Is your child ready to read?

I know every parent likes to brag about their kid and thinks they're the smartest thing since Einstein.  The dude, not the bagels.  And I'm no different.  My middle child is extremely smart.  Too smart for her own good.  I could go on and on about examples of how smart she is but that's not the point of this post.

This summer I have been looking for activities to challenge Kylee.  One of the things she loves to do is read.  She's been begging to learn to read.  There are a zillion sites out there where people have created educational activities to do with your child, no matter the age.  I looked at many of them and finally found one that fits our style.  It's called The Moffatt Girls and she is a former teacher now stay-at-home mom.  She has created a wonderful program that teaches your child sight words and word families.  It's called Ready2Read and you know the best thing about it?  It's free!!

We are currently doing Unit 4 and Kylee absolutely loves doing her daily activities.  She has created a word wall with her new sight words and she also puts up all the other fun activities that she does.   My camera is on the blink...(rather, my stupid computer refuses to acknowledge my camera) so I can't upload any pictures of Kylee doing her activities, but on her website Annie has taken pictures of her own daughter completing all the activities so you can see it in action. 

I highly recommend you check out this site and download and try the Ready2Read program.  You'll love it.  And so will your kids.



my lame "ode to summer"

2 weeks until I go back to work. 

*sniff, sniff*

Summer is quickly fading away.

If I was poetic I could write a poem.  I would call it "Ode to Summer".  Original, no?

I had my first school-mare in 5 years last night.  For those of you who don't know...those are nightmares that teachers have about school.  Hence, school-mare. 

I dreamed that I was taking over a class midyear and my very first day was parent conferences.  I had never seen my kids, didn't even have a room yet, and the first parent didn't speak English...she spoke Chinese. 

Tacos a la Flambe...a new recipe.

Last night I made tacos.  Now, I know in most of the parts of the country you guys buy Old El Paso brand premade hard taco shells.  Not so in New Mexico.  Those kinds of taco shells are almost sacriligious, I'm not even sure they sell them in the stores.  In these parts, we fry our own shells.  Trust me, they're way better.  No contest.

So, I was happily frying the tortillas (blue corn torillas, if you want to know)  and was being fairly successfull at it.  Usually that's Aaron's job, but since he wasn't home yet, the duty fell to me.

Where was I?  Oh, right, I was about to stir the beans (not crappy black beans or whatever ya'll eat elsewhere, but good ole refried pinto beans).  Anyway, I wasn't paying attention and accidently let the condensation from the lid pour into my pan of hot oil. 

I now have flame marks on the hood above the stove.

Jesus is busy

I overheard this piece of a conversation on the way home this evening:

Kylee:   "It makes Jesus sad because you're not sharing."

Krysten:  "Jesus is busy doing stuff in the clouds, so he doesn't know."

Happy 4th of July...twice!

This year we got to celebrate the 4th two different times.  Well...I will clarify...we went to 2 different parades.  Fireworks were banned in NM this year due to the extreme dry conditions and the number of fires we've had in our area lately. 

Not having fireworks is a big deal to us.  We LOVE our fireworks around here.  It's so much fun, we go to the city fireworks display and then when we come home we sit on the porch and watch everyone around us shoot of their fireworks.  We usually have our own display at some point too.  Loads and loads of fun.  If you live in an area where it's illegal to set off your own fireworks...I am sorry.  You are truly missing on out on some good ole fashioned American fun.

Anyway...back to this year. 

Where was I? 

Oh, right.  Parades.

We went to Quemado last week to visit my parents.  Quemado had their parade and festivities on Saturday.  Their parade was comprised mostly of Forest Service people.  But not local, they were all from Montana and Idaho.  They did the coolest parade thing I've seen FS do, they had a line of them in their full fire gear walking down the road.  Maybe I just really like it because they look just like Aaron. 

After the parade they had a small carnival at the school with face painting. 

We returned back to Silver for the festivities on Monday.  We again went to a parade but the FS was pretty cheesy.  Smoky was sitting in a lazboy for goodness sake.  Sheesh.

Happy (late) 4th of July everyone!!