Rachel is exploring new areas of interest. She took a break from gymnastics and is taking both ice skating lessons and a ballet class. I'm hoping that she'll return to gymnastics; she is very skilled, but, of course, it's up to her. I'm planning to enroll her in the summer session, which is a short one. If she really doesn't like it, it's a short commitment. But if she's ready to go back, she'll probably be on the team, starting in fall.

Rachel also developed an interest in participating in a Spelling Bee. I have not yet located one for her to participate in, but I did download a First Grade study list of 313 words. As an unschooler, I still have moments where I wonder if I'm doing the ever-elusive "enough." Much to my relief, she can already spell about 75% of the words on that list. She is studying the rest. Those that she knows, she knows just from reading good (and bad LOL) literature.

Rebecca is just about to finish the first of the Horizons K Math book. Two books cover the whole school year. She is also expressing some interest in learning to read - mostly because she's feels left out when everyone else has their nose in a book. She does not know all the lowercase letters, so it's time to begin working on those. I think I'll just make up cardstock cards with both the uppercase & lowercase on one side and the just lowercase on the other. So, one side would have " Aa " for her to study, and the other side would have just " a " for her to test her knowledge. Then, she can self-tutor.

The girls also have their own gardens to plant this spring. We are continuing with a shared annual flower bed in one corner of the front yard. But each girl also has her own long narrow (so they can reach without stepping in) garden near the family garden. They want to plant flowers and some carrots to feed to our neighbor's horses. Mean-old-mom never lets them take our organic carrots for the horses. LOL.

Randy is working on plans to build a tree house out back for them. It would be in the trees just behind the garden and would give the girls another place to play when I am gardening.

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