Well, looking back at a few posts, I see that I haven't done an update in a while, if ever. So here goes, keep in mind this may be a long post, after all, I have five.
Angie is doing well. We had a couple of rough weeks with school, but after a parent teacher conference things seem to be going much better. Right now she is preparing for UIL. Third grade has 5 competitions, and she is in three. I think she would have done them all, but her teacher made her choose three, and frankly I am thankful for that. I'd much rather her concentrate on doing well in a few, than have her spread herself too thin. So she is doing Spelling, Oral Reading, and Music Memory. Spelling consists of 600 words to memorize, so I've been quizzing her on about 25 a night. For oral reading, she is reading, Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out by Shel Silverstein. Music memory, which she is the most excited about, consists of memorizing 16 classic pieces. THey play a short portion of it, and the kids have to name the composer and the piece. I'm thinking about downloading her cd to my mp3 because there are a couple of songs that I don't care for.
For UIL Tony's grade just started practicing this week, so they haven't named teams yet. Tony is also reading a Shel Silverstein, the one about a the crocodile that goes to the dentist. He reads it very well, but we have to remind him not to dance or add stuff. There are only 3 events for 2nd grade, so we'll see if he does any. right now he is in bad need of a haircut so he has a mad scientist look to him. His hair is like his dads, it just grows bigger not longer. Reminds me of when we were in college and Erick and Brian decided they were going to grow long rocker hair, and they just grew big 'fros.
Zachary is going through a big growth phase right now. He is pretty emotional sometimes. He keeps bringing things home, such as grasshoppers, to have as pets. We were working on reading skills for a while, but I'm taking a break while he gets through this emotional thing. He misses a sound and its these huge tears. I want him to love to read and learn, so I am just reading to him for now. He's such a good big brother.
Aiden is somewhat potty trained. I think Brian is going to lose his mind if he doesn't get it soon. He's pee trained, but not poop and it doesn't seem to bother him one bit to walk around with it in his pants. He has definately been the most challenging in this area. He'll be 3 in Jan. and our first three were all trained by now. He loves following Zachary around, doing flips, and his speech is improving every day.
Miss Emi is growing up. She's her brothers' shadow. She has no problem making her needs known, so at 17 months, she is just now really starting to talk. I guess it beats Tony, who didn't say one single word until 2 1/2. She says please and thank you, and since she is going through a biting phase, she has mastered the word sorry. One of her favorite words is "crab", for the hermit crabs that Pam keeps as pets. The kids have to "walk" the crabs, which is basically an excuse to let them out of the container, and Emi goes crazy. She loves it.
We finished our Texas Naturalist book, and since we are focusing on UIL right now, I am just reading stories at night. Right now we are reading My Father's Dragon, a Newberry winner written in 1944. I just ordered the second and third book of this series. I missed out on reading so many good books as a kid, its nice to get a do-over.
We missed two weeks of bible study, but were back this week. It went pretty well, until Aiden had to go to the bathroom, and Emi's scream could be heard throughout the entire church, so I missed about half of the bible study, but Brian really enjoyed this one. We were kind of at each other before, but its amazing how it lifts you. I love hearing about what the kids learned. Zach is in a class with his age group and Angie and Tony are in a class together. They actually moved Tony up because they thought he'd get more out of it, and one of the gentlemen bragged about how he aways knows the answers. Tony says he feels kind of like he cheated because he really learned them from watching the kids bible video we have.
98 birthday cookies
5 weeks ago
Ah, you sound so happy. I like these posts. I was wondering how bible study was going. Glad you are all enjoying it! We are doing a Growing Kids Gods Way class and really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I missed out on all of the good children's books growing up too. Check out the link on my blog of Charlotte Mason reading lists. That is what we are reading thru. They are all really good books and really diversified. I just put 5 or so on hold at the library and then stop by and grab them. Alot easier than trying to go find them in the library myself. :-)
I can say, that I do like how my kids' school teaches reading. Its more of an independant thing, so that each kids reads on their own level. The teacher and I alternate who we read with. And the kids all seem to love to read. I remember HATING reading in elementary school because it was so boring. The most important thing you can do for a give is instill a love of reading.
ReplyDeleteI was following the "well trained child" for a while for reading ideas, but our library really has a limited selection, so I have bought lots of books the last couple of years. I was donating them to the coleman library when we were done, but they have never put one single book on the shelves. We may start using the santa anna library. I bet they'd use them.