Voting has Begun

The time has come for voting!

One of the six well-deserving children will be selected to receive a Perkins Smart Brailler.  

Adelyn would LOVE to have your vote to be selected to have this awesome tool in her literacy journey.

The voting ends on September 8 and the winner will be announced on September 9th!  We have the opportunity to cast a new vote every 24 hours, so don't forget to go back each day and vote again.  Here is the link that will take you to the voting poll:

http://www.wonderbaby.org/backpacking-smart-brailler-vote

If you are on FaceBook, or any other group that might be willing to join in the voting, would you please share the link for me?

Thanks so much!

JiJi and the Chick

Another new little creature joins The Crew and JiJi checks it out.

Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo

Well, Mr. Marty's flight home left today. Today is a spelling test, so prehistoric Perky (the "dumb" braillewriter) came out. Although JiJi was TRYING to make a sad face for you, she couldn't stop giggling!

Challenge. We are working in a little math on the spelling tests. Each correct word on the test earns a dime. I challenged the Loolies this week. If they could ALL get 100%, I would give them each an additional $0.25! Boy, that got them excited. They have been helping each other all week. We'll see how it goes in a few moments.

Of course the lesson doesn't end there.   We are keeping a class graph of how many correct spelling words are achieved.  They like to see the mountain peaks get taller each week!

Once they collect their money, then we trade. How many dimes do you need to give me for me to trade you $0.50? Do you have a nickel? How many coins do you need to give me to trade for $0.75? Heh, heh, heh. Then we go to the store, they see what their selections can be, dictated by how much money they have earned, choose the right amount, pay and make sure they get the correct change. Fortunately, our little country store LOVES to see the girls coming and they generally open a lane just for their transactions, so no one is hurried!

I will post a link tomorrow that you can select - it will take you directly to the voting page to cast your vote for the individual who will be selected to receive a Perkins Smart Brailler to keep. Of course I am hoping that you will vote for Miss JiJi, but gosh - EACH of those sweeties are deserving and worthy of the opportunity to have one. Apparently, one is able to cast a new vote every 24 hours, but I have been told that the voting process will only extend over a two week period at most - possibly less.

Chick-A-Dee aka fairy princess

JMJ & Calgon, I need H.E.L.P.!!!!

Today began as most - a bright promise to a wonderful day, chatter, laughter, happy goats (after they were milked, that is).

And then. Just then.

Nearly 11 AM, girls hair is not yet combed, school has barely begun.

All I wanted to do was can a quick batch of pears before the day got away.

Well, I was stirring up some light syrup for the pears and the container that the syrup was in broke. Yes, sugar water pouring off the counter, behind the fridge, into the silverware drawer that just happened to be ajar. Cleaned up - not easy moving that durned dutch door fridge.

Ah - one jar short - I, of course, had to bring in one of those odd jars - the top was not a small or large mouth - somewhere in between. Trek out to the big barn to get one lousy jar.

On my way to the barn . . . . . What is this? Three tiny holes squirting water from the pool hose? Great - I just put new hoses on last week! Why is there only one plug in the pool bag? Search everywhere, finally find the missing plug in the new hose bag - yeah, now why did I put it there?

OK - pears finally in the water bath, girls have actually begun school on their own and are well on their way to being done! I finally made it to the bathroom to brush my teeth - maybe that was the reason everything was going catywampus? Nope - undoubtedly THIS was the reason - 

how on earth did my necklace go down my sleeve, for goodness sakes?

Now.  We are NOT going to go into that dangly, flappin' in the wind stuff hanging under my arm.  If you value your life, that is . . . . .

Chore Charts

OK, so Mr. Marty is thinking he is on a marathon. We even brailled up some chore charts. With 3 ever so willing helpers, we rotate missions on a weekly basis. They each have a different area to vacuum that they are responsible for. Kind of fun - we use the same number for who goes first, second or third for that particular week - who is called upon first in school, who gets first choice when there is a choice, etc. For some odd reason, they all race to the fridge Saturday evening or Sunday morning for the rotation, each one counting the days until they are once again number 1!

B.I.N.G.O.

Thanks, Marty, once again! We made Bingo cards in Braille today! Using sticky stickers on plastic paper (I know there is an official name for this kind of paper - thermoform???) allows the player to keep track of their numbers without the frustration of pieces going all over the place. Plus, the stickers can be used for quite a few games before they loose their stick! Hmmmmm - now we need to braille up little papers that say N37 or B10 so JiJi can take her turn being the caller! I think that you can purchase ready to go Brailled Bingo games, but then your sweetie would loose out practicing all those numbers!