A Big "Thank-You" to Aunt Kelly

Kelly gave Alex The Big Book of Gross Stuff, by Bart King, for his birthday. It has become a bible of sorts. He is constantly quoting parts of the book to us:

"Did you know that if you eat fatty foods, your poop floats?"

"Did you know some woman drank her own puss?"

"Did you know that Vikings used pee to clean sheep's wool?"

And on and on and on...

Without fail, we are almost always eating when he decides it is time to discuss this book. It is fairly standard for us to tell Alex that there is to be no discussion of the gross stuff book at the dinner table. This obsession is going on for over 2 months now and even though he has read it from cover to cover, he still carries it around, giggling while he flips through over and over again.

So thank you Kelly. And Mr. King too, I suppose. You've thoroughly entertained the boy and grossed us out at the same time.

Good things come to those who wait?

What a morning! I just got a call about finally getting a time and venue for the home-school coop we are trying to get off the ground. Something educational, where the kids do some group work, presentations may be involved...basically the one thing most of us feel like our kids are missing out on not being at school. I am very excited! This has been a long time coming.

This morning was also an exciting one for Alex. I knocked on his bedroom door at 10am to convince him that even LEGO addicts needed sustenance. Turns out he had been reading all morning. Late last night we popped into the library to get an insane quantity of books (even the librarian was impressed and they know his usual take) and he picked up The Day My Butt Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths. It is a 240 page book, about 300 words per page and no illustrations. When he picked it up I thought, great, I'll have to read this with him. Even though he is a good reader, larger books (of the fiction variety - not those encyclopedic sized science jobs) seemed to overwhelm him so he wouldn't even try. Well, not this book. It is done. He was at page 182 when I interrupted him. I started quizzing him on the book but stopped myself. Over the course of lunch I let him just talk about it.

Then Izzy was back at her math book. She did 17 pages a few days ago and I stopped her at 14 today. This child has a serious addiction with worksheets, lol.

All in all, it has been a much better week. Maybe we are getting our groove back. The weather has been colder but the sun has been shining a bit more too - which helps. Good to be on the upswing again.

Books We Love

We put in our request with my neighbour's classroom scholastic order. I've been so good about not spending all our money at Chapters and now this...a monthly magazine full of book titles the kids and I drool over. I remember how much I loved those Scholastic orders as kids.

We picked up the math dictionary by DK books. I figure Alex loves reading books with short blurbs and definitions so this would be another good way to learn math.



Fun with Roman Numerals. It explains it much better than I did.



We also picked up a 4 pack of the Horrible Science books by Nick Arnold. I didn't know these existed. I have been (not patiently) waiting for Alex to be older, or rather mature enough, to read the Horrible History series and was very excited to come across these. We picked up Blood, Bones and Body Bits, Shocking Electricity, Fatal Forces and Nasty Nature.



From our last library haul, notable mentions for:

Revolting Poems to Make you Squirm by Susie Gibbs
DK Eye Wonder book of Weather
Fire Fighters in the Dark by Dashka Slater

We have no will power...

We usually don't, not when it involves our favorite thing in the world, books. Yesterday we went into the city to pick up Rob and head over to that big toy warehouse that is only open from September until Christmas. Beyond a few things for babies, it is mostly junk with a few key exceptions - tons of Crayola art stuff and books, books, books!

I found a few box sets but passed this time around. I already have several with Harry Potter and the Spiderwick Chronicles to work through next. Instead we went nuts for the science and nature material. Little books, usually a buck or two, put out by Readers Digest or DK Books that are perfect for the kids. We must have been a funny sight. Rob holding open a big red bag as we all grab and holler to one another, "Did someone grab this volcano book yet? How about mammals? Or this one on spiders? Nocturnal creatures, anyone?"

Two giants stacks later it was time to force ourselves out. Alex was so cute. He didn't even realize they were all for us. His eyes lit up and smiled brightly when he found out we were taking them home. I think we have successfully passed on our addiction to the kids.

Only one draw back though, eventually I will run out of places to put more bookcases.