Starting School For a Minute

My cute Del and I a few days before she turned 6.

I have been pregnant since Christmas. December 28th to be exact. Doesn't that seem like forever? I'm sorta getting to that point where I'd like to be done. I call it my "claustrophobic stage" because Cal is so big inside and pushing outward that anything on the outside trying to push inward (kids climbing all over me, noise, a mess that needs cleaning especially if it requires bending over, etc) makes me anxious. And everything else just makes me out of breath and my back ache. And I'm not physically able to do as much as I'm used to, which drives me completely crazy on another level. And it is so incredibly hot all the time. But, I made Aaron promise that we'll never get pregnant again in the summer. If we have anymore babies they need to be spring babies.

I'm 34 weeks though, so only 6 more weeks to go. (If I go all the way to my due date.) I start weekly doctor's appointments on Thursday. Cal is looking good...measuring well and all that. As far as cravings go, I'm pretty sure Cal is made almost entirely of salsa, chocolate, Pepsi, watermelon, crushed ice, and summer squash. Right now, I'm craving zucchini and squash like crazy, and it's awesome! Just about every day for lunch I dice up a zucchini or squash and a tomato from the garden. I saute them in butter and add salt and pepper to taste. It is delicious! And I can't get enough.

Which is actually sort of unfortunate because my yellow squash plant lost it's battle to the squash bugs. My zucchini plant is still alive, but it's struggling. I haven't gotten a zucchini off it in over a week. The only reason I've been able to keep up with my craving is because my awesome friend Wynter gave me a bag of squash and zucchini from her garden. The squash bugs also got my pumpkin plant, and my hubbard squash looks like it's not far behind. :( The beans, tomatoes, beets, and cantaloupe are doing well though.

School. I usually don't start until after Labor Day. We usually spend the end of August beginning of September rejoicing that all the public school kids are back in school by visiting all our favorite places that have been too crowded to visit all summer. We usually have a big, fun, NOT-back-to-school-party. I usually spend a lot of time planning and thinking about curriculum and figuring out what I want to do. There's usually some sort of plan. Not this year. I just started with really nothing in mind, except that I want to get a couple solid weeks in before Cal gets here so we can take a few weeks off in September with no guilt.

We started our The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe writing unit. I had Lincoln and Ivan start reading the book last month. Lincoln finished and Ivan is about 2/3rds of the way through it. This week I got on the ball and finally ordered the writing curriculum portion and downloaded it and printed it off. We did the first copy work assignment, and learned all about prepositions. We talked about how prepositions tell us what something's relationship in space is to something else. I had Lincoln and Ivan each grab a stuffed animal and a stool, then I called out a preposition and the boys had to demonstrate it using the stuffed animal and the stool. Example: The stuffed animals are under the stool. Then we read through our copy work passage and underlined all the prepositions we could find there. Lastly, we folded a piece of paper so there were 16 squares on it and the boys drew a different preposition in each box.

We've also done a combination Nature Journal writing assignment about humming birds. I figured since we've enjoyed watching them out the window so much, that they would make a good theme for our writing.  I tried something a little bit different this time. Instead of giving the kids all the same assignment, I gave them a prompt based on what I thought they'd best like to do with their writing. I gave Linc the prompt, "If I were a humming bird...", I asked Ivan to write a poem about humming birds, and Adelia made up a story about humming birds. I was surprised and pleased that no one gave me any grief about the project. So maybe I'll have to try that approach more often. 

Adelia tells me what she wants to write, I write it for her, and then she traces it. This is part of the "Jot It Down" phase in the Bravewriter curriculum that I use. 

I decided to combine Ivan and Adelia and teach them both Level 1 All About Spelling. It's actually been a lot of fun having two students at the same time. It's easier to turn things into more of a game to make it more fun. I also use the tiles and the flashcards less, and do a lot more orally. They seem to like it so far, and although they have different strengths and weaknesses, they seem to be on equal ground. (I was worried Ivan would be way further ahead, but Adelia has surprised me with the spelling rules she already knows, and how quickly she picks up and remembers what she doesn't know.)

Ollie says his job is to play. :) And I couldn't agree more. He likes to sit in the same room with us, but do his own thing. One of my favorite things for toddlers is this set of Imaginets. They are similar to pattern blocks, but different enough that Ollie doesn't feel like they are the same thing.

And Ruby, well...let's just say we get more done when she's asleep. She has been basically a tornado baby for the last little while. I know it's because we haven't been going out as much as she'd like to. She's just busy, she's gotta have things to do, and if those things are to dump all the contents out of every drawer and cupboard and closet in the house and spread them from top to bottom of the house, she does it. She's happy about it, but she makes a giant mess wherever she goes, and it's all at her level, which makes clean up extra hard. She works hard, plays hard, and occasionally crashes hard. Especially when she stays up half the night jumping up and down in her crib and singing to herself. This is a rare sight, so I had to take a picture for proof that it actually happened. And it was glorious while it lasted. :) Look how big she's getting.

On Sunday we invited both sets of grandparents over for dinner to celebrate Adelia's and Lincoln's birthdays. We had pizza and salad and salsa, then played Pictionary, and ended the night with root beer floats. It was a blast. Both kids enjoyed getting presents. Adelia was in heaven with her new tea set and mermaid tail blanket. And Linc seemed happy about his gifts too, but I didn't take any pictures of him for some reason.

I wish I could say we've made excellent progress on the bunk beds, but...ya. We have good intentions of working on them, but other things keep popping up. Aaron's dad is letting Aaron borrow his drill press though, and that is making a huge difference. It is so much easier to build things when you have the right tools. We just need to dedicate some time to finishing them and get down to business. We're about half way done.

Other than that we've pretty much just been hanging out and watching the Olympics. :)