Our Week

This week Ameliya finished healing from the pox.  She still has a few scabs but I consider her to be 100% back to norm. 

She went from this "sleep on mama's arm" girl...

 to this big girl in her own bed...

She's back to ornery and doing it very well.  Giving kisses topped the list of achievements this week:

And she's learning to wave buh bye (after all the spitting):

Xavier has found the beauty of colored pencils and his coloring is showing it!!

Natalee is blooming in her schoolwork and struggling again with anything "out of the norm."  I can't put my finger on why but she is hanging tightly to a schedule, wanting to keep close to the house, and not enjoying anything new.  Daddy has been working some hard hours, and as I type I wonder if that's affecting her more than I realize.  We are ready for his long Thanksgiving break!!

This is something she did for "fun" - a grocery list:

 

(flour, sugar, chocolate, m&ms, hot cocoa, apple)

I just realized we still refer to "dye free candy coated chocolate" as M&M's - what else would you call them? lol

 She's been working on being an attentive and loving big sister.  It takes her a lot of careful thought to remember that people are more important that routines, etc. but she's getting there.

Daddy has been working late 2 nights a week - each of the bigs gets to stay up with me for 30 minutes or so by themselves and do something "fun."  Natalee enjoys this time because it is "planned" in her schedule ahead of time.  This week she chose rainbow Piggy Paint nails as her fun activity.  I cherished the time we had to sit and cuddle and visit while they were drying.

We have played a TON of games this week.  I'm working with the children on being able to get out a game and do it together from beginning to end - setting up, playing, cleaning up - when I'm not available.  This is what they did the other night while I made supper. 

Ameliya learned that the blanket meant "don't cross" and only had to be corrected twice to stay on her side with her toys.  I've tried putting her on the blanket but she wrinkles it all up and can't keep her boundary.  She enjoyed being with the big kids and watching them.  This set up of them doing games and her playing lasted for almost 40 minutes.

It felt like a light week of school, when in reality it wasn't.  Natalee's math unit was a review in shapes - probably one she could have skipped but who doesn't love an easy week?  She is flying through her reading curriculum and reading with such fluency and accuracy - my heart so enjoys listening to her.  I have noticed that she is even starting to read with emotion and inflection in her voice.

Xavier is 1/2 way through his alphabet letters, doing one a week.  He continues to work the Rod and Staff books for "math" and "reading" and loves his time with mama.

In Science we are learning about mammals and really enjoying our time and the conversations to follow.  History has been spent with Sampson and Samuel this week and Bible has found us with Joshua and the Israelites getting into Jericho.  

Next week will be a week off...perhaps some fun studies on the first Thanksgiving, Native Americans, Pilgrims, etc., but nothing on the schedule!  Woohoo!