September 15, 2011

Well, Kindergarten is still going very well for us.  We are in a pretty good routine with it these days, which is great because everyone knows what to expect.

The boys are both reading at somewhere between a 2nd and 3rd grade level, although Nick is still ahead of Ben.  Ben is still ahead of Nick with writing but Nick is really catching on quickly.  Handwriting Without Tears has definitely been a good fit for Nick and Ben is enjoying it also.  They are now working on lower case letters and they do 4 pages a day (2 pages, front and back), 4 days a week.  They have about 2 more weeks before they finish this version of HWT, after which we will start copy work.

We continue to alternate days for phonics and spelling and both are coming along nicely.  The boys enjoy writing their spelling words on the chalkboard.  One will call out the words while the other writes them and then they will trade places.

The boys seem to really enjoy worksheet type of work, which surprises me.  We have been doing some math worksheets so today I decided to mix it up a bit and play some Right Start math games.  At first, they seemed like they would rather have their worksheets back.  But once we started playing, they seemed to enjoy it until the last game, which was going swimmingly until one of them realized he was losing and the other was winning and then he was very unhappy.  After that, he was not so into that game anymore.  I really like the games though because they make learning about math fun, although if a child has issues with losing it can become not so fun very quickly so we will have to tread lightly there.  The good news is that it seems they are getting the math so we will continue to move forward with Singapore Math 1A, although we will move at a slower pace than normal.

Violin practice is going well again, at least for me and Ben.  Nick has not been participating lately:).  We are practicing a couple of very simple pieces that (I think) Ben will be playing in some type of orchestra recital around the holidays.  The boys are starting to sing Christmas songs in our homeschool co-op choir, which they are really enjoying.  Tomorrow we have Zumba and choir again so it will be a fun day.

Today the boys wanted to do a craft project so I pulled out one of my craft idea books and they picked out this santa craft.  The book rated it as very easy and doable with household items.  We did part of it but the glue had to dry before we could do the next step.  It took forever to do the small part that we did and the boys needed a lot of help to do it.  It has left me with a very negative feeling about crafts.  I am definitely going to have to work at getting better at this.  I think the first step would be to start planning some crafts for them in advance so I will already be prepared and know exactly what to expect....sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it?

I forgot to mention that Ben lost his first tooth.  He was eating cheerios when it came out and he swallowed it.  After the shock wore off, he realized that he didn't have a tooth to put under his pillow.  He looked at me, near tears and with lip trembling, and said he really wanted to put it under his pillow so he could get some money.  I quickly reassured him that he didn't need to have the tooth in order to get the money.  I teased him about the tooth fairy knowing about it and he let me know that he didn't believe in the tooth fairy but he was relieved about not needing to have the tooth to get his money.  He keeps reminding us and others (everyone we meet, anywhere) that the reason he lost his tooth before Nick is that he is 6 weeks older than Nick.

We're over the worst of the colds now but still have some residual junk left...but feeling better every day.  The weather here is beautiful now, finally.  Today it didn't get above around 63 or so and tomorrow is going to be cool also and then we will be back into the mid-80's.  The boys are spending tons of time outside playing.  Now that I am thinking about what we will be covering in 1st grade, I wonder how we will ever fit it all in.  It just seems like there is already not enough time in the day to do everything we want to do.  We may have to get an earlier start on our day.

Today at swim lessons they did testing and the boys both passed and will be moving to the next level so they have their basics down very well.  They can easily swim under water back and forth across the pool, bobbing their head above water when they need to take a breath.  They can swim under water, turn over on their back to take some breaths, turn over again and swim, etc. all the way across the pool. They can float on their back and they can dive to the bottom in the deep end of the pool to retrieve a ring.  They have been practicing various other strokes, like a side stroke and others.  So, I'm feeling pretty good about their safety in the pool.

Well, it's getting late so time for bed.