Weekly Update April 4-11, 2010

Sunday, was Madison's 8th birthday. Yes, it was also Easter this year. Since she had her bday sleepover last week, we had a family dinner on Sunday. Madison decided to embrace the Easter theme. We had ham for dinner and a Easter egg hunt! She's such a sweet girl!

waiting to open the gifts!

This week was Spring Break for most of the kids in the area. Not us. We had a whole month of beach vacation from mid-August to mid-September. We really needed to continue our lessons, so we did. We are planning a trip the end of May, so don't feel sorry for us:)

Madison finished up her Singapore 2A and will move into 2B on Monday. She's about half way through LLATL 2. She'd doing great and reading well. She also had 2 cheer practices, a tumble class and a horse riding lesson this week. Next weekend, she has her first individual cheer competition!!!

Grady is almost done with his autobiography on the Wright Brothers. He has one chapter left!! That's amazing for him. He's dyslexic and has made huge strides this year. He is reading on grade level!! We are so excited :) I started looking for his next reading book and soon found out that it is not in print anymore and it was only printed in a small printing. This book is hard to find and about $20 for a soft copy! CRAZY! He is progressing well in math. Decimals are easy for him. He'll be done with Singapore 4B in a flash!

This week, both Grady and Madison started Sequential Spelling. We are all loving it. They are exicited to learn how to spell big words! Next week, we will begin our Egypt studies and finish it up with a trip to a local museum with Egyptian artifacts.

Andrew's doing great in his Singapore KB math book. He's adding problems like 2+5, etc. Not bad for a child who would be in pre-k this year, if in public school. He's also reading simple books,
like those on starfall.com. It's amazing! So far, he's been the easiest to teach. He just seems to get it. I'm sure that's because he has 2 older siblings whom he has grown up watching learn.

I have been busy with yard work, planning our vacation to the Outer Banks, cleaning, sewing, cooking, you know, the usual :) Daddy was gone most of the week, flying. We had a good week and a beautiful Saturday with most of it spent outside in our backyard as a family:)

Update

I haven't posted in a while because I have been busy.

Grady was sick all last week. He had some virus that caused the lymph nodes in his neck to swell pretty badly. He didn't get to swim at all last week. He also didn't do too much school as he couldn't talk. He's much better this week:)

Madison had her birthday sleepover last Friday. She turns 8 on Sunday, Easter Sunday. I thought that sharing her bday with Easter would be a downer, but she has risen to the occasion. We are having a traditional Easter dinner with family and egg hunt, per her request :) She really is the sweetest girl ever!

Madison and Jason went to their first Father/Daughter Dance with the Brownies last weekend. Jason has always had to work, but this year they were able to go. They had fun and finished the evening with dinner at a Sushi restaurant.

As far as school goes, we finished up our Life Science book today! Grady and Madison decided to study Chemistry next year. I'll order this soon as the curriculum is 25% off in April. Madison is nearing the end of her math book. She's working on division right now. Grady is almost done reading his book about the Wright Brothers. He's working on decimals right now in Math and finding them very easy, too easy. I would like to skip it, but he needs to go over to make sure he can handle it later in life.

Next week, we will start a spelling curriculum and a study on ancient Egypt that we will conclude with a trip to the Carlos Museum.

Andrew is doing great. He's flying through his math book and is learning short vowel sounds. He has only one more to learn on Monday.

Both Madison and Andrew painted the clay pieces they made in clay class on Wed. they got to bring them home! We are now the proud owners of 2 clay bird feeders, 2 clay frogs, 2 clay maracas and various other pieces:) I will try to take a pic for you all soon. They are too cute.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all for now.