The 2nd Three Billy Goats Gruff

I was so glad that Tucker picked the same Fairy Tale Character as Luke did from when he was in pre-k.

I cracked up when I went back to find the post of Luke being the littlest billy goat.  Back then I was begging Luke to pick something else, and this time around I was begging Tucker to please be a billy goat. 

  

Tucker would have nothing to do with the beard or all white outfit.  

But he did wear the horns and the tail.

 The boots were especially helpful in making the "trip trap" sound going across the bridge.
He was really worried that people would laugh at him- but once he got to school it was all fine when he realized everyone else was dressed up in his class.  He even tried to give the principal a little headbutt with his horns!

Back to School/Summer Reading Dinner

A month ago today (oops-2 days ago) we started school. Can't believe it has been 1 month.
We started on a Friday. I was not sure about starting on a Friday, but in the end I loved it. It is nice to have one day to get over the first day jitters and work out the kinks in the family schedule, then have a weekend to recuperate and get ready for a full week ahead.
We had our family Back to School/ Summer Reading Dinner/Father's Blessings that Sunday.

We started off with Father's Blessings. I love this tradition. I think that next time I will make sure everyone has a little food in their tummies. We had only a few moments of grumpiness. And that was mostly for the pictures. I was really proud of one of these photos that I took. The child gave me only 1 shot to get the photo. And I did it.
And the shot of me and Jay? Savanna took it. It is now our favorite current shot.


















That weekend we pulled together our list of all the books we had read outloud together and made our menu. I was feeling a little sad that we had not read more books outloud together. But then realized we had only read one more outloud last summer than this one. I just decided to feel good about what we did do. We made some fun memories with a nursery rhyme book. There were so many that we had never heard of before. The funniest being, "Aiken Drum." This became our favorite and the kids memorized it pretty quick.

Our book list:
Mr. Popper's Penguins
How to Eat Fried Worms
The Nursery Rhyme Book
More About Paddington


The kids helped compile the menu from the food they could remember in the books.

Our Menu:
Mr. Popper's Penguins "advertising lettuce"


Mr. Popper's Penguins "canned beans"


The Nursery Rhyme Book- Aiken Drumm "good roast beef"



The Nursery Rhyme Book- Aiken Drumm"penny loaves"


The Nursery Rhyme Book- Aiken Drumm "good cream cheese"
More About Paddington "marmalade"





How to Eat Fried Worms "gummy Worms, popcorn & licorice"



More about Paddington "hard candy"


I love our back to school dinner- and it is a tradition that I will try and keep going. (Luke just saw me typing and said "even though we have only done it two years.") As long as I have children at home that will listen to me read I will keep doing it.

(I have a recording of the nursery rhyme Aiken Drumm- but I can't get it to load. As soon as I get a hold of my technology wizard I will get it loaded.)

End of Year Awards- Luke

Luke got a math medal for completing the principals math timed tests. We were happy and excited that he qualified for this. He had to work a little slower to make his writing more legible, and that would slow him down. And sometimes he would skip ahead to the next question before he had finished writing down the previous answer.


Then came the reading awards. Luke is a reader. Not doubt about it. His school has a reading program that tests them after they read a book and they accumulate points based on their comprehension throughout the year.

He set high reading goals and met most of them. He receivd an award for having the top AR points for his class and grade. But he totally blew us away when he received an award for having the highest amount of AR points in the school. He had over 440 points! I loved it when the principal said how many words he had read ...



He received a gift card for pizza and a book.


Luke got a special award from the principal. A "fast pass" that is valid until October 15th of next year. This pass allows him to move to the front of any line at school.


We are so proud of Luke and we are amazed at what he has learned from reading. He enjoys reading anything and everything including the dictionary, but will still have fun reading books with Tucker. I love it when he comes up to share a funny quote from a book.

Way to go Luke!

I am hooked

I have resisted. I did not want to read them. But last night I picked up my borrowed copy of Kim's.
I started reading. I was trying not to like it. I was trying to find some fault with it. I did not want to get "caught up" like everybody else.
OOOOPS- I finished the first one this afternoon. I stopped by Kim's before I finished to borrow the next 2.
And now I am on to the 2nd one.
Good thing its fall break here. Good thing that we are having left overs for dinner.