Weekly Update

Here are our highlights of the week. There were a few "lowlights" too, but I won't get into those now.

1. Yesterday the girls and I (ok, mostly just myself) finally got our loft, aka school room in order for the year. The room is almost completely finished. I have a couple more furniture pieces to purchase and some new chairs and then we are done. But right now the room looks much more organized and inviting than it did over the summer. Yeah!

2. Karley is beginning to correctly guess the starting letter of some words. She is understanding that the letters each make a different sound and is showing interest in knowing what those letter sounds are.

3. Julia did her first real cartwheels and kick up to hand stands this week!!! Not only that but she has finally figured out how to do seatdrops on the trampoline! Her strength and her confidence are flourishing right now!

4. I discovered this week that after several months of piano playing my fingers are stonger than John's!!! I can do things with my 4th and 5th fingers that he cannot. Yippee. For once I can say that I am stronger than him.

5. We got to do a science lab in the kitchen. Julia thought it was fabulous.

6. Tomorrow morning we are doing another science lab outside. We decided to wait until the weekend for dad to join us too. Julia is very excited to go on a nature walk and do her plot study. She has our bag all packed.

7. There are only four school days next week!

The First Several Days...

Well, we are off to a good start. We began a week early because Karley was back at preschool and because I thought it would be good to have a few days "in the bank." The very first day was awful. Julia balked when it came time to do math. She managed to stretch it out ALL DAY. But the rest of the days have gone well. I spread our work out during the week and planned lessons in each subject for the first month. Classes on campus will be different this year since the new campus is still under construction. Classes are supposed to begin in about a month. In addition to classes offerred through school Julia will continue with gymnastics and piano. Karley will continue with her ballet/tap class (and hopefully will be in her very first recital in December!).

I'm thinking about posting to the blog on a weekly basis. That way I can share the highlights of our week with you without creating too much more work for me! When great or unusual or funny things happen I'll post those too.

The three greatest moments from last week include:

1. Julia finishing the rest of her math for the week without a single complaint and nearly without any mistakes.

2. Julia finishing all her work on Friday by 9:30 in the morning, that is to say BEFORE her sister woke up! This allowed the two of them the whole day to play, for us to run some errands, and a special afternoon treat for a first week well done.

3. Julia completing her first art assignment (draw a composition) after a rough start and a "go try again" from me. I told her that the reason we did not complete the art lessons last year was because she always drew cats. And that if she wanted to have art lessons this year she would have to do the assignment not just draw a cat each time. Here is what she came up with, titled Baby Teddy with Lemon Drop:

We're Back!

Well, it has been a long, and yet short summer.

There have been many happy times and sad times too.




















We have travelled abroad






















and close to home...



























We have grown.....


















































some of us have lost and grown teeth...






















We have ventured into new physical activities.....


a new, more rigorous gymnastics class for Julia

























and a cute beginning ballet and tap class for Karley.



We also made a special new friend this summer.
















But now, it is time to get back into our routine again. We have had a longish, short summer filled with many memories, but now its time to get back to work (and it feels good).