Thursday, April 26, 2007

April's Almost over!

I can't even believe it. Amazing. Where has this year gone?

Anyway, the girls are doing their presentation about Egypt/Pyramids/Mummies this afternoon. I think they are excited....I hope.

I thought we would move onto studying the body, or the solar system, but instead the girls wanted to learn about dinosaurs, so that's where we've been. We completed a KWL chart this week, and then went to the library to check out some books that have the info in them the girls wanted to learn. They are quite excited, so we'll get to the body or solar system after dinosaurs...maybe.

We've been having some mental health, emotional health issues at our house. I went to a homeschool conference, specifically about special needs, last weekend and what an eye opener it was for me. I've had some thoughts in the past that there might be "more" going on with my oldest dd. It's been clear for a long time that she has ADD, and the diet and supplements haven't even touched her symptoms. Diet and supplements have completley gotten her sisters issues with hyperactivity/impulsivity under control, so I was a bit surprised that it hadn't worked for the other. Anyway, after the conference confirmed (at least for me) that we were dealing with more than just ADD, I made an appt with our ped first thing Monday morning. After spending time talking with her, and her making 4 pages (yes 4) of notes, she agreed with every thing I thought. She recommended some additional supplements, and my dd has been taking those since Monday afternoon. She's had one spectacular day, and then a better-but-not-wonderful-day, today is seeming like another really good day (with one minor meltdown this morning....although she actually handled it MUCH better than her sister, which never would have happened before this week). Tomorrow we go to see a child psychologist to get an evaluation to pindown what is really going on in her little brain. She's such a bright kid, and such a sweet, empathetic girl that I have hated to see the spiral we've been going down that turned into an angry, frustrated, tearful child. After speaking with my ped, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel like there is real hope. I'll keep you posted about what's going on as we progress through our counseling.

Our youngest student, almost 4 months old now, has been working hard on new skills! He is now rolling over! I am actively baby proofing as well! :-) It'll be no time before he's really moving!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Week of April 16th

Here is an updated picture of our pyramid as it comes along nicely....we still have a few more levels to add, but I think it's looking good. The girls are getting excited about doing a presentation for their friends.



Not much else is going on....our ladybugs have reached adult hood and I think we're going to let them go soon...if the weather will ever get warm and stay there. I don't want to release them and then we have another freezing night!

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Almost a month!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I sat down to blog. Where does the time go??

The girls have been getting their school work done in speedy fashion to be able to get outside and play since we've been having the most wonderful weather here! We have a cold front that moved in today, and should be with us for about a week and they are bummed but making the best of it as they have packed up for a camping trip! Now, we're not really going on a trip, but they have their sleeping bags, pillows, luggage and baby dolls all ready to go. They're setting up the tent in the living room, and the baby's are reportedly "eating bugs." Ahh, good fun.

They've been "catching caterpillars" with the neighbors kids (3 and 1) all week. We've been watching our ladybug larvae emerge into adult ladybugs and yesterday's sidewalk chalk drawings (without any suggestion from me) included the life cycle of both ladybugs and butterflies (complete with names-egg, larva, pupa and adult!). Yesterday also led to the finding of the seaons first frog! What excitement filled the air! Unfortuneatly, Peter-the frog-met an untimely death as he was corralled in a place that got entirely too hot for him. There was sorrow, and important lessons learned.

We've been studying animal classification for almost a month. I had planned on moving on, but we have been having a good time with it. This is the last week though, then we really are moving on to the human body. We've also been reading about Egypt. We've had great fun learning about the Sphinx and Pyramids. We are currently constructing a pyramid of our own from sand and glue. We're currently only finished with the first step. We mixed playground sand from our sandbox with white school glue to make it moldable and sticky. We flattened it out, then cut it into squares after letting it "set" for a few hours. This morning we went back with the ruler and cut our lines again, and now we'll let it set for another 24 hours before we begin construction! It's been very exciting. I'll post pictures of our progress as we move along. Here is the beginning:



The girls will be working on making Canopic jars as well. We're putting together a presentation about what we've learned about Egypt to share with our friends at the end of the month. We will probably to do a topographical map of Egypt as well. FUN!

The baby, oh the baby, he's growing WAY too FAST! He's 12 weeks old today! 12 weeks! Can you even imagine?? He's just the sweetest, cutest baby EVER as well, I know you are all jealous now. :-) Don't know how I got so lucky. He's cooing a LOT and drooling a LOT, and he sleeps 10 hours every night, and takes a 2 1/2-3 hour nap in the morning each day (which is heavenly as it allows me to teach his sisters and get the housework...or most of it, done!). See, you're all even more jealous now aren't you? hehehe

Soccer started, and we're halfway through the season already. DD#2 really loves soccer. I'm tossing around the idea of signing her up for a new homeschool league that travels and plays through summer and fall. I'm not sure how I feel about the traveling right now with the baby...I'll talk it over with dh for a few more days before we make the decision. She's been playing a long time-this is her 6th season, and she is very good. When I say she's very good, that's not just mommy pride either! 3 of her coaches and some of the other parents have told me things like... "You'd be doing her a great disservice if you didn't allow her to keep playing." "She has really great feet for a kid this young." "She's like lightening." So, I feel like maybe it's time to move into an arena where she would be playing with more skilled players (a lot of times in Ysports and Rec league you get beginners mixed in with kids like mine), and get more in depth instruction, as well as more competition-she loves it, not me. She's driven by her own desire to win and be the best (the complete opposite of her sister who hates anything competitive...I swear how did these two children both come from my womb and be so VASTLY different??). I'm rambling...

My break is over, laundry is calling to be rebooted and I should clear out my sink before lunch!