Conference

Brian and I attended "parent-teacher" conference for Tamlin last week.
Pssht.

I always feel a bit awkward at these things.  I met Mrs. Sprinkle back in August at the start of the year.  She seemed nice enough, happy, mostly organized, somewhat divided attention that is necessary for managing 20 first graders.  I always figure that if Tamlin's getting into trouble, then we would here about it via note, phone, or email.  From our end, we make sure he does his homework and practices for his tests, and try to remember to send the reading log in daily.

I'm amazed at how well Tam's reading...much more than I remember being able to do at this age.  And math comes pretty easy to him, so much that Brian and I are constantly pushing him to do more.  Then I'm always filling his head with science facts.  But we don't know other parents of first graders, so we don't have any gauge on where he is compared to his peers. (And should we be worried?)

So we sit down with the teacher at the little person desk, with our knees up to our eyes, and smile at Tam's teacher.  We have 15 minutes to here her impression of our little dude and to bring us up to speed on how he is doing in class.  

Results?
Okay...mini-brag here:   He's doing great, really great, like really, really great.  At our school (our public school), there are three teachers that split their classes up according to how the kids are doing on that subject.  Tamlin sees the the enrichment teachers for both math and reading. His scores place him well above the benchmarks for his grade and he puts him on par with second grade mid-year. I'm really glad that they are able to keep pushing him by doing this split teaching technique and he's not getting board.

Way to go kid!
I totally blame all the reading we do, along with all the experience we do together as a family, and that we don't spend all day on electronics.
But what to say to the teacher when you get a report like this?  Can't act smug, slightly weird to act proud, don't want to seem surprised, just say "glad he's doing well; he likes school and we like teaching him at home too."

Great job, Tamlin.  Hugs all around and keep up the good work!

Tam's studying science

Yeah!
Tamlin's getting science time at school now!
I'm so excited!

Kiddo is learning about classification of animals...but only the "easy" ones...you know: mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, reptile, insect. (Not even a hint of nematodes or cephalopods or arachnids!) Tam's assignment was to bring in one photo of an animal to help the class with this sorting/classification task.
One photo...Pshaw!

Apparently, Brian's father saved all of his old "Ranger Rick" magazines from the 1980s so we now have a small stack of them. These awesome little magazines from the National Wildlife Federation have tons of photos and short articles about animals...targeting a 7-10 year old audience.  (I really need to think about getting a subscription for the boys).

We found many photos in only the three magazines we flipped through...several that Tam excitedly cut out.

Final Tally to take in?
Hedgehog
Ostrich
Pelican
Cicadas
Camels
Baby swans
Sea dragon
Rainbow fish
Rhinoceros
Humpback whale
Crocodile

And his favorites:
a mosquito larvae to stump his teacher
and a two-headed snake for coolness factor

And Jude insisted on the Clown fish (Nemo), a cool sea dragon, and a weevil.  He's taking them in for show-n-tell this week and then hanging them in his room.

Family Photo Outtakes

Nice autumn day... Check

Dress clothes on ... Check

Camera charged, tripod located... Double Check

Goofy pills taken . .. Triple Check

Ready to attempt a family fall photo session!

 I think Jude is the master of silly faces and refusing to look directly at the camera.

 Daddy was a big help at settling the boys down into traditional poses.

A Bazillion - Gazillion photos later...
I think I have a few that will work for this year :-)

Imaginative creation...

The boys got out the bucket of little plastic ninjas and pirates.
Then Tam had the bright idea to get out the big lego blocks too...


Moments later I walked in to see this...





What is it?




Tamlin explained that it is a "Ninja Training School."

And there are all the little ninjas lined up to take their turns jumping, kicking, climbing, crossing the rope bridge, and general "hi-ya"-ing.

You go, son!

Latest artwork

A few of my boys latest drawings.  We get a gazzilion pieces of paper home with each boy each day, it is hard to choose which ones to save and display on the fridge.  I love that they are able to be creative and use their artistic inheritance.

Tamlin has become much better at coloring within the lines and exploring his color combinations.

Jude's classroom has a ton of stamps and stencils to play with, and Jude's favorite is the spider stamp.

He's been playing a Lego car game on the iPad, which has sparked drawings of cars with feet (like in the game).

And magnetic blocks are still favorites, along with their gears; The boys both build elaborate trucks, cars, trains, horse carriers, etc.  Jude has incorporated the gears into his drawings of cars, too.

These two show that our boys love Brian and me :-)

Jude wants to be a chef when he grows up and Tamlin drew me and him together.

Wooden animals

On Saturday, the little and I ventured out to a local craft / antique fair.  It was a miserably cold, drizzly day, but we had several inherited umbrellas to play with and twirl.  Our cousins have a booth there, and we wanted to check out and admire their craftiness.  We were supposed to be on a hunt for Christmas gifts, but instead found several little trinkets for ourselves (including a stool from the cousins).

The major win came from a wood carvers booth.  They had a box of simply cut wooden animals, 3 pieces for $1.   I let the boys have a romp through them to each pick out their three favorites.
Tamlin settled for a butterfly, a bird and a "dove" (though I thought it looked more like a duck).
also found a bird, a fish, and a horse.

After becoming slightly damp, we went home with our purchases... and got out the paints.
I let the boys have at painting their new toys. 

And now we have a menagerie of interestingly painted animals.