BehindTheTimes: Bookworms

Emma and Colton were excited to see the fire truck and smoke house at Safety Village today. Emma has done the smoke house before when I volunteered to chaperone one of Gage's field trips for school, but it was new to Colton. This smoke house is a trailer which is like a house on the inside and they fill the trailer with non-toxic smoke to show the kids how they have to stay low to the ground where there is less smoke so they can get out safely. The doors they have to go through to get out will either be heated or not and they have to feel the doors to figure out which one is safe to go through, then they climb out a window, down a ladder and use the phone out front to dial 911. It's a great learning tool for kids, and hopefully they'll remember this information if they ever need to use it, and hopefully they will never need to.

After Safety Village and lunch the kids wanted to know what we were going to do today, and Dustin asked if we could go to the library! He had already finished the book he got at the library yesterday and he wanted to get more. He turned in a reading log to the library today which documents that he has spent 4 hours reading, and he has only 15 more minutes to go to fill another log! Today he figured out how much time it took him to read the first 2 books, and then figured out how many minutes it would take him to read the new book he got today, and approximately what time he would be finishing it up. So, right along with reading, he's doing some math as well! All you have to do Kysa, to keep this up, is turn it into a competition! :-) He said he hoped that all of this reading he's been doing will help him in English this year at school. I assured him that this would definitely help him out in English! We spent about 45 min-1 hour at the library this afternoon and I was so proud of all 4 of these kids walking around the kids' section of the library and their excitement each time they brought a new book over to tell me they wanted to check it out. I sat in one of the chairs and read my book while they searched for theirs.

This afternoon Colton got mad at Dustin because he thought he moved his bookmarker in his book (this is a big chapter book) and Dustin assured him that he had his finger marking the spot. I asked Dustin, "Can he read?" (Colton just finished Kindergarten this spring.) Dustin said, "No he told me he's just looking for the words he knows!" I think they've both caught the reading bug! It's great around here. It's totally quiet with everyone having their noses in a book, including ME! :-)

We went to the zoo members' annual picnic tonight for supper. It was a great FREE meal! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips a drink and ice cream. The kids had fun chasing each other around the zoo grounds. I enjoyed visiting with my friend Sherry, who I saw there.

Not too much else to report, it's been quiet here today with all of these bookworms around!

I forgot to take my camera to the picnic, so I will use this entry to get more of my 4th of July photos posted.

Emma and Colton have their game faces on as they prepare to run in the foot race.

Colton won a 2nd place ribbon, and I'm not sure what place Emma came in because they award just the top 3 with ribbons; however, everyone receives a quarter! Colton ended up being the lone ribbon winner of our group. WAY TO GO COLEY!

Gage and his cousin Noah are off to the races in the foot race as well.

Colton and Emma in the sack race.

Gage and Noah in the sack race.

Gage and Noah attempt the 3-legged race.

We started to realize that there were so many kids racing, that each race would end up having 2 heats per age group. I had a bright idea and tried helping Emma and Colton have a bit of an advantage and told them to wait until the 2nd heat, because there were fewer kids, and a bigger chance of winning. Well, that proved to be a mistake, because that time there was only 1 heat and they missed out on the race. Oops! I guess that's what I get for tyring to cheat! Emma ended up joining her cousin Janey in the 3-legged race. :-)

The last event of the races was the tug-o-war. Emma, Colton and Gage ended up on the same side and they won as well.