School Improvements

In the last post or two, I was lamenting about how I was frustrated at times with how school is going.  This week has been so much better!  I swear, it all comes back to that mechanical pencil.  Such a little thing but it seems to have worked wonders.  This is going to sound really bad, I'm sure, but I've actually been erasing for her any time she would mess up a letter because she said she hated the feel of the eraser when she was erasing.  She would practically cringe.  Is that a real ailment?  I don't know.  Anyway, yesterday she used the eraser on the mechanical pencil for the first time and it's like a whole new world.  She is erasing her own mistakes!  Yippee.

Every week we have a memory verse to memorize (is that redundant?) and then she has to copy it down in her best handwriting (usually I would spread this out over two days).  Prior to the mechanical pencil, this task was met with sighs and complaints.  This week, when I gave her the sheet of paper, she didn't say anything and just started writing.  She got about halfway done and instead of stopping she said "I think I'll just finish it so that I don't have to do it tomorrow." I know that seems like a little thing but I was so excited.

While she may lack enthusiasm for handwriting, she at least is excelling at memorizing the books of the Bible. We are up to Isaiah and she can rattle them all off from memory like nobody's business.  I got a good chuckle a couple of days ago when we were talking about Ecclesiastes.  I read the description of it in the teacher's manual which said "Ecclesiastes talks about how your life will be empty and meaningless if you don't have God." Calleigh quickly responded "Well, that't not going to happen to this girl!"

It's often the small things that make this homeschooling thing fun.  We have these cards of paintings/art work that we look at and discuss for Art and today it was a picture of the Mona Lisa.  The girls were both looking at it pretty skeptically and the first thing Calleigh says is "I could do a better picture than that."  Then one of the questions was "What do you think Lisa is thinking about?" And Calleigh says "Why am I in this painting?" For what it's worth, I've never thought it was all the impressive either!  But then, I'm not an art connoisseur.

This week has been remarkably quiet.  We did enjoy our time with Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie (who arrived Saturday night).  They left Sunday morning for a cruise out of Tampa...those stinkers.  Since Sunday we've been pretty much home bodies, except for a few minor errands, which is verified by the fact that I haven't filled up with gas in almost two weeks.  Yes, that means no yard sales.  We got rained out last Friday and it's not looking too good for tomorrow either.

Doing Aunt Lori's hair on Sabbath afternoon.

Since yard sales didn't happen, we had to find some other things to make up for it...bringing out some Christmas presents we hadn't used it.  This is Calleigh's rock decorating kit.

Brady's Thomas set.  He was quite pleased.

Making bowls out of Perler beads (you melt them in the oven)

The finished product.

Colby has shown small, SMALL, flourishes of improvement in the sleep department.  Last night he slept straight until 5:45.  He went back to sleep for a little bit and then was back up at 6:15.  Starting last Friday, he didn't take an afternoon nap for three days and I was getting frustrated to no end.  When that happens, you ask yourself, "What can I do differently?  What isn't working here?" So I had to tweak things.  I had been swaddling him, nursing him, and then putting him into his crib after he fell asleep while nursing. Apparently this was no longer working out because he would wake up about two minutes after I put him in the crib and he wouldn't go back to sleep.  Now, I feed him at about 1:30, he snoozes a little but then he wakes back up when he's done eating.  The kids go up for quiet time about 2:15 and I have a half hour or so before schools starts to clean the kitchen, pick up, and have a little after lunch snack (frozen blueberries - - ever tried it with a little whipped cream?  So GOOD!) and a cup of tea.  During this time, Colby is awake.  I then put him for his nap right before school starts and that way I know we hopefully have at least an hour before he wakes up.  So far it's been working.  He's been going right to sleep and today even took a two hour nap.  Boo-yah!



Speaking of Colby, poor Calleigh was on the wrong end of some serious spit up the last couple of days.  On Tuesday she was holding him on the couch with him facing her, bouncing him around.  In the blink of an eye, he had spit up all over her face.  Literally.  It was on her lips, her cheeks, everywhere.  Yikes.  She said she wasn't going to hold him any more but of course she forget about that within a few hours.  Then, yesterday, I was holding him and when I leaned over to wipe Calleigh (that's a whole other discussion) while she was on the toilet, Colby spit up at the exact moment that I was over her bent head and the spit up all landed in her hair. Geesh, kid!  You sure know how to pick the most inopportune times to spew.  Fortunately, it has not permanently soured her on him.  In fact, not at all.  When I finish feeding Colby first thing in the morning, I lie down next to him in his room while he "plays" with his toys.  I always know when the girls are up because you can hear their heavy footsteps as they both race full speed to his room so they can be the first one to get into the room and shout "CAN I HOLD COLBY?" I kid you not, this happens EVERY morning. And usually a fight will ensue.  "You held him first yesterday.""No, you did.""No, YOU did." Of course, I never remember because my brain is still in a stupor from waking up too early and too often.

I'm going to wrap up in a moment but a couple of things the other kids said.  Yesterday Aubree cornered me in the bathroom to explain to me each person's roll in the household which I thought was interesting:
Colby (wasn't mentioned)
Brady: "He's the one that always gets hurt."
Aubree: "The one who helps in the kitchen."
Calleigh: "The one who takes care of Colby."
Mommy: "The one who I help."
Daddy: "The one who works on his iPad."
Not sure how loosely she was using the word "works" here in this description because I'm pretty sure he isn't actually working on the iPad per se.  But it's funny to see her perspective on the people in the family.

Sunday morning Duncan was gone on a bike ride and I was serving the kids breakfast.  Brady had already eaten something and asked for a yogurt.
Me: "Brady, you already ate something.  If you take that yogurt, I know what will happen.  You'll take like two bites and not finish the rest."
Brady: "Puh-lease Mom."
Me: "Okay, but you have to eat it.  I don't want it to be wasted."
A few minutes goes by and I mosey over to where Brady is actively NOT eating his yogurt."
Brady (pointing to his yogurt): "Daddy doesn't want me to have this yogurt."

Nice try buddy.

Have a great weekend.

Friday night Duncan offered to take a Colby shift.  Since our guest room was taken (I didn't want Duncan monitoring the monitor in our room because I wouldn't be able to NOT listen to it), Duncan decided to do a camp out in the girls room.  I happily served them hot chocolate.

His tent

Sunday afternoon yogurt treat with Daddy.

A stop at the splash playground in Winter Garden.

Practicing sitting up.  Going pretty well.

For math this week we've started to work on telling time.  One of the activities was to make a cream cheese fruit pizza in the shape of a clock.  Only problem is that Calleigh doesn't like raisins.  Hence we couldn't make the hands or numbers.  So it was a numberless clock.  Still tasty though!

We got a "Johnny Jumpup" for Colby.  He lasts approximately 45 seconds longer in it than his exersaucer before getting fussy.  So that's about 1 minute and 15 seconds total.

It was game day this morning.  Poor Aubree was getting frustrated.  You're supposed to use the tool in her hand to "shoot" the little disks onto the board...which she was doing perfectly.  Brady couldn't figure it out so he would just put the little disks on the tool and dump it right onto the board instead of trying to shoot it.  "It's okay.  It's okay," he would say.