the OTHER mother

Pearl's First Writing Camp

Carrie's First Writing Camp

Some art and writing from Carrie (age 3):

 

Apologies for my sloppy scanning!

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Dock Dogs!

Today you can see the Houston finals at Discovery Green.

Carrie Sings the Aligator Song

Time = 40 seconds

"The Magic Lantern"

Pearl and Carrie and friends wrote and performed a play called "The Magic Lantern" at Writing Camp this summer. Carrie played a cheetah, and Pearl was a puppy.This is Pearl waiting to make her first entrance.

Carrie made a costume too, but she was not quite willing to wear it.

The story was hilarious. There was no doubt about it--the kids definitely wrote it themselves.

Parent, What Rocks Your iPhone?

With over 50,000 iPhone apps available, it's hard to guess which ones to try.  This week the PCMag.com editors named the 10 iPhone apps for Parents. Here is their list (quoted):

• Shazam: This app is able to identify whatever song is playing in the background wherever you are; use it to snag a sound bite from that new Top 40 hit your child loves, and get the details on whether it is in line with your family's listening standards.
• White Noise: Babies scream, toddlers pout, and parents can often lose their minds, White Noise is perfect for taking things down a notch.
• Kindle: One of the most exciting apps for the iPhone, Kindle lets you easily bring along most any book or magazine for you and your kids to enjoy on the go. Create your own family book club or read while stuck in a doctor's office, a book of your choice or read to your child.
• GoodFoodNearYou: When you’re on the road with the kids, avoid the fast-food joint and replace it with the convenience of this app to help you find health-conscious dining choices. Input your location and it will return scads of sides, sandwiches, and suppers from every dining destination in the vicinity.
• AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner: If the question is "What are we having for dinner?" this free AllRecipes.com-powered app will let you choose recipes based on main ingredients, what you have on hand, and how much time you can spare for food prep. Or let it randomly selected meal plan for you.
• Sit Or Squat: When a parent hears "I really gotta go!" finding the nearest bathroom has to happen fast. Using your current location it gives you the nearest options, stats on cleanliness, changing tables and handicap-accessible facilities—mark your favorite toilets for quick returns.
• AirMe: You no longer need to wait until you get home to start sharing photos from birthdays, sporting events or school plays. Use AirMe to upload instantly to Photobucket, TinyPic, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or Picasa without the hassle of file transfer or e-mail, and without the cost of an external gadget.  
• myLite Flashlight: Never lose a pacifier in a dark movie theater again with this app that uses the screen to emit white light. This free app has a straightforward series of settings to control light color and brightness.
• Remember The Milk: This popular and effective list-making and task-management Web site, has a complementary mobile app free to the site's paying members to help keep things sorted when you're shuttling between work, home, and your family's numerous appointments and activities.
• iTalk Recorder: This limited free download allows you to record and store numerous sound files for later use. Files upload easily to you.

This list is by the editors of PC Magazine. iPhone users, what do you think?

Question of the Day: What Would Make School Cool?

Today on Big Window, I posted some pictures on innovation school architecture.  So today's question is about school. If you could design a school, how would you set it up? Who would be the teachers? How would the children learn?

Roasting Marshmallows

I've mentioned how in Houston we love our A.C.  Instead of camping out this past weekend we "camped in."  Roasting the hot dogs (a.k.a. tofu pups) went quite well. However, after the marshmallow caught on fire, nobody was in the mood for scary stories any more!

Sunday Morning

 

The Gipsy Kings Play Songs of Love

Photographer, Jr.

Like her grandfather, Carrie is a photographer too. Her stylistic approach is quite different, however. Here are a few family portraits from the past few days.

Happy Birthday, Dad

This is David Reagler, my dad. He turned 85 this week. Also this week my cousin Rick sent me this photo which was taken my his brother. It's one of my very favorite pictures of my father. I've always wanted a photo of my dad just like this one! Thanks, Rick! Happy Birthday, Dad!

Photo by Howard Luther.

More about Dictation with Preschoolers

Pearl and Carrie are going to writing camp this summer. For children ages 3-6, dictation is a big part of the learning process. Last month I did a post about how we record Pearl's stories at home. I thought I'd post this follow-up to see if anyone has tried doing dictation with your preschooler yet. Have you?

At first most children tend to dictate words that are not stories at all. That is a part of the process. Here's Carrie's first try from camp:

The blue got on his face. The blue got on his foot. And he fall.

Perhaps his super powers failed him?

Fun Running the 1K for Kids

This year both Pearl and Carrie wanted to run in our neighborhood 1K race. Pearl faced the event with great fear last year, but this year she seemed more at ease. 

Carrie was thrilled to get to run this year. She has admired Pearl's ribbon all year long.  She wears it like a necklace some days and believes that because of this medal, Pearl is a hero.  That's what Carrie wants to be when she grows up, a super hero! So she has had this race on her radar for quite some time.

Carrie felt confident she would win in the 14 and under age bracket.  Marcia waited for her at the halfway point turnaround. Carrie was walking by then and cried when she spotted Mama. Marcia asked her, "What's the matter, Carrie?" Carrie shook her head sadly, saying, "My super powers failed me."

Despite this setback, Carrie crossed the finish line in due time, and received a ribbon. It was exactly like Pearl's!

Quotable Carrie

"Want to hear a joke?  Drink first, then eat!"  by Carrie, age 3

Quotable Pearl

"I'm going to see how my plan of catching frogs fastly goes."
                                by Pearl, age 5

Iconographic

The Silliness of Sisters

Swim Like a Fish

Question of the Day: Museums

What's your favorite museum?  And why?