Fall Break Wrap Up…

I am sitting here, listening to RAIN pour down in central Indiana, something I haven’t heard for any amount of time in ages. Oh wait…it’s over. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

We had two of our five days of fall break disrupted by vomit, but overall, we were able to have a lot of fall fun these past few days. Wednesday we visited the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, including Skeletown, their haunted house (during friendly ,lights-on hours), which the kids loved. Actually, Junior was excited to “see halloween!”, MaM was more confused as to why we’d want to see all of the skeletons and gore and what not. But they gave out just enough candy that she stopped asking questions and rolled with it.

Thursday was disrupted by Junior having a mild stomach bug. Bah.

Friday we packed up and heading down to Brown County State Park for a day of outdoor fun. We had a great family day of hiking and exploring and just being together. To mix it up, instead of coming home, we spent the night a few miles down the road. I’m pretty sure the hotel lost money on us — the kids watched all kinds of cable tv, we visited the breakfast buffet multiple times, the kids had multiple baths, and we went swimming and tubbing all between the hours of about 6:30am and 11:30am Saturday morning.

We then packed up and headed to Columbus, Indiana, home to Kids Commons, a fun hands-on museum for kids. There are three levels of fun for kids of all ages. The four of us played for three hours — climbing, exploring, rolling balls, shooting baskets, playing with the interactive light board and, get this –rock climbing. MaM was geeked to try the climbing wall and she climbed up the wall and rang the bell at the top THREE times. It was awesome to watch her be so confident and excited in herself.

The kids (and grownups) were exhausted, and our ride home was a quiet one. It was funny to think that we were only about 70 miles away from home. It was a great escape.

Today is the last day of MaM’s official fall break, but she’s getting a “bonus” day — it’s her turn for the stomach virus. She’s finally keeping food down, but wasn’t earlier today, so she’s taking her first sick day of the year. She’s bummed about being sick — she’s missing a birthday party, and a trunk or treat event today. And, as she pointed out, her school friends will now have to wait until Tuesday to see……..that she got glasses over fall break!

Climbing the Fire Tower
He actually sat still for a few portraits!
Here she is….five going on fifteen.

P.S. There’s still time to enter my 1800Flowers giveaway — see the previous post to enter!

In the Blink of an Eye: From Strollers to First Grade

This weekend I rounded up all of the parts for our mega-infant travel system: the car seat, the two bases, the stroller (with a clock and thermometer), all the head rests, and the cold weather boot. Yes, our travel system came with a little piece of material that you can wrap around the bottom of the  car seat in cold weather, to keep baby’s feet warm. *SIGH* I loved that travel system. (It took me three hours to choose it. You can read about it in this very long post, scroll down till you get to “Stroller Shopping”)

The travel system is heading to Chicago, where it will welcome my newest niece or nephew home next spring, which is very exciting! Junior has had his fill of being “the baby” on BgK’s side of the family, so it’s definitely time! (Right now, he’s the youngest of 10 grandkids on that side)

Anyway, it’s clear we’ve moved on from infants in our home — we occasionally use our umbrella stroller, but mostly Junior runs wherever we venture. The infant toys are packed away, and the house is littered in small toy cars and cool girl toys like the Littlest Pet Shop. Oh, and I’m shopping for A FIRST GRADE CLASSROOM FOR MY GIRL.

Due to recent life events, we need to find a school for MaM for next year, not 7th grade like we thought. I’ve been to one, and Monday I visit another. If this one doesn’t seem to fit the bill, I’ll have to extend my search. Because she’s been in Montessori for the past three years, I’ve been wondering how she would a)assess in a more traditional setting b)respond to more traditional instruction.

Enter the Kaplan Test Drive Program. As a Kaplan Test Drive Mom, MaM and I will have access to their online tutoring programs for the next 8 weeks. While I’m confident that MaM doesn’t need remediation, per se, I’m very curious to see how she’ll do using this program. Every school I’ve checked into touts technology as a component, and I wonder how she’ll use those learning tools. I wonder how she’ll do following simple oral directions without manipulatives (a major component of all Montessori instruction), I wonder how she’ll applying what she’s learned with Montessori materials to other experiences.

The Kaplan Test Drive program should give me that feed back and more. It’s a personalized program that moves at the child’s pace, going through a math and reading curriculum. MaM’s done the pre-tests and enjoys doing the activities. She’s also enjoying earning points that she can use on actual prizes. I hope that by the end of the program I can get a good sense of what she knows and what skills she may need to practice more.

You know, because she’s heading to first grade next year.

(Disclosure: this is the first of two posts sponsored by The Kaplan Test Drive Mom program and Mom Central. I am receiving access to the Kaplan Tutoring site and a gift card in exchange for this review. All pangs of cutting the apron strings are my own.)

Know Magazine

MaM has hit the question stage in her young life. Not the “why” stage her brother is in, but a whole different kind of question stage. Here’s what went down last night as she was getting ready for bed:

“Mommy! Dad showed me the moon is out tonight ,and so’s Jupiter!”

“That’s great honey. You saw the planet Jupiter?”

“Yes, I did. Mommy, who drives Jupiter?”

“Who drives it?”

“Yes. Who drives it? Honey, it’s in orbit around the sun like our planet, Earth.”

“What’s orbit?”

“It means that something goes around something else. Jupiter and Earth orbit around the sun.”

“Oh. What does Jupiter look like?”

“It’s very big, and it’s read and has a big spot on it, there are also nine moons.” (I think. Is it red? or is Mars?)

“But what are the people like on Jupiter?’

“There are no people on Jupiter.”

“But I want to SEE Jupiter. I want to go there!”

“Well, Jupiter is very cold, you’d have to take a spaceship there” (I think it’s cold. Which planet is Jupiter? M V E M ….?)

“A spaceship? How do you drive  a spaceship?” (are they called spaceships? can you even ever get there? would it take light years?)

“Well a space ship travels in space ,and you have to be an astronaut to work in one.”

“An astronaut? What’s an astronaut?” (Where are those Tang commercials when you need them?)

“Well, an astronaut learns all about the spaceship. Most astronauts have been in the Air Force , and you have know a lot of science.” (Is it the Air Force? or is it Navy? Are they even training new astronauts? Is NASA defunct yet?)

Enter Mad Science’s KNOW Magazine. KNOW Magazine is a new, advertisement-free science magazine for kids ages 6-9 yrs old. Colorful photos, activities and interesting articles for parents and children alike will engage any budding scientist. I think MaM is seriously going to dig the experiments. I’m just hoping I can keep up with her!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by  Mom Central on behalf of Mad Science and received the products necessary to  facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me  for taking the time to participate.