First chapter book

This morning Oliver finished reading his very first chapter book. It took about one week for he and I to read it out loud together. We alternated paragraphs so in reality he only read half of it. He and I have started reading other chapter books together over the summer, but this was the first one we actually finished. Nadia and Ian also read books from the Cul-de-sac Kids book series when they first started reading chapter books. Ian and Nadia each began reading chapter books totally on their own when they were six years old. Life is not a race. As long as each child eventually develops a love of reading, it doesn't matter how old they are when they begin. I'm hoping before Oliver turns nine he will enjoy reading chapter books completely on his own, but for now I'll savor the moments that he and I spend reading together. The first couple of days that he began learning to write in cursive last month I thought maybe he wasn't ready as it was very hard for him to make the strokes he was supposed to make in his textbook. The series is called Handwriting Without Tears, but I was afraid that might be a misnomer. Thankfully it is now going much more smoothly. His manuscript handwriting has never been very good. I'm hoping and praying that he'll be able to write nicely in cursive by the end of third grade. Because reading, math, and handwriting don't come very easily for him, I decided to hold off for now on beginning his piano lessons. He doesn't enjoy drawing or coloring, but I have been requiring him to do both of those more regularly. Spelling came very easily for him the last two years, but he was struggling a bit at the start of this school year. When our school year ended in April, he was half way through Level 3 in spelling. I decided to go back to the beginning of Level 3 so he could review some things he seems to have forgotten. 

Speaking of chapter books, we finished Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai during lunch today, which was our 650th book! This evening we started Around the World in Eighty Days. There are 471 books on Nadia's list of chapter books thus far, which isn't actually a complete list because for example she has read Wonder from cover to cover at least 15 times. Ian is currently in the middle of Poppy and Ereth, which will be the 220th chapter book that he has read. I don't believe he's ever reread any chapter books, but he does reread picture books all the time.

Normally I really enjoy planning field trips and vacations. I've been very leery to do so for the past almost six months given how many have been cancelled. I realize things could change over the next three weeks, but at this point I am cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to leave on our vacation to OH/KY on October 1. A national park in Dayton that was still closed the last time I checked has reopened, and nothing that was open the last time I checked has been closed again. The last few days I've been reworking the plans due to the fact some places we planned to visit are still closed. Instead of visiting the Hopewell Culture National Park we'll hopefully visit the First Ladies National Historic Site instead. I also went through our gift cards and after figuring out where the restaurants are located, I planned out where we would eat dinner each night. We'll hopefully eat a breakfast provided by each hotel and use gift cards for our dinners. I'll pack foods that we can use for our lunches (fruit, granola bars, crackers, etc.). Three of the seven nights we are staying in a hotel that has an indoor pool. The kids are looking forward to a few more chances to swim. The sixth day of our eight day vacation is the one that I haven't figured out yet. I had booked a night at a hotel in Georgetown (north of Lexington) thinking we'd tour the Toyota plant and also spend several hours at the Kentucky Horse Park. Toyota hasn't resumed giving tours. The Kentucky Horse Park has partially reopened, but they are now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and I had planned for us to be there on a Tuesday. I could try to cancel that hotel reservation and book a night somewhere else in Kentucky, but I'm leaning toward finding other things to do in or near Lexington. Because we plan to visit a few science museums, I renewed our membership with the Owensboro Museum last night. Ours had expired several months ago. That is the best $40 I spend each year. Even though the Owensboro Museum is also in Kentucky, it's still far enough away from the science museums we plan to visit for us to be able to get in for free. Hopefully we will have a great vacation even though we'll have to wear facemasks a lot more than the kids and I usually do.

The pictures in this post were all taken by Nadia. We attempted to have photography be one of her classes last year, but it didn't really happen. This year it's actually been happening. She really enjoys it! I did help her some with the settings. She is learning how to shoot in manual.