Kindy 500

All kindergarten classes in Spanish Oaks Elementary participated in the Kindy 500. Each child, with the help of their parents, was to make a vehicle to "drive" through the hallways for a short parade. Then they were to drive their vehicles to different parts of the school and learn about some of our country's national symbols. The symbols they learned about were: the Bald Eagle, Mount Rushmore, the American Flag, the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln Memorial, and the White House.

When I asked Bastian what vehicle he wanted he said, "I want a mother ship!" He liked the mother ship on StarFox, an old video game that we no longer have. I searched the web to find a design to work from but to no avail. I let Bastian know that we might have to think of something else.....like a truck, perhaps. He said, "No. Let's make the Millennium Falcon." Off to the computer we went. We found the famous Star Wars spaceship with ease and we were well on our way to drawing up the design when Bastian got sick. He had a temperature of 102 and was sleeping the day away while I cut out the ship and designed the blaster gun and satellite.
Here is what Bastian did while I worked on the Millennium Falcon. Look at those RED cheeks! He wanted to help more but was physically unable.

The next day Rob sprayed the design in the garage.

Bastian was feeling a little better during the painting phase. He and Weston played around in the garage for a bit.

Bastian helped spray paint his spaceship.

The next day Bastian seemed to be feeling much better. He definitely didn't want to miss the Kindy 500. Here he is with his class. Bastian is in Mrs. Olsen's kindergarten class.

Bastian was assigned the state of Arizona as the state his vehicle is licensed in. We made this personalized plate from Arizona. We love Arizona because Aunt Shelly and Uncle Alan live there. Our family loves to visit them.

He had a great time and loved his spaceship. After school his fever returned. We took him to the doctor and they said he had pneumonia! We got the prescribed meds and I took good care of him until he was better. I am secretly soooo glad he didn't have a fever the morning of the Kindy 500. He would've been so disappointed!

Counterfeit Cash?

I sent Hayden to pay Bastian the money I owed him from finishing his reading chart and the money I owed him from his sticker chore chart. When Hayden went upstairs to give Bastian the money, Bastian, knowing Hayden's personality, thought that Hayden was trying to pay him with counterfeit money. Bastian refused the money and said he didn't want it. Excited, Hayden said, "Can I have it?" Bastian agreed to that and Hayden came downstairs to report the incident to me, laughing all the way. I sent him back up to try again. Bastian refused the money again and Hayden made Bastian promise him that he could have the money "no matter what." By this time Hayden's laughter was uncontainable.

Bastian came downstairs to find out what was so funny about giving away fake money when I told him that it was indeed very REAL money. He started sobbing on the spot and thought that he had squandered his fortune in his promise to let Hayden have the money "no matter what." Bastian is such a good boy. He knows that when you make a promise, you can't take it back. Of course, Hayden is a softy and wouldn't have REALLY taken Bastian's hard earned money from him....and if he wasn't a softy, I outrank Hayden and was there to set things right.

If you look close enough you can see the teary eyes. Bastian read 100 books for $20. He was very diligent in his task and filled up his homemade, computer generated Scooby Do reading chart quicker than I thought. As for the rest of the money, he earned that through weeks of chores. He kept filling his $5 chart and I kept forgetting to pay him. Bastian is a hard working boy with oodles of patience.

100 Days of School

I thought that when Bastian brought 100 things on the 100th day of school, he would share them with the class. Instead, Bastian brought them home and did this with his 100 things. Then he shared them with Weston and me, but not until he had a sufficient amount of dye on his eye. M&M's new slogan for today, "Melts in your mouth AND on your eye."

Bastian's Snowman

Bastian crafted this mini snowman in our front yard. He came in asking for golden raisins, a mini carrot, and chocolate chips. Nevermind that he pulled a branch off our new little tree in the front for the arms!

Bastian's Cool Paper Airplane

Our awesome home teacher taught a lesson a few months ago about Christ's qualities. He wrote some of Christ's qualities on all the sides of a paper airplane. Some of them were obedience, patience, love, faith, etc. We took turns throwing the airplane and after our turn we tried to think of a story in the scriptures when Christ exemplified one of the qualities written on the airplane. Afterward, our home teacher gave the paper airplane to Bastian. Here we are months later and Bastian still has that airplane in his room. I wanted to take a picture of it so we can always remember how special it was to Bastian.

Bastian Completes His Reading Lessons

I have used this book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for Hayden, Abby and now Bastian. All of my children are GREAT spellers. It has been worthwhile to sit down with each child and do these lessons. Don't be fooled, I said it was worthwhile--I did not say that it was always fun. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was torture. With Hayden I did it at the kitchen table. He was pretty focused for much of the time, but he was my first and I wanted to do this book perfectly and grew impatient at times because of wiggling and what not. When it was Abby's turn, well she did NOT want to sit still, or even stay on the chair. We took a break and resumed again a little later. I learned that bed time was a GREAT time for Abby to do her reading lessons. She didn't want to go to bed, so doing a reading lesson was the perfect excuse to stay up just a little longer. With Bastian, I did it during the day, but I wasn't so strict with reading the story a second time like the lesson suggests. Bastian and I had our reading lessons on a comfy couch.
The sticker chart helped each of my children recognize numbers and count to 100. Bastian completed his reading lessons and got to pick out the toy of his choice from Wal-Mart. He chose to get Star Wars Complete Saga for the Wii. He is such a great reader and a great boy!

Kindergarten Show and Teach

Bastian chose to make chocolate chip cookie dough for his kindergarten show and teach. He did a great job reading the directions and putting all the ingredients in the Bosch. At the end he gave everyone a cookie that he had made the night before. He was a great speaker and didn't get nervous at all. After each ingredient was added, he turned on the beaters and counted to 10 in his mind.

Great job on your outstanding teaching abilities and your great baking skills, Bastian!

Reverse Psychology

"Nobody take my socks off," says Rob after he comes home from church or work. Bastian and Weston fall for it EVERY time. Then comes, "don't put my socks in the laundry room," to which little feet carry his socks into the laundry room and place them in the dirty clothes hamper.
He just HAD to know what would happen when he said, "Nobody lick my foot." Oh, Rob. Really?

The other night it was, "don't go get your pajamas on." Bastian and Weston ran upstairs giggling and Hayden said, "I can't believe that still works."

Bastian Turns 6

Bastian turned 6 on November 1st. We ate chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow letters.

For his birthday he got the N-strike Longshot by Nerf. Wouldn't you know, it was exactly what he wanted.

After putting together the Nerf gun we went to Jumping Jacks and jumped and slid on their big blow-up toys and slides. It was a great 6th birthday for Bastian.

The Letter P

I was so pleased that Bastian got his homework out and finished it by himself. When I checked on it, this is what I found. Yes, on the left is the mound of poo and on the right is the stream of pee. I contemplated leaving it, as he did think of these things AND spelled them on his own, but in the end I couldn't do it.

Crazy Hair Day

Hayden wanted the trusted Mohawk. Easy AND awesome! It doesn't get much better than that.
Abby opted for Alien hair with pencils. You know, just in case you need to write something.

Bed head. Yeah, Bastian didn't feel like doing anything TOO crazy. Ralph the night hairdresser didn't help me out with anything special for this boy's crazy hair day.  Ralph's always doing crazy dos on me, you'd think he'd take on a good project like "crazy hair day." Nope.

Graduating with Otter Pops....same as honors.

Bastian graduated from Miss Tiffany's preschool in the middle of May. He was a happy graduate and can't wait to take the summer off from his grueling two afternoons a week schedule. I feel lucky to get him everyday, morning and afternoon, for the next several weeks before kindergarten starts!