Saturday, June 16, 2007

Writing waiting for Adam to get home from rehearsal

The other day the kids were goofing around and Victoria accidentally kicked Sebastian, and he said, "Victoria, you kicked me in the privacy!"

Both of my kids ask on almost a daily bases if they can sell something. They have had a lemonade stand, and a small bake sale (chocolate chip cookies only to be specific). They have made a couple of dollars at their sales. Bless the neighbors that have patronized their little sales, and rewarded them for their hard work.
Their grandmother had a garage sale last weekend and they sold cookies, not even homemade and bottles of water. They finished with a combined gross sales of $22. Victoria got to keep a much larger portion because she stuck it out until 10:45, for a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes. Sebastian went in to watch cartoons after the first hour or hour and a half. He did well for a 5 year old though. They split the profits at that point and he made $3. Victoria, sat in the shade of her umbrella and at times only her wide brimmed hat, and made her hard earned money. She is a hard worker. I see it in her studies, her cleaning, exercise, and anything she puts her mind to, even her writing for which she never did earn an "A" grade. Writing was her only "B". She told me that she wasn't a very good writer. I told her the grade she received from her teacher was only one persons opinion of her writing. She was pretty disappointed to have never earned an "A". We will be doing a lot of writing, revising, and final copy work this next year. There will be some light writing practice this summer, but only for fun. I want her to enjoy writing! I am excited to start homeschooling. I think Victoria is one sweet, spunky, and inspiring little girl, who is growing up so fast I can hardly keep up.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Bicycles

Yesterday both of my kids spent hours riding their bikes. Yes, 2 wheelers! Victoria, who had worked at mastering the 2 wheel bike before our move, picked it back up again in the matter of an hour. Excited for his sister's accomplishment, Sebastian decided he was done training I guess. He had me remove the training wheels from his back wheel. He had tried to pick out the proper size tool from the rachet? set before I went out to the garage. (I know how to use the tools, it doesn't mean they are called.) Anyways, he opened the set upside down and all the american and metric versions of the different sizes spilled all over the floor. Well, we had a lesson in how to read them and place them back where they belonged. It was a good bonding time.
So today I go out to see Victoria ride in circles in our garage counting to 120, which was at least 15 circles, and I see the training wheels from the Superman bike Sebastian got for Christmas on the floor. The Superman bike had been reserved by Sebastian, for when he turned 5. Well, his birthday was in March and he probably still needs a little more growing time before moving on to the Superman bike. However, the thing is that my 5 year old son got the tool kit, opened it correctly, found the proper size tools to use, and removed his own training wheels, replacing the bolts he removed after taking off his training wheels. I was so proud! He has not quite mastered the 2 wheel bike, but he knows how to put the training wheels back on if he needs to and how to remove them when he's ready. Although, with the persistance with which he has been practicing I don't see him trying to put training wheels back on.