Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Chase has been in the best mood for the last week or ten days, making Nanaw very happy. Nanaw can't talk to Mama about Chase's good mood because Mama will say that talking about it will jinx it. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Wednesday afternoon, it turned out that he had forgotten to bring his vocabulary book home so he can study for the quiz on Friday. He was really good about having to go back into school to get the book. He used to put up a huge fuss whenever he had to go back for something. When they got to Nanaw's house, Chase did some more problems from the math test, and he did a good job on them. After he was done with the math problems, he and Nanaw studied the vocabulary. He made quite a few mistakes on the pages where he had to answer questions and fill in spaces with the vocabulary words. So Nanaw was thinking that he would have problems with the definitions for the vocabulary words but he did better than Nanaw expected. Tomorrow afternoon they'll study the words the hard way where Nanaw gives him the word, and Chase gives her the definition. 

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Nanaw limited Chase's device use on Tuesday morning, including the car phone. But she said he could play with the car phone on the drive home from school this afternoon. After school, Chase didn't have any homework so he and Nanaw worked on the problems he missed on the math test. Nanaw had written  four problems for him to work on, each on a separate piece of paper so he could concentrate just on one problem. They had a long conversation about how to take a math test, how to check the problems, how to think about the way to solve the problems, to take his time and not rush through the test and to pay attention to what he's doing. The "pay attention" comment got his attention (LOL), and he told Nanaw that he's a Gen Z, and they have a short attention span. Nanaw Googled Gen Z and saw that they're born between 1995 and 2010 so Chase is not quite in that group because he was born in 2011, but he wants to be a Gen Z. In addition to the short attention span (Google says 8 seconds), they also are addicted to devices. Chase did well on three of the four problems. They'll work on more problems tomorrow.

Monday, April 15, 2024

On Monday morning, Mama brought along Chase's baseball uniform for tonight's practice, and reminded him to put in his contact lenses. Chase and Nanaw had a talk about math, with Nanaw saying it wasn't so much the grades that are important but the fact that grades show how much you've learned. Nanaw said it's important to learn the math and keep up with it. Math and English are the two most important subjects and are the ones you use most in your life. With math, if you fall behind in learning, it's hard to keep up and hard to learn new things. Nanaw will continue to reinforce those lessons, along with not rushing when taking math tests and trying to check your work when you have enough time. When Nanaw picked Chase up, he said he had a lot of homework but it turned out that he didn't have so much. He had science and religion; he'd already finished his math in class. After he was finished with the homework and the snacks (including Skinny Pop and a Sponge Bob popsicle, Chase put on his baseball uniform and put in his contact lenses. Then he played on the keyboard. When Daddy came to pick him up, Daddy said this was Chase's last Monday night baseball practice.

Sunday, April 14, 2024

After Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning, the family had an adventure. They went to a Blues hockey game at Enterprise Center. It was their first  professional hockey game in a long time. The Blues were playing the Seattle Kraken. The Blues won, which make everybody happy. The best thing of all was that Chase got a stuffed bear -- courtesy of Build a Bear -- who gave the first 3,000 kids attending the hockey game a Bernie Federko bear. So Chase named his bear Bernie. When they got home, Mama got out her stuffed bear, Puck. That's his name because you can turn him inside out, and he becomes a puck. Nanaw  came over to visit and to help Chase with his history homework assignment of President Pennants. Chase did three pennants: George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Nanaw mostly glued things together for Chase, while he worked on the background, history and biography of the presidents. Chase finally got his math test back, the one he got a D on. Nanaw took it home and made a page of the 14 or 15 problems Chase missed that they'll work on. 

Saturday, April 13, 2024

The guys at the sleepover had to get up at 6:45 a.m. because Drew had a baseball game at 8 a.m. Drew's mom fixed cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Chase had a hockey game at noon, and Mama said he got to make a penalty shot and did really well, although he didn't score. After the hockey game, Chase and Mama went to the Wacky Warriors event at Chase's school. Every other year, boy students and their moms do all kinds of wacky things in the gym at school. Some of the events included: balloon races with the balloons between their legs; a race of carrying ping pong balls on a teaspoon; using a parachute for all kinds of activities (Nanaw thinks Chase did that one when he was in kindergarten); and putting a cookie on their foreheads and trying to get it down into their mouths without having it fall off -- Chase did it successfully. They had one of Chase's favorites for a snack -- popcorn. Mama and Chase both said they had a great time. Nanaw came over to visit, and she and Chase were downstairs watching various sporting events. Chase was also hitting a balloon around with a hockey stick. Mama picked up dinner from Washy's, and Chase and Nanaw both had delicious mini tacos with sour cream and salsa -- very much like the tiny tacos at Jack-in-the-Box.

Friday, April 12, 2024

Friday was a very exciting day for Chase. The two sixth grade classes took a day-long field trip to two great St Louis landmarks. First, they visited the Cathedral of the Basilica. Chase gave Nanaw the following information about the cathedral when she interviewed him (with his permission because he doesn't like it when Nanaw asks him too many questions in what he calls (rapid fire). It cost several million dollars to build the cathedral in 1914. Today, it would cost a billion dollars. Chase said it was filled with mosaics and sculptures. They went to a sculpture part for lunch, and Chase had a sub sandwich, potato chips, a cookie, and a Sunkist fruit drink. In the afternoon, they went to the St. Louis Art Museum and got to see Stella's and Michael's artwork. Unfortunately, their art teacher wasn't able to give them a tour of the museum but someone else did. Chase said he had a really good time on the field trip. In the evening, he went to Drew's house with the other guys for a  sleepover in honor of Drew's birthday. The guys stayed up till about 1 a.m. Cole went home earlier so he could get enough sleep. They had Papa John's pizza, cheese bites, and garlic cheese breadsticks for dinner. Later, they had a Jello cake for Drew's birthday.

Thursday, April 11, 2024

When Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Thursday morning, she said he should be home by 5 for a baseball game. It turned out that the game was cancelled because the field was wet from the rain. So that meant Chase could go to 4 on 4 hockey practice. Chase didn't really want to go but Daddy said he had to. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Mama on the pick-up call who is in his field trip group tomorrow -- Brady, Hunter, Cole, and Cam. It was mostly the guys except for Cam. Unfortunately, the other member of the guys, Drew, was in a different group. Cam's mother and Mama will be their group's chaperones. One of the field trip stops will be the St. Louis Art Museum. Stella and Michael, two of Chase's classmates, won a contest and they will have their artwork in the museum. Chase's art teacher is going along on the field trip, and she's going to take the two sixth grade classes on a tour of the museum. Chase didn't have any homework that had to be done for tomorrow because of the field trip. His presidents' pennants assignment is due Monday, and so is his AR vocab assignment.