Spelling 101

The boys have spelling words every week. T has ten words and R has 20 words. So, we practice them every night and really work on them on Thursday nights since they both have spelling tests on Fridays. I thought you'd like to know what kinds of words they're working on.


T's words (Second Grade):

us

mud

rust

luck

rug

duck

must

hug

much

shut

He should do okay tomorrow. The word that he trips up on is "much" because he tries to put a "k" after the "c" (muck). Hopefully he'll remember that "ch" makes the "ch" sound.

10 of R's Words (4th grade):

beware

comparison

despair

library

nightmare

repair

prepare

scholarship

narrate

clarify

Both of them have challenge words -- words that give them extra credit if they get them right. R's (4th grade) are all around economics: economics, harvest, scarcity, community....

T(2nd grade), on the other hand, has the hardest challenge words ever: succeed, guard, customer, pugnacious, luscious, luggage. Where did they get those words?? Who even uses the word "pugnacious" these days? Anyway, I had him focus on his regular words, and we chose two challenge words to tackle (customer, luggage.) No reason to stress the boy out trying to spell "luscious". Anyway, how can they go from "us" to "luscious" or "pugnacious." Someone punched the wrong button and clicked 9th grade instead of 2nd grade when they got these challenge words...or something!

Test yourself today to see if you can spell as well as a second and fourth grader.

Singing With A Friend

T had a friend over for a playdate and they broke out singing a "rap" that they have been singing at recess time. He says that they take "typical songs that we all know and turn it into classic rock." (I'm not so sure about that." T told me that he does some dance moves too. (I call it swaying.) Check it out, it's cute:

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

As you know, M is the Cubmaster of the boys' Cub Scout pack. He puts his heart into it and is doing a great job. He has grown the Pack from 8 boys when we first joined three years ago to 27 boys last year and 48 boys this year. Word on the street is that we are a really fun Pack and lots of boys want to be a part of it. He's learned a lot along the way, including how to recruit other volunteer parents; how to delegate; and how to get up in front of the kids and make a fool of himself so that the kids laugh.

The biggest fundraiser of Cub Scouts is popcorn sales. The Pack gets 28% of the sales, which is pretty impressive. Last year our Pack raised $11,000, which was the most ever raised by this Pack. So, M set a goal of $15,000 for this year and said that if that goal was met, the Cub Scouts could shave his head. Well, you do the calculations. With 27 boys we raised $11K, so what should we have raised this year with 48 boys. If you said about double, you were right --we raised just over $20,000. So, M let the boys shave his head.

Here is the before picture:

Here are the action shots:

You can see the excitement from the boys. Who will take the first swipe at M's hair?



They all crowd around to see the action.

Here is T getting ready for his turn. You can see that M is still smiling -- what a trooper!

R was pleased as punch to help cut his dad's hair off.

And now, the "after" shot. As I said before, what a trooper!

"Fall Is" by R

Here is a poem that R brought home from school. It was displayed on the wall in his classroom during October:

Fall is what you see when you see the color of distinct leaves.

Fall is what you feel when you feel the endless piles of leaves and the hay on a hay ride.

Fall is what you hear when you hear kids playing in leaves and the ring of a bow in deer season.

Fall is what you taste when you taste warm apple cider with pumpkin pie.

Fall is what you smell when you smell a turkey feast on Thanksgiving and candy corn on Halloween.

It is quite poetic...and quite mid western with the deer hunting (LOL). By the way, R made the honor roll at school with over a 3.5 GPA (he's getting one B and the rest A's). M and I went to the school rally this morning to see him get his Honor Roll ribbon -- we're so proud, man.

The second grade doesn't have an honor roll, but if they did, T would have a ribbon too. He's getting one 3 and the rest 4's (just like one B and the rest A's.) We feel that we made a good choice when we switched them to this charter school.

Halloween

Our friend, A, as Lord somebody from Peter Pan, R as Frankenstein and Squire Thomas. They were allowed to trick or treat on their own down the culdesac by our house before M and A's dad took them down the rest of the street. Meanwhile, A's mom and I sat on the front porch with a bottle of wine and gave out candy to the kids. (I know, I know, we got the good deal for the night, but you may not remember that last year the men stayed at gave out candy while we moms took the kids out in the freezing drizzle. So, we thought it was only fair. After all, it was a balmy 54 degrees this year. As a matter of fact, I think that we deserve to stay back at the house for two years after what we went through last year!)

M and I were invited to a Halloween party last night. We have never been to one together and had a hard time thinking of costumes. All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm and we were....


Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, Beth....



Whaddaya think?