September in part

September began with a trip to the beach friends for Labor Day:

Preschool started. Happy mornings with happy friends (5 three year olds, 2 five year olds, and baby). When the kids did their montessori-inspired work trays, I'm pretty sure they thought that Claire in her cradle was just another work station---practical life at its finest.

Kindergarten continues to go well. The space obsession continues. George Washington continues to be the super hero---he does everything. He even drives a van sometimes. Lunch and dinner time reading selections are mostly space oriented, and basically only nonfiction, although every once in awhile Josiah chooses a picture book story for me that's not Richard Scarry.

Elijah built the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity; Husband Hill
is represented by the lid in the background; Curiousity is on the floor,
having not yet reached Mars

And Claire is just adorable. She's grown from a scrawny newborn to chubby baby. She "fusses" for a couple hours in the evening, but is happy and calm all the rest of the time. She only wakes up once most nights, except for the occasional night where she likes to nurse for half the night straight. Josiah remarked, "Claire likes it when we smile at her, and we like it when Claire smiles at us."

She loves her mobile. She'll stare and talk to it for
20 minutes at a time.

August, Part 2

We went to a favorite beach, Corona del Mar:

 



Claire's bedroom:

 

The boys continue to play blocks daily:

The Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity are on separate couches
to show that they landed on different parts of Mars

Part of their space museum: on the little table in the back are the Mars
Rovers, complete with block sign posts with info about them; at the end
of the table are space capsules and a space shuttle; not pictured are the rockets.
I was informed that many of them are models not the actual space crafts.

Both boys are such sweet big brothers! Elijah loves holding Claire and talking to her as does Josiah. Josiah told me, "All babies are so cute." He also thinks that Claire is (almost) always smiling--her awake, alert face is quite pleasant. They are both saddened when Claire isn't able to give them a hug and kiss at bedtime.

 

Girl diapers come with ruffles :)

 

And pictures of Claire! She's a really easy baby 21+ hours of the day. She's my first baby to have a consistent fussy period in the late afternoon/early evening--no screaming or even much crying, but does want to be held just right. Makes cooking dinner, feeding the boys, and washing dishes a bit tricky. She's a good nurser, sleeps for 5-6 hours straight at the start of the night, and when awake, looks quietly and alertly around. We think she's pretty fabulous!

 



 

 

Staring at her beloved black-and-white pictures taped to the
bottom of the shelf

How Claire likes to spend most of her time

Photo credit: Elijah

And we ended the month with an overnight visit with John:

Josiah's big accomplishment of the month (unpictured) was potty training. 85% done!  The firstborn got stories read while he sat, and the secondborn got the kindle (my standards are low when potty training with a newborn). He is not an easily incentivized child--he was turning down my bribes of marshmallows and chocolate chips. But he finally decided to do it!

First week of Kindergarten

Elijah started kindergarten last week. I had to explain to him the non-co-op part of homeschooling. :) On our just us days, we will do math, handwriting, and phonics (and whatever else we want to add); on co-op days, we will do more extras---artist study, composer study, catechism/hymn/bible memory, science, geography, art projects, etc. I have six kindergarteners (plus my wonderful tagalongs) two days a week and 5 preschoolers & 2 kindergarteners (plus baby) one day a week.

 

 

Our first day of kindergarten looked a lot like our other days since we've been doing phonics most days for the last month. We did a math lesson and also read a couple of chapters from "Mighty Mars Rovers" and "NASA Space Vehicles" (I think bedtime reading was from "The Book of Astronauts"). Space is Elijah's current research project. We read lots and lots of space books these days! He is so engaged in the story of Spirit and Opportunity on Mars -- will Spirit be able to climb the hill? Will Opportunity make to the next crater? It takes us about 10 minutes just to read a two page spread between the detail of information and all of Elijah's thoughts and questions.

 

First day!

Day two--playing with friends both in the morning and after rest time with some phonics and math on the side.

Day three--start of co-op! We had a good first day--nice to have school friends back.

Math games

Claire did her part and napped three out of the four hours

Watercolors

 

After school building: I think its a Gemini capsule in orbit; the
bear in hand is doing a space walk

Josiah's rocket Saturn 5-2 ready to launch

 Day four--co-op again! Highlight was taking the play kitchen outside to make a seaside restaurant like in "Night of the Moonjellies."

Elijah was inspired by "Me on the Map" and wanted to get started early on making his own book.

Drawing a map of his room

Sorting coins

 Day five -- math, handwriting, phonics, followed by Elijah wanting to finish his "Me on the Map" project. He put together maps of his room, house, street, town, state, country, and world basically by himself.

And everyday (of course!) included more space vehicle building out of blocks and space books. Must find out what happens to the rovers next!

Curriculum:
Math--RightStart Level A
Phonics--Phonics Museum
Handwriting--Handwriting without Tears
Geography--continent study
Science--"DK Eye Wonder Plants" + experiments (first quarter)
Fine Arts--Florentine artists, Austrian composers
Literature--Five in a Row
Bible--catechism, hymn memorization, Bible passage memorization