Sunday, April 18, 2010

Just Another Day

Things are not too exciting lately. The weather is warming up here in Florida, and I finally broke down and turn the air conditioner on in the late afternoon. Our temporary apartment faces west, and we have no air flow. We are just waiting for the electrician to finish the rewiring on the house before we move in. We will clean first, but paint after we move.

Aiden is absorbed in the series, "Liberty's Kids". It is a cartoon series on the America Revolution. He is learning more than I ever learned the traditional way (and I'm learning too!). I hope they show this good stuff in school.

He is also taking off in math. I though we would never finish addition, and he is zooming past subtraction and working on multiplication. We will try a new math program, "MEP", or Mathematic Enhancement Program.


For grammar we tried First Language Lessons, by Susan Wise, but he said it was repetitive and boring. I'm going to try MCT, Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program. If that doesn't work now, we will just wait another six months. His academics abilities are greater than his desire and a willingness to sit still, so waiting another six months isn't a problem. We started Sequential Spelling, and I love it. Aiden does very well with it, but the writing is too much at one time. I think we will work on spelling the dolch sight words this summer, and try Sequential Spelling again in fall. History Odyssey will continue over the summer, and we will continue with our free-form science. Since Aiden has a gift with language, I picked up some beginner French material we will try.

Aiden made some stilts a week ago. He spent the afternoon with a good friend, who has as many tools as my husband. Aiden loved building them himself.



Emma is growing, but not quickly. She isn't going to be a big girl. Her birthmother wasn't tall either. She is doing well developmentally. She is doing a modified crawl, where she uses her arms to propel herself forward and pushes with her back legs. She claps, and waves, and loves getting lots of attention from strangers. She is very attracted to books and magazines, so I give her some heavy paper brochures to mess up. She also loves going after the cat. Babies are not new to Bella, the cat. Aiden used to go after Bella too, so Bella is having nothing to do with Emma.




Saturday, April 10, 2010

Easter 2010



We don't make holidays a big celebration. We try to keep things simple, and enjoy the day. We didn't race to the photo centers for fancy pictures, and we didn't participate in the community egg gatherings.

Instead, we dyed eggs with onions skins the Saturday before Easter. The bunny hid eggs with quarters in them around the house, and left a small basket of healthier treats. Emma received a stuffed chick in a shell, and a few dollars from Grandma. We enjoyed the rest of the day together.

I'm glad a few eggs scattered around the house is enough to create excitement for the preceding two weeks. There is joy in simplicity.