More bad weather

I'm beginning to think I am going to spend this entire winter blogging about bad weather. Friday's snow was only about an inch so we were able to go to my folks for the day. Violet and Grandma spent two hours out playing in the snow. Dad went with me shopping and we had a good time plotting Christmas gifts for Grandma and tricking the lady at Walmart into thinking he was stealing my stuff. (We didn't set out to trick her, she just couldn't figure out at first why he was taking my bags.)

Yesterday Violet had her last science class for a while. She DID NOT want to go. We made her. She had a good time. I think she needs some time off from classes. And with all the snow/ice we've had already this year, I don't think it is wrong not to make a lot of commitments but rather to go when it is clear.

She has said that everyone else her age can spell so much better than she can. I have tried to assure her that I have seen their writing, most of their words are spelled wrong. Mr. Incredible and I may not see eye to eye on a lot of things, but we are both in agreement that invented spelling is wrong. And we've obviously made an impression on our little perfectionist because she isn't comfortable with writing anything unless she knows for sure how to spell it. I write things down for her to copy a lot of the time.

But we've just started Sequential Spelling and I think this might actually work for her (knock on wood, rub a bunny foot, cross your fingers, say a prayer, and anything else you can think of). I've promised her that we will work steadily on her spelling and in a few months she'll be spelling better than many of them.

She asked why I think she has such a hard time at spelling. I told her I think it is because she taught herself to read at 4. We skipped phonics altogether because it seemed silly to have her sounding out "cat" when she could already read "catastrophe" and "feline". Now it is coming back to bite her in the butt.

Maybe she is just a naturally bad speller (I am), but at least this explanation takes the pressure off and builds up her confidence by remembering that she is far better than most at one thing (reading).

Well anyway, we are supposed to have freezing rain later today. I was hoping to run over to the library to get our interlibrary loan books. I think we still have another day or two on them before they fine us for late pick up.

I also want to get the rest of the Christmas decorations put up today, and get the boxes moved back to the basement. And we discussed making more cookies. Violet's book club is having their holiday party tomorrow and we need to take some cookies to share. They are also doing their Secret Santa exchange so we need to wrap the gift. (They exchanged lists of 5 different paperback books they'd like to own, each Secret Santa will pick one of the books off their recipients list to get them.) Book club has become her most favorite activity.

And a quick thank you to Ami for the nice comment yesterday! I was feeling so down about sending Violet off to class kicking and screaming and fighting with Mr. Incredible. It really cheered me up! Thanks!!