Figuring things Out

February was a month for getting settled and for figuring things out--sort of. Luckily, Rob's parents spent the greater part of the month in Prescott. They spent about a week with us and a little over a week with the Smiths. The kids really love spending time with their Grandma and Grandpa. Evelynn has a little soft spot for her Grandpa, and she was even starting to say Gumpa towards the end of their stay! They were also able to watch the kids a few times while I did a bunch of shopping for the practice and other odds and ends for the practice. We also attended a homeschool forum in Pheonix together (the four of us) one Saturday.

Colden developed a fascination with Harry Potter and told me that he wanted to read the book. Since his reading skills are at a minimum right now, I figured this would be a great motivation for him to do his reading lessons (taken from the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons). We made a chart with the numbers 1-100 on it (which is also helping him learn those numbers) and he gets a sticker every time he finishes a lesson. When he finishes all 100 lessons, I will buy him a copy of the first Harry Potter book, which he has to read before he can watch the movie (I figure if he can read the book, he can handle the movie...he still gets easily scared about stuff, so if he knows what will happen beforehand, then he shouldn't get nightmares). So, Colden is learning how to read! He's already on lesson 28 (well, we started in October then went very sporadically through the first dozen lessons). He's been really good about learning how to read, and I catch him reading other things, too. So exciting!

Dylan is growing so tall. Most of his pants are floods (Colden's, too), but since Spring and Summer are almost here, I'm too cheap to go buy new pants. He just loves to play outside and he still won't sit still much. The last time I did a "reading" lesson with him, he kept pushing his head off the couch after every letter he sounded out. He made it through the whole book, but it required some patience so I wouldn't get him to sit still...I'm convinced that he's a kinetic learner, so I'm not trying to force him to sit still much. Hopefully, this bouncing with bounce the letter sounds into his head and he'll learn anyway!

Evelynn is just crazy. She easily smiles and loves to please us. But she's also quick to scream and yell and squeal. And when she takes her elastics out of her hair, she looks as crazy as she acts. Her new word is "gross." She sure understands a lot of what we say, but she's been slow at saying things back, besides "uh" (you know, point to something and say "uh", like a caveman), "buhbie" (blanket) and "ball". Oh, and her favorite toy is this screaming monkey, who screams when you fling him in the air, hit him on the ground, or just hit him (we decided that he taught her how to scream...as soon as she sees her monkey, she screams just like him).

The pictures include Evelynn with "buhbie" and random pictures with monkey...I even found a video of her playing with him when she was just sitting...it must have been a year ago!

Oh, and back to the homeschool thing, I have decided to homeschool. YIKES! And I figured that out in February (one of the things I figured out that month). Why? I have read too many books about education philosophies that I no longer believe in the effectiveness most public school systems (so, my advice to someone who prefers sending their kids to school: don't read books about homeschool philosophies...unless you think you might pull your kids out of school and need the encouragement). I guess I actually made that decision awhile ago. I started a blog about my adventures in hsing young kids. Sometimes, I might get on my soapbox (like I don't here, right?). But, hopefully, I'll also share some of the fun stuff we do that's all part of our "school."

My Homeschool Experiment