CC End-of-School-Year Program

 

We made it through a whole year of Classical Conversations and I think I can truly say Leah loved it! Every Monday Leah loved getting up to go to “school” and getting to see her friends and getting to learn! She loved her tutor, loved her classmates, just loved the overall atmosphere. I rarely saw her unhappy. She learned so much through the course of it!

Here’s just a few of the things they memorized this year:

- 24 different sentences about events in history (through songs)

- 161 different events of history (through a “timeline song”)

- Latin verb endings

- tons of facts from astronomy & physics, such as: What are 5 kinds of stars? What are the phases of the moon?

What are some parts of the sun? What are the names of the planets? Newton’s Laws of Motion…

- 7 continents & 4 oceans & locations of many countries around the world

- English grammar like the definition of an adverb, noun, conjunction, pronoun, etc.

- skip counting in math

- Ephesians chapter 6 (the whole chapter!)—although we didn’t spend as much time on this as we probably could have & I don’t think Leah could tell you the whole thing from memory

They also did some great science experiments, they learned the basics of playing the tin whistle, and learned about some famous composers & artists. They also learned tons of non-academic stuff like taking turns and working together and listening to teachers.

Tuesday night they had a little closing ceremony to wrap up the year. Leah’s class was the youngest so they got on stage first. I think Leah had a huge grin on her face the whole time. (She’s made for the stage!) There were normally 8 in her class.

They demonstrated a few of the things they learned in the English Grammar portion of our memory work. They learned the 8 parts of speech by playing duck duck goose. They learned the purposes of a verb with little hand motions.

If you watch these 3 videos in succession, you’ll pretty much have seen their whole portion of the program. I just don’t like doing really long videos because sometimes they don’t upload right.

 

Then they each got a little certificate of participation.

I tried to get a few shots for Leah to remember her friends. These two girls were her best buddies all year: Megan & Charlotte. She even got to go to Megan’s birthday party last month. And Ms. Mandi was the best tutor we could have asked for. I’m sure it took a lot of patience to deal with 8 four-and-five year olds every week and she was always calm and loving and did great at encouraging the kids on their positive characteristics.

 

We definitely plan to continue this program next year, and Andrew will even be in a class! It adds a great depth to our homeschool studies.

Sunny Days are On Their Way

 

For the first day of spring, I thought I’d share a few pictures I’ve taken lately of the kids outside. Even though it’s been a long winter, we’ve had a few days here and there of warm weather and we like to play outside whenever we get a chance.

The first few were taken at our famous seminary spot, the gazebo where we had pictures taken for our wedding. We took a trip there recently to visit someone and we couldn’t resist stopping. It was too cold to get much and we didn’t have a lot of time, either. Abigail was a little fussy because she would rather play than take pictures.

   

The next were taken outside at our house on the playground. Abigail is getting big enough to really enjoy being outside and can play a lot more.

 

And these were at our church playground one Saturday. Abigail has figured out how to go up the stairs and down the slide all by herself. Drives me crazy but she always loves to do exactly what her brother & sister are doing. I still have to be right next to her to give me peace of mind!

  

And a video of her maiden voyage on her own:

Abigail @ 16 months

 

This little girl is silly and fun and cuddly and smart and so sweet. I can’t believe how big she is getting and how much she already wants to be as big as her brother & sister. If they are having a snack she has to have exactly what they are having. If they are doing a game, she wants to be right in the action. If they are running around the house, she sure wants to do the exact same (even if she is a little slower). She started walking “full-time” at the beginning of February and hasn’t crawled since!

Abigail has developed a love for books. If I’m sitting on the floor, every once in awhile she’ll bring me a book and turn to plop down on my lap. Usually she just wants to turn the pages but I’ll take it. Every night at bed time she points at her bookshelf and does her little grunt that supposedly means I’m supposed to read to her. And then once I read one book, she points & grunts for another. We’re working on using words, but right now she just points and grunts for whatever she wants. She has said a few words, like “juice” & “up”, but not on a regular basis. Most of the time everything is called “dad-dy” (except Daddy himself).

 

She loves to climb, but not as much as she used to. She still gets on the kitchen table regularly, but we’ve taken all the enticing objects off. Now her favorite activity is pulling books off the shelf or throwing small game pieces all over the floor. She still loves to climb desk chairs and whatever else she can find. She also loves to play outside. She’s rarely fussy when we’re out. She especially loves the swing and will go to it and do her grunt for me to put her in—even if I’ve just gotten her out.

She loves to eat, although she’s getting a little pickier about vegetables. Most of the time she’ll eat whatever I put on her plate. Now she’ll even eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast like Leah & Andrew. She’ll eat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, apple slices, and a lot of other things I know I would have never fed Leah or Andrew when they were her age! She’s not too proficient with a fork or spoon but she loves to try! She stopped nursing mid-January, probably the easiest to wean of all the kids. She does still take a bottle of milk in the morning when she wakes up but she can drink milk from a cup.

She still loves her sleep—has always been a great sleeper. Over the course of this month, we’ve phased out her morning nap. She was very fussy by 10:30 or 11 most mornings but as long as I give her snacks & keep her busy, she can now make it most days (unless we’re traveling, when she’ll fall asleep in the car). So she’ll usually sleep around 3 hours in the afternoon now. I’ve gotten Leah & Andrew to take a one hour quiet time (since Andrew no longer naps, now, either!) at the same time, so it’s a great break! And then she’ll sleep at night from about 7:30 to 7:30 in the morning. She rarely ever fusses when it’s time to go to bed and will still let me rock her a little while (although she wants to fall asleep in her bed) and she’s usually pretty happy when she wakes up.

She loves to cuddle stuffed animals now. I remember this phase with the others, but it never ceases to be cute when she gets her little lambie and gives it a big hug and a pat. She loves her lambie the best and will whine for it if she sees it and can’t get to it!

She can name almost all her major body parts, and it’s fun to do it with her. If you ask her where’s her mouth, she’ll stick her tongue out; where’s her feet, she’ll stomp them. I asked her what a dog says once and she said something that sounded a lot like “ruff, ruff” but then she said it later too when I asked her what a cow says. Even though she doesn’t say a lot, she understands way more than we think. She will go find her cup if I ask her or go give something to Leah or Andrew if I ask her.

And here is a little video of what happens when you leave your husband at home with the kids and he falls asleep.

Ballerina Practice

 

This past week I got to go see Leah in her dance class, just like I did last year. Normally they don’t let parents go back to their practices, because parents can sometimes be the toughest critics and are way harder on the girls than they should be. Her teachers only give encouragement and rarely ever correct them. At this age, they are just learning to love dancing and music, learning the basic positions, and getting exercise and flexibility.

I had a much better position for picture-taking this year and her class is not as large.

They start out at the barre, doing different foot positions for a warm-up.

 

Then they moved to the floor to do some stretching.

They did a few exercises in lines where they had to “leap” over cones, and then practiced their “sassy” walk. Then, halfway through they switched into their tap shoes. I like how they’re exposed to different types of dancing. They didn’t do much with tap—just a song or two.

The last song was the funniest, one where they did different motions and had to continually add new ones while still doing the others. They all seemed to enjoy that one.

 

 

Here’s a few videos I got.

Leah is in the far back row in her pink leotard. They were doing their “sassy walk” across the floor. This song they are playing is one that Leah is constantly going around singing! (Except she sings it “I’ve got the eye of the ti-re, high-er,”)

 

And here is after they changed into their tap shoes.

School at Our House

 

I am really enjoying being able to teach Leah & Andrew at home this year. Each time I hear about a school shooting or something happening in a public school, I thank God that I have the privilege of keeping mine safe at home. They get plenty of social interaction and are learning so much more than just things taught from books! Here’s some of the things we’ve been doing this year:

Leah is so easy to teach. Usually things come very easy to her. The problem with that is that if it doesn’t come easy, she gets quickly frustrated. She sometimes requires a lot of patience but she really does love to learn and is excelling far beyond where I could have imagined. We are probably at a first-grade level in some aspects of math. We are learning: adding & subtracting (in the picture I would call out an addition problem and she had to jump to the right answer), telling time, counting money, graphing, patterns, skip counting, and a whole lot more. She doesn’t really like doing the worksheets but she loves games!

 

In reading, I would definitely consider Leah on a 1st or even 2nd grade level. We are halfway through our reading book, which, when finished, brings us up to a 4th grade level. She can read A LOT of words, even ones I haven’t even really taught her yet. She surprises me all the time! She’ll read captions on the news or titles of my books, everything! Now, if I gave her a 2nd-grade level book, she probably wouldn’t have the stamina to completely read it, but she would probably be able to sound out most of the words. Each day I’ll write the new words from her lesson on a white board, she’ll read through them and then we usually play a game of some sort to review, and then read practice books.

 

My focus this year is primarily on reading, math, and handwriting (which is Leah’s one weakness—she loves to write, but her handwriting is horrible), we do add in some science and some social studies. Each week we take one country of the world and learn different things about that country. We’ll do a coloring page, learn how to say “hello” in their language, read about a kid from that country, look at animals from the country, and ocasionally cook a dish or make a craft. It’s really given Leah a good worldview and she really looks forward to studying our country for the week! We’ve also done some basic map work, learning about what maps are for and how to read them. Andrew often joins us for the fun-type things, so he’s learning through exposure. Here they are working on drawing their own town, including all the important places a town needs to run.

 

We usually do seasonal science activities, focusing on nature and things like that. There’s no specific topic, just whatever I think would interest them. In this picture they’re actually doing math & science together, learning about how many cups of liquid could fit into different size containers. We also looked at ice and how it freezes and melts. I try to find a “theme” to focus on each week, whether it be based on a holiday or something like that.

Leah absolutely loves going to Classical Conversations every Monday. It is by far her favorite part of the week. She has made some really good friends in her class, and other moms have even told me their kid talks about Leah at home. (I think it’s a good thing she isn’t in public school or she’d probably have about 10 boyfriends!) She is not at all shy and she’s willing to try anything if her teacher asks! In addition to their memory work each week, they do a science project and either art or music. The past few weeks they’ve gotten to paint in the style of some famous artists. She has been exposed to so many different things and she’s learned how to interact with all different types of kids. We have already signed up to return next year, and Andrew will be in a class too!

 

Andrew’s going to be a little more difficult to teach. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very smart and he also knows a lot of things I don’t have to teach him, but he’s not really near where Leah was at his age. I try hard not to compare them, because I know each child is different, and I know Leah was a little advanced. Andrew can probably recognize about 80% of the letters of the alphabet, and he’s working on their beginning sounds but not quite there. We’re also working on numbers. He’s already got down shapes & colors, and he even understands patterns, as you can see in this picture. Andrew’s fickle when it comes to doing schoolwork. He usually wants to be a part of whatever Leah’s doing (and do it exactly like she’s doing), but gets bored quickly and wants to go do something else. He wants to do things on his own time table. He’s going to be a challenge to get to sit still!

My littlest baby is growing and learning soooo fast! I looked at her the other day and no longer saw my little baby, but a big girl! She started walking at the beginning of February and walks almost all the time now, although it still looks a little like Frankenstein! She wants so badly to keep up with her big brother and sister! Her new favorite activity is climbing on the kitchen table and throwing crayons and school supplies all over the floor. I can pull her down and she’ll be right back up minutes later. She’s not too good at understanding “no”! She has stopped taking a morning nap now (if I give her one, she won’t nap in the afternoon) so I have to find things to keep her busy while we do school work and she gets bored easily. She isn’t really a fussy baby unless she’s hungry or just wants to be included—she really is easygoing but there’s just only so long she can play on her own!

 

She imitates everything now and is so silly (especially when she has no clothes on!). She still loves to snuggle and she likes to be read to (although she also likes to close the book while you’re reading it), she loves to pretend to color, she loves to get into Andrew’s toys, but she especially just loves to climb!

 

Snow Day!

 

We’ve had some unusually cold weather lately, and we’ve been waiting for snow (well, the kids have!). Finally, Wednesday we got our wish. It didn’t look like much at first but when we woke up in the morning, this is what we saw!

We didn’t waste any time getting out in it. We didn’t know how long it would last! Of course it took about 30 minutes to bundle everybody up! Daddy even stayed home, unsure how the roads would be to get to work.

 

The first thing they wanted to do was make snow angels. Of course that makes you wet & colder, so it wasn’t long before Leah & Andrew were complaining they were cold.

 

Andrew wanted to go down the icy slide. They each only did it once but I think it was fun!

 

Abigail doesn’t exactly have a winter coat, so I bundled her in a sweater, a warm coat that has a broken zipper, and then another spring jacket on top. She could barely move her arms! Still, she complained the least out of all of the kids and didn’t really whine. In typical Abigail form, she just took it all in.

We went on a little walk through the field & woods behind our house. We saw squirrel tracks in the snow. Daddy took Leah & Andrew back out again later in the afternoon while I stayed inside with Abigail and made snow cream! They apparently found a small hill that time and went sledding on a flattened box, but I missed that! I don’t mind a snow like this once in awhile, but I don’t like having everything shut down and I don’t like the icy mess it leaves. At least we only have it rarely!