September Update

We ended up not having school for the first two weeks of September. The first week because of schedule, and the second week because the kids were sick.

Last weeks our theme was apples, apples and more apples. On Monday we took the kids to the apple orchard to pick apples. Tuesday I taught the girls how to make applesauce.
Wednesday we learned how to make apple butter. Thursday and Friday we enjoyed drawing pictures of our trip to the apple orchard. To See Pictures click here

This week because both Kara and Lydia had dentist appointments (click here for pictures), our theme for the week was Visiting the Dentist. We started by going to the Library on Monday. We checked out three books about going to the dentist -- My First Dentist Visit, Show Me Your Smile (a Dora the Explorer Book), and At the Dentist. Of the three books, both girls seemed to respond best to the Dora Explorer book. Kara also had her violin lesson with Miss Abigayel on Monday. She did a fantastic job reading her music and getting her fingering correct. Now we need to work on her bowing on the correct string.

Tuesday we started school with the usual violin practice. Kara did lessons 12 and 13 in Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. Tuesday began working on actually reading sentences and picture comprehension -- being able to relate the picture with the words she read. We also had art class on Tuesday with their friend Noah. They each had to cut out a picture of a sheep, and then they glued cotton balls to the sheep body. Again we read the dentist books and talked about what the dentist was going to do.

Wednesday was our trip to the dentist. So once again we read the dentist books, and both girls did amazingly with the dentist.

Thursday and Friday were typical school days Kara completed lessons 15 - 18 in Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. We have been doing two lessons a day since Kara has been catching on so quickly. This week Kara was learning to write the letters /d/ and /i/. She has also been reviewing writing the letters /a/, /s/, /e/, /r/, and /t/

I have also come to the conclusion that Lydia is not quite ready to begin reading lessons, so I have discontinued working on reading with Lydia and will probably wait until next January to try again. Instead, I have Lydia working on tracing circles and lines, coloring in the lines, and learning how to cut with scissors. I am also working on basic counting and number identification.

Homeschooling begins

Monday began our first day of school. While I had endeavored to begin homeschooling Kara last year, I was neither disciplined enough to continue or motivated to begin teaching her academics. This past May, JA and I both attended the state homeschool convention where we purchased both preschool and kindergarten materials from My Father's World. I am combining the preschool and kindergarten curriculum's so that I can teach both Kara and Lydia at their appropriate levels.

Here is what we are working on this week:

We begin each day with the daily lessons from "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." So this week we have been working on perfecting /s/,/m/,/a/. Kara is working on writing "s," "m," and "a;"Kara has also enjoyed lacing shapes (a skill she has already mastered but still enjoys doing); she really enjoys learning to cut following the lines -- especially working on cutting out circles. Kara has been begging me to let her cut with scissors so now she is thrilled.We are integrating classical music into our lessons, so Kara is listening to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" while she works on coloring in the lines. Kara has never really enjoyed coloring, so this is a hard lesson for her to stick with because she wants to quit and go on to whatever is next. For math we have been working on number identification and association.Kara's memory verse for the week is Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it shall be given you, Seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."

Lydia's schooling is very similar to Kara's as we are doing the same subject as Kara at the same time. However, my expectations are very different.

Lydia's memory verse is also Matthew 7:7 , but I have shortened it so we can also work on enunciation and order. "Ask and it shall be given you, Seek, and ye shall find."

Like Kara, Lydia is also learning to read (she has been able to identify her letters and sounds since she was 2, so I know she is ready to put them together into words). So Lydia is also doing the lessons from "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." But Lydia's writing lessons are very different from Kara. I am having Lydia work on tracing lines and circles and drawing her own lines and circles. Lydia is also learning to lace shapes, but we are having to focus her on lacing each hole in the order that it is placed around the shape.(sorry the picture is sideways, I couldn't get it to turn)

In order to teach Lydia how to hold the scissors properly I placed a sticker on the side of the scissors that should be facing up. Now she knows that she always needs to keep the sticker facing the ceiling as she cuts the paper.Lydia is also listening to the classical music, and learning to color in the lines. For Math, Lydia is learning to count from 1-10.

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Pregnancy Update Week 35

Well, we are almost there. Today I went in for my Week 35 appointment. The results came back on my Group B Strep test -- Negative (no doubt for me). Currently the baby appears to be in the posterier position (head down). Baby's heart beat is once again 150. My weight stayed the same (amazing since I've been eating a chocolate bar every day), and my blood pressure is still great.

I am having some difficulty staying hydrated in this heat. So, I have resigned myself to staying inside with the air conditioning during majority of the day. Right now my doctor seems to believe this baby is going to come early. If baby follows the same pattern as the other three we will get to meet him/her on August 15 (exactly 10 days early -- just like Kara, Lydia, and Andy). However, I think the odds of having four children in five years all come exactly 10 days early is rather unlikely. Of course I thought the same thing when Andy was born.

I would love to get your opinions on when you think Baby Hall will decide to join us on the outside world. Please share with me when you think Baby Hall will come by leaving a comment in the comment box. I will tell you both JA and my dad are saying sometime next week. But we still have four weeks until Baby's due date (August 25)

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