Reading week challenges

I need to upload pictures again. All I have in my file to use on the blog are pictures of Emora! Of course, she is so cute, who would complain! She's pretty sweet and easy going (when she wants to be), so that makes our days fun (for the most part).

Today we got to go for her program and Dominique was with us too. Then we went to a couple of stores to see what all they have. One is going out of business with some items up to 90% off (boy's winter jacket for $3!!- Ivan doesn't need one, but I may have him go try one on anyways). The other store is rearranging and adding a lot of grocery items. I heard a rumor that they were going to start carrying milk and they are. They are down the street from us, so we can easily walk there, but the milk there was way more expensive then our one grocery store in town, so I think we'll still make emergency milk runs elsewhere, oh well. They did have creamer about the same price though- yum.

We've been having a total blast with our reading week challenges. I made up a bunch of challenges for the kids to do this week with their families. At first Ivan said he didn't want to do them. He's at an age when he doesn't want to do anything he's told to do (please tell me he'll grown out of it- even if it's not true! I think I'd rather be delusional at this point than hopeless). He also doesn't want to miss out. So I told him just to read what it says and away he went-- Reader Detective was the first challenge (look at the cover and guess Who, What, Where, When and Why, then read it and see how close you get). He did that and was so excited to find that he had guessed a lot of the story just from the cover.

The next day was to read inside where he has never read before. In seconds, he was pulling blankets out and making a cave like reading nest under the table. The girls were making a reading fort in a corner. I had thought to read to them in Dominique's cubby, but with them all going at it, I got in my comfortable recliner and read my own novel!

Yesterday was the scavenger hunt. We went on bikes to find the locations of pictures of words on signs around town. It was fun because we got to talk about history (the Bay store 1897 and Treaty 4 explanations at the statue) and talked about where in our town is (our house? Who lives over this way that we know?). We met up with Janet and her kids, then Ivan soured it some with being the oldest kid "know it all". But it was nice to bike together some even though my kids were about done. Actually, Ivan and Dominique wanted to go home and Emora wanted to keep going. So I let the big kids go home and did a couple of more blocks with Emora. It was fun to let them have some independence, although only a minute or so after we had left them, I got a call on my phone from the big ones. They were asking if they could have some snack or do computer or something. It made me realize that they knew how to call me if they needed me. Maybe they are getting big enough to be trusted a bit.

Tonight, we were Reader Reviewers and read outside in a new place. We hiked a hill overlooking the valley from which we could see 2 of the lakes and the town in between them. The sun was dancing on the new leaves, glowing green on some of the trees. As the sun started it's slow descent, we read books, caught tons of ladybugs and gave our opinions of the stories, what was good about them, why we picked them, what we would change and who else might like the story. It was so fun and I'll have to remember to do this often. It was also cool, because I gave the kids the option of three different hills to climb. I need to make a list in my brain of adventure spots, maybe even put it on paper for places we can go to for walks or play times outside.

And so exciting! I let Dominique get an e-mail. Apparently, kids aren't allowed to get e-mail- so I had to lie about her age, and then I did instruct her about not opening anything if she didn't know the person's name. I only shared her address with the grands, immediate uncle and aunties and told them to only send her short and personal notes and no forwards or anything else. Oh, I should have told them not to share her address either with anyone- you hear that grands, uncle and auntie? There I told them, unless they don't read here ;)