Foto Friday

Wearing a tricorn hat we made in social studies and showing the pumpkins she made at the library's party.

Nadia took this picture! She really wanted to take a picture, and she did a good job!

The kids got to go inside an ambulance prior to walking in the parade on Friday night.

Thankful Thursday

1. Nadia had fun with Paul wading in a stream (she caught a crayfish) and testing the pH level of the water at her Stream Study class last Thursday.

2. Nadia loves the trophy that Paul and Trisha (other coach) bought for each of the girls on their soccer team. I am grateful that we get a break from practices and games as those ended last week (until the basketball season starts up anyhow). I also kept forgetting to mention that Nadia's team had a name! The last three seasons she really wanted the team to have a name, but they didn't. This fall her team was called the Blue Cheetahs. Blue because of the color of their uniforms, and cheetahs because they run SO fast.

3. The weather turned BEAUTIFUL on Friday, and it continued to be pretty every day since then. In hindsight, it would have been a better weekend for going to Ard's or Knoebels or Hershey Park, but hindsight is always 20/20 as they say! The warmest day was Tuesday when the high was in the high 70's! Wow! We took advantage of the warmer weather by spending time at a playground every day, and we also have been walking farther than usual (3 miles on Monday and 2.8 miles on Tuesday).

4. Oliver slept until EIGHT on Friday morning. The latest he had slept over the previous week was 6:00 although some mornings he woke up at 5:45 and then fell back asleep and got up at 6:30. Ian also usually gets up too early, but he slept until 7:00 that morning and then he fell asleep in bed with me (Paul was at school) until Oliver woke up at 8:00. I was incredibly thankful to get more rest than usual that night, especially as I had stayed up until 10:30 the night before because I couldn't put a book down that I was reading. They boys also slept until 7:00 on Sunday morning, which was appreciated. Hopefully it won't take them TOO long to adjust to the time change happening this weekend.

5. Oliver didn't have any accidents last Thursday, which was the 5th time that happened this month. Then he really surprised me and had four consecutive days without accidents (Thursday-Sunday). Prior to that he hadn't even had two days in a row without accidents so that was impressive. Sadly, he totally fell apart the past three days. He peed on the carpet more yesterday than he had in the past six weeks. I have stopped taking the froggy potty into church on Wednesday nights or
to ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings. Sunday morning is now the only time I drag the potty into another building, although I frequently still take it in the van.

6. Paul's mom had her 3rd chemo treatment (this cycle anyhow) last Thursday and so far she hasn't gotten pneumonia during her time of a weakened immune system. PTL! Hopefully next month will be her last chemo treatment. We're looking forward to celebrating her 70th birthday with her next week!

7. I finally got back in gear as far as submitting job applications for Paul. Over the past several days I submitted eight more for him, and I have one more on the list yet to do.  The first ten applications for jobs for next year have gone to the following states: PA (3), WV (1), NJ (1), GA (1), SC (1), and NC (3). Please pray that he'll start getting invitations to interview. We'd love for it to take fewer applications this time around, which also would mean fewer months of interviews and being in suspense.

8. The gas prices have been down to $3.05 lately! That is a big improvement and is especially appreciated with the minivan, which doesn't get the greatest gas mileage.

9. I forgot to mention this on a previous "Thankful" post, but I took the kids to a new dentist earlier this month. We had to switch because of the change in our dental insurance. The kids did really well! They didn't have any toys in the waiting room (the other dentist had a train table), but they did have a tv. Next time I'll bring some toys or books for Oliver. I knew that four of Nadia's teeth were wiggly. The dentist said to really work on wiggling one of the loose ones on the bottom because the permanent tooth is really ready to come in there. The kids were bummed about not getting a big balloon at the end (the other dentist gave them out), but they did love their new toothbrushes (Ian's was a mutant ninja turtle one).

10. I switched Nadia to a 6:30-8:00 gymnastics class two weeks ago because Paul can pick her up at 8:00. It has been nice just being able to drop her
off so I don't have to spend 90 minutes at the library with the boys (it's hard to keep them quiet and out of trouble for that length of time there). Now it looks like I'm going to switch them to a homeschooling gymnastics class on Thursday afternoons at the same gym, and Ian and Nadia will both be in the class! It will be a much smaller class so I'm looking forward to the individualized attention they'll receive. Ian isn't going to do basketball so I'm glad he'll have gymnastics.

11. The kids enjoyed attending the Trunk or Treat event at the Methodist church on Sunday afternoon and a Halloween party at the library yesterday evening.

12. We've been enjoying pumpkin raisin cookies this week, and on Tuesday I made some delicious pumpkin waffles (thank goodness they were yummy because the recipe was more complicated than I envisioned when I thought of making waffles).

Can you identify each bumblebee below? Two of the photos were taken in 2011 (Nadia was 3, and Ian was almost 2 years old), and one was taken yesterday.

Two Monkeys

Nadia is generally very brave when it comes to trying rides at amusement parks and playing on all different kinds of playground equipment, but for some reason she has been hesitant to try the monkey bars. The last several months I have been encouraging her to do them, but she was scared to briefly hang from only one hand while reaching for the next bar. Yesterday she overcame that fear and successfully went across the full length of the monkey bars on the playground! Last Friday Nadia said she wanted to go to a different playground each day, and we did that the past five days. We walked to four of them (yesterday's was 1.4 miles from our house), and I drove to the one we went to on Sunday because it is 2.1 miles from our house. We were going to visit a sixth one today, but it's a rainy day so our legs are getting a break. We walked more than 6 miles over the past two days! I was very proud of Nadia for accomplishing this feat, and once she did it she wanted to do it again and again. I think Oliver will probably learn to do it long before he turns six years old because he has a fascination with hanging by his arms from

high bars. His arms are strong because he can hang for quite a long time. Paul took the kids to Soul Patrol on Sunday night so that I could watch my football game (and what a great game it was to watch!), and that meant he was with Oliver on the church's playground while Nadia and Ian were in choir practice. I had told him that Oliver could hang for a long time, but he was still rather impressed watching him do it. Ian, my most fearful child, has zero desire to hang from anything. Who knows how old he'll be before he attempts to go across the monkey bars.

Nadia's other accomplishment was reciting Psalm 23 to me today. We'll keep working on refining it before AWANA next week, but she is almost ready to say it. I'm including two videos in this post. One of her saying that Psalm, and another of the kids singing in their choir on Sunday morning ten days ago. They will be singing one song on November 16 and then doing their Christmas play in both services on December 21.

End of the First Quarter

It was about this time of the year that I did the first report cards when I was a middle school teacher. I haven't been assigning any type of grade to Nadia's work, but I thought it would be a good time to stop and reflect on what progress she's made in the first quarter of first grade considering I declared August 25 to be our first day of school this year. I haven't been as consistent with Ian, but he definitely is making progress with reading. Over the next quarter hopefully I will be more regular in doing school work with him and then I'll have more to say. This is just going to focus on Nadia.

Math - She finished the first grade textbook yesterday and earlier this month completed seven lessons of the second grade textbook. This rest of this week and all of next week we're taking a break from the textbook. Math over the next two weeks is primarily going to focus on money (using play money and the toy cash register), inches (using our set of inchimals), and time (play clocks). We'll also play games that reinforce concepts related to money and time. Over the next quarter I would really like her to get better at writing her numbers correctly the first time (she is often prone to writing the numbers 2, 7, and 9 backwards) and with a better grasp on her comprehension of place value (she sometimes flips the digits when she's writing a two digit number which shows me she hasn't totally mastered the concept of place value yet). I also plan to introduce math flash cards to her the next quarter so that she can do simple addition and subtraction without using concrete objects (such as her fingers).

Art - She completed the first 41 pages of I Can Do All Things which included the entire chapter on "Introduction to Drawing." Now we are starting a rotation in which we'll do 1-2 lessons a week in the following order: drawing, colored pencils, colored markers, and painting. We did colored pencils last week, which means this week she's doing lessons from the colored marker chapter. She's VERY excited about doing some painting next week. This quarter I also want to start using the Creating a Masterpiece DVD's with her that I purchased in May.  I might also have her take some painting classes at Michael's or a four week art class at a new art studio in Lewisburg. She also will resume attending programs at Lowe's and Home Depot twice a month starting this Saturday. I have been having her cut out the things for the reading activities which has given her practice with cutting.

P.E. She finished her fourth season of soccer last week (her first on a U8 team). She is participating in a 90 minute Level 2 gymnastics class each week. Before the weather gets too cold, I am hoping we get her riding a two wheel bike without training wheels. She can coast on it now. Next month she'll have her evaluations for her second season of basketball. Yesterday she walked a total of three miles round trip to a playground!

Reading She has completed one third of the fourth grade reading curriculum. I think she will probably finish it by the end of December. Some days I just pick other books for her to read, and that's what I will do on a daily basis once she finishes the fourth grade books. I don't plan on buying any reading curriculum for her in the future but just having her read books from the library and such. I'm hoping that her desire to read chapter books independently will continue to grow. I will continue to read picture and chapter books to the kids on a daily basis. I want to start reading more poetry to them.

Spelling This week she will finish the final lesson of the second grade textbook. I thought she'd finish it last week, but the last lesson is a tough one (words with "ow" and "ou"). Next week I am giving her a week off of spelling and then we'll start the third grade spelling book the following week.

Handwriting She's about half-way through the second grade textbook. I expect she'll finish it during the next quarter. Once it is finished then I will have her start writing in a journal on a daily basis which will be a good way for her to practice spelling and handwriting.

Music She is enjoying singing in the Soul Patrol choir on Sunday nights for an hour each week. We are working on learning patriotic songs (My Country Tis of Thee, Yankee Doodle, etc.). Next week I want to start her back up with piano lessons.

Science She finished the first four chapters (about 1/3 of the textbook) of the first grade textbook yesterday. She did a different first grade science textbook last year (ABeka). This week and next week I want to focus on reviewing what she learned about mammals, birds, fish, and insects, do some experiments we skipped, and also cover some of the science material we didn't get to yet from the first 10 weeks of the social studies curriculum. Science field trips this past quarter included the science museum in Baltimore, children's museum in Bloomsburg, two trips to RB Winter State Park, and a stream study class at Camp Susque last week. The next science field trip will be "Terrific Turkeys" at the state park on November 6.

Social Studies This week we will complete the 10th week of the second grade curriculum. We've focused on the Vikings, Columbus, Jamestown, Pilgrims, Ben Franklin, George Washington, Pocahontas, Squanto, and Thomas Jefferson. Next week we're going to do a review of the first ten weeks plus read some more books and do a few more activities related to those topics. The following week we will start week eleven which is when we will begin a study of each of the fifty states (Delaware will be the first one we study).

Bible She attends Sunday School, the Sunday morning worship service, and AWANA each week at church. We have a time of prayer and read a Bible story each night before bed. We work on Bible memory every day. By the end of this week she should be able to recite all of Psalm 23 for AWANA for example. Bible is also incorporated in the social studies curriculum. We've been focusing on the different names of Jesus (bread of life, bread of life, living water, rock, etc.). We focused on obedience through We Choose Virtues this quarter. This next quarter I want to work on three more character traits.

Spanish - I want to get started with that this quarter.

Keyboarding Nadia completed some of the first grade lessons of Keyboarding without Tears, but she hasn't been doing that lately. I want to get back on track with that and also have her type at least one email a week. She only sent one email the last quarter (to her cousin Andrew).

Trunk or Treat

Yesterday we went to a trunk or treat event at a church close to our home. It was the 4th year in a row for Nadia and Ian. Ian was a bumblebee (like Oliver was last weekend) back in 2011. Oliver quickly figured out how to participate in a trunk or treat. He went from trunk to trunk and picked out candy, put it in his bag, and said "thank you" to each person. I tried to help him hold the bag at the end, but he kept saying "Oliver's bag." Ian didn't quite understand the point of the bag. He was trying to hold all the chips, candy, toys, etc. AND hold the bag. I finally convinced him to put all the stuff IN the bag. Then he figured out what to do. He picked the Superman costume today. It barely fit him even though it's size 2T; the pants kept hiking up so it looked like it was way too small for him, but he still looked cute! I'll have him wear the monkey costume as it's supposed to be a lot cooler that night. We saw MANY Elsa costumes last night. It was definitely the most popular costume. Ian was the only Sully, but there was another Sofia the First (a girl quite a bit younger than Nadia) and another Superman (a boy much older than Oliver).

Oliver did well in two regards yesterday. First, he had his FOURTH day in a row of not having any accidents! WOOHOO! Secondly, he slept until 7:00am (as did Ian). Paul and I were very appreciative, although then we had to kick it into high gear to get out the door by 8:05.

as

Three Pumpkins

Yesterday was a PUMPKIN day at our house. Oliver was the only one sporting his pumpkin shirt at the beginning of the day because Nadia and Ian were wearing their soccer uniforms for the last time this year. When they came home they changed into their pumpkin shirts, and during Oliver's nap they helped me clean the seeds and pulp out of three pumpkins. The pumpkin Nadia had selected at Ard's Farm last weekend was starting to rot already so we didn't do anything with the fourth pumpkin. Nadia and Ian still did NOT want to put their hands directly into the pumpkins. Maybe Oliver won't mind touching seeds and pulp next year? However, they did help me more than they did in the past provided they could use spoons and not come in direct contact with the pulp or seeds. I am not sure why it is so disgusting to them. After we finished that project I made a batch of pumpkin raisin cookies.

Soon after I finished that, Oliver woke up from his nap, and I took the kids to the playground to enjoy another GORGEOUS day. On our way home an elderly couple we often say "hi" to when we're walking to or from one of the playgrounds gave each of the kids a bag of candy yesterday. How sweet was that! After dinner we carved two pumpkins. Nadia and Ian used a marker to draw on the pumpkin how they wanted Daddy to carve it. We let Oliver turn the third pumpkin into something along the lines of a Mr. Potato head. Next year we'll carve three pumpkins, but he's not quite old enough to tell us how he wants it carved. Ian kept saying how he wanted a candle in his; so last night we had a candle burning in the two carved pumpkins. Of course my three favorite pumpkins are my three precious kiddos! I am very glad I got them these shirts. I don't regret this "splurge" one iota although it really wasn't much of a splurge. I spent about $11 total for the three shirts.

This afternoon the kids are going to a Trunk or Treat event at a church in our town prior to going to their choir practice at our church. Our church is doing Trunk or Treat on Friday night, but we're going to take the kids treat or treating in our town instead. Last year was the very first time we took any of them trick or treating, but we have taken them to Trunk or Treat for several years.Today Nadia plans to wear her Sofia the first costume, and Ian wants to be Sully. I am not sure yet which costume Oliver will pick. They will probably choose different costumes for Friday night and probably different ones again for Saturday when we plan to go to Hershey Park. Thanks to yard sales and consignment shops, we own a LOT of costumes!

Yesterday was Oliver's THIRD day in a row of not having any accidents, and he did go #2 on the big potty! What really astounded me was that he woke up dry. I was amazed because he drank a lot right before bed. His underwear did get damp twice yesterday, but since his pants stayed dry, I didn't count those as accidents. Both times he peed on the potty right after his underwear was a little damp. I pretty much have the schedule figured out as to when I need to put him on the potty throughout the day. I just can't get him to pee on the big potty yet. Any suggestions? This picture (at right) is Nadia's model of an insect (three marshmallows for the three body parts and eight cotton swabs for the six legs and two antennae) as we're in the middle of the insect chapter in science.