Someone's four years old now! We had a very low-key celebration in the midst of pre-moving business and box towers. Ryan created his own birthday hat and enjoyed the singing and cake as much as ever, as always.
tomato sauce mess (and a boy signing "more")
Attitude (and a little eyebrow modification)
and smarts.
JJ has been drawing maps and memorizing Canada
Ryan has been doing a lot of drawing.
and imaginary play
Kellen after a bath. He was very smiley in the water, but didn't care for the getting-out cold-air part. His hair poofed up sweetly when it was so clean; he is the curliest infant we've had.
Ryan is quite a singer these days. He sings LOUDLY and deeply, and we all have to hold back our glee at how cute it sounds, otherwise he'd stop.
We started some book work yesterday. Jamie's doing ancient history, some algebra, and lots of writing. In a few weeks we may start doing the exercises on Brave Writer . I really like the attitude she has about writing. He'll also work through some geography, and he's reading Swiss Family Robinson. He and I are both finding that novel tiresome, so far. Lots of good new vocabulary to talk about, though.
Jeremiah is reading Harry Potter and studying the human skeleton. Singapore Math 4 is his new book. We'll probably continue with A Child's History of the World and work on a good amount of writing and spelling.
A lot of old friends are going back to school this year. It's a funny feeling. Learning at home is still working well for us, so we will carry on. I'm hopeful, though, that we'll find a good mother's helper to visit a few times a week. It will be good for Ryan to have someone else to run around with when I'm focused on the big boys and their work.
more later about knitting, soccer and martial arts.
What we're up to:
Evan
weekend naps and bedtime toddler duty, all night parenting. woohoo! Evan is TheMan.
considering a trampoline construction in the back yard
perfecting his squid menu and asian accents via Iron Chef viewing marathons
cheerfully and sincerely engaging Jeremiah in riveting discussions about YuGiOh cards
games of Risk with two big boys
a history lesson here and there with Jamie
Amy
reading Blink, Shiloh, an Ina May book, and Scattered (about ADD)
knitting Clapotis
catching up on the clutter of not tidying well for 9 weeks
Jamie
studying early American settlements, the geography of the Northeast US region, plant classification, art history, reading and studying Shiloh, and practicing some composition skills
beginning a new season of indoor soccer (not a bad start - first game won 8-1)
Jeremiah
reading Geronimo Stilton, listening to various books on tape, reading various picture books to himself and Ryan
caring for Ryan well while Jamie and I work on book-work
perfecting his purple belt taekwondo forms
attending homeschool gym class
arranging regular playdates with Joe, Murphy, Alex and Sam
Ryan
multiple daily readings of Goodnight, Gorilla
multiple weekly viewings of Blues Clues, Little Bear and Winnie the Pooh
heading outdoors as often as possible, any weather is just fine
randomly requesting candy throughout the day by repeating "neenee" at least 87 times until we all want to bang our heads against a wall. This, despite his not receiving any candy for several days. Determined.
mastering names of colors, shapes and animals
fighting a mysterious fever with no other symptoms
sleeping poorly due to fear of shadows and other normal developmental quirks
Dardi was here on Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids really enjoyed visiting with her. Here she is with her favorite Yellow Springs treat - Peanut Butter Bumpers.
Wednesday afternoon, we went to the pool and ran into Kira, Joe and Audrey. I had a chance to talk to Becky for a while about homeschooling and plans for fall. She's going to be joining Aullwood and doing some study of birds, and recommended a bird guide that allows the user to find books based first on color before any other feature. It's called Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds : Eastern Region. She also mentioned doing a lot of reading about string theory, which is something Jamie wants to study.
After the pool, Jeremiah went to taekwondo. Jamie really hates to go along to taekwondo. He does enjoy watching and is generally a very supportive fan of Jeremiah's efforts, but the classes are in the late afternoon, which is a tiring time to get in the car for a 30 minute drive each way, class in between...
Finally it seems like we're back to having a decent read aloud time in the evenings. Right now we're finishing up The Great Glass Elevator, just starting A Bear Named Trouble which is wonderful so far, and The Prince and the Pauper. I'm reading some poems each night as well, from A Writing Kind of Day- Poems for Young Poets. Last night we talked about metaphor.
Jamie is plugging away on his Einstein book. Jeremiah is reading a book himself about early humans, and continues working through Explode the Code. We also just started the Highlights Top Secret Adventures Club, so Jeremiah will get a kit every 5 weeks with this mystery to solve, based in a different country. We are starting with Australia.
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