It's been ages since I posted, I know! But we've been very busy and we've made some big changes:

Potato Moved In!

Potato brought a VR headset with him. So much fun!

My little brother moved in with us! For the purposes of the blog he's been dubbed "Potato." When I brought up the issue of his needing a nickname for the blog, my brother hesitated, and Daddy jokingly suggested Potato. My children and my brother found this hilarious, so Potato it is!

The girls were thrilled to have Potato moving in! They even cheerfully relocated their playroom to a smaller room, so he could have room for a desk and dresser in addition to his bed. He's significantly younger than me, so he's always been the "cool uncle" who would get down on the floor and play with them. They're loving having an additional adult around the house--to snuggle/wrestle with, to answer questions for them, to play games with (Bug loves having another chess opponent), and in Lion's case to go running with her. Other perks: Daddy and I even got a date night to hang out with friends!

New Church!
With a new member of the household, we also needed a new church. While we enjoyed our previous one, it had no one near Potato's age--literally not a single soul in attendance between the ages of 15 and 25. So sad. The good news is that we found a new one we really like! It's much larger, but that also means it has good children's programming (the girls are loving their new Sunday school class, and are looking forward to getting involved in the Wednesday night program), and plenty of opportunities for us adults to get involved, including a young adult group during the week for Potato.

New YMCA!
The good news is that we finally succeeded in getting our Y membership changed to a much more family friendly location. The bad news is that the DoD took so long getting the paperwork through that the homeschool gym class was completely filled by the time I was able to sign the girls up. Fortunately, there are other opportunities--they're just not as conveniently timed. This location has a much better Interactive Zone (school-age child watch), and the girls have participated in and loved a Kids Zumba class a couple of times. I also discovered that the Y has Yoga classes a couple of morning that Monkey and Bug could attend with me, while Lion goes to Stay & Play (child watch for infants through 7 year olds). Could be fun!

Zumba!

Christmas 2.5

"Christmas" morning with cousins!
(We managed to get 5 out of 6 in the same photo!) 

Way back in mid-January we got to have a half Christmas with a few more aunts and uncles and the little cousins at Grandma and Granddad's house. We did the traditional meals (more Christmas cookies!), stockings for the kids, and our girls got to open one more present each. The real highlight though was getting to play with their little cousins, including a little one they'd never met before! Of course, we also went for walks in the woods, and even made it to the Riverwalk trail and playground.

Academic Update
The girls have been plugging away at Khan Academy. Monkey has completed 78% of third grade, and I've been impressed with how little of my assistance she's needed in learning new concepts (gotta love a good online program!) Meanwhile, Bug has determined to be in fifth grade by the fall (she figured out how long it had been taking her to get new concepts and realized it would be challenging but totally possible if she pushed herself a bit). She's

Happy Valentine's Day! We made, decorated, and ate
heart-shaped sugar cookies to celebrate the holiday.

completed 95% of third grade and 12% of fourth grade due to some overlapping concepts. Last time I posted, I mentioned that Lion had begun Khan Academy's Early Math mission. About month later, she's already completed 71%! Math is clearly a strong suit for this kiddo and she is loving it.

The big girls recently started a new writing program: we're working through a 3rd-5th grade appropriate workbook from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I've heard great things about it from multiple parents, and so far I really like it. Right now they're reading a brief text, making a keyword outline, then orally presenting the information in their own words. Next week they begin actually composing on paper and learning some style points for stronger writing.

After playing so many chess games with Potato, Bug had the
confidence to teach her sisters how to play! This chess set is
now permanently set up in the music room. 

For reading lessons this week Lion decided that the Easy Readers were no longer challenging enough to qualify as reading lessons, but she would keep them for her personal reading time. She and Bug spent some time reading snippets of books in the reading nook and concluded that Beatrix Potter's books were just right. They informed me of this decision, and obviously I approved! Lion's now partway through the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Also since I last wrote, Monkey finished her phonics curriculum! She's a significantly stronger reader now than when we started it, and she now frequently reads independently just for fun. Bug continues to list reading as one of her favorite activities.

We've now moved on to the continent studies of our geography unit. We've finished studying Antarctica and are currently learning about Australia. Highlights for Antarctica: a documentary about the animals that live with the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, and a book about what it would have been like to survive as a crew member of Shackleton's attempt to explore Antarctica in the early 1900s. In our Australia studies, the girls have been completely fascinated by all the unusual animals that live on the continent and in the Oceania region.