Dresses for Only 5 Dollars!!!

Just a few things going on here…
Luke has brought in trash cans, taken cans out to the recycling bins, scrubbed toilets, vacuumed the carpet, read to his little sister, he even helped bathe his baby sister in order to complete this chart! This chart now completed is his ticket to getting a fish. I know that sounds boring, but a few months ago he saw a fabulous shark looking little catfish and has wanted it for his very own. He has worked so hard and certainly deserves the catfish with a neat little aquarium!

Isabel has had so much fun playing “dress shop.” She loves to pick out clothes and put them on her mannequin (the tomato cage), make signs and sort through accessories. This fun game and Sylvia’s fun game of “packing to go to grandma and grandpa’s” (throwing a lot of toys and junk on her bed) are such fun games for us to clean up afterward!




The other day Sylvia kept telling everyone they were a peach. “Luke, you’re a peach!” Then she said to me, “Mom, you’re PUFFETIC!”

Great Chore Charts

I found some great chore charts here. I like how you can pick Dora, Sponge Bob, etc. and customize the days of the week and chores as well. My kids get donuts at the end of the week if they miss two or fewer!  (the ghetto homemade chart on the top left is for something else.)

Hooray Isabel!

Isabel read over one thousand pages!  To celebrate, Joey took her out to The Cracked Egg this morning for breakfast.  She let me know that she never wants to do a reading chart ever again.  She said that she doesn’t like it when she HAS to read.  Hmmmmm.  That is fine that she didn’t like the chart.  It was merely a try on my part to get her motivated to read.  She is a very good reader, but doesn’t crave books the way Luke does.  If I could only find what genre she likes to read.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Some kind of nice and easy chapter books for girls?

Las Vegas Kids Marathon

Joey had the brilliant idea to have reading charts for Luke and Isabel where the more pages they read the closer they get to the finish line.  At the end they get to pick a restaurant for our family to go out to.  I am not very crafty, so this is the best I came up with.

Yes, I named their charts, “Rainbow of Reading.”  Sorry LeVar Burton, I totally ripped off the name of your PBS show.  Luke needs to read 10,000 pages and Isabel 1,000.  Her pages include me reading to her.

A friend told me about this Las Vegas Kids Marathon.  Running is probably the perfect sport for Luke (no contact) and Isabel will probably like it because she enjoyed watching the women’s marathon on TV from the Olympics this year.  Twice a week they get together at the local elementary school with other kids, and a couple of teachers get them running (I assume.)  Then once a week they are supposed to do it at home and after 10 weeks they will have acrrued 26 miles. Today at 3:45 is their first class? session?  I think Luke and Isabel will gain a sense of accomplishment from this and have a lot of fun being with other kids.

Neon Ocean

Isabel has been enjoying learning to write in cursive. I am impressed with how well she is doing. Luke isn’t very excited about it which is fine with me if he never learns. I would like to get a good “learn how to type” program for kids that has games etc. while teaching typing. I think he would like that. So let me know if you know of any. Today he scanned his Neon Ocean (sea chart) and marked yellow where there are monsters.