Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Ramblin'

Well, it has been awhile since I wrote a post of unadulterated randomness, so guess what? It's your lucky day!

I'm sitting here with a bottle of water and a few empty Halloween candy wrappers by my side. I bought the candy for "decoration". Yeah, right...now they'll be "decorating" my thighs.

I've flipped through the channels and read through all of my bloglines and I guess the only thing left to do is write a post about NOTHING.

Oh wait. Here's something. I finished those thank you cards today! Only three months late, but hey...better late than never. Honestly, I probably would have forgotten about them all together, but I had little postcard thank you notes printed with this picture...



What else could I do with the pile of postcards that said..."As you can see, our little Skywalker had a GREAT time at his birthday party! Hope you did, too! Thanks for joining us! Love, Richie". The only option was to use them for their intended purpose. I did add a "p.s." at the bottom that says, "Sorry this is so late!" because I would not be me if I didn't.

Hmmm, let's see...what else?

I made dinner two nights in a row! I even used the timer on my oven so the chicken potpie I made would be golden brown and bubbly hot when we got home from Will's soccer game. Of course, our dinner was postponed for a while when we realized that we needed to make a Columbus Day boat for school. The instructions said that the boat could either float or sink. Hmmm...let me think about that one. Yes, we are definitely boat floating types. Rich and Richie whipped up an impressive specimen in about 30 minutes (while Richie was eating his dinner). Thank God for my creative husband!

Speaking of school, the rule follower in me is being torn in two directions with Richie's homework. You see, each week they bring home two letters to learn. They are supposed to color the "letter people" pictures, trace the letters in capital and lowercase, find three pictures of things that start with that letter from a magazine and glue them into the "Letter People" book. All of that is fine and dandy. The real problem comes when it is time to label the pictures. They encourage you to let them spell the words phonetically. Wha??? Excuse me?? You're talking to the 2nd runner up of the 4th grade school spelling bee. You spell the words RIGHT or your opponent gets "sailboat" for a final word and you LOSE! I've said it before and I'll say it again, "sailboat is SO NOT a 4th grade word"! I'm really not bitter...I'm not...really...but I think you can see why I might hyperventilate a little at the thought of telling my son it is in ANY WAY okay to spell a word incorrectly. Thankfully, Richie usually spells them right on his own. He only gets confused when the letters don't match the sounds or when there is a silent "e", etc. So, I let him spell the parts that he can and then I help him with the tough sounds. I can't help it. Hopefully, I'm not opening a can of worms here, but what do you all think? Am I doing the wrong thing?

Well, it is getting late and I should probably retire for the evening. But before I go, I must share with you the results of my latest poll. The question posed was...shoes - heels or flats? 6 of you (66%) prefer flats versus 3 (33%) of you who prefer heels. Thought provoking, I know. Feel free to leave your 2 cents on this very important matter.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Girl! I loved reading your random post! I mean, come on, most mom's lives are the epitome of random right? (Did I spell that right? Just kidding!) Ok, here is what I get the Bad Parent of The Year Award for...my 6th grader is very smart and great at math, science and the such, but he is not the most creative guy in the bunch. In Social Studies he had a project a few weeks ago and because he was going to be graded on the creative side of it....I did the whole project. He totally knew the information and even gave me all of the info he had collected on it...but I did it. I am proud to announce that I got 40/40! A+! (Seriously, I have never done that in all of the years of school so far! But I didn't want him to be penalized for just not being creative!) So there it is, Bad Parent of the Year Award...

Chris said...

On the subject of "ahmost krect spelng" I too shared your reservations when my oldest started kindergarten. Having been a former spelling bee contestant (lost in the 5th grade city-wide bee on the word "theirs" aaahhhhh....it haunts me still!) my first impression of the "just get as close as you can" method was rather abrasive. I must confess however that over the past few years I believe my daughter has written a greater volume of stories and poems that are more substantive because she hasn't learned to fear spelling a long word wrong. The confidence to submit your ideas regardless of the technical correctness of the spelling may prove more important in the long run...assuming that at som pont she lerns to spel the preponder..perpondrea...propenderan...most of her words right.

BethAnne said...

I am laughing so hard about the rule following and spelling. I, too, hav ethe same problem. Last year when my son was in Kindergarten, I helped in the classroom 2 hours per week. I was amazed at how they were teaching these kids to read using phonics. I kept thinking 'how will they ever learn to spell correctly?' This year the first spelling test of first grade was color words (orange, purple,white - kind of difficult I thought for a 6 year old). I almost lost it when I was practicing with my son and he spelled orange --orinj ---YIKES!!! I had terrible visions of my son working at McDonalds as the janitor forever.
Anyway, if it makes you feel better after the first week he ralized he had to memorize spelling instead of sounding words out to spell them and he has made a 99.5% on every test since (now if I could only get him to remember the period at the end of sentences.)

I'm Tara. said...

I love randomness -- I have quite a bit of it over in my little world as well. (Go figure!)

I voted flats simply because heels hurt. I like the way they look, but can I get a hallelujah for ballet flats being TOTALLY in right now?? yay!

Re: the homework -- I think that YOU are the mom. Obviously he'll be getting the phonetic spelling practice at school, and at home he'll get the reinforcement of learning how they are truly spelled. Maybe it's because I used to work in the schools and I like to blaze my own trail with stuff like this, or maybe it's because whatever is "hip" in education now will change in 6 months.

Oh, and I almost bought candy at Sam's Club on Monday but I knew it would also be decorating my thighs, so I'm waiting till the week of Halloween. :)

xoxo

Carissa said...

great post alana. you crack me up! you are so good at writing about "nothing" as those seinfeld people were!

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Eye am the worlds wurst speler. (Ok, I am exaggerating a bit here...) But I wonder if I could even tell when the words were wrong...ha ha! My fifth graders used to quiz me on their words as a joke. Seriously, it was sad.

I moved on to middle school math! Now THAT is my thing. Help the teacher who tells my child something wrong in math....

I love nothing posts. They just help people "get to know you"!

Unknown said...

WHAT A FUN! I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU STOPPED BY MY BLOG AND ENTERED MY GIVE-AWAY! STOP BY FOR COFFEE!!!

Shelley said...

I with Tara, YOU are the mom! You know what he needs, you know how he thinks. I think that they do it that way so that the kids don't get too overwhelmed with spelling, and can just focus on writing. But Richie is very smart, and I think he's probably ready for more than a lot of kids at school. I say it again...You know him the best!

Renee said...

Love the randomness. It's fun to read about the 'random' stuff going on in your life. Thank you cards, making boats, spelling, shoes, and candy. These are the things life is made of. :)

That's funny...I'm a perfectionist when it comes to spelling, too. I mean, I misspell words sometimes if I'm not paying attention, or don't have access to spell check (or forget to use it). But to see a word misspelled, and just let it go...that would be HARD. I feel your pain!!

Loved the post! (Did I spell 'misspelled correctly?)

Sarah Markley said...

Its just really hard to push a stroller in heels. I know people do it. But if I ran after Naomi in heels, I would break my ankle twice a week. Heels on the weekends and nights out for dinner; flats to school and the market; running shoes to everything else!

Earen said...

Oh, this was a great post! I really enjoyed your random thoughts. I have to agree with Tara...YOU are the MOM! and I would think it would help to teach him the right way to spell a word, maybe right after he attempts it on his own. I have my own issues about a PRE-K student (my son) already having homework...WHAT??? Thus it begins....Oh, & I'm a flats sort of girl. I like heals, but I feel like a giant when I wear them. I'm a taller girl. Oh, & I missed the word "Ostrich" at my spelling bee in school..remember it to this day. I beat out the girl who studied for months when I didn't study at all, but lost to a word like that...lame...HA!

Janelle said...

I thought I left a comment this morning...oh well, must have still been sleeping.

Well, your resident Kindergarten teacher says Richie needs to develop a love of writing first, spelling second. He needs to write uninhibited without stumbling over some of those harder words. I know it pains you to watch him misspell, but in the long run he will be a better writer. Spelling will come in time. He needs to learn the strategies and that comes with lots of trial and error. Don't tell him that it is OK to spell it wrong, but remind him to use the techniques that he is learning on figuring out the big words. He won't always get it right, but just keep encouraging him to spell it as it sounds.

Soapbox...sorry. Now getting off my very high horse.

Darlene R. said...

I have read so many blogs tonight with randomness. Mine is titled, Random thoughts about stuff. How's that for original!
I actually wrote mine before I READ EVERYONE ELSES(i just realized the caps, but I don't want to retype!) so I guess there's just not much going on anywhere. It's fun just to read about everyday stuff.

Shelley said...

OH, I forgot...I voted for flats, because that's what I wear, but I'm trying to work myself back into heels...I really do think everyone looks better in them.

Teresa said...

Definitely flats!! But, you know I really AM The world's worst speller. Thank the good Lord that there is spell check on just about everything!! :)

About the spelling thing: Remember- learning to spell and to write is very developmental. He's starting out with the building blocks- learning to segment sounds, learning that letters represent sounds and sounds put together makes a word. Let him work through his sound knowledge. Being about to hear the sound and separate the sounds is very important step in learning to spell, read, and write. Janelle is right about the love of writing without the hindrance of spelling. He is also a concrete learner now, so some of the abstract spelling (silent e, oi, ch, sh, etc) is just not developmentally kindergarten. Think about learning the concepts of color before painting a masterpiece or learning the piano keyboard before playing Bach. You get the point!

It's ok to relax about spelling. Ok, I'm done now!! :)

Darlene R. said...

Hey Alana! I tagged you to do a meme about yourself! Go to my blog to get the questions!! Have fun with it!

Teresa said...

Alana...I just love how you write even if it's about "nothing"!

I really don't know what to say about the spelling thing...DJ and I are horrible spellers and would die without that "ABC" icon! I want my kids to learn how to spell words correctly...and really didn't understand why you would teach a child any other way!! I liked Janelle's opinion...I had never thought of it from that perspective. I know others have posted similar views. I still think I'd be on the side of spelling correctly...we'll see how I feel when Ashlyn and Eli are school age!

I have to agree with Shelley on the shoe issue...heals do look the best but flats are so EASY!

Love ya!!!
TCLINE

Anonymous said...

What LONG comments---I'm intimidated. And what is up with 99%---where's that 1%? Maybe it's you, Alana. :)

Heather C said...

Girl, you are so funny!

I am totally with you on the spelling thing. How much of our lives do you suppose we spending unlearning the bad habits we've collected? No way I'm going to encourage my kid to spell WRONG.

And for the record, you are right about sailboat (assuming you meant it was way too easy for 4th grade... heh...). Noah's 2nd grade spelling list this week included "bicycle," "sometimes," "seaweed," "exercise," and "special." I'd say "sailboat" fits right in there. :)

I loved your randomness. :)

Kate said...

This:

I'm sitting here with a bottle of water and a few empty Halloween candy wrappers by my side. I bought the candy for "decoration". Yeah, right...now they'll be "decorating" my thighs.

...made me laugh out loud. In my opinion you were calorie conservative. You could have been drinking coke (not the diet kind) instead of water.

Kate

Bev Brandon @ The Fray said...

you made me laugh...eating the haloween candy...decorating your thighs...lol lol lol...i was thinking today that i wished i had bought some haloween candy and it wasn't for the empty dish either...you made me smile tonight and after the last couple of days i have had, i needed a good laugh...thanks so much...enjoyed reading your blog...
your heart is a lonely hunter friend