Common Core and Why I'm going Gray...

The math problem:

There are 90 fingers and 58 legs in a park. How many people and how many dogs are in the park?

Fairly easily we figure out there are 9 people, making Calvin use his ding dang arrow language since they don't know division yet. When I say fairly easily...I mean not as easy if I could just divide 90 by 10, instead we have to do something like this:

So from there I'm trying to help Calvin figure out how many dogs are in the park.

Me: Calvin, so first we need to figure out how many of those 58 legs are human legs. If there are 9 people how many human legs are in the park? (Again, no multiplying allowed).
Calvin: 90
Me: No. There are NINE PEOPLE who each have how many legs???
Calvin: 9
Me: No, how many legs does one person have?
Calvin: 2
Me: Good, now how many legs does 9 people have?
Calvin holds up his fingers and starts counting: One, two, one, two, one two...
Me (frustration rising): Uh, hold up what are you doing?  You are trying to count one, two nine times on your fingers??? Calvin, if there are 9 people and they each have 2 legs...oh nevermind, just do 9 plus 9.
Calvin: oh ok
Me: So what's 9 plus 9?
Calvin:18
Me: Great! So now we have to figure out how many dog legs, so what do we do?
Calvin: I don't know I don't get it.
Me:  Well there are 18 human legs and a total of 58 legs, so what would you do?
Calvin: I don't know this is too hard.
Me: Well if we subtract 18 from 58 do you think we would know how many dog legs?
Calvin: Yes (But you know that yes means  nothing to him, he's just trying to get through the problem as I am at this point).
Me: Ok so what is 58 minus 18
Calvin: 72
Me: MINUS--I SAID MINUS.
Calvin: Oh, uhmm 52
Me: Calvin...um ok lets do your tree language thing (yet another method of core curriculum). How can we break up 18.
Calvin: huh?
Me: Show me on paper, do your tree thing and break up 18. (He really likes tree language, and at least understands this one. He proceeds to show me that 18 can break up into 10 and 8.
Me: Ok great so what's 58 minus 10?
Calvin: 47
ME: 58 MINUS TEN!
Calvin: ohhh 48
Me: ok, what is 48 minus 8?
Calvin: 52

I then excuse myself to bang my head into the wall.

Me: 48 MINUS EEEEIGGGHT...48 MINUS EIGHT!
Calvin: Takes his fingers and says...58,57,56..
Me: "Stop what are you doing and why are you starting with 58?FFFFOOOURTY EIGHT MINUS EIGHT
Calvin: oh 40
Me: Ok, so we now know there are 40 dog legs. So, how many legs does each dog have?
Calvin: 40
Me: Calvin, each dog does not have 40 legs, how many legs does a dog have?
Calvin: oh 4.
Me: Good, so if each dog has 4 legs, how can we know how many dogs there are?
Calvin: I don't get it.

I have left again to bang my head into another wall.

Me: Ok there are 40 legs left, each dog has 4 legs, using your arrow language since nobody wants to teach you multiplication or division and have you do dumb math problems like this...how can you solve this.
Calvin: I don't know.
Me: Ok just do the arrow thing and start with 40 and subtract 4 over and over again till you get to 0.
Calvin: I don't get it...

And here is what the entire problems looks like vs. how we used to do it.

Calvin's Valentine Box

 

At the class party, sporting the cool shades Mrs. Moos got him.

Sick Valentine's

The whole family has taken turns being sick this week, with Z and I getting the tail end starting on Friday night, best Valentine's ever! Z started throwing up first, and I about an hour after. Good times, good times. My favorite moment, was when I was holding her as she is puking in a bucket and then thinking she is done I set it down. She starts puking again, so I quickly grab the bucket again (a little too quick) and it splatters fresh puke across both of our faces. She wasn't a fan, but quit frankly neither was I.  Thankfully she is super sweet and easy to love. She spent the entire weekend only wanting to be cuddled by mom, and watch Barney's for hours on end. Loved the cuddling, but Barney got old real fast!

And this cute boy kept busy by building this!

St. Patrick's Day

Calvin: Mom, when is St. Patrick's Day?
Me: In like a month.
Calvin: Oh, good I can't wait! That's when I get real gold!
Me: (panicked) Real gold?! I just don't remember that tradition.

Calvin then shows, me a gold coin from preschool (totally plastic) and the gold painted rocks he dug up from my mom's sandbox (Jill genius plan). He is saving them to sell for money one day.

The Epitome of Calvin and Z's relationship...

This boy adores his sister...unfortunately, she doesn't quite feel the same way about him.

Reasons you should never reenact pinterest photos...Rani edition

My friend Nat found this: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/reasons-you-should-never-reenact-pinterest-photos And thought of me, so I thought I'd share my own Pinterest reenactments:

 So I loved this idea, but since I'm not a photographer, I wasn't willing to spend the money on a mini ladder or 6 crib mattresses with cute bedding. Instead I attempted the look by cheaping out with just pillows and quilts...and it shows!

I feel in love with this sweet picture on Pinterest and just knew this was going to be the sibling shot that I wanted to get, however age gap does seem to make a difference here. Instead of being a sweet little photo, I have something slightly creepy of the kiddee pornish variety.

And then we have the Christmas shots...

How do you get your little baby to hold the edge of the box so cute and peak out? I don't know! My baby didn't want to cooperate at all, and this was the best shot. She didn't want to look at me, and she kept slipping back down inside the box, and ya, this just wasn't working at all.

Then I tried the wrapped up light thing...ya again, I'm not a photographer clearly.

This one actually wasn't too unsuccessful  however...after taking the time to kiss her all over with my darkest lipstick, those dang lips didn't show up at all. I kept one real lip on her (top right corner on her forehead), that was the brightest one! So I had to photoshop the rest on. I could have spent more time, and manipulated the lips more to make them look more realistic, but meh...sometimes I just get lazy I guess. Oh, by the way, my baby hates smiling for pictures too.

Then for my favorite...yes I did try the cute baby in a pumpkin. And YES, she hated it!

Stay tuned for more Pinterest reenactments coming your way soon!

Calvin's First Day of Kindergarten

Calvin started Kindergarten this year. He goes to Pioneer School of the Arts. I was so happy he finally got into this school. Boise/Meridian has pretty much cut art from the budget, so this is the only way I could get him in a school that did Art. His teacher is Mrs. Dahle and he loves it! He is learning how to read even better, he had his site words down before he left preschool, but now he is actually reading. It's super fun to see his progression...what's not so fun, is I think he has grown 6 inches since school started. Even looking at this picture makes me sad. I am hoping to make it to the end of the year without buying new jeans, however the jeans that were too long when school started, are about a centimeter away from being floods!

Calvin's Diarama

This is what Calvin stayed busy doing while I was in the hospital.

Weightloss Help

If anyone needs help on their weightloss journey, I can send my 5 year old your way.  Upon opening a package of candy corns, Calvin says to me or more like yells: "Stop eating those, you'll be fat! Remember, be skinny!" Nothing like a little inspiration yelling in your face.

Calvin and his Collections

So lately Calvin has it in his head that he wants and needs to collect things, which I must add is starting to give me anxiety in the past two weeks we've had the following conversations:

Calvin: "Mom, I broke your glass."
Calvin says this, carrying a pile of broken glass upstairs into my office.
Me: "Oh my gosh, ok can you please give that to me carefully and I'll just go throw it away."
Calvin: "No, I want it for my glass collection."
Me: "You don't get to have a glass collection its dangerous." Then I proceed to take the glass and throw it away.

A week later...

Tye (Calvin's friend): "How come Calvin has broken glass in his closet?"
Me: "Good question." (Then I get up to see where the glass is.) Sure enough its the same pile I had thrown away. "Calvin, what is this doing in your closet?"
Calvin:"I told you its for my glass collection."

A few days after that he asks Will about the worms they had taken fishing the week prior. Will proceeds to tell them they are in the fridge in the garage. Calvin retrieves them and starts to play happily with them. Dissecting them, etc. Just doing his overall best to gross me out. Will tells him to just dump them in the garden. I don't see or hear much about them, and assume he's done that. Until 3 days later when we are on the way out the door to school.

Calvin: "Mom, I really liked those wormies, so I put them in my transformer box."
Me:"What?! sick?!" Scream I dunno, overall freak out session. "Calvin please go get the worms out of your transformer box."
Calvin: "No, I like them, I want to keep them."
Me: "Well they can't live there, can't they live in the garden, or at least the garage?"
Calvin: "Ok, fine but don't tell dad."
Me: "Fine, just get them out of your transformer box."

And today....

Calvin:  "Mom, I have an egg from daddy."
Me:"What kind of egg, like a chocolate egg?"
Calvin: "No, a white egg from the store."
Since Calvin hasn't seen Will since last night, I'm getting concerned.
Me:"So where are you keeping this egg?"
Calvin: "In my room."

Just a little Announcement...

Yes, it's true! We are very excited, and I'm relieved that I finally feel I can be excited. There is nothing like going through everything that I went through last year to make a person a complete headcase about getting pregnant, worrying not only about miscarriage, but hoping my thyroid levels are spot on, since being either hyper or hypo both causes many problems in the fetus, but last worrying about what anomalies radiation might have caused. Not to mention making this feel like its the longest pregnancy ever when you are trying your hardest to conceal it, but your body wants to reveal it upon implantation. So for weeks now, I've been wearing coats, lots of layers, long scarves, and carrying giant purses every where I go, but there gets to be a point where nothing is going to hide this anymore...alas, I've reached that point and then some. But we are very excited, and ultra-sounds reveals, two arms, two legs, and only 1 head, so that makes us even more ecstatic! Right now, our baby girl is due July 25th, but I'm hoping for a lot sooner :)

And as for names...Calvin is determined her name will be Lisa. Don't ask me where he got it, as far as I know he's never even met one. He is very adamant, we'll see who wins this battle.

Police Man Shooting a Bad Guy

I walked downstairs today, and found this in Calvin's sketch pad. It isn't his most careful drawing, but the details kill me. Like the x's for dead eyes, and the mean policeman face. He also loves writing words, even if they don't really make words, but apparently kept making the same nonsense word on this one.

The "Red" Hulk

Calvin was very specific to let me know that this is the "red" Hulk. It's so cute though, he was copying his figurine and tries to include very specific details, yet coloring it red doesn't seem to dawn on him yet.

Thanksgiving 2011

Calvin gnawing on a turkey leg and enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner.

And as you can see, turkey seems to have the opposite effect on Calvin has it does the rest of us.

You think I need a new punishment?

Putting toys in time out was the greatest thing...for a little while. Calvin would get a toy put in time out, and be on his best behavior until he earned it back and then some. And for a while, it would never be more than one toy at a time. I guess this is how you know its time to switch techniques.

Monster Patch

So I patched Calvin's jeans on Saturday after finding a cute example on Pinterest. This is how they turned out.

And this is after one day...I take that back just 4 hours of wearing them. :(

Zombie Party

With all the fun stuff we've been creating at work lately, throwing Calvin a Halloween party was a must. I let him pick between several party items from work, but the idea of a Zombie party was no contest. Of course Pinterest was a big help too!

Swamp water and zombie eyes!

We had Zombie spray (a zombie's version of monster spray and body parts for party favors).

It's not the best picture, but here are our zombie brain cupcakes.

All the cute mummies and zombies! Dalton, Liam, Logan, Calvin, Brandon and Micheal

The Haunted World

This is what Calvin has begged to do all year since his visit last year. What's pretty funny is although, he wants to hold your hand pretty tight. He doesn't really get too scared. These two faces below were the best nervous faces I got. Quite honestly, the Haunted World is one of the best I've seen, I'm surprised he didn't have nightmares over it.