Homeschool update: Life is looking up!!!! We met with our educational specialist mid-October and she helped us to see that we were doing WAY too much work! We switched to a new math curriculum and cut out some of the literature component. This is making life so so so much easier! We feel we can manage it all now. Don’t get me wrong… life is still pretty crazy busy, but at least we are not in a constant panic to get everything done! Evelyn has been having the time of her life this month preparing for “The Wizard of Oz.” The biggest thrill happened when we discovered she’d have a mic for the show! Very few kids besides the leads get to have microphones. So she was excited. So fun for Evelyn to travel up to LA this month and spend the day with Aunt Stacy who helped her pick out some fun make up and clothes after spending the morning at Universal Studios. Such a big disappointment to discover that the Haunted Horror houses were only open at night and cost extra $$. That was the whole reason she was so excited to go up to Universal! We’ll have to plan for that next year for sure. But we had a great time in LA and fun to be together for the long drive. We raced home the next day so Evelyn could be the face painter at Hannah Ashcraft’s birthday party! It was super fun for Evelyn to have this job and she was thrilled. This was in stark contrast to the Saturday before where she was required to attend both boys’ soccer games to help tend Anna while Mom and Dad were out of town! She was so upset that she was asked to give up a Saturday to be in the hot sun!! But she pulled through and Blake and I realized… maybe we don't give her enough “hard” things to do!
Dane continues to excel in school and soccer. He’s really been having a great year so far. In his spare time he enjoys practicing soccer, riding his scooter and bike, building legos, and putting together puzzles. Dane is in many ways like an adult helper to me. When it comes to physical labor or work— he can get the job done no matter what. Laundry needs to be moved on? He’ll figure it out and do it well. Dishes? Done. Beds striped? Done. He is so hard working!!! I almost have trouble not taking advantage of the poor kid. He continues to show so much responsibility with his school work and chores. He gets bugged when Grant is unkind. He and Evelyn are getting along splendidly and of course he is the apple of Anna’s eye. Last month she begged for a little boy baby at the store. It was quite cheap so I bought it. She immediately named the baby “dane”. Dane has many friends at school, yet he kind of shifts his eyes to the ground when they come up to say hi. He is still very shy but he does his best to work through it. Kids respect him because he is smart, kind and seriously good at sports. Ha! This is coming from him. When Grant opened up all of his lego sets for his birthday, Dane was only slightly jealous. But he overcame the jealously real quickly and asked Grant if he needed help building… which of course, he did. So Dane meticulously built up all of the sets with Grant. It was a heart warming afternoon or two. Was so grateful for Dane's help at the school carnival! He gave up walking around the booths to help me out at my station. Such a sweet kid:)
Grant had a blast this month on his birthday weekend with Grandma and Grandpa! He stayed the night and woke up to a Disney day! Grandma and Grandpa spoiled him with cotton candy, face painting, souvenirs, and the pick of any rides he wanted all throughout the day. It was such a fun time for the little guy. I was excited for him. This month Grant and I have been working like dogs on a program to help him read better called, “All About Reading”. I’ve been so proud of his desire to sit down for 20 minutes a day and read with me. He is re-learning all of the phonemes and basic words. He does worksheets and reads aloud. He doesn’t fight me on this and is very eager to work towards his goal of reading. He is patient with himself and I am so proud of the character he is showing in his efforts to do something hard. What a great kid Grant is. Often times I have to push myself to stop what I am doing and work on the reading program together. But it is always so rewarding because my heart swells with gratitude that I get to be Grant’s mom and help him with this goal. It was so funny last week on crazy hair day at school. Grant woke up and was absolutely LIVID with the fact that we had no colored hair spray to make his hair crazy. I was so used to Ev and Dane who simply have no interest in dressing up for Red Ribbon week and certainly never make their hair crazy! But my fun loving Grant wouldn't hear of it. I quickly called my friend and she met him in the parking lot at school and did his hair up real crazy. I'll know next time!
Anna has had a fun month. She’s gone overboard obsessing on lip stick. I think most likely because big sis has been putting on an overload of make up for the play. Anna always wants to watch her do this and then she runs off and finds lipstick somewhere to apply to her lips. She also is very keen on wearing Ev’s old tap shoes that have a slight heel. Oh boy! Why does she want to grow up so quickly?? I love to have Anna home and will have a serious problem next year when she’s full day. The mere thought of it scares the living daylights out of me! Anna loves coloring and reading with me. She puts jeweled stickers on pumpkins, draws darling pictures of the two of us holding hands. She plays quietly in her room or in the living room. Last week she said “mom! these are my friends and they’re trapped!” when I asked her not to dump out each of her toys from the ottoman as we were on our way out the door. She is hilarious. Anna is the most social child imaginable. If you are going somewhere— well then so is she. She loves to be at soccer, school, play practice, grocery store, birthday party, you name it. This month she had the best time ever at Hannah’s 3rd birthday party. She saw her friend Nora and went racing over as quickly as she could to give her the biggest hug and kiss ever. Those two love each other tremendously. Anna still has a weekly playdate with Lavender and now also a boy friend from preschool named Reef. When he comes over they play pretend animals and house where he is dad and she is mom. It’s adorable. This month Anna felt like such a big girl when she spent the night and day at Grandma’s house! She literally packed her suitcase ALL BY HERSELF without my help. I’m talking— she had the clothes, underwear, toothbrush and brush and hair band. Everything was perfect. Anna was in heaven swimming, going out to IHOP, pumpkin patch, watching movies in bed, seeing the new Stork movie, reading books and opening surprises. It was a fun time for our little Anna girl. She really is the spark in our family and brings us so much joy.
