Auditory Bombardment

I just love the phrase "Auditory Bombardment." It sounds like it should be the name of a rock band! But for today's purposes, it is what is written on the top of one of Madison's assignments at home for speech therapy. We're continuing with the letter "k," and during class today, Madison was asked what she saw on this picture below.

She told the teacher, "A pond!" Obviously, the teacher was looking for "lake," as it ends with "k." But it was funny nonetheless. Madison cut out the small ducks above and colored the lake red (I think it is sort of like that lake that turned red in Texas this year). I know you're asking... can she say the word, "duck?" Why yes, of course! Every time she throws something at me! CUE RIMSHOT HERE. She is quite suddenly getting better with her speech, and she is so anxious to learn as well. This may have something to do with our new "Mom Bucks" program, but we think it is more her natural desire to learn and do better, which is very thrilling for Mommy and Daddy. We're very proud!

This afternoon, Mommy and Madison joined Daddy for lunch at the Wisdom Club dinner - always a treat! It's been a busy day, but when Daddy got home there were sloppy joes, piano practice and a little "Batman" on the side.

Daddy is hurting this week - several years ago, he was struck by a charter bus, and occasionally the pain hurtles back into my life like some sort of comet destined to return every so often and wreak havoc. In this case though, it has been an entire week that Daddy has been unable to sleep well, or even move well. This really puts things into perspective. Especially when Madison is throwing something at me, and yelling "Duck!"

And that, is an entirely different sort of bombardment...

Thursday, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Mom Bucks

It was a quiet day, and a cool one too! Could it be that summer is fading fast? Unexpectedly, temperatures plunged to the fifties tonight, which was pretty amazing, actually.

Just as sudden: Madison has lots of homework! From music to speech classes, she's got different assignments for home that we get to help her with. To motivate her, Mommy has come up with something we have called "Mom Bucks." This is an old idea, but we got it from watching "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules." Of course, the whole concept of "Mom Bucks" is completely exploited in that movie, but Madison isn't that devious!

Essentially, the thought is that for every homework session, she gets a "Mom Buck" that she can turn over for roughly a half-hour's worth of video games with Daddy. Today, for example, she got three "Mom Bucks," for doing speech homework and piano lessons. And boy, was she motivated. She wants to play "Batman" with Daddy? Sorry, but you need "Mom Bucks!"

Today we properly decorated the "Touchy Feely" box from a few days ago: Madison traced her hands on the top, and colored the sides of the box with different crayon colors. We found a whole lot of different objects, like pine cones, seashells and paint brushes - and then had her put her hand in the box to see if she could properly identify each. She did, of course - she's a smart cookie. Tomorrow, she'll bring this in for show and tell, so that everyone in her class can continue with the theme of exploring the five senses. She's pretty excited about this! She spent enough time helping out - so much so that she got some more "Mom Bucks!"

"This mom-bucks thing is a goldmine, muchacho."

- Rodrick Heffley