To the Farm!

By Banana Boy

On my field trip, I went to a farm and I saw cows. It was scary when we saw the cows when they were milking. But it was cute when we saw the kittens and baby calves.

At the end I got to eat 3 cutted string cheese in half.

We got to feed the big cows. We fed them hay.

We got to feed the calves. I fed them with a bottle. In the bottle was milk. Max, Brennan and Abi and I fed the baby calf with one bottle. It was really hard because the calf was pushing the bottle against my stomach. I petted it.

When we saw the milking cows, a cow was pooping and it sprayed on my lip.

The End.

Update to "The Monsters"

Last time in "The Monsters"....

The plan to distract the monsters with a play was unsuccessful. They were entertained, but not frightened away.

Plan 2 was hatched and the idea was to put the monsters to sleep with a song.

and now, The Title is "The Monsters" continued:

I know. Let's make them asleep. Good idea, but how will we do that? I know, let's do a song. We can do a lullaby: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

More creativity

My wonderful children are so creative. Here's a note I found on the floor, a conversation between Nonny and Daisy.

to: Nonnny
We are eating muddy snow.

I thought all the snow melted already!?

We saved some in the freezer and now we went outside to get some mud.

But will the mud taste yucky?

No! We flavered it with lots of suger!

But just thinking about eating mud makes me feel sick! What if there is a worm in the mud?

Worms are very tasty!

I'm afraid I don't think so.

Chickens and birds eat worms. Why don't you like them?

I'm no feathered friend.

Do you like ants and beetles?

No way, Jose!

I don't ether.

I'm glad to hear that.

The Title is "The Monsters"

One of the things they do better in public school than I do is teach the literary elements. Banana Boy can read the words "Illustrated By" and knows what they mean. Before he reads a book, he reads the title on the cover, the title on the title page and the names of the author and illustrator. He's very serious about all this.

He spent 45 minutes yesterday with one of his little notebooks. An idea had popped into his head and he was all inspired to write it down.

Listen to my story, Mom!

The Title is "The Monsters."

I was walking and suddenly I saw monsters. I was scared. We thought of a plan. The plan was, we distract

(at this point he came and found me to ask "What is that word when you want someone to go away?"
I'm all like, "huh?"
"You know," he said, "I think it's 'extract.'"
I'm thinking to myself, extract. Extract. Go away. Huh? Finally it dawns on me that he wants DIStract. Aha.)
The plan was, we distract them.

He reads me the story out loud. Each time he reads it, he says, "The Title is 'The Monsters.'" It cracks me up every time.

I prompt him now. How are you going to distract them? He thinks a bit, then frantically scribbles.

He reads it out loud again.

The Title is "The Monsters"
I was walking and suddenly I saw monsters. I was scared. We thought of a plan. The plan was, we distract them. We are going to do a play.

At this point, I'm just beaming! What a clever boy! I think it's a riot that they will distract the monsters with a play.

I had to go to work then, but when I got up this morning, I tracked down his notebook to see the end.

The Title is "The Monsters"
I was walking and suddenly I saw monsters. I was scared. We thought of a plan. The plan was, we distract them. We are going to do a play. I think they will like it if we do The Three Little Pigs! Yes! Yes! Let's do it! They did the play. The monsters like it. But how do we escape? Oh, quick, make a plan. Plan 2. what plan can we make? I know. Let's make them asleep. Good idea, but how will we do that? I know, let's do a song.

Apparently it's "To be continued....."

And One More

Unedited (because I think their spellings are cute). By Pepper.

Hi! I'm Spider and this is My Adventure.

Last night I found an open window with no sceen so I jumped out. After I got out I started to wander around. First I explored the woods and then I went to the front yard. I was walking along then I saw catnip and I started to walk towards it. I was trotting across the lawn when suddenly I heard Dad calling my name. I ignored him. But then I remembered: the love, my food, Pepper's Bed. And I went to the door and said, "meow."

More Adventures of Spider

Yeah, I promised I'd post these after we edited them. Well, we never edited them, so except for spelling and punctuation, here is the raw adventure.

By Rose Bud

Spider's Great Adventure

Hello, my name is Spider and I'm a black cat. I'm going to tell you about my adventure last night. I was walking through the laundry room around 5:00 and smelled fresh air. It smelled too fresh to be a screen, so I went to investigate. Guess what? The window was open! Tonight I would escape. I would have to act casual so no one would guess. It was hard, but I finally made it to the kids' bedtime. I went to sleep in Pepper's bunkbed. Suddenly, I woke up. It was already midnight so I had to hurry downstairs to the window. I jumped on the washer and out the window. I was free! Free from that annoying little cat they got. I hate him! He follows me around and bats my tail. I walked off into the night. I walked down the trail into the woods. As I walked past the creek, I realized I was thirsty, so I stopped to get a drink. Blehh! That water tasted really bad. I kept walking and then I smelled chicken. Chicken is third on my list of favorites. First venison, then beef and then chicken. I sniffed around but no signs of chicken. Who knew these people had chickens? I had no idea. I walked past that green building and suddenly I smelled the most tasty, delicious smell ever. Catnip. There was a huge clump of it. Yummy! I had just started to feast when: drip, drop, right on my back. I looked around for shelter and saw the kids' playhouse. I ran over there to check it out. It looked great. A roof on top and a huge litter box underneath! I settled down to wait till the rain was over. Somehow, I fell asleep and when I woke up, it was morning. I had to get back to the catnip patch. I was trotting across the lawn when suddenly I heard Dad calling my name. I ignored him. I wanted that catnip! Then I remembered the love, the food, Pepper's bed. So I ran to the door and said, "Meow, Mrrrrrrooooowwwwwww!" They heard me and I got let inside right away. I went to my food and ate, then I drank. I ran upstairs and jumped in Pepper's bed. Soon I fell fast asleep. My adventure was fun, but I'm glad to be home.

Spider's Great Escape

So it was hot in the house last night AND it rained, so dh opened a window in the laundry room which is under our porch. ie: no rain could come in that window. However, he mistakenly opened the window without a screen. This morning, he looked out the window and saw a cat who looked remarkably like our cat, Spider, trotting across the lawn. Mr. GT called out to him, but the cat ignored him. Hmmm. Not our cat, then. Still suspicious, Mr. GT called once more. Still no response. However, 5 minutes later, there was a meow at the door and here was Spider, begging to come in. He's not normally an outdoor cat, so this was a great adventure for him.

I heard the whole story before the kids got up and it immediately struck me as a perfect chance to get them writing! As soon as everyone was out of bed, I relayed the tale and assigned them an essay, from Spider's perspective, on his adventure. The only guidelines were that it had to begin with him going out the laundry room window and contain these words near the end: "I was trotting across the lawn, when suddenly I heard Dad call my name. I ignored him. But then I remembered: the love, my food, Pepper's bed. And I went to the door and said, 'Meow.'"

As we edit them, I'll be typing them up and posting them here. So far, they're really cute.

Since he won't be doing any editing (at 5, getting a creative story onto paper at all is an accomplishment) here is Banana Boy's. He dictated his story to me and I wrote it down. He needed a little help getting started and was greatly assisted by the prop of Spider joining us for the writing session. He had Spider whisper to him what had happened.

Spider jumped out the window. He went on a trip. He went under the laundry hanger thing. He went in the front yard. He ate kitten chow. He saw his dad. He ignored his dad. He went in the forest. A bunny rabbit was there. He sniffed the bunny rabbit. The bunny hopped away and Spider tried to catch the bunny rabbit. He wanted to go home so he went home. He snuggled his dad and his Banana Boy.