Our Daily Life
• Aug. 24, 2006 - Trying to get back on track....
We started back to school last week. It was a later start than I wanted, but at least I can say we've started!
I tried blogging this last week, but never found the time. There is so much I want to write about.
We took a vacation at the end of July to Maryland to see family. We went to the beach twice. The second trip was great! The kids had a wonderful time and we even saw a school of dolphins from the shore! That was so cool. You could see the fins (kinda scary at first), but then you could see them jump out of the water. On our way home from Maryland we stopped in D.C. for about an hour. We had not been to the WWII memorial. The last time we were there, it was not finished. It was really neat to see the way they had it divided into Pacific and Atlantic. I wanted to see a few more things, but it was soooo hot at 9 a.m., we just decided to get back on the road!!
Once home, we promptly moved into our house! yipppeeeeeee!
While, we still have LOTS of boxes to unpack, we are loving our "new" house.
Doug painted the girls (Savanah & Alexis') upstairs bedroom yesterday. Yes, they have an upstairs and downstairs bedroom. It's a room that was added on to and it's a very unique layout, but we love it. The upstairs is pink and the downstairs will be green. When he is finished painting, we need to install the hardwood floors upstairs. The downstairs will have linoleum since it will be there play/reading area.
Alexis has started speech therapy and music lessons. We have also started phonics again. I started last year, but I knew after a few lessons that she wasn't ready. This year, I think she definitely is!
Savanah is reading a lot more. The child is like a sponge. I have been more relaxed in her early elementary "schooling". I can really tell a difference in the way she WANTS to learn, than with my older child who was giving lots of workbooks to do! :o(
She has started Windsongs 2. Today, she was able to write the music to "Mary had a Little Lamb". I started doing some copywork with her and reading more poems. We checked out a book from the library called, "A Mouse from Amherst." If you ever have a chance to read it to your kids, I HIGHLY recommend it. It is about a mouse that lives in Emily Dickinson's home. Her and Emily write poems back and forth. It's very cute and has a lot of British/English wording. I am seriously considering starting a vocabulary word file on index cards that my friend Susan told our homeschool group about. Whenever you are reading to your child/ren and you come across a word they don't know, write it on an index card. They can review the words later and as often as they want or as much as you want them to. A very helpful tip, especially with this book!! We are continuing to use Math U See for her math. This week, she learned to tell time and skip count by fives.
Alyssia (my oldest) has started Pathfinders in church. We are praying for more children to join. It is such a great thing for kids and she really enjoys it.
We are continuing with our American History study (we are studying the Gold Rush and Ghost towns right now) because I haven't ordered the history curriculum I want. We are wrapping up our Apologia Astronomy study (started last August) and we will start another Apologia study probably in October. We love Apologia.
As far as math, we are switching to Math U See. Next week, I am ordering her books and DVD. I have been using free school textbooks given to me, for her practice and review until we receive the MUS.
Douglas is a mess. He is walking full force. He is so much fun. I think his favorite thing right now is water. He plays in it, no matter where he finds it. Yep, he has discovered the toilet. Urgh......our toilet is new and I clean it often, but still.....yuck!! What really grossed me out was when he went into the mens restroom at church and played in that one! bleck!!!
He loved the beach. Well, ok, he loved eating the sand. I'm not sure why babies like to eat it, but he acted as if he couldn't get enough of it.
As you can see we are keeping very busy.
We noticed a few hummingbirds around our living room and dining room windows last week. On Saturday, my husband hung up a feeder right in front of the living room window. That night we had one hummingbird feeding and by the next day there were three! We have already identified them as ruby-throated hummingbirds. The male continues to chase off the others. It's kinda funny to watch. Two weeks ago, we had a family of turkey in our yard. We noticed them crossing the street into the woods. There were a few large ones, then a few small ones. We counted seven in all. Later in the day, we looked in the back yard, and the were walking around the swingset. It was really neat.
Since moving in, I am finding that it is hard to keep my house in order and homeschool three children, plus having the baby. I have read through the MOTH (Managers of their Home) and I want to complete our schedules next week. I'll update on that more later. I need to get some housework accomplished while Douglas is still napping!!
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