Pink Cows

I was informed by Colby today that chocolate milk comes from brown cows and strawberry milk comes from pink cows. Hmm, all these years I've never seen a pink cow. Wonder where they have been hiding.

I love to hear the things my boys come up with. They are very creative little boys!

Museum of Ancient History

Lately the boys have been talking a lot about Dinosaurs so we thought we'd take them to the Museum of Ancient History so they could check them out up close and personal. We went on a Saturday and it was a little crowded but we still had a good time. The boys enjoyed the museum but it seemed like Colby just wanted to move quickly from room to room to see what was next. It was hard to slow him down! Here are a few pictures of our day.

I assume Colby is doing his best impersonation of a fish???

Digging for dinosaur bones. They could have stayed here all day if we would have let them.

We Have Pirates...

...living in our potty!

In talking with Cameron trying to figure out why he is deathly afraid of the potty this is what he told me:

Me: Cameron, are you scared of the potty?

Cameron: Yeeeessss, mommy!

Me: Why? What are you afraid of?

Cameron: There are pirates and poopies in there.

Well, I guess I can't help him with the poopies but we're going to have to do something about those mean pirates living in the potty scarring the daylights out of Cameron. I guess I'm going to have to go to the Pirate Be Gone store and get some pirate potion to rid our toilets of them.

Chinese Immersion or Not

We received some information from Colby's school regarding a new program they are trying to start next year with the first graders, Chinese Immersion Program. What it essentially means that if we decide, Colby will have a half day of English studies and learning and a half day of Chinese studies and learning. He will have this every day for his entire elementary education. They also hope to add programs so when he gets into secondary school he can continue the Chinese studies.

When I first heard about this I didn't really know what to think. I was worried about the small amount of learning he would be doing in English. I feel that if you don't get a strong foundation in the beginning and get behind you will never catch up. I voiced my concern to his teacher and she made me feel very much at ease by telling me that Colby is above grade level in most things and will have no trouble learning the fundamentals. She called him a "deep thinker". My other concern was how in the heck would we be able to help him with his homework. This is still a concern but I will ask that question at a parents meeting they have scheduled in a few weeks.

In taking to Colby about it, he definitely wants to do it. He has said numerous times that we are going to go to China and he is going to tell us what everyone is saying. I have to agree with him that it would be super cool to take him when he's a little older to Hong Kong Disneyland and let him be our interpreter. Sounds like a great vacation to me!

Here are a few tidbits from a paper they sent home to the parents:
The younger a child is the easier it is to acquire a second language. Mastering a second language makes learning a third language even easier. Many students who have participated in immersion programs go on to acquire a third language when they reach high school. There are many studies that show students in immersion programs outperform students in all-English schools on a variety of English languages tests-reading, writing, listening, etc.

So as I mentioned, we plan to attend the parent meeting to hear what else they have to say and to ask our looming questions. We need to decide by the end of March whether or not to sign him up for it. They have to get a minimum of 50 students sign up to be able to offer the program. If you have an opinion on this, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Colby And His BFF

It's a sad day here in the Carpenter household. Colby's very BFF from kindergarten is moving to Denver this weekend. He's known since October that he was going to be moving but now is finally the time. Today we invited him to come play one last time. Even though he has a few other friends in his class, this boy has been his BFF since the first day of school. I know he's only in kindergarten but I kind of feel sorry for Colby because he and this other boy just mesh so well together and always have a ball playing together. His friend keeps telling him that he's going to come back and visit him but we all know that will never happen. I sure hope Colby isn't banking on that. Here is a picture of them taking time out of playing the Wii to pose for a picture.

Doesn't he look sad already.

Finally...

For the past couple of years Colby has pleaded and begged for Molly to sit on his lap. However, she has always chosen to sit on Chris or my lap instead much to Colby's protest. The other day I walked into the family room and this is what I encountered:



At first it didn't even phase him but then I pointed it out and he was beyond excited!

I Want To Be Like Daddy!

The other night while Chris was playing the Wii Fit he yelled to me to come look at Cameron. I went into the other room and this is what I saw:

He cracks me up with some of the things he comes up with! Too cute for words sometimes.