Delk Saturday School

One of the problems at the Delk house is that there is no set place to put mail. It has not caused too many late payments on anything, but it did cause a scuffle with Joe and I the other day.

You see, a few days ago I found a cute yellow envelope addressed to me! I love getting mail! Since this was the first I had seen of it, I naturally assumed that Joe had placed it there the day before since he was the one to get the mail. Inside the envelope was this...



A cute summery card. And inside the card was this...



Clippings for Isaac's ABC chart sent from Grammy Delk!! I got excited, Isaac got excited, it was an exciting time in the house. When Joe got home that night I shared with him our bounty, and he said, "Yeah, that card has been here for a while. I thought you just didn't want to open it."

WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?! To which I replied, "Great, Joe. Now your mom is going to think I hate her or something because we haven't done anything with the clippings yet and I haven't updated the blog with the kids' work." Geez.

All that to say- Grammy Delk, Thank you for the card and the clippings! The kids were so excited to get a card from Grammy, they thought it was your birthday and started singing. (I was bad and didn't get video of that, but believe me it happened!) The reason we haven't done anything before now is because 1. Your middle son is terrible about letting me know when I have mail and 2. I had to wait til the weekend because week nights are busy.

So, here is Day 1 of Delk Saturday School. Isaac used all the clippings and added them ot the ABC chart.



Andy didn't help with the chart, but he wanted to have a picture too.



Abby had the option of getting her picture made, but she wouldn't stop throwing a fit, so she was told to go upstairs instead.

After ABC, we worked on math. I bought a CD of Pre-K curriculum last year and I printed off some of the activities for Isaac to use. This was a fruit number sort. Andy helped.







Great job, boys!!



I'm sure you can hear Abby being annoying in the background.

But wait, we aren't done yet!
Yesterday when I picked the kids up from daycare Ms. Patty (the twins' teacher) told me that Abby made an observation about her shirt. (Ms. Patty's shirt was from the beach- it had a palm tree on it) Abby went up to Patty , pointed to her shirt, and said, "That's a Chicka-Boom-Boom shirt!" Which inspired Patty to get out the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and read it to the class. What a smart daughter I have!

So, we made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees today for our art/ writing activity. We used construction paper, sticky sided foam board, apples that doubled as coconuts, and markers.
Isaac and Andy got to do the activity first since Abby was in time-out upstairs.



Isaac and Andy adding their letters to their trees.



Isaac and his finished Chicka Boom Boom tree. I didn't get a pic of Andy with his. They are all on my fridge, so feel free to stop by to see them. :)

By the time Abby finished her tantrum and returned to the dining room there were only scraps left for her tree. I can just hear Grammy Pat now, "Oh Jocelyn, couldn't you find another piece for Abby?" Well, no. No I couldn't. If she wanted a full piece she should have sucked up her tantrum earlier.

In all honesty, she didn't seem to notice. I did make her new leaves for the tree, no scraps there.



She was very proud of her work, and so was I. She insisted on getting 2 pictures made, but I am only putting one on here.



What smart children I have! Unless something happens and we are out of town, I really want Delk Saturday School to continue. The Pre-K CD I bought has a years worth of lessons and games, so we'll have plenty to do!

Joe's garden

Joe's garden has done wonderfully this season. Joe would probably disagree since he knows all the plants that have thrived or died, but I know what my kitchen counter tells me. We have lots of veggies.
Joe has already pickled okra and canned 2 jars of tomatoes, with more on the counter just waiting. He also told me that he almost has enough okra for another jar. Travis and Kayla have already enjoyed a jar- not pickled. They know that real okra is fried.

One crop that I know Joe has been waiting for finally came in, but not how he expected.



Any guesses as to what these are? Well, due to the recent drought and high temperatures, they are deformed cucumbers! Joe brought them in and just had to laugh. I don't know if he's hoping for more from the same plant or if they are a bust, but I think it's pretty funny!

So, what does one do with deformed cucumbers? Give them to the kids to play with!



Here's Abby using hers as a camera!



Then she realized that it was food of some sort, so she took a big bite. I asked Joe if they had been cleaned, but he seemed unconcerned. He told me that Snoopy never peed on them in the garden, so they were OK. (It's comments like those that make me worry about his judgment in some things)



Andy decided that he wanted to eat his too.
Abby worked on hers the rest of the morning. Andy wasn't impressed, so Abby worked on his too.

If we do get some non-deformed cucumbers this season, I plan on preparing them they way Gommy Bradley used to. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Silly Saturday

Well, I survived my first week at school. All the Delks are home today, and we are enjoying a day of rest. (and cleaning)

The kids decided to celebrate this day by using their imaginations, and Daddy, to become... well... birds. Of a sort.



Abby Bird



Isaac Bird



Hmmm, I feel like watching Peter Pan after this.

As a side note, I know a few people really enjoyed Delks summer school. I plan on doing stuff with the kids throughout the year, but it probably won't be daily. I have, however, created a blog to follow my classroom this year. Check it out!

www.generaldelksarmy.blogspot.com