Camian Academy

On Wednesday Ani got two free books from Barnes and Noble from the summer reading program they have. She read 16 books to earn the two free ones. I told her I wanted her to read chapter books for that one since she was getting a nice prize. She ended up reading 15 Rainbow Fairies/Weather Fairies books and a Cam Jansen book. For her free books she chose Princess Academy by Shannon Hale and The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli.

After Barnes and Noble we went to the library and signed the big kids up for their summer reading program. They are supposed to read 15 books and they get a coupon book when they turn in their reading logs. I told Ani she could read whatever she wants for that one because a coupon book just doesn’t seem exciting to me. Ani read all 15 books that night. I read Cameron his 15 books today. We read so much that that wasn’t really out of the ordinary. So now they are both done and next time we go to the library we’ll turn them in and get their coupon books.

I’m not a big fan of rewards when it comes to doing things like reading. I view these programs as a bonus for the reading we do anyway. What I find kind of sad is 8 or 15 books over a summer is probably a big stretch for a lot of kids. I am thankful that my mother instilled in me a love of reading from a young age and I am thrilled that I am passing that love on to my kids.

Fritz has started falling asleep laying on the floor wherever he happens to stop. I did that as a baby and apparently so did my grandfather, the very Fritz my baby is named after. The other night he fell asleep hanging over the chair on the air vent in our bedroom. Fritz likes to take the cover off the air vent and get inside the vent so we have to put the chair over it to make it so he can’t get the cover off.

The other day I posted about the thumb in the T section of Get Ready for the Code. Well, Jenn at King’s Kids Academy looked at her copy of Get Ready for the Code and said she thought it was a toe. You know, I think she’s right! They meant for it to be a toe. But here is why they need a new artist. It’s a really, really long toe and so I thought it was a thumb and my son thought it was a finger. So there you go. The picture does make sense in the T section, it’s just drawn poorly.

I was tagged by Easing into “Waldorf” a while ago and so here are my 8 things.

The rules are simple…Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I don’t like newborns. I like when they get bigger and more interactive, like starting around 2-3 months. At first all they do is eat, sleep, and poop. I did enjoy Fritz as a newborn more than I did my first two, though.

2. I had Lyme Disease in 2002. My mom and I were diagnosed the same day. Even though it was caught early it was not a simple disease. I had a lot of problems stemming from it, some likely to be permanent. It is part of the reason Cameron and Fritz are nearly 5 years apart. The Lyme Disease robbed me of many of my long-term memories and, happily, those have begun to come back in the last month or so.

3. I don’t own a TV because I would sit and watch it all the time. I have not even so much as seen a movie since May of last year (and that was watched on my laptop). I’ll be watching another movie in July, though, because…

4. I have seen all four of the Harry Potter movies on opening day. I plan to continue this next month when Order of the Phoenix comes out. I was not interested in reading the Harry Potter books until just before the first movie came out. Fantasy is not really my genre (I like historical fiction and true crime usually). But then I decided to start reading them and had finished the first book the night before the first movie came out. Now I love them. We get them all from Amazon.UK in order to read them in their original language. As it turns out I like fantasy geared toward children (Secrets of Droon, Deltora Quest).

5. I have pre-glaucoma symptoms. My grandmother on my father’s side had glaucoma and was on eye drops and had had the laser surgery. My uncle on my mom’s side is currently on the eye drops and was for a few years when he was younger as well. So I’ve got a strong family history of it. I have high and variable intra-ocular pressures and the “blind spot” on my optic nerve is much bigger than normal. This may be a birth defect or it may be degeneration. This was all discovered in December when Fritz accidentally scratched my eyeball. So now I am being watched closely to make sure I don’t lose my eyesight.

6. I used to say I wanted 12 kids and I still would if money was no object. Now I say I’ll have 6 because that’s how many kids will fit in the back two rows of our 8 seater Sienna. When I was in labor with Fritz I even said I was only half done and was going to have three more. Of course I am weird and love the whole feeling of labor and the mechanics of it all.

7. Fritz was born at home and all future kids will be born at home unless there is some compelling reason not to. Ani was born in the hospital and Cameron was born in a freestanding birthing center. My mother has been at all three of my births. My father was at Ani’s and Fritz’s. Cameron came too fast for him to get there. My aunt was at Fritz’s birth. She will be invited to all future births as well. If I have three daughters I am seriously considering naming the third one partially after her.

8. I have a very good friend who lives 2500 miles away who I talk to on the phone a lot. I have another friend who lives 3 miles away who I see at church and e-mail or private message a lot. I rarely talk to her on the phone. Weird how that works out. As for the friend 2500 miles away, thank goodness for Vonage! We both have it so I can call her and she can call me and it’s free for both of us.

And now that you know way more about me than you would ever want to… I tag: Alison at Wayzley Academy, Lisa at Confessions of a Karate Mom, Chandra at Eagle Star Academy, Sherri at OurPlace, Rebecca at Treehouse Academy, Jamie at Homeschool Madness, Tisha at Our Homeschool Journey, and Kimberlee at A World to Explore

As if it wasn’t enough to wake up before 6 am to read, last night Ani read until 10 pm and then woke up at 3 am and read until 4 am and then was up for the day before 7 am. I guess she just doesn’t require much sleep.

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there!

This evening my parents and I met my brother and sister-in-law at the Temple. Jamie stayed outside with the kids while the rest of us went inside. First, my brother and sister-in-law were proxy for the sealing for time and all eternity of my grandparents. Then, my parents were proxy for my grandmother’s parents and I was proxy for my grandmother in the sealing of my grandmother to her mother and father. Finally, my brother was proxy for my grandfather, my mother was proxy for my grandfather, and my father was sealed to his parents.

And thus we have an unbroken chain. Jamie and I are sealed to each other and our children are sealed to us. I am sealed to my parents. My parents are sealed to their parents. Their parents are sealed to their parents. And so on for several generations. It is a wonderful thing.

(Each paper link represents one person in my family from my children - the group of three orange links in the middle - on back to multiple-great-grandparents. We are all connected forever now husbands to wives and children to parents.)

You apparently want to read it so much you wake up early to read. Ani has fallen in love with the Rainbow Magic books (Rainbow and Weather Fairies). We picked up a bunch at the library last night and by the time we finished our errands she had read one of them. She read another after we got home. She woke up at 5:55 this morning and read a third one and then read yet another one after that.