reading and writing...

I decided last night that our summer days need a bit more structure or at least more good choice options.


We went to the library this morning - for summer reading, I'm not particular about reading level as long as the material is appropriate. I am really excited that Tate chose Tom Sawyer, though.


Then we had a quick stop at a school supply / book store for handwriting books. The boys will be working on cursive while Rosie will begin cursive. Daisy will continue to work on her printing.


Surprisingly, they were all excited about the handwriting books and have each already completed a few pages. At this moment, Rosie and Daisy are on the back deck with a friend, sharing a blanket and reading.

water

Our local water park has been ridiculously crowded so the kids decided to improvise with the slip n slide.

another double digit boy

Tate celebrated his 10th birthday last week.





notice his sleepy head brother...

soccer

Soccer is a big sport for us. The kids play it three seasons of the year. Well, except now Rosie won't be playing because she will have dance classes four days a week beginning in September.

If you look closely at Lake (in the red) you can see his tongue is sticking out. He is all business!



Tate can play just about any position, and boy, does he take it seriously!


Daisy loves it, too. She understands the game and how it all fits together. Thankfully she has another year before she will have to make a choice between soccer and dance.


Rosie in purple.

Dog and cat

As of February we have a new member in our family! Ironically her name is Daisy. For real. So I will refer to her as the cat until I find her a suitable blog name. Oh, speaking of blog names, Rosie informed me that she doesn't like hers. Actually she hates it and I'm probably ruining her life. Gotta love the drama of a 7 year old girl. Thankfully she likes her real name.

recital 2010

I wasn't able to get a picture that I could post of Daisy on stage.



Rosie had six dances in the recital. My how she has grown in the last 5 years since she began dance classes. This is her ballet.

fishing

Not her favorite thing to do:


One of her favorite things to do:




Always up for a day of fishing:

viola concert

The boys started playing the viola this year. This was an outdoor concert in May.

Field Trip

We took a road trip/field trip to Noccalula Falls a few months ago. I went as a child but since then they have added a petting farm, a train, and a rock garden. We only had about an hour to spend as it was nearly closing time. We plan to go back and hike to the bottom of the falls.

Easter

It's only been six and a half months...

and I'm not making any promises to do better. In my mind, I would like to post at least once a week. In reality, well, we'll just see what happens. I started this blog to bridge the miles between my extended family and friends so that they would be involved in(or at the least, aware of)our happenings. It's kind of complicated for them if I don't make an effort...

To summarize the last six months:

We completed our first year of school at home. I consider it a success. Daisy is reading (and loving it!) and has a good basic knowledge of math. Her favorite school work is math worksheets. Some days she would do 8-10 pages of addition and subtraction.

Rosie was the first to finish all of her book work for the year. Her favorite subject seems to be English. She is off and on with reading - if she loves the book, she won't put it down. If she's not interested in it, it's like pulling teeth. For the summer, they are allowed to read any level of book of their choosing as long as the content is appropriate.

Tate is just a sponge. He absorbs just about anything he reads or hears. Literally. If I am reading aloud to them and we are interrupted for a few minutes (it happens often!) and I lose my place on the page, he will tell me the last few sentences I read before the interruption VERBATIM. Amazes me every time. I don't know what he would say was his favorite subject but I would say it was history.

Lake had a great year. He was the one I was most concerned about. He was doing really well in school and I didn't want to mess it up. We laughed a lot this year. I've been able to rediscover how funny he is (well, all of them for that matter) because of the communication being so open. I think he liked math the most but I feel like he learned the most in English. He can diagram a sentence now! We won't discuss the fact that he is now in middle school.

Over all, we had a good year. I plan on doing this again for the next school year. I'm taking it a year at a time. Otherwise it's overwhelming.