My Feelings About Bedtime Summed Up in 2:36 Minutes

Here is the link to the actual book. Not that I would read it to her as tempting as that might be. But I would like it for my own mental being;) It sounds better with Samuel L. Jackson reading it though.

Look Out Von Trapp Family Singers.....Here We Come

I am typing one handed with a spit bubble blowing baby bouncing in the other hand. The spit river is now flowing steadily down my arm and it's a good thing my watch has a metal band. Yay to the gross aspects of motherhood.
Roo had a funny light bulb moment tonight while we were reading a story before bed. We were reading Harry Potter and the story mentioned a stag, and this is how the conversation went.

Roo: What is a stag?
Me: A stag is a deer, a male deer to be exact.
Roo: What is a female deer called?
Me: A doe.
Roo: Oh, like doe a deer?
Me: .....A female deer.
(3 seconds of a deep concentration face and then her eyes slowly opened wider and wider)
Roo: Ohhhhhhhhh...........that song makes sense now.

Note: The Sound of Music is my favourite movie for some reason and the stage musical is awesome too.

We finished D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths this week and have moved on to The Orchard Book of Roman Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean.

On to what we finished this week:  

Memory Work -  I didn't add anything this week from the Living Memory book but I have some ideas. We just worked on the lists and poems from the box and had to put some back into the daily rotation that she had completely blanked on.

Spelling (All About Spelling) - Level 1 of AAS is complete and she got her certificate today. Next week we start on level 2.

She has this thing with smiling nicely until I hit the button and then she gives me a stretched out turtle neck. It's like she thinks the more intense and bigger she smiles, the better.

First Language Lessons - Lessons 94-96, commands, questions and exclamation sentences.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 31 of copy work and narration exercises from the the poems The Sandpiper and The Nightingale and the Glow Worm.

Latin (Song School Latin) - SSL is complete. We are going to go back over the book through the summer and use my flashcards as review.

French (Nallenart) - Unit 10.2 fruit and vegetables.

Math - Two pages a day of Math Mammoth 1A subtraction and addition review. I also brought back out Singapore 1A and we are working on that daily as well in small increments.

History (Story of the World) - We finished chapter 31 India Empire United and The Jakata Tales. 

Science (Elemental) - From our body study this week we studied the urinary system and a overview of reproduction and the stages of a baby growing. 

Geography - We started this week to look at Europe. She is beginning by learning the Nordic countries and western Europe via Sheppard Software. I ordered the book The Core from the library because I am interested in the Geography section that I have heard so much about. 

Composer Study - We watched part 1 of a YouTube video on Antonio Vivaldi and listened to some of his works while she coloured.

And now a little sisterly love

Actually it's because Roo likes Merle to lay on her chest and squish her nose for some reason. She makes me put her there every night to squish her face before she goes to sleep. Kids are strange.

Weekly Report - First Week Back

So this was our first week back from Christmas break and our first week back with the new baby joining in. This picture may show how it went.

Me sitting with the baby in my arms while Roo dances around in her pj's, wearing her wolf hat totally not paying attention while taking pictures using the cameras timer. That was a mouthful, but she is having jealousy/adjustment issues. These come out full force at bedtime. She loves her sister and is super sweet to her, but she has become a nightmare to deal with at bedtime. We are at a loss on how to deal with her.

These pictures are like polar opposites of one another.

Now, on to our week:

Memory Work - was mostly review and working on some of the tougher to memorize things, we  didn't add anything new this week.

Phonics (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading) - We went back to lesson 200 and are reviewing those and moving forward.

First Language Lessons - Still working on the different nouns and how addresses work.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 13

Latin (Song School Latin)  - We finished the chapter review

French - We began to learn the different rooms in the house and how to use them in a sentence.

Math (Singapore Math) - We continued to work on subtraction and fact memorization. Today we did a few page from Evan Moors Skills Sharpening book and played a few games of Sum Swamp. I like being able to trick her into math in the guise of a fun game. Also, the online game she likes to play called Jumpstart, added a new math world which she played for an hour this morning.










History (Story of the World - Ancients) -  We learned about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt with Egypt invading Nubia and the Hyksos invading Egypt.

Science (Elemental Science) - We are still studying birds, this week was Swans, Swallows and Hummingbirds.

Art - We did a picture study of a portrait of Henry VIII and then Roo made a water colour portrait of Merle and I.

The weather has been cold (not super cold like it should be though) and I haven't fully recovered from my c-section, so this week was a pajama week for us.
We are a hat family, we all like to wear them and we all look good in them. So I like to stick my kids in hats for some reason. This is our newest hat on our newest addition. It reminds me of the Swedish Chef and I like it;) I love this age when they will let you put anything on them.

Bedtime = A Book on the Head? - WW

WW - Sleep Reading

Procrastination Bubble

So today I broke out of my procrastination bubble and realized I have one week left. One week and we are back to school full time and grade 1 to boot. I have a list that is 50 pages long (I exaggerate frequently to make a point) of things that I need to do.  Today I organized my binders, minus the tabbed dividers I haven't bought yet. Tomorrow I will laminate and colour the rest of my french flash cards, and maybe pull out the pages of my Elemental Science work book and place them in a binder for easier access. Memory box is done, except for needing a few more things to memorize. I am sure I will come across ideas as we progress through the next few weeks though. I have a feeling I am forgetting something important, so don't be surprised if you can here me screeching all the to wherever you live once it pops into my head. Since I am sure I will remember at 2:00 the morning of our first day so I won't have any time to get what is missing.

I'm excited to start though, she's excited although she is in for a shock when she realizes Gr. 1 isn't quite like K. I've got to find some way to get this kid to fall asleep earlier or else I am going to have a uber cranky kid to deal with every morning. It's currently 10:12 pm and I can still here her chanting something from bed. Oh yes, to top it all off we are going through another heat wave and it is totally making me not a pleasant person to be around. Then I take a deep breath and say, I can handle this because someday I will live here.

New Sleeping Arrangements

    My daughter hates to go to bed. Period. Night time rituals have always been stressful and tiring for us. Every aspect of it, from brushing her teeth to deciding what stories to read have got to be drawn out and dramatic for some reason. I blame her father for the drama gene she so obviously inherited. Teeth brushing includes tears, clenched jaws and occasionally the same moves we have to make to get eye drops in her eyes. After all that she is in bed, story read and she seems ready to sleep. Nope, she then begins the singing and the talking, or the chanting of mama for sometimes up to two hours. It's really hard to ignore in a small apartment, believe me I try.
    So hubby the other night thought is was a great suggestion for her to sleep in her tent on the bed. He thought that if she was sleeping in something neat and different she would happily climb in a fall asleep. I'll give him credit on the fact that she got sucked into the idea and went to bed easily that night, although she still didn't fall asleep quickly. The problem is, that the tent has to be set up on our bed. For some reason she won't fall asleep in her own bed. She gets hysterical if you try, something about that room scares her. She rarely plays in there either, she'll drag her toys down the hall instead of sitting in her room. So now the nightly ritual doesn't just include the bedtime fight. Now she has to be taken out of the tent when she falls asleep, then we have to move and collapse the tent so we can go to bed. There has to be an easier way.