Goodbye Again, Daddy
We thoroughly enjoyed a few weeks with Daddy home, but we had to take him back to the airport this week. The girls decided to see him off while wearing their Team Daddy shirts, which he appreciated. They miss him already (so do I, of course). Goose was explaining to me at some point that her baby doll needed her pacifier because she missed her daddy, and Bug was in tears that she couldn't go with Daddy on big trips like this--even when she got to be a big kid. I helped comfort the baby doll, and Bug decided she wanted to write Daddy an email by dictating to me. Monkey tends to internalize things, but we're all finding our coping mechanisms.

Reading

They've graduated to a bigger work table for the study. Now

 that they're old enough to take their work seriously arguments

 kept arising over elbow space. 

Monkey added two sounds this week: g a in goat and i as in ice cream. The latter isn't actually in the order the book I use introduces it, but she requested to learn that sound, so I went with it. She's been alot more attentive to what sounds are found in words this week, which means my conversations are frequently interrupted with comments like, "Hey! Frog starts with f and ends with g!" At least I know it's all sinking in! She also decided this week that writing her own sentences would be far more interesting than simply tracing the ones from the book. I had actually purchased a pad of paper with writing lines and space for a drawing a while back, which she thought was awesome. She dictated the sentences which I wrote lightly in pencil, then she traced over them and drew a picture.

Bug has been really busy this week! She added the sounds k and h this week as well as the sight words was and has. She also learned about quotation marks. She even wrote her first sentence: "Zac plade [outside]." She asked me how to spell "outside," and I decided not to correct her spelling of "played" this time. I didn't want to discourage her first effort, and she has no reason to know that that word uses "ay" for that sound since our book hasn't covered that letter combination yet.

Math
For math this week, we played with the abacus a good bit: counting to 100, counting by 10s, adding together two or three rows of beads, etc. Monkey and Bug can both do sums totaling 5 or fewer without actually having to count out the beads. This is the first week that's been possible! They also did some worksheets to practice writing numerals. Bug in particular liked those. Monkey opted out of them one day, and she and I did some "toy" math instead. I found her playing with little toys on the play table, so I started asking her to count toys in various categories (how many dinosaurs? trucks? people?). Then I had her add different categories together (how many airplanes and school buses?).

Legionaries and Cavalry

We read tidbits on a variety of topics from the Ancient Rome DK book, but the girls were mostly interested in the Roman soldiers this week. We talked about what their lives were like and what they wore, and our major project was creating our own armor over the course of several days. Construction paper, duct tape, milk jugs, scraps of ribbon, a dress-up clothes construction helmet, and carboard boxes were all involved. As usual distinct personalities emerged: Bug was interested in having a "fancy" uniform to be a cavalry officer or legionary in a parade, while Monkey was far more interested in the sword and shield. In fact, at some point she stripped down to underwear, sword, and shield to go for the gladiator look. She and Goose had quite the epic duel through the living room and kitchen.

While we were working on all this, the girls asked me to tell them stories about Rome, and we covered Horatius at the bridge, Spartacus (though I confess I stopped short of the unhappy ending; we've been reading the story of Moses during our morning Bible reading, so they were very interested in the topic of slaves trying to gain their freedom), and Romulus and Remus (their favorite since R & R were twins like Monkey and Bug and since R & R were raised by a wolf like Mowgli from their favorite novel).

Library Day/New Books
Storytime took place in the children's section this week instead of in the storytime room, which was being painted. The girls seemed to enjoy the novelty, and Monkey and Bug even headed to the front to sit without me. They even piped up to answer questions! I was so proud. The theme this week was green, and the girls made construction paper leprechan hats with rainbow streamers attached. We came home with these books:
Mossy
Snow White and Rose Red
Sea Shapes
Ancient Romans
Strega Nona (sequel to the one we got last week)
George & Martha: Back in Town

I also acquired two e-books for the girls. Monkey and Bug have been really into their Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls this week, so I looked up the original Raggedy Ann Stories and Raggedy Andy Stories from the early 1900s and discovered free e-books complete with illustrations (Thank you, Project Gutenberg!). They love these books!

Farmer's Market
A farmer's market recently started up a few minutes from us, so on Thursday afternoon we went to check it out. We didn't actually purchase anything on this trip, but the girls were fascinated by getting to actually see the farmers who grow food. They also got to do things like sample local honeys, admire gorgeous flowers, and watch a couple of women working a spinning wheel and drop spindle (they even got to feel the wool before and after spinning). While this may have been more of a highlight for me than for the entourage, the local retired greyhound organization also had a booth, and we got to meet a lovely greyhound and talk to the guys running the booth. The girls weren't feeling brave enough to pet the dog, but they were definitely inching closer over the course of the conversation. (Now I just need Goose to potty train, so we can adopt one of these awesome dogs).

Neighborhood Playtimes
The weather has been gorgeous, and we've gotten to see alot of our neighborhood friends this week. We went for a long walk with friends B, D, and A and their moms, and Monkey and Bug proved very good at helping their younger friends follow the rules of not running too far ahead or going into the street by themselves. We got to play in B and D's backyard--the highlight was seeing a huge lizard who was trying desperately to be camouflaged with their terrace wall (for the record, one cannot hide from inquisitive preschoolers). At some point B, D, and H came to our house to play for a bit. We also had a picnic lunch at the big library's playground with LA, H, and Baby D. Some really cool new equipment had been added since we'd been there last, and all the kids had a great time exploring it all.

Spring Flowers
Spring flowers are out in all their glory now, and the entourage is loving it--especially when I showed them the bud vase I was given for Christmas, and they realized they had a special place to put the best little flowers they found (Thank you, Uncle K and Auntie A!). It's been a permanent fixture on our kitchen table this week. True to form the girls and I not only admired, but attempted to identify the flowers with our wildflower field guide. We have lots of bluets, dandelions, and we think some gromwells. However, we've been unable to identify these two:

Any ideas?