Way too cool!

Reposted blog entry from Apr 7, 2008

Since my husband has been gone [to USAF Weapons School], I take random videos of parts of the kids lives so that he can still feel a part of what’s going on here. I took a video last month of Daniel reading his bedtime story and posted it on YouTube so my husband could share in this precious time.

Yesterday, I got an email from a friend of the author. The author saw the video and was touched and wanted to get into contact with us. Here is a copy of the email. I believe the friend who sent me this email is the Mary Bloom that the author wrote about in another one of her books. Way too cool!

~
Date: Mon Apr 7 07:28:32 2008
From: Mary Bloom
To: Wendy
Subject: Copy of Aliki’s Email

Hi Wendy,

This is the note she sent to me originally to me, my response and then her response.

Please send her a note when you have time,

Mary Bloom

~
From: aliki brandenberg
Date: April 6, 2008 3:40:02 PM EDT
To: Mary Bloom
Subject: RE: What a way to start my day today!

Hi Mary,

Tim found it., I loved it. I loved that patient mother, doing all the right things. I loved that little boy fidgiting, trying so hard, and the questions he asked. I loved when he said "what’s aware"? his mother let him read the answer. I loved looking into their very private reading time together, behind my back. I loved that it wasn’t an ad for the book, that it was about READING TOGETHER. I have to get me a video name (and new address?) I wish I could write to them. xo

~
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 21:06:22 -0400
From: littlebrowndog
Subject: Re: What a way to start my day today!
To: alikibrandenberg

How did you find it. It’s amazing to see since it shows you first hand how important your work is.

Mary Bloom

http://marybloom.com

~

On Apr 5, 2008, at 1:22 PM, aliki brandenberg wrote:

What a way to start my day today!

~
From: Ham4ut
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 23:01:34 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRQZ6ghz9DE
Click on this link for a surprise!
 

My weird son

Reposted blog entry from May 16, 2007

This is my first attempt at blogging so I'll try a little story about my three y/o son.

We're sitting at the table eating when he lets out a HUGE belch.  I was waiting for an "Excuse me" as he is normally very polite.  Instead he loudly yells, "I'm okay!"

I guess he must have thought it was "iffy" there for a minute.

(weirdo...)

Another entry from Feb 28, 2008

I was singing along to one of Daniel's songs when he tells me to stop singing.
"But I like to sing," I say.
"Why?" he asks.
"Because that's the way God made me," I reply.
"I like to sing too," he says.
"Then why did you want me to stop singing?" I ask.
To which he replies, "Because that's the way God made me!"

Another entry from Apr 22, 2008

Where is your father?

Ways your son tells you Dad's been gone too long:

1.  (Hold up a pair a thong underwear he got out of the hamper) "Mom, what is this?"  Uh, Mommy's underwear.  "But they're too small!"  Uh, you are correct.

2.  Ask, "Mom, when is my chest going to look like yours?"  Uh, never.  I hope...  (Hold up his shirt and show me his nipples)  "But I have these too."

3. (Hold up a panty liner) "Mom, if you don't pee in your underwear, what are these for?"

5. (Hold up a bra) "Mom, why do you wear these?"

4. Ask, "Mom, is there a penis inside you that helps the baby come out?"   No, honey, that's just how the baby got there (don't worry, I didn't really say that...)

5. (call from the bathtub) "Mommy, my penis is surprised!  Its looking at the ceiling."

Conversations with Daniel

Reposted blog entry from November 26, 2007

We pulled up to a stop sign and a woman with headphones jogged through the intersection. The following conversation went like this...

Daniel: Mommy, what's she running from?
Me: She's exercising.
Daniel: Hee, hee, no! Maybe its a car.
Me: You know how Dad exercises at home when he runs on the treadmill? Well, some people run on the street to exercise.
Daniel: When I'm on the street and a car comes, I exercise too!

Another reposted entry from October 25, 2007

We went to the beach today. When it was time to go home, Daniel was speeding for the car. Asha on the other hand was in no hurry at all and lagging quite a bit behind. Daniel calls for me to hurry and here's the following conversation...

Daniel: C'mon, Mom!
Me: Honey, we have to wait for Asha.
Daniel: Why?
Me: Because we can't leave our sister at the beach.
Daniel: Why? Will someone else come and take her?
Me: Yes.
Daniel: And they'll be happy to have a new sister?
Me: Are you happy to have a sister?
Daniel: (silence)
Me: Daniel, are you happy to have a sister?
Daniel: (pause...and then an unconvincing) yes.

Anyone else feeling the love? hmm...

Another reposted entry from December 9, 2007

I hear Daniel and Asha fighting in the hall and then it sounds like someone is getting smacked. I'm pretty sure its Asha getting hit since I don't hear Daniel telling on her.
I call out to him, "Daniel, hitting is not an answer!"
He calls back, "Is it a question?"

i am wonder woman

I wonder about my life sometimes.

I wonder why I can make restaurant quality Macadamia Nut-crusted Ono but I can't for the life of me make a decent pancake for breakfast.

I wonder why my husband cannot remember to close the cabinets.
Like, ever.

I wonder why my 3 year old son insists on waking up at 4:30am every morning no matter how early or late I put him in bed the night before.

I wonder why my 8 year son old makes random loud annoying alarm noises ALL-THE-TIME.

        Seriously, have you seen this clip from Rio?

       

        No kidding, the 8 year old is worse.

And I wonder if anyone will ever be able to explain to me why my 6 year old daughter is obsessed with toilet paper.  Really?  She will shred it into little tiny pieces all over her room.  She will unroll half the roll (or more), roll it back up and stuff it in her pocket or backpack and carry it around with her.  She will use it for 'blankets' for her stuffed animals.  She wanted to put a ponytail in my hair the other day but instead of using the rubber band that she just took out of my hair, she used toilet paper!  I am grateful that it wasn't used toilet paper.  But still.
It makes me wonder about her.

Here she fashioned it into a head scarf.

The Voices in His Head (and body)

Reposted blog entry from September 17, 2007

Daniel told me today that he wanted to eat something because his heart told him that he was hungry.

You know how its suppose to be okay to talk to yourself just as long as you don't start answering back too? Well I heard him in the back yard the other day asking himself questions and then answering back. But to top that, he came in the house and told me about the conversation! He says, "Mommy, that's what I told myself."

You might not think there's a little schitzo under that little grin of his, but a mother can tell early on.
Last year when he was two and a half, he was using his hands as puppets. That might not sound ab-normal, but let me explain. He would hold his forearm vertical with his wrist loose, flap his hand up and down, and talk to it like it was a separate entity. He would encourage it, ("You can do it, hand.") and then praise it ("Good job, hand!") One time he was trying to put something together and when he finished, he stood up and held his flopped over hand out to me and said, "Mommy, hand did it!" then he held up his other hand and said, "Other hand helped too!"

My Little Trooper

Reposted blog entry from August 10, 2007

Asha fell and broke her arm on Monday.
She cried all the way to the hospital but then she ran around the ER like nothing happened. Both bones were broken and you could see her arm crooked but she kept taking the splint off so she could use her hand.
After all the doctors and nurses oohed and ahhed over how she didn't seem to be bothered by pain, they put her under anesthesia to pop the bones back into place and cast it. The cast is suppose to come off in about 5 weeks.
She woke up the next morning to go about her business as if she had only ever had one arm!
She's my little trooper.

Another entry from August 28, 2007

I promise not to believe what your kids say about you...

...if you promise not to believe what my kids say about me!

While I was reading Asha a bedtime story, she leans forward and then pops back and hit my neck so hard I yelled Awh!  Daniel asked me what happened and I told him that Asha hit me and it hurt.

After I tucked her in, I come into the living room to hear Daniel telling Dad, "Mom read Asha a story.  Then she hit her and then she put her in bed."

All I could think was 'What will people think when they hear that and then see Asha's cast?'  I just want to clarify for the record... -She hit me- and then I put her in bed.

TerraNova

Daniel is taking the TerraNova test with the Department of Defense school here in Korea this week.  We won't get the results for another couple of months and it will be hard for me to wait as I am super interested to see how he does on it.

Though he ended up returning to homeschool after the first couple of months, he started this school year out at the DoD school and I was impressed by his grades for the first quarter.  He got an A+ in Math and Science!  The reason this is so impressive to me is because he is 1 to 2 grades ahead of his age.  He just turned 8 on December 30th and he is in 4th grade this year.  He completed 3rd grade at home last year (skipping 2nd grade) and he did very well, but sometimes I have a nagging wonder if I think he's doing better than he actually is.  The grades from the public school were an encouragement that this is not true and that he is on the right track.

He woke up early this morning and after he ate breakfast we sat on the couch cuddled together under a blanket. He began to tell me all about how the 4 chambers of the human heart pump our blood.  This is not from his science class but from a detailed book about the human body he read on his own months ago.  We moved on to talking about the brain and then onto how gold is used in medicine and technology.  I love these talks and I'm always amazed by what he knows and understands.  I love that these are the things that he wants to talk about!

I am so proud of him.  Not because he's smart, but because he's just a great kid.  I am interested to see what this standardized test will tell me about this kid who is anything but standard.

*The results came in today.  His total score for Reading, Language and Math was a National Percentile of 96% for students grade 4.7!

Home again, Homeschool again, Jiggity Jig (Part 2 of 3)

Daniel's birthday is December 30th.  In most of the 50 states, that would set him to start kindergarten at 5 1/2.  In Hawaii, though, the cut-off to start kindergarten is turning 5 by December 31st.  It was a perfect place for us to be stationed when Daniel was 4 1/2 because he was more than ready to start then.

I wanted to start him in a little Christian school, but they held to the standard of turning 5 by August and would not hear of making an exception.  This was very disappointing, especially when they gave me the very condescending "You'll see.  Next year he will be bigger, stronger, faster." speech, sure that I was just a naive parent who didn't really know what was best for her kid.  But while it maybe true that some (maybe even most) kids are more ready to start at 5-5 1/2, Daniel already was big and strong and fast.  He was plenty mature physically and emotionally, and already advanced academically.  He ended up dis-liking kindergarten at the public school and I feel it would have been different in the private school setting if only they had been willing to consider it.

After a disappointing year of kindergarten at the public school, we brought him home to homeschool for the 1st grade.  Then I found out about a private school for gifted students and he went there for the summer session in a combined 2nd/3rd grade class.  Since the school was more than we could justify spending for the regular school year, I was hoping that maybe he could try the public school again and that the gifted program would keep him from being bored.  I had thought this would fix what he didn't like about kindergarten.  His teacher at the private school advised me that she didn't think this would be enough though.  She believed that he should skip 2nd grade altogether.  This meant we were back to homeschool because I was not naive.  I knew that he was not ready for a 3rd grade public school classroom at 6 years old.

For homeschool that year, we started a 3rd grade curriculum and I knew that we had made the right choice because he barely blinked at any of the work.  He hardly ever needed any help with math or spelling.  He liked reading, poetry and art.  He loved  the Science curriculum and would beg to do it first and do extra.  He did need a little help in Social Studies, and while he understood all the grammar concepts, he hated writing.  Homeschool was good for him because it let him excel at his strengths and get extra support for the subjects that he did not excel at.

I'll be honest though, with my husband deployed for the second half of this school year, it was not an easy one for me.

Home again, Homeschool again, Jiggity Jig (Part 1 of 3)

It's not how I hoped it would turn out,
        but probably how I suspected it would.

Asha started a special needs preschool 3 hours a day when she was three.  She moved on to full day Jr. Kindergarten the next year to continue receiving speech and language services.  This year she is still receiving services in Kindergarten.  School has always been good for her in more ways than one.  She loves school!  She loves her teachers, she loves her friends, she progresses and blossoms there.  She had a hard time with our move to Korea this summer, but I knew all would be well as soon as she started school.  And it was.

Daniel went to preschool when he was little, but it was not much of a structured place.  More creative if you please.  He didn't really play with the other kids.  On the playground he often stood next to the teacher talking.  Talking, talking... and the questions, ohh.  This kid has never been at a loss for questions!  His first word was 'Dad', but Lord help me if his second word wasn't 'Why?'

While he enjoyed the creativity of the preschool, he didn't really learn much there.  He knew his letters and numbers back when he was 2.  He was reading at 3 and skip counting at 4.  He was very excited to start Kindergarten but I knew it would be a lot of stuff he already knew.  After the novelty of going to school wore off, he started to dislike going.  He would beg me some mornings not to make him go.  I assumed it was because he was bored.

We stuck out the year but the next year I purchased homeschool curriculum and gave it a go.  He was an easy student and finished all his school work in 2 hours a day.  I knew this meant he was not challenged enough.  I knew he needed more.  I heard about a school for gifted students nearby.  We applied for the next year and he was accepted.  He attended the summer session and loved it!  They did a lot of science and math.  Both of those were right up his alley.  I found it interesting that even though he was now around kids who were just like him, he still did not play with them on the playground.  He mostly stayed to himself.  I found it interesting because he lived to play with his friends in our neighborhood.

It didn't matter much though because the school did not come through with financial aid for the regular school year and their tuition was much higher than we could justify paying for a 2nd grade student.  I need that arm and leg, thank you!  We already knew the local public school did not work for him, so back to homeschool it was.

The Education of Me

My oldest son starts 4th grade today.
He's excited!  I'm nervous.

There are so many reasons why I don't think it is a good idea.
He will probably prove all of them wrong.
He's such a smart kid.  Way smarter than me.
I'm happy about this, but I don't look forward to the day he realizes it.
For now, he's happy to learn from me.
Though I'm sure I learn way more from him.
I am constantly amazed by him.

I took this video of him when he was exactly three and a half years old.
I had given him a set of post-it notes that have words written on them.  He made a sentence out of them.  While I was taking the video, he changed his mind and added a word below to rewrite his sentence.

How can a three year old read and "write"?



I know he's not a genius.
I mean, come on,  he may be smarter than me, but he did come from me.
He must take after my husband.
That's what my mom said when I told her about him reading this book just after he turned four.
Thanks, Mom. :)

The book starts out with simple sentences, but if you stick with it, you'll see the sentences and concepts getting harder.  He asks for help with only a couple of words and also asks a few questions about the concepts.



I posted this video on the internet for my husband to see while he was away at a 6 month training.  The author of the book happened to come across it and contacted me.  She was delighted to see a little boy enjoying her work.  I could not have been more proud.

This is the picture I took with my camera
at the school Meet and Greet this past Friday.

This is the picture I saw in my head.

My little kindergartener.

He's so much taller now, but he looks just the same doesn't he?

I'm so nervous that the teacher will not remember that he is still only 7.
I'm so nervous that the other 4th grade boys will remember that he is.
I'm so nervous he will be frustrated that the teacher will always be reminding him to be still.
I'm so nervous that he won't be able to sit still because he has so much excess energy.  (I obviously have it too, don't I.)
I'm also nervous that putting him back into school after homeschooling the last two years might be the wrong choice because he's super smart, but he's still only 7.

I'm nervous.  But he's excited.
And today I will probably learn that all my reasons to be nervous are just excuses, and that he is bigger and stronger than I already thought he was.