the best-selling book of all time. They wanted to know what was the best-selling children's book. Their vote was for Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit because they've been learning about her at school. According to a Publisher's Weekly article in 2001, (that was the most recent list I could find,) The Poky Little Puppy was the best-selling children's book in hardcover and Peter Rabbit was indeed second. Smart kids. Charlotte's Web was the best-seller among children's paperbacks. All four of the Harry Potter books published at that time were in the top 20 on the hardcover list. I wonder where they are now.

As I've written before, we've got the old-school, free version of Hero Machine on our computer. So far, Wil, Elizabeth, and their friends on occasion, have created about 35 different super heroes. Unprompted by me, Wil came up with this Hawkeye uniform on Sunday.

(The black and gold looked much better/truer in Hero Machine. Maybe it was the Paint.net translation to PNG. Go figure.)

Yes, it is nice to be brilliant

I have never liked that oh-so-popular 'If you give a pig a pancake' book. Then it came home as Wil's reading assignment for this week. I'm supposed to listen to it every night? Couldn't face it.

So last night I hit on an ingenious scheme: I bribed them.

We have this thing Christine started called 'The Goblet of Choice' (she got it from some magazine or website or something). You can earn points throughout the week for good behavior. You can also lose points. The Goblet of Choice is awarded (sometimes) on thursday night. The winner gets to pick friday night dinner, dessert, and family activity.

So I asked them after supper last night (and Christine at work), if they'd like to earn a point each. They said yes. 'Wil can earn a point by reading to Bethy while I take a shower and Bethy can earn a point by listening and helping Wil.' They said they'd do it, no problem.

As far as I know, they did. I do know they each marked down another point.

Now that the weather is so nice, we're trying to walk home from school 2-3 times a week. Yesterday Wil was noticeably tired. He walked right into me without seeming to notice. I asked if he was okay. He explained, "My brain was napping." Later at home when I misspoke he asked, "Momma, is your brain napping?"