Weekday Tribulations

Today is Monday. Know how I know it's Monday? Pan is at work and was thrilled to be going there. Nothing like a weekend with a 2 1/2 year old to make you appreciate the work environment.

Today is also President's Day. No school. But this was the weekend that the Princess spent with her daddy. So Bomb drops off Indy at a little after 9 a.m. and tells me "J1" will be dropping the princess off within the hour. Okay. I was going shopping but I can wait an hour. 10:30 a.m. comes and goes, I call, no answer. 11:30 comes and goes, I call, and a very sleepy "J1" answers the phone. He will be bringing the princess by just as soon as "L2" wakes up from his nap, which should be soon. 12 noon comes and goes, I call and ask if I can just pick her up. I have to go right by his house to get to the grocery store. That works. Boy is L2 getting big.

Go get groceries with a 2 1/2 and a 7 year old in tow. No big deal except Indy wants one of the baskets that looks like a car. Tough luck. I'm not pushing it. $150 later I get to leave. Home we come and I have been informed that the Princess has not finished her report on bats.

She gave me the directions: a topic sentence paragraph; what bats eat; bats and echolocation; hibernation and how we can help bats. Each (except the topic sentence has to be at least 3 sentences long). She has already read two stories about bats and can use the information from those stories; and we gathered information from the internet (batconservation.com and more). Darn, I just reread the instructions and realize that she left a paragraph out. (call Bombshell and tell her to have the Princess add the paragraph. I'm sure the books she has will have enough to cover it).

Anyway, we started out with an outline. I wrote each of the subjects (except the one on bat wings) and then had her list what needed to go into each one. Then she took each one and wrote a paragraph using the outline as a guide. I'm really proud of how it turned out and I think she is too. And will I freely admit to helping her by being her secretary and writing it down as she talked, I didn't do much otherwise. Except to occasionally suggest that another beginning word in a sentence might be a better choice. Darn, I think the paragraph on echolocation got left out too and it was on the outline. Another call to Bombshell, who said she would call back immediately after dinner to get the specifics.

So without the bat wing or the echolocation paragraph, here is what my Princess had to say about bats:

In this report I hope to show you what I have learned about bats, their habits and what we can do for them.

Most of the bats eat insects, such as mosquitoes, grasshoppers and moths. Some bats, like the fruit bat, eat fruit and flowers. Other bats eat small amphibians and mammals, which includes salamanders and mice.

Before winter arrives, the bats start eating and storing food as fat. As hibernation starts, their hearts start slowing, as well as their breathing. During hibernation, they use the stored fat to stay alive during the winter.

One of the ways we can help bats is by protecting their home with gates. We can also make or buy bat houses. But the most important way to help bats is to teach others.

I was impressed with her use of amphibians. Not one that I would have thought about and when I asked her to name one, she came up with salamander instead of the more well-known lizard.

Today has been a bad day. But I'm going to like school; I always loved writing reports.