The day that I update my blog, that is. I've been meaning to update this sucker for the longest time. I've felt compelled several times, but it seems inspiration and energy don't necessarily go hand and hand. These past two months have been, well, exhausting. It seems that the weeks just creep by, only to find that it has actually been a month since I even thought about another week. We are just living every day. That is about all I can say.
Noah is doing well in school. We've been pushing through SOTW and seem to have hit a brick wall as far as energy with it. I think I've been looking so forward to the "Knights and Castles" section and it has taken us so.long to get through the chapters before that, that we're losing steam. I've made the executive decision to skip right to that after Christmas. I know there are other important events in history, I'm just finding myself a little bored of it all. I picked up a fantastic book on paperbackswap called How to Brush Up on the Bible. I must confess, I wasn't the first to stumble upon this little gem. My friend, Jody, told me about finding it at Half Price Books and after hearing about it, I knew our school needed it's own copy. I think we will be putting it to good use this next semester. We have been just using little devotionals every day, which is good for Caitlyn, but I am feeling like Noah needs a bit more. I'm sad to say that AWANA has sort of fallen away from us this year, and since I mainly have used that as a basis for our Bible study, I've been feeling like I needed to beef it up with something else. For Noah we have completely switch gears with math, and I am so glad we did. We went from Saxon 5/4 to Math Mammoth 4a. I can't put into words how this has revolutionized our school day. I hear little to NO complaining about math anymore. I'm not sure what has made the change for him (from spiral to mastery method, workbook type to printed worksheets), but honestly I don't even care! I am so happy NOT to have to drag him whining through math I could seriously dance a jig (and I might at the end of the year). I hope this is not just the honeymoon period. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I even told him today that we would have to switch to three pages per day (this is usually the amount of one whole lesson and we've only been doing two up to this point) and I didn't even hear a groan. I almost fell out of my chair! Latin is going well for us. Noah is taking it in stride. We're a little behind where I wanted to be in grammar, but we'll be doing some on weekends to help catch up. I probably will just keep going with math and grammar through the holiday, because I'm just like that. (No really, it is better for him if I keep the routine.) We are rolling right along with Chemistry also, although I've had to slow down a bit to re-learn some of the concepts myself, and so that I can make sure he's really getting it. Noah has found another love, Horrible History and Horrible Science books. I've tried to figure out how to link Horrible Ray's website (where I order the books), but haven't gotten it yet. Noah absolutely ADORES these books. He's "made" me order almost all of them. The only problem that we've encountered is that they are produced in the UK, so we have to special order them from Ray in San Diego. Daddy has revolted a little bit, but I just remind him to peruse the shelves to see all the books he's amassed over the years. He hasn't complained too much actually. I just claim they are for school, which they are ;). Noah is so cute, the other day, I had asked him to put his books on the shelf and instead of just filing them in, he built a display of all of his favorites instead. I almost cried. What a way to warm my heart, my child's demonstration of his love of books!
Well, I attached some pics of our Thanksgiving at Pap-pa's. Hope you enjoy the little pilgrims as much as I did!
Caitlyn is doing well. She has just passed that milestone with her writing that she is initiating writing on her own and I am there simply as her personal talking dictionary. We do copywork most days, we read, we play, we do math. She is using Miquon Math and, frankly, it is going wonderfully. I was hesitant about such a different program for her, but she is already adding on the first grade level (using the manipulatives). I recently subscribed to Headsprout Reading for her. I got a good deal on it through mamapedia, I thought it would be just what she needed. She is getting a little bored with the bob books and I felt she needed more phonics review than what she was getting with Explode the Code. She could probably skip the last book (Go for the Code) and go straight to Book 1, but I really don't want to skip around any with her, to make sure she hits all the letters she needs. She also has been gearing up for The Nutcracker. She is really looking forward to that, and so are we. Pap-pa is coming tonight so he can see the dress rehearsal tomorrow night. Then next weekend Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Uncle Jack and Lainy are coming. Totally psyched to see my little girl on the stage again!
Aiden is well, Aiden. He's making messes, demanding attention, learning new things every day. He is always willing to stop for huggies, but kisses have become a thing of the past, much to my dismay. I was expecting that type of behavior at 7 or 8, but at almost 3 that is totally unsat! He surprises me everyday with how smart he is. He can count to about 14 and he knows many of his letters and letter sounds (thanks to the Leap Pad shows). He and Caitlyn and I played a game the other day where we drew alphabet cards and took terns saying the letter and it's sound. He actually got them right!
We began an Advent study last week and the kids and I are loving it. This is the first year that we have really focused on Advent. We are doing a unit study by Amanda Bennett, along with a lapbook that coordinates and I think it is going to be great. I'll post pics of it as soon as we finish. We did a lapbook at Thanksgiving and it turned out really cute. I do almost all the cutting, Noah does most of the comprehension/reinforcement, Caitlyn does most of the coloring. By completing one as a family, we are able to focus on the strong suits of everyone.
