Evening all.
I'm going to get personal first, and then you guys can ignore the rest of the message...
Ginny: How about one of the Cranium Cadoo games? I've been eyeing them for my classroom, but they are kinda pricey, so I haven't take the leap yet. My kids also like Pictionary (we inherited it from another class, its not something I'd buy). We also have a game called "Roll a Word" that is like Scattergories except you have 6 different letters and one category. So, if your letter are C, B, M, W, S, and R and your category was fruit your answers might be "Cantaloupe, Banana, Mandarin Orange, Watermelon, Starfruit and Raspberry". I've never seen a big version of the game, ours is a travel version. I sometimes use it as an in-class assignment to increase vocabulary and spelling. Upwords is a nice game, like Scrabble except you can build "upwords". For computer games, I like TextTwist and WordMojo, but they might be too hard for her, and they only have you making words, but don't necessarily tell you what they mean. There was a computer version of Scattergories at one point (I have it.. got it off a box of cereal along with Yahtzee, Monopoly Jr, Boggle).
Another game that encourages following rules is the Fluxx card game. They have an adult version (nothing racy or bad in it, but it does include graphic references to death, and war), and they're coming out with a Family version. I LOVE this game, and my kids fight over playing it. This is the first time I've successfully taught my MR kids to play it. In past years, only my higher functioning ED kids have been able to learn it. I'm planning to buy Family Fluxx so my lower kids can play too... the cards will be easier to understand.
The neat thing with Fluxx is that you can make your own cards too, and personalize the game. You can see where to buy it at LooneyLabs' website.
They have other games, too, that might be good: NanoFictionary.
Michelle: Good job getting back onto your track!
Kerry: Congrats on the decision, hope it works for you and you get big heaps of money for the house!
Robyn: I've been that route (think I'm there tonight, in fact), with sleep. My kids have been real creative in terms of bad behavior this week, and I've spent the last three afternoons in the principal's office.
One touchy-feely issue, one of my kids set up somebody to pick her up and just cut school; she lied to her art teacher to get out of class (art is the only class on that day that she doesn't have with me, because she had to know that I'd never allow her to leave without seeing a pass!).
Hope I didn't miss anybody. And, as I said, you're welcome to stop reading here if you'd like...
I am not sure if I should feel like a heel or not. My friend had her baby yesterday... C-section. I asked her to let me know how it was, and to make sure she and baby were okay. I never heard from her or her husband. I've been worried sick, because near as I can figure she was barely 8 months pregnant (maybe 8.5?), because she wasn't due until Christmas. She'd been absolutely adamant that she wasn't going to have a C-Section, then suddenly agreed to it. I found out Wednesday night, 11/30, right before she went in. Apparently the baby was in a bad position for delivery, although I'm not sure why they didn't try to turn the baby. I didn't ask, and don't know enough about pregnancy to speculate.
So, you can understand I've been really worried... got more and more worried without having heard from them. Then, tonight, a mutual friend sent me an email asking if I was going to be a gdmother. I replied that that wouldn't happen, seeing as how I'm Jewish and they aren't... and that I hadn't even heard that everything was okay. He sent back that he'd gotten an email from my friend's husband. I was LIVID... You have no idea how mad I was when I read that. I told my friend that I was angry and upset and confused (although not in those words)... and then went and did some schoolwork. I come up out of the schoolwork haze, and find an email in my in-box, from her husband. I'm not sure if he realized he forgot me, or if our mutual friend said something (not his usual MO). I haven't read the email yet, so I'm not sure what it is. I guess I'll go find out... but I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing.