{finding joy in the journey...}

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

School & and a Co-op Update!

I love the easy routine of our school year. Have I mentioned that? Maybe with only every update I write, huh? We love love love the Sonlight program for History and our read alouds and are learning so much.

The kids pour over the Time Traveler book that we're using to study Egyptians...

I also ordered the kids this Egyptian puzzle book in last week's Usborne order - it's a huge hit! Six different puzzles with snippets of info about each one. Natalee likes to read it, Xavier loves the puzzles.

http://b4185.myubam.com/p/328/ancient-egypt-jigsaw-book

Natalee especially begs to do Akebu to Zapotec each week. She loves the journaling portion that I designed for them!

Xavier is excelling in his Math U See curriculum. Natalee is doing okay, but I'm still toying with switching her over to Rod and Staff Math. MUS has a more Common Core approach, and I really don't have a beef with that, except it's not quite clicking with her brain set-up. She'd rather just memorize 9+8, than look at it as 9 that wants to be 10, making the 8 one less = 10+7 = 17. Roundabout "gray" areas are not her style so much!

She still loves reading as much as ever and is enjoying marching through all of her readers and her Rod and Staff curriculum.

Xavier will finish letter Ss this week. He's very anxious to finish reviewing letters and sounds and start READING!

Co-op is also going wonderfully. We did have to cancel one week because sickness had hit so hard, but otherwise we've fallen into a nice routine.

I'm finding I enjoy teaching P.E. for the little fellas very much. We made scoops out of milk jugs and have had fun catching our foam balls with them. The favored activity was probably last week's class when we played with Xavier's birthday parachute.

Every single PE picture is blurry - such is the life of a PE class full of little people!

We were also blessed to be invited last week to a meal made by the high school Spanish 2 class. Authentic Honduran cuisine - it was delicious!!

I have lesson plans written through the 23rd of this month and then I stopped, anticipating (hopefully) a baby and a break...time shall show!

Saucy Mia - An Update {with Pic and Video Dump}

When I wait too long to blog I have too many pics and videos on my phone and have to do a "dump" to the scrapbook blog. And thus, here you go. ;)

This one's all about the ornery Mia. She's reveling in her last few weeks as "baby" of the family, although I see signs of growing up all around her. She "speaks" long jumbles of sentences that no one understands and she's started using BIG hand and arm gestures to make her point. If you ask her if she's spoiled she nods "yes." Her receptive language is out of this world - there's not much I can't ask or tell her to do that she's unable to follow through with. She's full of love, sass, vinegar, and sugar! She often chooses one "pet" of the day and loves on that person all day - showering them with hugs and kisses and ignoring everyone else. Sometimes it's mommy or daddy, sometimes Xabe, often Natalee.

She can use the phone and calls her dad if I leave it out unsupervised. The other day she called him on his way home while I was making supper and he lovingly recited to her all her favorite books as well as he could from memory - Brown Bear, Hungry Caterpillar, etc. He's a good daddy.

Ameliya is quite a little mama. I can't count the number of times a day I diaper and dress her babies (she can undo them but not put them back on). She's very interested in the baby gear we've been getting out for B4 - I'm anxious to see if she loves him as much as I anticipate.

She likes to come to my tummy, be loud and wait for baby to start kicking and rolling at her head. I think she has no clue it's a baby in there.

We had a rough few days of teething - I don't think they're over yet but we seem to have jumped the roughest part, thankfully. Lots of snuggles and a little Minnie Mouse on TV fixed it (oh yes, TV - it's okay, she's the 3rd one).