Oh my goodness, busy busy...

We are now officially on our 4th week of homeschooling.  There are good days and bad days.  For instance, yesterday was awful for Ada.  She is just like me, poor girl, and gets so upset when she can't do something perfect or "right" in her estimation the first time.  Currently, the big issue is writing letters and numbers.  I praise her trying and her outcomes which generally look pretty good, or gently correct those that are backwards or a little off, but bad moods prevail.  Can you imagine a K teacher having to deal with her tantrums which I am used to dealing with?  I can't and would pity the poor women.  The pros for Ada over the past few weeks is that she is slowly learning to read (and spell), which is wonderful and exciting and I hope she continues our Reading Eggs program over the next year consistently (again yesterday was a bad day) so she continues to improve in the one area I was nervous about teaching.  Maddie is slowing working on phonics too but is always amazing me with her ability so far to keep up with us in math.  The inability to write numbers were frustrating Maddie today where things were clicking in that department with Ada.

The big excitements over the past few weeks have been my brother's marriage in Iowa City, going to homeschool day at Living History Farms, going to the science center, soccer practice and games for Ada (which has been good and bad due to her want to throw the other kids around), going to my new sister-in-law's baby shower (so excited for a little niece in a few weeks), going to Center Grove Orchard, new haircuts for Ada and Maddie and getting a new puppy (Abbie) a few days ago.  And, since my laptop is broken and I am posting this from the desktop I will close with pictures!

 This is Abbie the day we got her

 Ada covered in dust from "art class" outside

 Ada helping the blacksmith at Living History Farms

 Ada sliding down big slide at Center Grove Orchard

 Ada jumping on the Jumping Pillow at Center Grove Orchard

 Ada's first soccer game

 Ada on her first day of K

 John helping Ada wrap up an egg for the egg drop at the Science Center

 The girls learning how to wash clothes at Living History Farms

 The girls helping me peel tomatoes for canning, Ada thought it was gross

 Maddie and Hazel with a calf at Living History Farms

 Maddie, Ada and Hazel waiting for the tractor ride at Living History Farms

 Maddie and Ada hiking at the Ledges

 Hazel crossing a stream at the Ledges

 Hazel and Maddie on the first day of school

 Hazel loved the pin board at the Science Center

 Hazel watching her egg go up to drop at the Science Center

 Hazel and Maddie doing Reading Eggs

 Maddie bending metal at Living History Farms

 Maddie playing outside

 Maddie Rocking her new haircut

The girls at the Science Center

First week officially down, many more weeks to go :-)

Well, our first week is officially done and we are sort of starting on our second week.  The girls have been excited to do their work every day and are often begging me to find some more for them to do in the afternoon, we'll see how long that continues.  Right now we are only doing official school in the morning for 2-3 hours but, if they want more to do and I could get my work schedule more evened out we might extend it.  I don't want them to burn out so we'll see.

Highlights from this week:

• Ada and Maddie (who I am surprised is with us) have completed the first 2 weeks of our Math U See Primer Program.  I know they will slow down some as the information gets harder and Ada might be ahead of Maddie before Christmas, but right now I am happy.  I am also happy that I bought the next year, Alpha, used from an online used homeschool forum before this school year started, I might be using it for one or both of them
• Coloring and writing things every day.  The girls seem to enjoy some of the little observation and tracing worksheets
• The girls enjoying all the reading, as that is a lot of what Sonlight is, though I knew they would enjoy it
• So far not being too annoyed at Hazel wanting to do "school" with us but mostly taking her sisters stuff away when they are trying to work
• The girls love Muzzy!  I don't think they are learning any real french lately, but they are enjoying it and we can start more serious second language training in future years

Some other things that we have learned is that Maddie definitally does not have the fine motor skills to truly work on writing, and Ada is lacking in that catagory also.  We will work on tracing and such and random coloring.  This will also mean me modifying a lot of our "curriculum" for reading for Ada (and Maddie, as far as she stays with us on it), but since I'm the teacher I can do what they need and that is what this is all about!

This morning we also had a great time going to the science center since Daddy is home!  All three kids had a blast and could have stayed there longer but Hazel was starting to melt down with soap from the bubble areas in her eyes and I needed to get other things done.  We have a membership so we might make that a monthly (?) thing this winter once we need more inside stuff to do.  I just wish you didn't have to pay for parking downtown, as that will get very old if we keep the membership past this year.  Ada also demonstrated herself as maybe a budding sculpter.  They had one of those things where you can push "pins" through to make designs like your hand, except the pins were plastic and it was large.  The girls loved it and it almost makes me what to figure out how to build one for our basement.  Ada was making some interesting designs with it.  The last one she did, thinking of this on her own, was she pushed in a profile or her face and upper body then turned and pushed in the opposite facing profile.  It looked just like two people kissing and holding hands.  Very inventive!

Now, to plan for the rest of this week, which will include two more field trips so not a ton of book learning, but a lot of fun!

Side note, John and I had fun at the football game this past weekend but I must say it made us nervous for watching the game next weekend!