Think I need to brush up on some Science facts

Many of you know Kamden as my little mini-me.  He's dramatic, we often call him the drama queen around the house.  My mom says I was just as over the top when I was little.  This past week I had a couple of meetings at his school.  He is bored in class, and ADD and boredom are not really the recipe for a successful 2nd grade class room.  His teacher, the gifted teacher and I met to come together on an enrichment program for Kamden during class that will both stimulate his little smart self and help to remove some of the boredom disruption.

Kamden has been expressing his boredom every afternoon when I ask about his day.  He told me "we are doing baby math" and "Mom, we are not reviewing, we have been in school for four, f-o-u-r, weeks, it's ridiculous" along with "these spelling words only have three letters, they are NOT EVEN SIGHT WORDS."  I told you he has a flair for the dramatic.

So on Friday night, Kenna took Kooper and Michael on a brothers night out with Sissy.  They went to Taco Bell and then on to Cosmic Bowling.  They don't let you use the bumper guards during cosmic bowling so that meant Kamden wouldn't be able to bowl.  So, instead Kamden got a date night with Mom and Dad.  We decided to go out to dinner and to Barnes & Noble.  It is one of Kam's and my favorite places.  He was thrilled because we needed some more books for the series he is reading right now.

The closest Barnes & Noble to our home is a good 45 minutes without traffic.  We left the house pretty early so we decided to go there first.  On the way Kamden was more than his normal Chatty Cathy self.  Yes, I often call him Chatty Cathy, cause seriously he talks more than any little girl I have ever met.  AND that is saying something.  Kenna used to talk non-stop, or at least I thought so until Kamden started speaking.  The hubby jokes often that he is still mad that I encouraged Kamden to speak. (Seriously folks, he jokes, don't send me nasty emails, or I will send Kamden to visit for a week.)  So, on the drive Mr. Loquacious starts rambling out what I thought were non-sense questions.  They all had a science feel to them, but many of them were straight up SCIENCE questions.  And they were all over the map, just one after the next.  As quick as he could get one out he was asking another.  Hubs and I exchanged glances a couple of times.  Then Kamden started waiting for my answers and directing the questions to me specifically.  I would answer and get this response, "That would be correct."  Hubs says to me quietly, "He knows all the answers, he is making sure YOU do."

We stopped at a long light and I turned around in my seat.  "Kamden, how do you know all this stuff?"  His reply, serious as he could possibly muster, "I have this Science book at school, I get bored and I flip through it and read it.  It has a little over 400 pages."  OMG!  Crazy right?

So I guess I will be brushing up on my Science.  I will probably have to brush up on quite a few things to keep up with Chatty.

Anyhoo, we enjoyed our trip to B&N.  We picked up some books in his series, My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman, and we also picked up some poetry books for kids.  I am sooooooo excited about this.  Our last visit Kamden and I sat and read Edgar Allen Poe for quite a bit.  This trip he asked to get the book and Emily Dickinson too.  Before we left the store he made Dad sit and listen to "The Lake" and "Annabell Lee".  The kid is truly just like his mommy!  I loved spending the evening with my hubby and my baby boy reading.

Think I found a gem of a Series....

I am a big reader.  I always have been.  I remember getting in trouble as a small child, like 4 or 5, I was always up late.  I mean really late.......way past my bedtime.  I would get my flashlight out and hide underneath the covers so I could read.  I know my mom always let me read for a certain amount of time (when I was supposed to be sleeping) before she would really get on me, but I had to finish whatever it was I was reading.

I read to my daughter religiously when she was little.  But, with my boys, it has always been harder.  Kenna loved to listen to the stories.  I read them to her, and also made up my own, and added in the stories that my dad used to tell me.  The boys appreciated the made up stories, sometimes.  But reading, they were not found of, too much sitting still and concentrating for my little ADD campers.  I mean I guess that is why I always struggled to get them to listen.  It really has only been recently that Kamden has started to enjoy reading with me.  Kooper never really did get into it.

Kooper started reading more on his own and finding an enjoyment of fiction on his own.  Actually, it was his teacher in second grade that made that work.  His teacher was an older "grandpa" that was ready for retirement.  He retired the year after teaching Kooper.  When I found out who his teacher was going to be my heart sunk.  Kenna had had Mr. Weeks as a teacher in 5th grade, and he was a tough cookie.  I thought, oh THIS is gonna be terrible for Kooper.  BUT, I am not one to OVER react, well, not really.  Oh...who am I kidding, when it comes to my kiddos....I AM A CRAZED LUNATIC.  So, I tried not to run right down and have him moved immediately.  I asked why he moved from 5th grade to 2nd grade, and he explained that the school had asked several of the 5th and 6th grade teachers to move to 2nd and 3rd grade to teach some fundamentals in math and reading, whichever were their strong suits to prepare the kids for FCAT (FL standardize tests that are required to pass 3rd grade).  I tried to keep an open mind.

So hubby and I went to Open House.  We listened as Mr. Weeks explained his goals for our children.  The class size was small.  I mean really small, there were only 14 children at the start of the year.  I think at the end two had moved so there were only 12.  He said he was going to help us get our children to love reading.  Then, he imparted the best advice I have ever received from a teacher, to date.  And that includes EVERY teacher I have ever had, all the teachers Kenna has had, Kooper, and Kamden.  He told us to let our kids read, no, encourage them to read, whatever they WOULD read.  That's right.  It didn't matter if it was a book, a magazine, baseball cards, the comics, the back of the cereal box, it didn't matter.  As long as the material was something that would hold their attention, then let them read it.

Ding! Ding! Ding!  Novel concept I know.  I had been trying to get my boys to enjoy what I loved.  What Kenna had loved.  Not girlie stuff.  Neither Kenna, nor I have ever been girlie-girls.  But, I never let Kenna read anything that wasn't classics or had some kind of seal of approval by all those award winning whatever...blah! blah! blah!  So....off to the COMIC SHOP we went.  Kooper thought graphic novels and comics were AWESOME!  YEAH for me!!!!  He found a couple comic series he wanted to follow.  We started picking out books, that in the past I would have steered away from...like "The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (Captain Underpants)" and other titles that referenced, butts, and boogers, and words we don't use like Stupid.  And we found "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" which Kooper now waits for each time a new one is released!

Now he reads for his 30 minutes every night, no problem.  I often find him reading to find out what happens next in his series on the weekends!?!  Yeah!  So Kamden, is at that golden age, same as Kooper, 2ND GRADE.  And the bug has bitten...the reading bug.  Kamden has been reading, or has been able to read since he was three, but it was only on his terms.  He is a bit of a computer junkie.  He learned to read playing picture in picture games on the computer with me. But that is a different story and I don't want to get too far off topic.

So...back to the series we are currently engrossed in.  It's probably too easy for Kamden's reading level, but, we are love, love, loving them.  I find as we are reading aloud every night, that the rest of the family is listening and getting into the stories too.  They are My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman.  The series follows a boy named A.J., who hates school.  He is in second grade.  He only likes things like football, skateboarding and trick bike riding.  His nemesis is a little girl named Andrea Young, he hates her, of course.  But here are a few of the titles....Book 1 Miss Daisy is Crazy, Book 2 Mr. Klutz is Nuts , Book 3 Mrs. Roopy is Loopy and we are currently reading Ms. Hannah is Bananas!  The books are clever, and funny.  The first introduces Miss daisy the teacher, Mr. Klutz is the principal, Miss Roopy is the librarian and Ms. Hannah is the ART teacher!  Kamden is really into this one.

If you are adverse to your children saying that they hate anything, these books are not for you.  A.J. certainly hates many things, and has no problem saying so.  They are written in first person from his point of view.  However, each of the faculty has a clever and unique way of teaching A.J. that he does like things he may not have before.  I won't give too much away, but Kamden has taken the first book to his teacher and is going to try to write his principal a letter to get him to agree to the storyline in the first book for his school!  OMG!

Anyway...these are some really cute chapter books for 1-3rd graders.  There are 20 something of them in the series.  If you have little boys, or girls, they are really fun!