Chugging Along!

It's been a few weeks since I've posted an update. I had hoped to have some Disney pictures to share but my computer cord is MIA. So that will have to wait. Madeline is doing really well. Since the last time I updated,

Madeline:
math- can count by 10's, 5's, 2's, and 3's. Has learned 1/2 and 1/4 in fractions. Added subtraction to her repertoire. Can add pennies, nickels, dimes, 1/2 dollars and dollars. We'll be done with kindergarten math in a few short weeks.

reading- chugging away at Ordinary Parents Guide and has read Green Eggs and Ham and Put me in the Zoo to me. We'll be reading part of Little Bear later today. I can't believe that she's almost ready for 2nd grade readers!

handwriting- she's almost done with the Abeka K4 workbook and will start A Reason For Handwriting K in 2 weeks. She has some technical kinks to work out.

Science- we finished the Berenstein Bears Big Book of Science and Nature. It is a fabulous book filled with so much information! I'm currently looking into science for next year. Madeline wants to study anatomy so I'm leaning towards Apologia BUT it might be a little much for her. Sonlight science A is an option but I'm not sure if it's deep enough.

Read-A-Louds- we continue to read through Uncle Wiggily, Book of Virtues ect. ect. We are also reading The Moffits right now. She's really enjoying that one! I'm thinking about picking up Charlotte's Web from the library because she is going to see that play in a couple of weeks. We shall see.

I think that pretty much sums up Madeline's progress.

Duncan is running and climbing and just being a boy. He is trying so hard to talk. He has taken to screaming to get our attention which can be deafening at times. We're hoping he grows out of that really soon!

I continue to be busy with running the kids around, teaching Story Hour, and all of the other things that moms do. Eric was gone for a week in Canada which was a challenge but we survived!

What's been missing?

Pictures! This week I have pictures. We finished week 7 of our school year today. I have pictures, some from this week some from previous weeks. I meant to do a week in pictures but in true Shannon fashion I forgot my camera at our outings.

Madeline started another year of ballet on Monday. She loves it even more this year. She was so excited to go! Our first coop class was cancelled because the leader had a death in the family. We'll start that next week. On Wednesday Duncan woke with a fever so we didn't go to music class. Thursday was our first day of Coffee Break at church. Today was the first Tap/Jazz of the year. This week was actually not as stressful as I had anticipated. If Duncan hadn't gotten sick it would have been wonderful!

Madeline learned a lot this week yet again.
Math: started counting by 2's, odd and even numbers, ordering, adding change
Handwriting: she is doing really, really well with it. No more complaining and doesn't even like to trace the letters before writing them. She is now writing complete words instead of just letters. Her numbers are also improving greatly!
Reading: ai, oa, ee, ay. She is doing fantastic reading longer and longer short and long vowel words.
Science: mammals and their habitats
Social Studies: learned about Pilots and what goes on in an airplane
Read-alouds: finished the Wizard of Oz, struggling through The Horse and His Boy, read some great stories from the Lion Storyteller Bedtime book.
Bible: "Forgive and the Lord forgave you" read about Joseph and Moses.

And now for some pictures!

A craft we did a couple of weeks ago- making fireworks




Kids at the zoo ( a school reward)


apparently Duncan loves to mop SCORE!

Duncan enjoying some fettuccine alfredo


Madeline working on her fall lapbook




Labor Day pedicure



THIS week she decided to put on some make up


She was so proud of herself. I even let her leave the house like that. Unfortunately the make up caused a little breakout/rash so she won't be allowed to play with it anymore.

Working on math this morning- days in a week, how many days does ___ month have, ect.


I've had a bunch of people ask me what the baby does while we're doing school, well here you go!


Next week will be very busy. On Sunday we're going to my parents to pick up their van. They're letting us borrow it for our drive to Disney World!! We then have a full week of school and activities. We leave for Disney Thursday night and will be driving straight through. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of the packing done and the house cleaned before we go.

Week in Review... Week 6

Another week has flown by. We had 2 complete pajama days this week. Next week the craziness starts. Monday- ballet, Tuesday- Coop, Wednesday- music class, Thursday- Coffee Break which I'm teaching, Friday- Jazz/Tap. I'm crazy. Next week should be interesting!

Madeline is doing fabulous with everything! She is way too smart! This week she:

learned about obedience in Bible. Doing motions really helps with memorization!
learned about living things and classified living vs. non living things in Science
learned perimeter and reviewed a lot of other things in math
enjoyed Uncle Wiggily a lot
is starting to write complete words in handwriting
learned long vowel plural words, that ai makes the long A sound, and is improving overall in reading speed
coming up with wonderfully creative stories that I really need to write down

Duncan:
continues to pee on the floor AFTER Eric takes him off the potty
is learning to run
loves, LOVES playing outside
is trying really hard to talk but isn't quite there yet
is starting to point to different parts of the body when asked
is trying to imitate animal sounds
seems to have chosen a stuffed animal to sleep with

I:
plotted out the rest of the year for math
got a pedicure with my mom :)
really made an effort to get off of the computer more
ordered Disney on Ice tickets for Madeline
took it easy because starting next week I'm wondering if I'll be able to even breathe!

Week 5 in Review

Madeline has made great strides this week! And we've determined that apparently Duncan does not need sleep. Seriously, I don't know how that kid can be so happy all of the time with a maximum of 12 hours of sleep total in a day.

I do have 1 or 2 pictures to add this week but I still have to upload them so will do that later.

This week Madeline:
Learned to count by 5's, fill in and read a bar graph, perfected 10's and 1's place value.
Learned several more ways to add (number line, counting on, in columns ect.)
Learned the difference between two, to, and too.
Learned soft and hard G and C.
Perfected long vowel/silent E.
Learned about Honesty and recited Ephesians 4:25.
Is much better at neatness with writing letters.
Learned about the phases of the moon and the life cycle of the caterpillar.
Completed the seasons science study.
Went on a nature walk and found a dead frog and some acorns.
Started library music class.
Started the read aloud The Horse and His Boy and continued The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This week Duncan:
Started story time and music class at the library.
Played in the park.
Learned to climb DOWN the stairs and how to get off of furniture! :)
Played a lot with his shape sorter. He still needs matching help but he's getting much better.
No longer takes a morning nap.
Made lots and lots of messes.

This week I:
Made a bunch of delicious meals that the kids actually ate without complaining!
Booked our condo for our April vacation!!
Did a little organizing ( a VERY little).

Friday Already?

This week flew by! It was our last week before the fall activities start back up. Next week the library things start. The kids will both be in music there and we'll go to story time once a week hopefully. Pretty soon the Coop we are planning to go to will start and the same week dance starts.

This week Madeline:
learned about counting on in Singapore. This greatly simplified adding for her and made things go much faster!
learned the parts of an ant in science class
made great strides with handwriting
greatly improved her reading speed
finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe read aloud and watched the movie
cut our school time down from 2 hours to between 60 and 90 minutes by focusing better. :)

Duncan:
learned to climb onto the couch using one of his toys as a step stool
learned to get off said couch by rolling onto his belly and sliding down
started really trying to say words. We still can't understand them but he's getting closer
drank from Terro ant baits causing us to call poison control (all was fine)
pretty much gave up his morning nap

I:
called poison control for the first time
finalized all of our Disney plans for next month
added teaching story hour at church to all of the other things I do (starting to think I'm crazy)
completed all of the lesson plans for children's church through December
decided on a Sunday School Christmas program and started planning that

Bribery works!

Madeline is capable of a lot of things. She is also perfectionist. She tends to not want to do/try things unless she is certain she will be able to do them correctly and perfectly the first time. We have resorted to bribery. We set up a points system. Every time she completes her handwriting without complaining she gets a stamp. She also gets a stamp every time she completes her reading without fighting us. This week she earned enough stamps for a trip to the children's museum. We took this field trip on Thursday. Before we get there lets review what we did this week!

Last Saturday we took the kids to a little fair at a church. Madeline got to ride a horse and get her face painted(and a bunch of other things) and Duncan got to play in the playground.





This week Madeline:
Math- counted dimes, pennies, and dimes and pennies together, added using number line and linking cubes, counted by 1's, 10's and "in between".

Reading- continued silent e long vowel words in OPG, and got some Bob books from Costco

Handwriting and readiness- Ll-Pp and worked on our memory skills

Bible- read about the Tower of Babel, Abraham, and Lot, memorized 2Corintheans 9:7

Science- learned about the wind, tornadoes, and the months of summer

Read-alouds- more from Uncle Wiggily, and started the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Wizard of Oz.

This week Duncan:
Worked on his peg board. He has amazing fine motor skills.
Started favoring his right hand more then his left.
FINALLY broke his 8th tooth.
Loved playing with the Play silk.
Was introduced to the training potty and swiftly peed on the floor after getting off said potty.
Turned 13 months old (today!).
Played outside every chance he got.
Enjoyed a Popsicle during read aloud time.


We enjoyed our song of the week also, Father Abraham.


We also took a nature walk and discovered Cat Tails by the pond and how corn grows.

I'll leave you with pictures from the kids favorite thing we did this week, the children's museum.

Father Abraham

In full swing... almost

We started school last week. The first couple of days were rough. We worked out a few kinks and are happily going along now. Madeline is cooperative for the most part. She loves listening to the read aloud books. Handwriting has become less of a battle even in the short 2 weeks since we've started. Duncan is cooperating pretty well. He keeps himself occupied for the most part. We try to do some crafts while he takes his morning nap. Some days he skips his morning nap and we don't do crafts. Our fall activities haven't started yet so we're getting a good idea how this will work before they do.

This week Madeline:
started reading long vowel/silent e words.
learned the 1's addition family and worked with number bonds
memorized Hebrews 11:1 and learned what Faith is
flew a kite and finger painted
learned the value of a dime, counted by 10's
learned to write letters Gg through Kk properly.
started reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at bedtime
AND got a new bed!

This week Duncan:
learned to climb on his mail cart (that got put away)
started imitating animal noises
picked up his own toys
started really sitting for books and bringing them to us to read to him
colored using both his right hand AND his left hand, slightly preferring his left

This week I:
totally slacked on the housework
made some yummy turkey burgers on the grill and a yummy quiche
reconnected with an old friend

Next weeks goals:
take some pictures of school, do more crafts, and loose 2 pounds (started weight watchers again today)

In search of a schedule.

I need accountability for tasks. I need a schedule written down so that I can check things off as I do them. I love me a good list. Now that Duncan is just about a year old I think it's time to get back on track. I can't use the excuse "my house is messy/dirty because I have a newborn" any longer. ;) My schedule needs to include: cleaning, meals, exercise, internet time, kids activities, and schooling. I need to basically fit 5 out of the 6 of those in when Duncan is sleeping. Have I mentioned lately that Duncan is not a fan of naps? That combined with the sun coming up, and consequently my son waking up, at 5am makes it difficult to fit all of that in. I am determined though!

For meals I have discovered a fantastic website called www.plantoeat.com . It allows you to enter all of your recipes into it's database and then you can just click and drag them into a calendar. It even generates a shopping list for you from the menu you plan. A feature that I love is that you can have friends on the site and share recipes with them. I have meals planned out for the whole month of July because of this site! I also bought a cookbook for freezer meals. It has a step by step plan on how to cook/prepare food this way. I'm excited to try it.

My cleaning battle is evolving. I now do a lot of it when Eric is home. I try to keep things picked up throughout the day and spot clean when I get a chance. Also, Madeline is now old enough to play in the bathtub by herself. So I can clean upstairs while I keep an eye on her in there.

Homeschooling happens throughout the day. Ideally I'd do this for about an hour in the morning. Usually we can get most of this done during Duncan's first nap. We read our books after Eric gets home so he can occupy Duncan. This will work well until Duncan can sit and listen too.

Exercise.... well this is not happening. haha I still need a treadmill for the house. I would really like to do couch to 5K but I can't do it during the day at all.

Activities is the easy thing on the list. I am looking forward to getting the park district schedule so I can get our fall planned out. We need to sign up for ballet and possibly tap. We also have music class at the library and story time for Duncan. We will also be joining a coop and have Coffee Break on Thursdays.

Sounds like we'll have a busy fall. I hope I can stick to my schedules. I bet I'll have a very elaborate one written out by the end of August. I'll be sure to share it when that happens.

30 days

There are 30 days until we leave for our Disney trip. That also means there are 30 days left of Madeline's school year. Yes we're counting the days. For a while there was no complaining about going to school, lately however it's occurring every morning. I'm getting really tired of it. I'm also anxious to get Duncan on a nap schedule instead of him just taking short naps in the car to and from school.

We have all of our materials for Madeline's kindergarten year. We decided to call it kindergarten even though she's only 4 because that's what work she'll be doing. We'll be using Sonlight P4/5 along with Horizons K math mixed with some Singapore K book B. Our language arts consits of Original Parents Guide to Teaching Reading with Abeka and Horizons handwriting. I'm sure we'll stick with one but have both for now. We'll also be going to the library for Fun with Music for both kids and story time for Duncan. The librarian told Madeline to bring her doll and she could join us. Madeline will also be taking Ballet again and possibly Tap. She's also excited to be going back to Story Hour at church while I'm in Coffee Break. Hopefully we'll find some time for a homeschool coop too. When I type it all it seems very busy! We plan to star no later then August 1st.

Madeline got tubes in her ears 1 month ago. Her attitude is improving! She is doing very well with reading, although we're taking a little break. She was getting too overwhelmed with us trying to add that in to her already busy school day. In a couple of days we'll have her parent/teacher conference and we'll tell her teacher that she won't be returning next year. I think I'll let Eric handle that part of the conversation!

Duncan is still battling the C.dif. We brought another sample in today to see if it's gone. I really don't think it is. We already have an appointment with a specialist for the 20th. He needs to start gaining weight. Poor kid eats a ton but it doesn't stay in him long enough to do much good. He is such a happy baby though. He'll be walking very soon!

Minivan dreaming

I want a minivan, Eric does not. Anytime the subject of a new car comes up we have this discussion. Before Madeline was born we were going to get a minivan. I agreed to a car since there was only 1 child on the way. I love my Ford wagon. I do. Eric's car has over 100K miles on it now. He needs a new one, not immediately, but potentially before the end of the year. I want a minivan, he wants an economical compact. At one point he wanted a Smart Car. I nixed that idea right away. I don't trust those things on the interstate that he has to drive everyday!

Madeline is helping me in my quest for a minivan. The other day Madeline declared she wanted me to drive to church. This meant Eric had to ride shotgun. When we arrived at church he informed me he did not appreciate having to ride shotgun. No, it wasn't because of my driving (I'm a much safer driver then him!). My poor hubby was scrunched in that seat like a sardine. You see, because of the rear facing car seat the passenger seat has to be scooted pretty far forward. It doesn't bother me too much but Eric was pretty much eating his knees.

Duncan is also helping me with my quest. We have a pretty roomy trunk. Enter the stroller. Put that thing in the trunk and all that room just disappears. It's very hard for me to have a stroller and groceries in the trunk at the same time. Also, with him now added to our family no one else can ride in the car with us. Well maybe a very small 8-12 year old could fit in between the 2 car seats as long as they weren't in any sort of car seat appliance.

Vacations. Oh sweet vacations. We prefer to drive to our destinations. With 2 children and a scrunched passenger, this makes for a not so comfortable trip. I dream of the roominess a minivan provides.

I want a minivan!

I think Eric might be coming around to a: used, low mileage, power sliding door, power liftgate, fold in the floor seat, won't break the bank too much minivan.

Stay tuned.

The homeschool decision

When I was growing up I knew 2 homeschoolers (twins). They were nice and they joined us in gym class and band at school. I thought they were pretty normal. Somewhere between my experience with them and college I started thinking that kids that were homeschooled were weird. I'm not sure why. I did meet someone in college that I considered "weird" but looking back I think he would have been that way whether or not he was homeschooled. It's just his personality and the longer I knew him the less weird he seemed. I NEVER thought I would be homeschooling my own children. Not in a million years!

Before Madeline was born I told Eric that I did not want her skipping any grades in school. He had skipped grades twice and graduated when he was 16. Because of this he was not allowed to live on campus at college. I feel like he missed out on a lot of the college experience. Eric, on the other hand, stated he didn't want his child to be bored in school. Since Madeline's arrival this subject has pretty much become moot since in IL it's pretty much impossible to have a child skip a grade anyway.

As Madeline grew she always did things faster then others her age. I can't say that she's gifted or even smarter then everyone else, just faster. At 3 she is already doing kindergarten work. She is well ahead in math and is putting words together. Her body, however, is not on the same level as her brain. Her handwriting, for example, is on par with others her age. She gets frustrated when her body won't cooperate with what she wants it to do. We expect that by the time she is kindergarten age she will be doing 2nd grade math and probably reading at a 2nd grade level (that is if she ever decides that she actually wants to apply her reading skills). She also has amazing comprehension skills for her age and her memory is outstanding! Public School is just not an option for her.

We are supposedly in a good school district. I have no first hand knowledge of this though. I have to go by what "they" say. With all of the teacher cuts happening in our district right now there is no way that a public school would be able to tailor curriculum to fit Madeline's needs. She'd soon be "normalized" at school. I can see it happening already at her Montessori school. She has not advanced much this school year at all. The teachers just can't spend the time with each student that they need to and her school isn't following the Montessori method like they should be because they separated the age groups. Madeline would just be bored, or worse a disruption to the students that need to be learning the material.

So public school is out (and to be truthful wasn't really a consideration in the first place) and her Montessori school is out. We aren't thrilled with the Christian school in our area. We would have sent her there if I hadn't been looking into homeschooling, just by default. But I discovered homeschooling.

I first looked into it so I could start doing some preschool work with her when she was 2. I then just kept searching the internet for more and more information. When Duncan surprised us by coming along we decided to put her in preschool for a year while we got used to having a new member of the family. We went to a preschool fair and discovered Montessori. It looked like a wonderful fit for her. This particular school only goes through Kindergarten so we decided that we'd keep her there and bring her home for school for first grade. Unfortunately, things haven't been going exactly how we anticipated. We were at a loss. She made a couple of nice friends at school. We were struggling to decide if we should let her continue there so she could be with her friends.

Then January happened. Madeline started asking why I couldn't just teach her at home like I used to. She began fighting every morning about going to school. We began praying about it in earnest. Registration is in February so we needed to decide. Socks. Socks were the last straw, the aha moment if you will. If she didn't go to school then I wouldn't have to fight her every morning to put on socks. Our decision was made. Yes, God made our decision for us through socks. Pretty much as soon as we decided to not send her next year, things became easier in the mornings. She began enjoying school again. I'm so thankful that she'll be able to finish the school year with a good attitude and joy.

I am very excited to be able to continue to foster her love for learning. I was so afraid that going to school would stomp that out. Being bored in school will do that to a child. If she wants to go in depth about a certain topic I can do that. School wouldn't be able to because they have to follow a rigid schedule. I am also so looking forward to being able to travel during the school year without worrying about missing school. We can just pick up where we left off when we get back OR take it with us.

We have chosen Sonlight curricum, along with Singapore K math, Horizons K math and Horizons and Abeka phonics. We will most likely be done with the Singapore K math by the end of the summer. The Horizons K math is a little more advanced so I suspect we will finish that up around Christmas. We will go at Madeline's pace.

I'm so glad that I get to be the one to see Madeline's face when the light bulb goes off!

A Fresh Start

I love the start of a new year. You get to sort of wipe the slate clean. The responsibilities are still there from the previous years but it doesn't FEEL so cumbersome. You get a chance to gather your thoughts, take a deep breath, and look forward to all of the possibilities that abound. I'm not one to make resolutions but I do like goals. So my goals for this year are:

1. Loose weight. To obtain this I have joined Weight Watchers and am now down 15 pounds. I would love to loose 28 more by our vacation in early June and then 30 more beyond that. I will hopefully look fabulous by the time our annual family Christmas picture rolls around.

2. Spend more time playing with the kids. This one is hard for me. I have a problem telling my brain to forget about the million other things I have to do.

3. Plant bushes on the west side of the house. We've lived here for 6.5 years and still have nothing over there.

4. Eat out less. This will help both the waistline and the pocket book.

5. Get the house in order. This means both organized and decorated. We still have boxes to unpack from our attempted house sale 3 years ago.

6. Get back to daily personal devotions. Last year we got our routine together for family devotion. It's past time I get my own personal devotions started again.

I think those are some pretty ambitious goals. I hope to accomplish/work on all of them throughout this year!