Books for Tween Boys - Part 2

Buddy has been a reading machine during Christmas vacation. He's read three books by Anthony Horowitz - "The Falcon's Malteser", "Public Enemy Number Two", and "South by Southeast". Then we bought "Twilight" at Target and he's already finished that! I requested a few books from the library and another Horowitz book has arrived, so we'll get that today. He loved "Twilight" and wants to read the entire series, but there are 155 holds (LOL) on 60 copies at the library for the second book, and I don't want to buy the hardcover, so he'll have to wait.

Unfortunately, all of this reading will come to a grinding halt next week when school starts up again. He just doesn't have time to read for pleasure, do homework, and play basketball. I'm just glad he enjoys reading as much as he does - hopefully it'll be a lifelong passion.

Books for Tween Boys

We got Buddy three new books by Anthony Horowitz for Christmas. He's already read two of them and just told me he's on page 43 of the third book. I just requested 2 or 3 books from the library for him and ordered two more books in the series from Amazon. He's been reading books by Anthony Horowitz for a couple of years now. Horowitz has several different series - the Alex Rider Series, the Gatekeepers Series, etc. Buddy has read them all. The books we got him for Christmas are from the Diamond Brothers series.

The books are all about young boys who solve mysteries or crimes. Buddy has loved all of the books he's read, and his friends who have read them have enjoyed them too. If you have a tween boy in your life, put anything by Anthony Horowitz on your gift list.

Boring!

It took about 45 minutes before Buddy told me that Christmas vacation is boring. I can't believe he got home from school Friday afternoon, and within 45 minutes, he said there was nothing to do. If only us adults could have a couple of weeks off with "nothing" to do - wouldn't it be awesome??

The kids just got done watching a movie and were asking what else there was to do. They wanted to go outside, but unfortunately the wind chill is about -25, so I told them they couldn't go outside. Luckily it will be warming up later this week, because two kids inside the house for two weeks would drive us all nuts. We're hoping to go skiing and sledding because we are most definitely having a white Christmas this year!

Boomer goes to school

This week Missy is the Star Student in her class. She got to bring several items in for the bulletin board, and there's also a small table they can put their favorite stuff on. She brought in her "baby" scrapbook, her own scrapbook that she has made, a wooden box that her godmother gave her, and the remnants of the pillow that was her 'lovey' until the dog chewed it up!

Another part of Star Student week is that they get to share something special with the class. It really varies what kids do - some parents come in and read a book, make ice cream sundaes, etc. When Buddy was Star Student, we went into the classroom and made tortillas with the students. Missy wanted to bring Boomer in for show-and-tell. I was reluctant, because Boomer is a BIG dog (about 80 pounds) and still acts like a puppy most of the time (he's almost 3). But since it's the week before Christmas vacation, I thought bringing Boomer in would probably be the simplest thing to do. The kids were very excited to see Boomer. He behaved for the most part, even though he did jump on me a couple of times. (At least he didn't jump on any kids.) We also brought the book "A Very Marley Christmas" about the naughty dog, Marley, because there are a lot of similarities between Boomer and Marley :).

Missy was happy that she was the center of attention and I think her classmates really enjoyed seeing Boomer.

Catholic School

My kids attend a PreK - 8th grade Catholic school. The public schools in our area are great, but we've been very, very happy with the education the kids are getting at the Catholic school. The things they are learning that kids don't learn at the public school are especially evident this time of the year. Next week Missy will have her Christmas program. The second through fourth graders put on an awesome musical that centers around Christ's birth. They sing Christmas songs that I learned in Sunday School when I was a kid. I love the fact that they can sing about and celebrate the birth of Jesus.

One of the things I was very surprised about was "back in the day" when Buddy was in first grade. He had a nun for a teacher that year. He came home with a menorah that he had colored and told me all about Hanukkah and how people of the Jewish faith celebrate. I was so glad that even though they attended a Catholic school, they were being exposed to other people's beliefs.

Buddy only has 1.5 years left at our school and then he will move on to the public high school (there's no Catholic high school option here in town - we could send him to a Catholic high school 20 miles away, but we'd have to drive him every day and the tuition is out of our price range). The day he walks out of our school for the last time as a student, I will be very sad! It's a good thing that Missy will have four more years there before we "graduate" from the school all together.

What is this? A Restaurant?

My kids drive me nuts sometimes. Usually it's around the dinner hour. Inevitably, I make something that one of them doesn't like. It's usually Missy - she pretends to be a fairly picky eater. Sunday night I made turkey ala king - the standard post-Thanksgiving meal that is Buddy's FAVORITE meal of the year - he'd prefer to have turkey ala king over the whole Thanksgiving dinner. Of course Missy turned her nose up at it. "I don't like that." "Have you ever tried it?" "I'm sure I have." "Well, I'd like you to take a bite to see - there's nothing in it that you don't care for." Of course one bite was enough for her.

Occasionally the one bite thing works - she said she didn't like the Schwan's beef goulash that I made a few months ago. I told her she needed to try some anyway and it turned out to be one of her favorite dishes (for that day anyway!). I'm sure the next time I make it she won't like it again.

Don't get me wrong - I've told the kids thousands of times that I am not a short-order cook. If they don't like what I've made for dinner, they are welcome to make their own meal (and clean up after themselves), but I won't make a separate meal for them. On turkey ala king night, Missy helped herself to an apple, yogurt, and a tortilla with melted cheese inside (that was probably healthier than the turkey ala king anyway!). Sometimes she'll have a bowl of cereal or toast.

Buddy will generally eat whatever I make, but occasionally he'll get an attitude and just decide not to eat at all - maybe because the meal wasn't finished yet when he decided it was time to eat, or he got mad at me for something else, etc. It's more of an emotional battle with him than it is him not caring for the type of food. I don't let that bother me either though - if he doesn't want to eat, that's fine - there will be another meal in a few hours (or tomorrow morning). He's not going to starve to death.

If my kids had their choice, they would probably have Chipotle or Subway for dinner every single night.