Homeschooling

All the kids got new math books today. Everyone is so excited! Blaine is by far the most excited. He has been looking for his giraffe book for weeks now. In fact when I showed him on the computer that there was another math book after his, he sat down and finished 10 lessons! He's quite an over-achiever, praise the Lord! He insists on reading an entire reader in one sitting (the ones that are meant to be read in about 1 week or more). He is so different from his sisters. Whew. I just hope it stays that way. This week he learned how to read words with long vowel sounds. Sniff. Sniff.

About a month ago I officially started the kids on their first spelling program. Elizabeth's spelling was so atrocious, I knew it was past time. Someone gave me the $75 curriculum I had wanted to purchase but didn't have the money for. Isn't God good? I've had it for almost 10 months (ugh), but there are about 150 pages (no kidding) to read before you start. Is there any wonder now why I waited so long? Finally, I just asked my friend to summarize for me. So far, Elizabeth has cried every day. {That's been fun.} So, Micah and I decided to change her method. This really cool program only requires the students to study the words they DON'T know, rather than an entire list that they may or may not know. So, now she gets to study the entire list. She started complaining today, and you know for the first time it really didn't bother me. I just told her it didn't affect me because she cried the other way, too, and this was the way we were going to do it from now on. It was so freeing to have this talk with micah last night and to realize it was okay to do things differently. I suppose she feels embarrassed if she misses a word and feels she hasn't had a chance to ever know it. Well, now she has a chance.

I have this pre-conceived idea of how I want our school to run, but I am learning I must let go of that. She in particular is really good at helping me to do just that. Nothing ever comes out the way I planned it to! Did that sound like a screaming fit???

Rebecca has been asked to take gymnastics twice a week and thus start competing. Last week she learned how to get on the bar the way the gymnasts do at the Olympics. I was so proud of her!

Elizabeth helped her friend choreograph a dance that will be performed at a nursing home by all the older co-op girls. I can't wait to see it! She is also taking a hip-hop class, and I just love her teacher! She is this cute little thing. She teaches 5th grade at an elementary school and bursts through the doors on Friday evening full of energy. She's African-American and really good at motivating the girls. Elizabeth loves it and is quite good at it, too.

And then I have to brag on Blaine one more time. Our boy threw the pass that got the winning touchdown for his flag football team! We were beaming with joy!