Don’t Get Sick!

It’s that time of year: The girls and I all got our flu vaccines this week. Tuesday we stopped by the pharmacy for mine, and the next day I took the girls to their doctor. We had plenty of discussion about shots, why we get them, and what other things the doctor might check while we’re there (the usual height, weight, blood pressure, etc.). The girls were all very brave! I think this might be the first year I didn't have to hold down at least one kicking screaming child! Bug was amazing—she didn't even cry. Of course, this also meant discussion about what it means to be brave: doing the right thing (in this case, cooperating with the nurse) even when you’re scared.

Library Day

Another enjoyable day at the library! We also had the opportunity to give another 3-year-old a pep talk about getting her own flu vaccine the next day—the conversation started when she asked Goose about her fun Band-Aid. We came home with a collection of fun picture books:

Grizz!

Winnie Flies Again

The Yellow Leaf

Pigs and Pirates

Mama’s Little Bears

The Marvelous Toy

Storm Is Coming

Tender Moments in the Wild

Two math-related books that the girls discovered:

Ten Puppies (about counting, sorting, and all the ways to make ten)

One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab (about counting, adding, and multiplying)

Inspired by a conversation about cloud types on the way to the library, we also found:

Weather

From last week, we also kept the Easy Readers and the books about Ancient Egypt.

New Friends, Old Friends

This weekend included two out-of-the-ordinary social events. On Friday, we hosted a dinner party for the other families temporarily going to New England too. The girls were very good about interacting with the new adults and made a new friend of their own with 2-year-old Z (although Bug noted that she was so little they had to explain things like not moving the kid-sized card table while they were eating and not coming onto their beds with her shoes on).

On Saturday, Daddy and his friend Mr. A headed out of town for a Spartan run, so the girls and I joined Mr. A’s family (who've become close friends of ours here) for a late afternoon playdate and dinner. The kids had a great time, and Miss R and I had a chance for good discussions about homeschooling and faith.

The Three Rs

For math this week, Bug worked on addition, telling time, counting money, and fractions. Monkey worked on addition, subtraction, telling time, counting money, and skip counting by 2s. Both girls also did some activities with counting squares and rods (for ones and tens): Monkey focused on place value and addition with two digit numbers, while Bug worked on illustrating multiplication problems.

For reading this week, Bug finished Penny and Her Doll and Snow, and Monkey read Snow. Both girls also read other books just for fun (Go Away, Big Green Monster and One Is a Snail come to mind). Besides increasing the number of words both girls can read on sight (instead of sounding out), they’re also improving their ability to read with expression. Bug can read with expression the first time through sometimes, and Monkey will frequently re-read a sentence excitedly, sadly, or whatever is called for that she missed the first time through.

For writing, Monkey completed a capitalization worksheet and a story starter, while Bug did a story starter and asked to do some copywork from Genesis 1. Both girls completed a spelling list and wrote in their journals. Bug has also been doing a lot more writing on her own as part of drawings and things.

Updates

• Another session of swimming lessons ended, and as expected all three girls will be staying in their current levels (an Angelfish and two Goldfish). Bug is really close to leveling up—she just needs to learn how to back stroke without support. I have Monkey and Bug signed up for one last 4-week session before we head east for a while. Unfortunately, all the Angelfish spots were full, but Goose is first on the wait list (we’re really hoping somebody decides they can’t make it or I’m going to have one very sad little girl on my hands).
• Monkey and Bug also had their last jujutsu class this week. They gave their sensei hugs and told him they’d be back. They've also told me their intention not only to keep practicing while we’re gone, but to teach Goose the katas as well (they've taught her a couple already).
• For our Bible studies, we’re reading about Elisha now, and Monkey and Bug memorized Psalm 4:3. I've been reading to Goose from a storybook Bible, but I've read through that thing dozens of times now. This week we switched to a different children’s Bible—fewer pictures, but more stories.
• Continuing our reading about Ancient Egypt, we learned about Egyptians at Home (what houses for different social/economic classes were like), Song and Dance (mostly about instruments), Toys and Games, and Animals of the Nile Valley.
• Bug lost her first tooth!! She was incredibly excited about this event, and the tiny tooth was safely deposited into the fancy little box she bought for that purpose months ago. Now we are anxiously awaiting the moment when Monkey's wiggly tooth finally pops out. 

Library Day
Another fun day at the library this week! We came home with even more books than usual. First, the girls picked out a bunch of picture books just for fun:
I'm Dirty
Are You a Horse?
Grandfather's Trolley
The Other Dog
The Story of the Tooth Fairy
Max & Ruby's Bedtime Book

Then Monkey and Bug rediscovered the Easy Reader section (much more interesting now that they can read more independently). They picked out three books to add to their stack for reading lessons:
Little Bear's Visit
Fancy Nancy, Poison Ivy Expert
Snow

From the Juvenile Non-Fiction section, we came home with:
Who Built the Pyramids? (picture book style explanation of the process of building a pyramid)
The Tomb of the Boy King (the discovery of King Tut's tomb told with pictures and poetry)
Missing Mittens (a fun story counting book that gets discusses even and odd numbers)
The Picture World of Space Shuttles (Monkey's request as a follow-up to the discussion described below)

Into the Wild Blue Yonder!

Monkey is very proud of her shuttle!

We followed a fun tangent one morning this week that I'd classify as science/history. Monkey and Bug were playing astronauts early this week: Monkey built a very elaborate space shuttle out of Legos over the course of several days, Bug built a Lego moon rover, and they declared the top of their dresser the International Space Station. At some point, one of them wanted to verify that people really had walked on the moon. I said yes, asked if they wanted to see the recording of it, and off we went. I looked up the clip on British Pathe (a YouTube channel that has thousands of newsreel clips from the last hundred years or so--really awesome collection). Watching the clip of Neil Armstrong's moon walk led to watching footage of Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space) which led to watching the Wright brothers first flight ever, which led Bug to note that you couldn't possibly fly that airplane over the ocean. This of course led us to watching clips of Charles Lindbergh's first ever trans-Atlantic flight (the girls noticed the jump in technology--one prop, one set of wings, actual walls and windows, etc.), which led to questions about how long it took, which led to watching footage of the Concord (the first aircraft to break the sound barrier), which somehow led us back to space shuttles. We finished by watching the launch and landing of the Discovery shuttle. Of course, this whole experience was peppered with more questions than I can possibly remember to write down, but I did my best to answer. I also tried to tie down the timeline for them by linking different events to their personal family history (i.e., Lindbergh made his famous flight when their great-grandparents were babies, Armstrong landed on the moon when their grandparents were big kids, and the Discovery first launched when I was a preschooler).

We followed all that up over the next several days with a book from the library about space shuttles and two documentaries: All About Space Shuttles with Hard Hat Harry and Shuttle Discovery's Last Mission (it actually covered the entire history of the Discovery but had a special focus on getting the Discovery to it's final home at the Smithsonian).

The Three Rs
Now that we've moved our library day to a different day, Thursdays aren't so crazy busy anymore, and for the past couple of weeks I've done "special lessons" on Thursdays. This week, I had a scrambled word game for them to practice their spelling words, we zipped through a bunch of addition flash cards, and had a white board lesson about vowel teams that make the first vowel say its name (ee, ea, oa, etc.). These pairings consistently trip up the girls during regular reading lessons, so I decided a designated review of them was in order.

For regular lessons this week, Monkey read "What Will Little Bear Wear" and most of "Birthday Soup." She also successfully read the word problem on one of her math sheets this week--it included some tricky words too! Bug read "Father Bear Comes Home," "Hiccups," and "Little Bear's Mermaid." She also read the first chapter of Penny and Her Doll. She's been reading some other books on her own just for fun (hooray!), but I don't keep track of those.

For writing lessons, Bug did worksheets about capitalization and nouns & verbs, while Monkey did several story starter sheets. They worked together to write sentences using their spelling words from this week, and they both dictated journal entries. (Not to mention all the writing they do in Bible quizzing.)

For math lessons, Monkey worked on fractions, addition, subtraction, telling time, and counting by 5 (Fun moment: when Daddy was supervising math lessons one day this week, he peaked over Monkey's shoulder and complimented her perfect work so far. She nodded matter-of-factly, "Yep, I'm really good at math.") Bug worked on fractions, subtraction, making & reading graphs, and measuring weight, length, and volume.

Goose continues listening to lots of books (read by both me and her sisters), counting random things as well as useful things like how many forks we need for dinner, assessing shapes and colors, staging elaborate pretend play (both with her sisters and solo), singing preschool songs or songs of her own invention, etc. And of course, she's frequently listening in on what her sisters are doing and just soaking it all up!

At left, Monkey and Bug pose at the bottom of a climbing wall at the gym Daddy took them to this week.
At right, while they were gone, Goose absolutely loved getting the playground (especially the swings) all to herself!

Quick Updates

• At church the girls (all three of them) are still studying Exodus, and Monkey and Bug memorized Psalm 24:1. At home we finished the stories about Solomon and started reading about Elijah.
• In history we're still reading through the Eyewitness Egypt book. This week we covered the sections: Weapons of War, Sailing on the Nile, Buying and Selling, An Egyptian Carpenter, and Hunting, Fishing, and Fowling.
• Jujutsu continues, and I think they're enjoying their newly-minted yellow belt status.
• Swimming lessons this week went really well. Bug swam the width of the pool solo several times! Monkey and Goose can both float by themselves, and they're all working hard!

Library Day
We're sticking with, and still loving, our new storytime-free library day. The girls played with the magnetic building blocks (they built the pyramids of Giza), and we read tons of books. We came home with these books:
Take a Kiss to School
If You Seek Adventure
Rhinos Who Skateboard
Good-bye, 328 Shin Dang Dong
Lizard Sees the World
Little Blue and Little Yellow
Daisy Is a Mommy
That's Not Fair, Hare!
Frederick
The Vanities

Three Rs
For reading this week, Bug finished Danny and the Dinosaur and read "Owl and Little Bear." Monkey is just two pages shy of finishing "Your Friend, Little Bear" (reading is still agonizingly slow most days, but she is making progress). We also did an extra reading/writing lesson about vowels and syllables, which they loved! I wrote the vowels on the white board, explained why they're special letters, had the girls tell me the different sounds they make and come up with a word for each sound. This segued nicely into syllables since every syllable has to have a vowel sound. I wrote words up on the board and had them underlining all the vowels, splitting words into syllables with vertical lines and having good discussions about confusing things like silent es and how in some words a particular vowel doesn't sound like itself at all (e.g., we pronounce was as if it were spelled wuz).

For writing this week, we did that review spelling unit I mentioned (very helpful), reviewed capitalization and verbs vs. nouns, and both girls dictated journal entries about the pizza and movie night they had with Daddy and some family friends (I went with the mommies to man an Officer's Christian Fellowship table for a new milspouses event. We book-ended the event with dinner and dessert and had a fantastic girl's night!)

For math, Monkey practiced counting by 2s, fractions, and subtraction; creating and reading graphs; estimating weight and volume (and actually measuring volume); and counting money. Bug practiced multiplying by 2 and 3, subtraction, counting money, and addition. Monkey and Bug particularly loved the counting money activity this week: I found a printable to create a dice with pictures of multiple coins on each side. The girls would roll two dice and add up the money shown.

Jujitsu
Monkey and Bug acquired new belts this week!
They had to complete a demonstration at the end of class to prove they know the required katas, and they had to answer a few questions about the martial art they're studying.

Quick Updates

• For their Bible studies this week, at home we're reading about Solomon, and at church they learned about the first plague in Egypt and memorized Exodus 6:5.
• For history this week we didn't do any projects, but we read a bunch of sections in the Eyewitness book (so we can get through it all before we have to pack it up): On the Banks of the Nile (about seasonal floods), Famous Pharaohs, The Royal Court, Preparing for the Tomb, Everlasting Bodies (both about mummification rituals and techniques), The Great Pyramids, The Valley of the Kings, Gods and Goddesses, and Medicine.
• Swimming lessons continue. This week before lessons we talked about what skills they needed to master before they can move up a level (particularly motivating for Bug). This week Bug asked her teacher if she could practice more swimming all by herself and was thrilled when Mr. V agreed. 
• On Saturday we helped out a fellow military family by watching their 1-year-old daughter for the morning. The girls had a fantastic time getting to be the big kids. It was a good learning experience too--evaluating what toys would be really good for her and which ones should be put out of her reach entirely, picking what foods she could eat for snack, vigilantly keeping her out of certain room or at least away from our cat (who's not a fan of babies and toddlers), and helping toddler proof the kitchen and living room (what would be safe for her and what should she stay out of).

Bug is still building things! This three room house even had internal doorways.

Before-We-Move List

The climbing wall was definitely the big girls'
favorite part of the playground.

Now that we’re already packing up boxes and the cross-country move seems imminent, the girls have been coming up with things they want to make sure we do before we leave. It actually worked out for us to do several of those this week. First, we visited the huge playground across town. (It’s not a usual destination because it’s big enough and they’re small enough that I can’t just let them run wild—I actually have to keep up them and keep them relatively together.) They had a blast of course! It includes things like a long, wobbly bridge 10 feet off the ground, tunnels through hills, a shrubbery maze, several climbing walls, and of course, the typical climb-and-slide structures.

 Next, we spent an afternoon at the aquarium. As usual we arrived with a mission (or two or three): The big girls each needed to pick a critter to research and write a report on while we were there (just a sentence or two). Monkey picked black sea nettles, and Bug chose penguins. Goose can’t write, of course, but she brought a bag with a clipboard paper and crayons, too, and drew pictures of jellyfish while Monkey wrote her paper. I also printed up a photo checklist of about a dozen species for the girls to look for and check off once found. We didn’t actually find everything, but it helped give some direction to our wanderings.

 

The girls love the glass room where the waves crash over them!

Somehow we missed this exhibit on other visits:
an open air nature center with local fish and small coastal birds.

At the end of the week, we were hit by a “heat wave” of 80 degrees. (The equivalent of a nice cool summer day in our previous location!) We put off our lessons until Saturday and hit the beach! Granted, the West Coast water is still frigid, but at least frigid was a little more welcome this time around. The highlight of this particular beach outing was Bug’s major project: digging a hole. Not just any hole—a hole deep enough to cover Goose almost up to her waist! She was very excited that she dug deep enough to have water seeping in from the surrounding sand (“Mommy! I dug a well!”) and the fact that we could see our reflections in it clearly.

Library Day

We actually succeeded in finding a library time that

Playing with magnetic shapes at the library: Goose is building
a small box and Monkey and Bug are contemplating plans to
build a bigger rocket.

didn’t coincide with a story time! We had the kids’ section essentially to ourselves. The girls got to do puzzles, play with building toys, have plenty of room to spread out, and enough quiet to read books. (We discovered that the library is a popular afterschool hangout location for the teen crowd, but of course they didn’t venture into the children’s section.) We came home with these books:

Chester

Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School

“Slowly, slowly, slowly,” Said the Sloth

Maybelle, the Cable Car

The Popcorn Dragon

Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping

Hello, Arctic!

Komodo!
Meeow and the Little Chairs

A Treeful of Pigs

Father Bear Comes Home (This book is actually for Bug’s reading lessons for next week, since her competency level is high enough to accommodate library book due dates.)

Three Rs

For reading, Monkey finished “The Party at Owl’s House” and began “Your Friend, Little Bear.” Bug read “Little Bear Goes to the Moon” and “Little Bear’s Wish” and started reading Danny and the Dinosaur. They’ve both also recently had fun scouring cereal boxes for words they can sight read.

I already mentioned the report I had them write at the aquarium for one of their writing lessons. Also, in addition to the usual spelling unit (which they struggled with this week; next week is going to be a review session), they learned the basic rules of capitalization. Being the grammar geek that I am, I taught them proper proofreading marks instead of making them rewrite entire sentences just to capitalize someone’s name the way the worksheets asked (I’m not a fan of busy work). They both get the concepts; now it’s just a matter of enforcing it in their everyday writing. They both enjoyed doing journal entries this week too, and dictating very enthusiastically about our visit to the beach.

For math this week, Monkey worked on addition, creating and reading bar graphs, concepts of units of time (would you measure particular events in seconds, days, years, etc.), and we introduced counting by 2s. Bug worked on multiplying by 2 and 3, addition, and fractions.

At this point Goose’s lessons are still optional, and this week she politely declined them every day. Of course, that hardly means she wasn’t learning. We read tons of books, she practiced counting and simple addition just in the course of everyday activities (like figuring out how many big and little forks and plates we need at dinner), and she’s been practicing writing the letters in her name (for some reason, getting them right side up is an issue, but we’ll get that sorted out).