A Penny Saved is 7 Cents Earned.

How many quarters in a dollar?

12?   [inches in a foot]
5,280?  [feet in a mile]
2,000?  [pounds in a ton]

There are 4 quarters in a dollar.
How much is a quarter worth?

30 cents?

How much is a penny worth?

7?

Change comes in 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, and 25 cents.
How much is a dime worth?

20?

[I think until a certain child thinks money is important, I will keep getting randomly generated answers.]

Antsy Pantsy Dance

There's a couple interesting things about this video. One is Yordi's ability to play soccer without losing the rhythm. The other is the way she takes her brother (in orange) to school while doing so.
Apologies in advance for the video quality. My phone lens was smudged and shoots in SuprCrap on good days anyway... What's not audible is the iPod pumping out vintage Michael Jackson in the background, but you'll get the idea.

Whiny the Clown

After reading about Junie B. Jones dressing up like "Screamy the Clown", Yordanos was inspired to do this:

She called herself "Whiny the Clown" and ran around the house trying to scare us.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head, don't you? 

Out of Phase

I can only assume, by these photos, that my niece is out of phase with the rest of us.  Is she partly in our world, but partly in sub-space?  Is she a baby Nosferatu?  I only notice this phenomenon in pictures... well, that's not strictly true... one minute she'll be there, and you blink, and she's GONE. 

 

Thriller Christmas

 I'm so glad nobody over-reacted this Christmas.  Oh. Um. Er.  Maybe one of us did.

 

 

In case you didn't know, the Michael Jackson Wii dance game comes with a sparkly glove... in case you didn't get yours back in the 80's.

Daily Snippet...

Yordanos is down to her last 4 baby teeth, and 3 of them are currently loose.  She showed me one of them that was hurting, and got more and more frustrated about it.

"It is hurting my law... my... law... my... JAW... my mouth... MY PIE-HOLE.  WhatEVER."

Still has me laughing.

We got back to school today, and for a Monday (not only a Monday, but a Monday after a 12 day break), I have to say it went very well. They didn't forget too much... we did some math review, but everything else was fine.  In fact, I've noticed that after taking vacations, Habtamu's reading seems to get better.   Don't tell him, because we can't be taking breaks all the time, but it's good to know that with the reading he does on his own is bearing fruit.  Yordanos and I concentrated on some gaps in mathematical understanding that I've noticed.  We played with manipulatives until she saw the pattern I was trying to teach.  We'll have to go over it some more tomorrow, but she catches on quickly. 

After school, the children seemed to not be able (willing?) to stop bothering, annoying, poking, touching, etc. each other.  I heard Habtamu say "Stop-uh!" for the 87th time to Yordanos, and I said, "Oh, did she pick your nose for you?"  He snorted, then quickly remembered he was trying to be angry.  I kept right on saying, with a straight face, how I can understand the frustration of somebody else picking your nose without your permission, and how HORRIBLE it must have been.  Meanwhile, Yordanos is laughing so hard she's crying, and I walked out of the room before I broke character.

Ah, a day in the life.