Setting up our Schoolroom

Matthew wanted to be in a picture

VERY PROUD!

Area almost completed

Schedule cards

Showing off her new area!

Organizing subjects and putting symbols on them

Shelby helped me set up our schoolroom today. We rearranged items and made it more organized. We have all of the stuff we will use daily in our main school area and then the books, supplies and games that we will use at some point but not right now on our regular toy/book shelves.

As we study a subject I will move those needed items over to our daily area. This way we won't be overwhelmed.

We also made a weekly schedule that I have clipped to the dry erase board. We made cards that we can move around for each day of the week.

Shelby also put symbols on each subject with the same symbol on that subjects books/folders and bins. For instance Math is a dollar sign ($) so her Math card, folder, books and bin with manipulative's all have $ stickers on them.

Shelby made a bulletin board as well. We will put a monthly calendar to write park days and field trips on, a behavior/chore chart and then use the rest for weekly "themes". We have an area to hang up art work above the chest of drawers too!

We still are planning to put symbol stickers on the outside of each drawer so that Shelby knows what subject is in it without having to open each one up.

We also have a supply bin for each child on the dresser with glue, scissors, crayons, markers, map pencils etc. We have a big bin of art supplies and projects for Art days that I have up on our main shelf. The only thing for now in the Art drawer are Learning to draw books, Art history books and paper. I will get the paints, chalks etc out as we are using them. I can just see a HUGE mess if I leave it at Matthew's level.

We have a shelf with our toys of instruments as well. We have a keyboard, maraca's, triangle, guitar, and a few others I can't recall.

Shelby can't wait to start Kindergarten next week officially.

Mama STILL wants a few more books though and may hit some book stores when Mike gets paid Friday. I would like "The Story of the World 1 Activity Guide", a "Peter and the Wolf" book with CD and maybe "Sing Song Latin" for car rides.

Ice Pops = happiness

The kids LOVE these things. Mike bought a box of 100 for when they are outside playing. This past week we had several playdates and had to have ice pops when we got home. For some reason an Ice Pop solves all problems.

I kept forgetting my camera when we were out with friends but above are some photo's from the weekend of them playing in the back yard. Formal school is on hold until next week due to too many activities.

Girl time photo's

Abigail got her hair done at Nana's (after)

She pulled the rollers out

With her Rollers!

Papa and Abigail. Abigail has her Papa wrapped around her finger

Shelby in her Great Great Grandma's hat, gown and gloves. In front of her hutch and China.

More Dress up Fun

One of the last photo's of Nanny Ricketts. There is a 100 year difference and five generations between Abigail and her.

Trying to plan out our Fall Classes

It is that time to sign up for any classes we want to take in the fall.

So far Matthew and Abigail will be going to Mothers Day Out with me on Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00- 2:00

Shelby will be attending Grace Harbor Learning on Wed's from 8:45 until 2:30. She will study art, music, PE, spanish and public speaking.

www.graceharborlearning.com/curriculum.html

Matthew will have Speech on Wed's at some point. We still are working out a new time and therapist.

I am thinking of adding Theater for Shelby on Tuesdays from 4:00 to 5:30. It is a Bound For Broadway class so she will learn about musicals! Maybe a combo Dance class on Mondays from 2:00 to 3:00 (or not).

I am trying to decide if it would be too much happening in one day for Matthew to also take a Theater class on Tuesdays from 3:00 -4:00 (Imagine It!) I am afraid he will be too tired out if we try to do it.

The school for this is www.artsavenueforkids.com

We also have talked about taking a "Paint me a story" class one day a month at the Ceramic Lodge. I need to see their Fall Schedule to see if we can fit it in or not.

www.ceramiclodge.com

IF I do all of the above I would need to make sure we get all our school work done in the mornings on Monday and Friday and then leave folders of work out for Shelby on Tues and Thurs while I am at Mothers Day Out. I just want to make sure to NOT overschedule but still let them be involved in lots of different activities.

Still trying to decide ...

Matthew and Miss Katherine

Matthew has been doing so good in Speech this Summer and Occupational Therapy. He has tried lots of new foods and Mrs Katherine is doing Great with him.

This past week we got bad news. Mrs Katherine is leaving because of lack of insurance offered by Seton to their therapist (GRUMBLE). She has found another job that is offering insurance.

Matthew has one more week with Mrs Katherine and then we will have to find another therapist to work with him. We will miss Mrs Katherine.

Puppies are not beanie babies ... pet class 101

SO ... this week Shelby decided for some odd reason to toss Socks up into the air like a stuffed animal and let him fall on the grass. This was while she was outside taking him potty. We already had the talk that day about how puppies were like babies and could not go down the slide.

We see Socks come in limping but not crying. The next morning we took him to the vet for vaccines and had his leg x-rayed. Apparently he just pulled a muscle and did not fracture anything. Shelby had to explain to the vet what happened and got to watch the exam etc.

Socks had a good check up otherwise and we have his next appt next month. Shelby can't wait to go visit the Vet again for his checkup.

Shelby has helped me give medicine each night to Socks and I am happy to report that Socks is now using all legs again and running all over. So scare is over.

Hopefully that is our one and only emergency vet visit.

You are what you eat .... and how you smell

Since the kids have been born I have always introduced them to every type of food. Even the one's Mike and I do not like. This has produced Shelby who eats pretty much every fruit, veggie and bean there is. Matthew who likes the taste but because of texture issues only drinks his veggies and then eats most fruits (no beans yet). He is still working though. Abigail who only does not like peaches (so far).

Food here usually ends up with me making different things for everybody since Matthew has texture issues and Mike and I don't like lots of the foods Abigail and Shelby love.

Today for lunch though we had the following

Shelby and Abigail- turkey slices, string cheese, cucumbers and cantaloupe with water to drink
Matthew and I- peanut butter and jelly on wheat and fresh pineapple. Matthew drank his "Green Machine" by Neked (this stuff is a life saver).

The conversation I heard while we were eating was that Shelby was a cucumber and Matthew was a pineapple. They thought this was much cooler than being anything else since it makes them healthy. They then told me how strong they were and asked me how much they grew today.

They Shelby started talking about how the smell of the fruit came in her nose and then to her brain. Her brain then tells her what it smells like. She sat and talked to Matthew about this for about 15 minutes. They smelled his juice, his peanut butter jelly, his pineapple etc. Apparently the brain is like a robot and "computes" the smell info for the body! It amazes me how children learn things over the simplest thing. Where she got this ... I have no clue. I took advantage though and got out our pull tab body book after lunch and talked some more about their sense of smell and brain.

Spelling list this week

Since I have a following on our spelling work (hey Laurie) here is this weeks words.
We are working on the Short "e" sounds this week and next.

get
wet
pet
net
let
set
bed
fed
red
hen
men
pen

We are finding more and more of our spelling words each week in books!
Shelby was actually able to spell most of these words the first day on her own. Matthew even has been getting in on the spelling fun

Abigails first Six Flags Trip

Now that she can walk we took her with us. She enjoyed the wave pool and rides. Mommy and Daddy did NOT enjoy having to stuff themself in very small rides. It was over 100 degrees and the park was pretty empty so we got to walk on any ride. We had

plenty of water and SPF 70 sunscreen to make the day not too bad. The water park definitly helped. At least our Season Tickets are being used. Next time we will leave Abigail with Nana so that we can do more family water rides.

This trip we met Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Batman.

Summer time

Wrestling with each other!

Well my plan to school in the summer has not worked out too well. We get distracted by other things. At least we are still reading daily and have projects. Shelby is cooking with me each night and learning about measuring ingredients.

In the past few weeks we have been to Six Flags, Shelby has had a few play dates with friends, we also got a new puppy. This puppy is a great learning experience for all the kids.

Shelby is learning how to care and train a puppy. She helps by taking him out several times a day. She is learning to only feed once in the morning and once in the evening. Plus water after every outing. We are crate training so every time we take him out he goes immediately outside to go potty. Then he gets to play inside the house for a little while before going back into his crate. The times allowed out are getting longer and longer until there are no more accidents. So far no poo accidents in the house (just one in the crate when we were asleep and did not hear him cry). He does still get excited to see us and will pee a little from excitement. Plus there have been a few accidents where Shelby let him out and then got distracted by something and did not take him straight outside.

We have worked it out where she has the day shift for potty duty and I have the night shift. Matthew so far likes the puppy but only will touch him if he is sitting still. Matthew has a fear of animals and wanted this puppy so we let him get it after seeing him not freak out. We are still wondering if it was a good idea or not. He runs away anytime the puppy is out and that in turn gets the puppy exited and running after Matthew. We are still trying to teach Matthew to be calm.

Abigail ... LOVES the puppy. Her and the puppy play together so well. I have to keep both of them from pulling on hair, biting etc. The puppy has started to chew on our hands in play. We are teaching him that it is not acceptable to "mouth" people by holding his mouth, telling him no and then giving our hand for him to lick. Abigail however likes the nibbles and is not helping us in the training process. The two of them wrestle and just really love playing together.

I added some more pictures of the past few weeks in our slide show!