Olivia: What can I read?
Me: *suggests looking up Beverly Cleary since she just finished Ramona*
Olivia: None of these look good.
Me: *looks up lists online and feeds her titles one at a time to search*
Olivia: These don't look like ones I would like.
Me: What about them is something you don't like?
Olivia: I don't know.
Me: What about Harry Potter? Your friend Elaine is reading that.
Bryan: I think you'd like Harry Potter even more than you like Pokemon.
Olivia: Well I don't want to read it if I'll like it more than Pokemon.
Me: ...
Matthias, holding a 5: Mom, when I flip this over it turns into a 2! Wait, I will get a 3 and turn it into a 4!
Me: Kaitlyn, stop whining. You do not need glasses to do that trick. You could just hang the turtle on your ear.
Matthias: My pants are wet and my feet are wet.
Me: Do you need new pants?
Matthias: Yeah. And new feet.
Gretchen: Anything is possible for God?! That means he can make unicorns real!
Matthias: My food goes to my feet and my water and juice and milk go to my belly.
Gretchen: Mom, know what I want to be when I grow up? A saint.
Kaitlyn: I'm telling the truth of this. Gretchen was on my bed and we were playing happily, but she got her foot on my blankie and made it stinky.
Matthias: When I am bigger I will go to school and play the monster game and play Pokemon!
20 May 2020
10 May 2020
April 26-May 10
I was looking through old blog books and remembering all the things I used to do with the kids. It would appear that in 2015 I had a garden that actually grew vegetables, not just weeds. And Olivia and Gretchen helped me make lots of applesauce and apple pies. As I wistfully wish for what once was (ignoring the fact that there were fewer children, as well as the realization that I documented more high points than low points), I am reminded of something that I heard a homeschooling mom say in a talk at a conference once. Loosely paraphrased: You don't have to do fun (impressive, fabulously educational, etc) things all the time. Just make sure that when you do you document them well and take lots of pictures. :-D
Matthias has a sing song voice now and it is super annoying. You didn't get me. I got the blue plate. Kaitlyn is a meany head. I have Gretchen's yo-yo. Ugh.
Theodore's chew toy of choice is a thin band of plastic. A bracelet, the ring that holds the baby keys, one of those plastic links. He doesn't like the fatter, softer teethers as much.
Bryan and I bought a learn new dance moves mini-series of classes to work through, but so far we've been so busy with game nights that we haven't had a chance to try more than one. On the flip side, we have been pleasantly occupied by virtual game nights. :)
Theodore is a problem. He army crawls everywhere. He enters a room that's been swept twice and picks up little things that only he can see. Then he puts them in his mouth where they become dust bunnies and pieces of paper. I've set up the baby cage in the dining room. Sometimes he doesn't mind being in there. Sometimes he can be lured in by a series of strategically placed toys. Sometimes he hates it. Kaitlyn and Matthias are strangely drawn to the baby cage, whether Theodore is in it or not.
I've been taking the time to sit with Theodore in his cage, which makes him happier to be contained. I am reminded of how I used to sit with Olivia, back when she was the only one and I had no one else's needs to consider. Theodore gets me when the other kids are occupied, but I often try to sneak out when he's not looking. Olivia and I spent entire afternoons in her cage, all of her toys stacked in one tasteful box and all of her books on one tiny shelf. I'd bring a book or magazine and read while she played contentedly. As I write this, I'm in Theodore's cage with him, watching him shove his toys out through the bars and then struggle to get them back.
Beautiful weather has brought lots of outdoor time. Poor Matthias has a ring of unsunburned flesh around each eye. He looks like a goofy raccoon. He needs about a gallon of sunscreen every time he looks out the window, but he gets none. His mother should maybe try being less forgetful and distracted.
Kaitlyn knows all of her letters and we've moved on to purposeful study of letter sounds. She's even tried sounding out a few words, but the concept of stringing the sounds together eludes her. She is very excited to be a little closer to reading. She also writes all of the letters now. She's the first one of the kids to write with a mix of capital and lowercase letters from the beginning, I think mostly due to Gretchen's tutelage.
Matthias recognizes all the letters except V and Z. And he calls D T and G R. If I call him out on the D and G he can concentrate and usually come up with the right answer, but his gut reaction is T and R.
We're in the home stretch for school. I picked up the last packets for the girls on Monday and they finish up on May 22. Gretchen remains highly motivated but more distracted. Olivia finds everything "apparently boring." She sounds like a teenager, but with a worse grasp on what the words she uses actually mean.
We've started reading at the dinner table. Bryan and I always finish eating well before the kids do and then spend the rest of the meal trying to think of conversation topics until we get antsy enough to declare the meal close enough to over. Keeping that in mind and also trying to think of ways to trick Olivia into trying new books, I decided to start reading when I'm finished eating. We're about a third of the way through the first Harry Potter book now. Except Olivia -- she checked it out from the library on the second night and now has to spend dinners reviewing the story and working to contain the spoilers built up inside her head.
Theodore discovered a clucking noise at dinner last night and is very pleased to hear people clucking back at him. He also likes to shake his head and watch people shake their heads back.
Pictures:
Matthias has a sing song voice now and it is super annoying. You didn't get me. I got the blue plate. Kaitlyn is a meany head. I have Gretchen's yo-yo. Ugh.
Theodore's chew toy of choice is a thin band of plastic. A bracelet, the ring that holds the baby keys, one of those plastic links. He doesn't like the fatter, softer teethers as much.
Bryan and I bought a learn new dance moves mini-series of classes to work through, but so far we've been so busy with game nights that we haven't had a chance to try more than one. On the flip side, we have been pleasantly occupied by virtual game nights. :)
Theodore is a problem. He army crawls everywhere. He enters a room that's been swept twice and picks up little things that only he can see. Then he puts them in his mouth where they become dust bunnies and pieces of paper. I've set up the baby cage in the dining room. Sometimes he doesn't mind being in there. Sometimes he can be lured in by a series of strategically placed toys. Sometimes he hates it. Kaitlyn and Matthias are strangely drawn to the baby cage, whether Theodore is in it or not.
I've been taking the time to sit with Theodore in his cage, which makes him happier to be contained. I am reminded of how I used to sit with Olivia, back when she was the only one and I had no one else's needs to consider. Theodore gets me when the other kids are occupied, but I often try to sneak out when he's not looking. Olivia and I spent entire afternoons in her cage, all of her toys stacked in one tasteful box and all of her books on one tiny shelf. I'd bring a book or magazine and read while she played contentedly. As I write this, I'm in Theodore's cage with him, watching him shove his toys out through the bars and then struggle to get them back.
Beautiful weather has brought lots of outdoor time. Poor Matthias has a ring of unsunburned flesh around each eye. He looks like a goofy raccoon. He needs about a gallon of sunscreen every time he looks out the window, but he gets none. His mother should maybe try being less forgetful and distracted.
Kaitlyn knows all of her letters and we've moved on to purposeful study of letter sounds. She's even tried sounding out a few words, but the concept of stringing the sounds together eludes her. She is very excited to be a little closer to reading. She also writes all of the letters now. She's the first one of the kids to write with a mix of capital and lowercase letters from the beginning, I think mostly due to Gretchen's tutelage.
Matthias recognizes all the letters except V and Z. And he calls D T and G R. If I call him out on the D and G he can concentrate and usually come up with the right answer, but his gut reaction is T and R.
We're in the home stretch for school. I picked up the last packets for the girls on Monday and they finish up on May 22. Gretchen remains highly motivated but more distracted. Olivia finds everything "apparently boring." She sounds like a teenager, but with a worse grasp on what the words she uses actually mean.
We've started reading at the dinner table. Bryan and I always finish eating well before the kids do and then spend the rest of the meal trying to think of conversation topics until we get antsy enough to declare the meal close enough to over. Keeping that in mind and also trying to think of ways to trick Olivia into trying new books, I decided to start reading when I'm finished eating. We're about a third of the way through the first Harry Potter book now. Except Olivia -- she checked it out from the library on the second night and now has to spend dinners reviewing the story and working to contain the spoilers built up inside her head.
Theodore discovered a clucking noise at dinner last night and is very pleased to hear people clucking back at him. He also likes to shake his head and watch people shake their heads back.
Pictures:
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