Lighthearted Living: End of Winter Update

It is a sad state of affairs when I realize I haven't updated since September...I've certainly had plenty of things going on to share about! Our family has changed a bit since September.

I have found that many areas of my life have fallen to neglect. Homeschooling is a full-time job and when I'm not completely absorbed in that, being a mommy and housekeeper fills in the rest of the hours! I rarely have time for all the things that I want to do!

Sean is growing and developing (at his own pace). We've had some concern with him as he seemed to lack strength in his torso. We had him evaluated and he was a bit behind the curve, however I was able to work with him and he figured sitting up out. I suspect he's still a little behind, though, as he's really not that interested in crawling, standing, or anything other than playing and eating! I try not to be too worried about it because he does try to crawl, so I do think it is something he will eventually do. It is his lack of motivation that is more concerning. He's more than happy to sit back and watch the activity of the world around him. I guess I can't blame him for not bothering to crawl around--everything gets brought to him! He has a great sense of humor, though, and we enjoy him a lot! I think he is his sisters favorite toy!

Elaina just turned 3. She's growing into her vibrant personality. She has recently discovered how to use the word "me" and instead of referring to herself in the third person ie. "Pooka do it" (Pooka is her nickname) she now says "me do it". She is the sassiest and the sweetest all mixed into one little girl. She loves to do school with her sisters and doesn't like to be left out of anything! She has developed quite the affinity for singing...just put a princess doll in her hand and she starts right up. So funny!

Grace is gearing up for kindergarten. She'll be 5 in a few days. I don't think she'll enjoy having "structured school" as she thoroughly enjoys playtime. I'm hoping that by the time we start something more formal with her in August she'll be ready. I think she would like to know how to read without doing the work to learn! She has started "pretending" to read now. She moves her head from side to side as though she's thoroughly absorbed...if it is a picture book she'll make up the story. She is ever the princess. She isn't interested in anything if it isn't at least distantly related to being a princess, or at the very least, a girl in a dress.

Hannah just turned 7. She seems to be thriving in the homeschool environment. We've discussed public school (I like to touch base with her now and again to make sure that she's content with where we are) and she doesn't have any interest in going back. I'm not sure we'd allow her to now even if she did decide she wanted to as we're invested in at least trying it for a few years. She's reading really well now and seems to be progressing well in math (that's daddy's subject). We're delving into American history a bit deeper as the year goes on and she's very excited. Her favorite thing, though, is "projects". If I don't provide a project that is up to her standards she will come up with one on her own! She's very creative and thrives on making crafty things.

We are 2/3 through our school year. We'll be finishing up our first grade reading/math curriculum by the end of April. The rest of our curriculum will take until mid-May to finish up. Throughout the years I space (every 6-7 weeks) a "light" week where we only do math and reading, which is why we are a bit ahead for those subjects. Hardly a bad thing. We've opted to toss our current curriculum for math and reading and try something else. We're going to do something a bit more laid back over the summer months and then gear back up to start sometime in August. Most days we really enjoy it and even on the hard days I prefer it over sending Hannah to school.