November 2009

“I thought it was called tempura paint.”
      – Mica, on a discussion about tempera paints during Art class

The following instances show how Mica needs to work on her definitions.

Daddy and Mica during Chemistry class.
Daddy: What is a chemical reaction?
Mica: A reaction of chemicals.

Mommy and Mica during Logic class.
Mommy: What is a self-supporting statement?
Mica: A statement that is true because it supports itself.

During Spelling Class, I usually ask Rinoa to spell a word from her ‘list words’ and then to make sure she understands what it means, I also ask her to use the word in a sentence. The conversations described below happened in August.

Mommy: Rinoa, use ‘hot’ in a sentence.
Rinoa: My mother cooks lunch that is hot soup and I go to the kitchen and touch the hot stove and my fingers burned and burned and my mother had to bring me to the hospital and when my fingers felt better, I told my sister my fingers don’t hurt anymore.
Mommy: I don’t think that’s a sentence. I think that’s a story.

Mommy: Rinoa, use ‘pin’ in a sentence.
Rinoa: I have a map but I don’t want to lose it. I know where to place it – in my backpack! But it might fall out of my backpack when my backpack is open, so I find another place to put it. I know, the wall! But how will I stick it one the wall? I know, I need four pins to stick it on the wall.

So, since we were taking a long time finishing her spelling review because of her ‘long’ sentences, I decided to skip the ‘use the word in a sentence’ part of our review. And here’s what happened …

Mommy: Rinoa, spell ‘hook’.
Rinoa: h-o-o-k.
Mommy: Good. Now spell …
Rinoa raises her hand.
Rinoa: Uh, can I use ‘hook’ in a sentence?
Mommy: Sure but make it short, please!
Rinoa: I hang my bag … or coat … or sweater …
Mommy: (sighs) I said make it short!
Rinoa: (in a hurried tone) on a hook.

Now at the end of every spelling lesson, there are ‘sentence prompts’ – questions that are to be answered in one or two sentences to train her in her composition skills. Below are various instances when I was giving her the prompts.

Mommy: What if someone gave you a big jar of honey? How would you say ‘thank you’?
Rinoa: Well, actually, I would just give that jar of honey to a bear because I can’t eat that much honey.

Mommy: What is your favorite game? Describe how to play this game.
Rinoa: My favorite game is hide-and-seek. To play hide-and-seek, you have to trick whoever is looking for you by putting pillows on the bed under the blanket so the person thinks it’s you under the blanket.
Mommy: That’s not how to play hide-and-seek.
Rinoa: Well, that’s what Mica does.

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“I don’t like the color green because it’s the color of boogers – not the boogers you eat but the boogers that come out of your nose.”
      – Rinoa, explaining why she doesn’t like the color green

“Look Mommy, I didn’t get my plate dirty. That means you don’t have to wash it.”
      – Rinoa, after eating toaster pastry for breakfast

“I don’t like the color gray but I like Daddy’s hair.”
      – Rinoa

We had a wasp flying around our back patio last September, and Troy went out to get rid of it. On his way out the door, Rinoa was so concerned and said “Daddy, don’t be dead.”

Rinoa, drawing a butterfly.
Mica: Rinoa, your butterfly is not going to fit on the paper!
Rinoa: Oh! I need a bigger paper!
Mommy: Or you need to draw a smaller butterfly!

Mommy and Rinoa discussing the gray cloudy weather during Math Meeting time.
Mommy: When the clouds are gray, it means that they are full of water just waiting to fall down on earth as rain.
Rinoa: Does this mean that they are going to pee a long time?

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