Bits and Pieces

Last night Ari started using a new math site called Dreambox. Right away it became obvious that she likes it and that she knows far more math than I thought. We are doing the 14 day trial, but if she continues to love it and use it (it was the first thing she wanted to do this morning) we will purchase a 9 month subscription for her.

I prod her a little to do her phonics game every day. Mostly because the lessons build on one another and I have called and had it reset 4 separate times.

She has been interested in human anatomy (I will say it that way only to avoid being linked in illicit online searches) and we have checked out several books for the younger set on where babies come from and how they get in there in the first place. When we have given them a good looking over I will post our favorites.

We checked out this great picture book from the county library called Jennifer's Rabbit by Tom Paxton. The illustrations are beautiful and it reads like a lullaby. Funny enough we discovered that it is a lullaby. (There is no video on the YouTube)

We are meeting cousins at the beach at Daybreak tomorrow. Looking forward to actually being there when it is closer to empty-last time it was so busy. For now, good night and may all your dreams be beautiful!

Not so much

Well, it is a home day. I wish it were just so because we want to hang out. Unfortunately, it is because Freeway is hurt and really needs some extra attention. The vet told us that once they injure their backs, they basically always have an injury. The girls and I thought it would be a great idea to take him for a walk last night but all in all I feel like we did more harm than good. So, it will be movies, books, board games, and dog pain medicine for us today.

Just the usual

We spent most of yesterday at our local botanical garden. We fed fish, played tag, pretended we were folk from long ago, and had a grand time. Ari of course made a friend, a regular occurrence theses days. I was delighted to see that they are moving the natural history museum next to the garden and the building is going to be so cool. Today's planned adventures include the library, the pet store, and the newly opened for the season Halloween store. We love Halloween! Have a great day.

Arrrrrr

We are beginning preparations for Talk Like A Pirate Day which is September 19th. Here are some fun links for you to peruse:

Pirate Vocabulary
Pirate Puppet
Assorted Pirate Crafts
Pirate History and Books

Hope all you hearties have a jolly good time raising your Jolly Roger's!

We're here somewhere...

Things here are good. Ari is learning to read and at the same time teaching Mina. Sweet!! Both of the girls are getting more and more curious every day. Having a rough routine has really kept me from going to crazy town. Running has been keeping me from getting too grumpy, or too angry, or too anything else. Hyperactive people need an outlet you know. I made a firm decision to uninvest from things that really do not improve my life, first thing to go you ask? Politics. Might be more later but for now, I have to go. :)

To infinity and beyond

Last week we were driving to the swimming pool with cousins in the car. Big cousin, Spencer, asked, "Aunt Mel if you could have any super power what would it be." I thought about it for awhile. I knew I would not want a super power that would hurt anyone. I finally said, "I would want to know if people were telling the truth or not." Ari chimed in, "I would want to heal people. You know help them, make them better, feed them. " Now why didn't I think of that.

It won't be long

As a parent I am constantly seeing signs that our kids are growing up. As a homeschool mama I spend more than enough time worrying about them learning enough. Last night, Ari and I were driving in the car. All of a sudden Ari said, "Look mom, the magic soup store." I looked up to see the sign for Rite-Aid. The sign said, "Rite-Aid Pharamacy" and then next to it was a picture of a mortar and pestle with stars in the mortar. Of course, when you are six it looks like a big magic soup bowl filled with stars and with a spoon at the ready. That is when it occured to me. Someday, not to far from now, she is going to look at that same sign and sound out the words and that little bit of magic will be gone forever.