Interesting Reward

Okay, I had to share this. Brandon *hates* reading, and we stumbled upon something interesting that actually seems to be motivating. He mentioned that he wished he could just rip the book up. I told him that after he reads the last page, I would let him destroy the book however he wanted to. He could rip it to pieces, or cut it up into bits. . . or crumple all the pages one by one. He started getting pretty creative with the way he'd like to destroy it and we agreed that Karlon would even help him burn it if that's what he wanted to do with it when he was done. He brightened at this and began his reading with fresh motivation. I never thought about it before, but it's a rather fitting reward for a kid who hates to read as much as he does. This time he happens to be reading a raggedy old very, very used paperback copy of Farmer Boy (the book has already split in two and the front and back covers are missing), so no worries about destroying this one. But from now on, I guess I'll have to make sure all the books he reads are old and tattered from the get-go.

Ashley, on the other hand, (although she also doesn't care for reading), considers every book a memento of major accomplishment and adds it to her personal library in her room when she's finished. . . so I always purchase the best of the best hard-cover books for her. The quality is good motivation for her.

. . .And I've discovered the wonderful world of "read-aloud edition" books. The pages are exactly the same, only blown up to 8.5 x 11 size. I'm collecting them one-by-one, as I find them.

And rewards. . . Jon likes rewards. He's a lazy reader. If it's not a sight-word, he coughs or falls down like he's too sleepy to read. I told him he would earn a point for every word he sounded out that wasn't a sight-word. That little stinker read for an hour - happily! . . .and earned 75 points. . . .and woke me up again in the morning wanting to read some more. (100 points gets a toy he's been wanting forever).

Well, it's back to work today. We eased back into the swing of things last week, but it's back business this week. We counted and Ashley only has 50 more days left! I don't think anybody is more ready for summer than me!

San Antonio

San Antonio was great fun! We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the river. . . and were so totally lucky. Ours was one of about six rooms on the eleventh floor only that had a sliding glass door that opened to a balcony overlooking the river. We ate at the hotel restaurant one night and it was wonderful too. . . I had some kind of shellfish stew that was a cross between gumbo and tortilla soup. I brought the mussel shells home as a memento. There was an extraordinarily comfortable lounge area just outside the restaurant (I know this because we had to wait an hour for a table at breakfast the next morning), and just beyond the lounge were the doors that led to the river. There was a cute little island with a bridge that the kids really enjoyed. We walked up and down the river a ways and Ashely said it was her favorite part of the whole trip. The hotels were packed tight together and each one seemed to do something interesting with their section of the riverwalk. Ashley was intrigued by a cute little water fountain/fall. It rained *hard* the next morning and the poor river was filled with all kinds of trash from the run-off water. I was glad we took our walk the day before. Karlon made a funny joke about the boats on the river. I'd commented that I didn't like how packed the seats were on the boats. . . and that I didn't care to go riding shoulder-to-shoulder with some of those people. He said, "Bubba and Jolene come up to take a ride on the river." I'm still chuckling over it as I type.

And Ashley did get room service. She was totally thrilled! The kids watched Ice Age 3 and Alvin/Squeakquil while they ate in one of the bedrooms and I got roped into watching another end-of-the-world movie with Karlon. . . 2012. It's pretty much a ritual for him to rope me into watching one and start counting interjections. "yeah, right!" is my favorite. Remember Dante's Peak? I still can't quite wrap my mind around how the guy's tires didn't melt instantly while he was spinning his wheels on the hot lava. There were several such moments in this movie too. I guess it wouldn't have been much of a movie if it had ended ten minutes in, though.

Before we left town, we ate at Magic Time Machine. It was great. Tinker Belle was our waitress and she sprinkled pixie dust all over everything. The kids had never been there before and they all had a blast.

We got home around 3pm and that left me plenty of time to finish the cleaning project I started before we left. I now have a perfectly clean (not overhauled, mind you) downstairs. We won't talk about the upstairs in this post. Maybe another time.

Anyway, I feel rested and ready to take on the last eight weeks of school! Here we go!

more funny dialogue

Jon: Ah -AAAAhhhh!

Karlon: Brandon, please leave Jonathan alone.

[ten second time-lapse]

Jon: Ehhh!

Karlon: Brandon!

Brandon: I was trying to leave Jonathan alone.

(maybe you just had to be there)

We're off to San Antonio tomorrow. Ashley saw the riverwalk in one of her textbooks and was so interested in it, we decided to make a quick trip. Her other wish was to order room service. She's so funny.

the joys of third grade

The assignment was to write an advertisement for a new suburb and give two examples of how this new community meets people's need for safety and comfort.

Brandon writes:

BRANDONVILLE [I can't reproduce the video game-like block letters]

. . .a fun place to live. . .

Interested in no work and all play? Brandonville is the place for you! Located minutes from Austin so you can leave your work in the big city and come home to hours of fun. Brandonville offers shopping, restaurants and the safety of knowing that no matter where you live in our community, policemen and firemen are just around the corner. Come see why Brandonville is a fun place to live.

I cracked up. . . .because this is SO Brandon. Seriously, if he could create a community it would totally be no work and all play.

And here's another one:

He's supposed to write a thank-you note after a visit to a friend in a rural community comparing and contrasting where he lives with the farming community of Bridgewater, VA.

He writes:

Dear Amy,

It was fun to visit your community. I enjoyed all the trees and farm animals. Virginia is a long way from where I live in Texas, but both our communities have a river and love sports. It was good to get back to the big city, though. Homecooking is only good for so long before I get hungry for KFC or Popeye's.

Your friend,

Brandon

And then all the preparations for the TAKS. . . While discussing that you can always go back and read the story again if you don't remember the answer, he says, "But what if they ask me about summarizing? I'm terrible at summarizing!" I couldn't believe my ears. This from the kid who writes in answer to the question, Give details about where the community of Bridgewater, VA is located, -- "It's located kind of near the edge of the United States." The kid is absolutely marvelous at summarizing.. I pointed this out to him and underneath the sheepish expression, I saw the light bulb come on. The test is at the end of April, so we've got several more weeks of studying to do.

And the countdown is on -- just ten more weeks to summer!