A Peek

Proof that I am, indeed, a curriculum junkie!   

                       Yard Sale finds this week!

 

One of the games I play with Ainsley. After she learns a certain sound phonetically, I then show her the word family. I like using word families as long as they understand the phonetic rule first.

7 Days!

I have officially made it through my first week of my 60 day challenge! I did O.K. 2 days this week I made bad choices with eating and I only exercised 3 days... so hopefully I can get myself together and do better next week.

Weight Loss?  4.5 pounds!

Yay!

Surprisingly, the exercising wasn't all that bad. The 3rd time, my legs hurt but otherwise I actually enjoyed it.

Stepping Up

Notice that awesome 1930's bed?

 Aidan's bed was put up tonight.










  She's officially graduated from the toddler bed. We did, however, take the box-spring off because it was too high for my comfort. They still only have a concrete floor.

Happy Girl!

Soccer Star!

Ainsley finally has started her soccer! She has been asking about it for over a year and the whole time Aidan played baseball... Ainsley kept talking about soccer. So, for 6 weeks, she gets to "play."

 The first class was a little crazy. One kid wouldn't stop picking the balls up. One kid wouldn't stop crying for his Mom. Another kid (the only other girl) wouldn't play at all. Ainsley was nervous and didn't want to run out there at first. She kept turning back to give me a hug or a kiss. I just encouraged her and told her that she was brave and I was proud of her and I knew she could do it. So, she finally joined in and contented herself with waving madly at me and Aidan. After a little while, she did really well. Only she and two other little boys seemed to be able to follow directions.

I got a flash in my head today.... a picture of her as a teenager playing soccer.

 

It was hot but FUN!

Father's Day Celebration

 Our supper.... roasted hotdogs and ketchup with s'mores! Yum!











The girls had fun swimming.

 The fire was too hot for me to brave so John had to do it.

Cute

Unwanted Visitor

I took this picture right off of our back patio. Needless to say we're being a little careful when we go outside now.

My 60 day Challange!

I have been gaining way too much weight and I realize that I really need to do something about it. So, to get me motivated, I've decided to give myself 60 days ONLY to eat right and exercise. I am hoping that I will get into the habit of eating appropriately and of exercising. (EEK... I haven't exercised in YEARS!) so that I'll continue with it after the 60 days. For now, I am only promising 60 days because any longer than that and I'll give up. 

Yes, I'm playing mind games with myself.

Everyday I plan to write in a notebook all the calories I eat so that I can keep track. I'm hoping to stick to about 1,200 calories a day. I also am keeping a count of the days left on my fridge... to help me stay motivated.

So, crossing fingers here!

??

Is it just my biased nature... or is Ainsley turning into a beautiful looking kid?

Cheesy

A quick picture session before heading off to Church.

Taking Off

We're home! Monday, we shall start back with school. This week we're settling in and having fun.

 However!

Ainsley is working on her sticker chart every day now. She's initiating it because I told her that when she finishes the chart, she'll get Buzz Lightyear... the one that lights up and makes sounds. So, this week, she has been reading many new words, new sentences, and has read the first 3 Bob books. She has also started reading out of regular books... a page here, a word there. I am so PROUD of her! Our daily sessions are lasting only 10 minutes... give or take a few. She doesn't like to sit still for long and she's quick to tell me "Mommy, I'm tired!" when she needs to stop.

I LOVE this part! I LOVE when the lightbulb clicks and they take off. I LOVE seeing the happiness in her little face when she figures out a new word! I LOVE that the world of words is now open for her.

Go Ainsley!

It's fun to stay at the....

 We've had a membership for 5 years... and have never used it until this week. Why oh why?

More to come

4 more days until returning home. I have MONTHS of back posts with pictures that I will be working on putting up throughout the Summer.

Correction

I stated in a previous post that I hadn't taught Aidan to read. I've never considered that I had because "teaching" her meant the equivalent of telling it to her. In my head, I was helping her along, not teaching. However, looking back at her weekly list of her assignments, I realized that I was teaching her. For a small period, I was giving her assignments and using curriculum. (beg. of 2010) So I was wrong in writing that I don't have any prior experience teaching it.

 I had actually forgotten all the things I used (like her decoding sentences with her vocabulary words) so that once I started reading her lists I thought to myself  "hey that's a good idea! I can use that with Ainsley!"

4 more dayz

We have 4 days until we go home for the Summer! Whoo Hoo! I'm getting all our stuff ready for school. The girls' work folders are full and ready. (think I'll post later about what's in them)

This week we have continued with doing school a little bit in the mornings. Again, Aidan is only working on math. I asked her "why do you like math?"  She shrugged and said "I just like learning about numbers." Lately, I have been working on different methods of addition and subtraction with her. When Aidan completed all the Singapore 1A problems, she did so by doing it her way, not by the way in the book. So, I've been going through it and showing her the alternative methods she missed. However, we'll be done fairly soon and I have decided to just continue with Singapore 1B this Summer..... so that by the end of December (the end of our school year) she'll be ready for 2A. (I doubt I'll go straight into 2A if she finishes it early but it'll depend on our circumstances at that time.)

Right now we're practicing addition and subtraction by....

making 10              (9+6  you take 1 from 6 to make the 9 a 10 and then add 10 plus 5)
counting backwards and forwards   (self explanatory)
using place value     (add the tens and ones separately)
make doubles and + or - from that   (8+9 would be 8+8=16+1)

I'm having her do problems both mentally and on paper/wipe board.

Ainsley has been writing randomly on her wipe board.... letters of course. But! Everyday for the last 5 days she has been reading for me.... as in actually reading. 5 days ago she pointed out another sight word. I was curious as to how many she actually knew (she's only seen the first sight word video 3 times) and I started writing some on the wipe board. She read them. So, I wrote a sentence for her... something like "The dog is sad." She read that easily so I made it a harder sentence..... something like "The big dog is on a sad mat." I had to help her focus but she read that too.  I was not overly surprised.... I know she's very smart and that she's just not interested in academics like Aidan is... but I couldn't help but be impressed. So, since then, I've been taking the wipe board and writing one or two sentences for her to read once a day. She's also been getting a sticker for each time she practices so her chart is finally being used.

I am not going to push her too hard because her focus is limited. She'll grin and stare at the ceiling and look everywhere but at the board. However, so far I have come up with a few methods to help her focus. For example, today, knowing that she's an active child, I told her to stand up when she was reading and with each word she jumped high in the air as she read. For whatever reason, it worked. I'm also trying to think up other ways to engage her... like writing out the sentences where the words are on separate cards and having her jump from word to word as she reads them.

Anyway, I'm planning on really enjoying this Summer with the girls. I love watching them learn!