Library Day
The girls got to do story time this week, and Miss C had some fun books picked out for this week. The girls were also excited that Little People had been added to the library toy collection to go along with the castles, farmhouses, etc. We decided to keep a number of the books from last week, but we added quite a few to our stack as well.

Just for fun:
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy
The Jellybeans and the Great Camp Kickoff
A Dinosaur Called Tiny
The Alphabet Theatre Proudly Presents . . . 
The Neat Line: Scribbling through Mother Goose

For history:
Heroes of the Revolution
Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland

For science:
Stargazers

Photo Update
I know it's been a while since I wrote about the girls decorating their room, but here are the photos. (Please note: I got great photos of Monkey! She's so hard to catch on camera, but she's very proud of her collection of artwork!)

Monkey with a collage of Impressionist artwork.

Bug with her collections of cool architecture and religious art.

Monkey showing off her collection of contemporary art and superhero posters.

Three Rs
For reading this week, Monkey read (multiple times) That's Not a Good Idea and My First Book of Girl Power (the latter one is now officially off the list of options--she's no longer reading it, she just has it memorized). Bug is working her way through The Boxcar Children. There are a fair number of words to challenge her, but not enough to be discouraging, and she's pretty into the storyline. Goose actually read some three-letter words this week! She didn't get any new sounds, but she's definitely making progress with her other reading skills. The big girls have also been helping her practice the ABC song alot this week. At some point this week while getting ready we also made a game out of seeing how many nursery rhymes the girls could recite. I didn't actually keep track of how many it was, but we had a lot of fun!

For the big girls, I decided that we've done a sufficient amount of formal grammar and writing worksheets for first grade and came up with a new plan for writing lessons. They have to write at least a sentence or two everyday (to be lengthened as they get more experience). They can come up with their own idea or they can pull a writing prompt from a jar that contains several dozen ideas on little slips of paper. This activity accomplishes a number of things: practice reading (because I make them read the prompts and then their finished work), creative thinking and problem solving, handwriting, spelling (I talk them through every word they don't already know; they've been excited to discover how many they do know), and grammar (I correct and discuss issues as they come up). Goose doesn't have formal writing lessons at this point, but she has been spending alot of time practicing writing letters all on her own.

For math, the math facts drills continue and both big girls are making progress. They also worked on skip counting, counting money, and place value. This week, I also pulled several new board games from a book I purchased years ago, and bought a couple of dice to use in the games and to use as manipulatives for Goose (she loves them and spontaneously grabs  a couple of dice to roll and add up). These games have been a great way to get in a little addition and subtraction practice on particularly busy days--I'd never be able to get them to do worksheets right before bedtime, but offer to play a game with them and I suddenly have very excited mathematicians!

History
We finished reading the book about the New York Colony this week and started a book of profiles of famous people from the Revolutionary War. This week we read about Ethan Allan, Crispus Attucks, Lydia Darragh, Nathan Hale, and Mary "Molly Pitcher" Hays.

At some point this week, we decided to leap backwards in history to cover a timely topic: St. Patrick. The stores are starting to be covered in shamrocks and gold coins, but I wanted the girls to know the origin story of the holiday. We found a great picture book about St. Patrick from the library that told the historical story of Patrick's mission as well as the stories of his miracles.

YMCA!
We actually went to the Y four days this week. Twice the girls spent some time in child care, so I could exercise, and they are finally getting used it. They even made some friends this week. They had their last swimming lesson with their teacher this week. They all did very well, but are thrilled to be done. Then the next day they were back in the water with me. Even Goose arrived at the pool with an agenda of skills she wanted to practice! (swimming solo, front and back floats, back kicks and scoops with a kickboard, and jumping in to me then swimming to the wall) Monkey was reveling in her new-found ability to swim without assistance, and spent most of the time going back and forth doing exactly that. Bug finally met her goal of picking up a ring from the bottom (3 feet) without help! Then on Friday, I took the girls to the open gym for the gymnastics room. They start lessons next Tuesday, and I wanted to give them a chance to check out the space before going in for a real lesson. They had a blast and totally wore themselves out! They practiced flips and cartwheels, walked a balance beam, played with hula hoops, jumped on trampolines and springboards, and bounced around on all kinds of cushiony shapes--wedges, barrels, tunnels, blocks, cylinders, etc.

Music
We got to have choir this week! (Unfortunately, I misremembered the start time, and we showed up ridiculously late.) The girls had a great time anyway--singing familiar songs, starting to learn a new one for the Palm Sunday service, and playing with their friends afterwards. The girls' experience singing in church on Sunday was a less happy experience--at least for the big girls. Monkey is working on conquering her stage fright (she managed to stand up with all the other kids, not have a meltdown, and not hide her face, but she also didn't sing). Poor Bug was really excited about singing in church, but then she stepped in an icy puddle on the way in and soaked through her shoes and socks. In the process of trying to get them warm and dry, a friend unintentionally melted them (tip: don't put synthetic socks in the microwave). Bug ended up barefoot and extremely unhappy during the service; she still sang--just to her cold, little feet instead of the congregation.

Goose and Bug both got to have their regular instrument lessons this week too. I was very proud of Goose this week--she's finally acquired enough confidence to waltz right in and set herself up at the piano! Dr. J was very pleased with her progress; he checked off three songs as "mastered," added two new ones to practice, and taught her about rests.

Bug had a very productive violin lesson as well. Mr. D was able to help her sort out the best way for her to hold the violin and where exactly the shoulder rest ought to be (Bug spent a long time poring over Google Images "how to hold a violin," but she wanted some hands-on assistance). She acheived her goal: she played her fingering exercises well enough to learn "Twinkle"! She was disappointed to learn that it involves the same bowing rhythm that's she's been doing, but she agreed the complexity of the fingerings made it much more interesting. A brief emotional incident during her lesson led to a great conversation with her teacher about dealing with the frustrations of being a perfectionist, and about how that need to be perfect every time will benefit her in the long run, since it'll drive her to be a very good violinist. (Sometimes it's beneficial to hear those things from someone other than Mom and Dad.) She's also been "experimenting" as part of her daily practice times--seeing how long she can draw out a note, practicing playing all the strings (not just the two her songs are on), and going back and forth between strings without lifting her bow. She looked ahead in her book and saw that the next song involves a different rhythm, and she is determined to get there as quickly as possible.