Welcome! Come, take a look see at our life. What's that? You can't see anything. Well, let me just open up these blinds. There is that better? Remember short people in front, tall people in back. Hope you enjoy your glimpse.

Friday, August 26, 2011

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


Friday, August 19, 2011

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.

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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.
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We enjoyed our song of the week also, Father Abraham.
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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.
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Friday, August 12, 2011

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)