Week In Review

Here are a couple pictures of Sophia and Allison painting one morning. It was funny because for some reason I decided when I set them up to paint to tell them not to mix the colors. So I gave them three colors and three paint brushes and explained to them that there was one paint brush for each color and that the colors were not to be mixed. Where was reality in that moment to remind me that I was telling a three year old to not mix the paint colors??? Yeah, hello Shelly, are you really thinking this is going to work? Of course, I no sooner sat down at my computer and Sophia was furious because Allison was mixing the colors. Duh mom. So I ended up eventually giving Sophia her own palette of paints because she was so mad at Alli for messing them all up! Nothing like passing on my perfectionism! In the end, I was given more beautiful paintings by my little sweeties! Is there really any better artwork than that?

So, we really did have a very pleasant week in our homeschool. We managed all their music lessons, speech practices, and daily work. I even got to attend a local homeschool meeting. I love to attend these meetings and hear what others are doing. I am glad I am settled enough in our homeschool to be confident that what I am doing is the right fit for our family. In the early years it was easy to listen to others and think I was never doing enough. Now I have learned to be content where we are and when I hear a great idea that I think we can actually implement, I write it down. Sometimes we actually even try it! At this meeting one mom was sharing about the journaling that her kids do. By the way, I happen to just love this particular homeschool mom! :) She has always been an inspiration to me. But anyway, I picked up a composition notebook for Emily and Grace so they can start doing some journaling. We did start out the year with some journaling on their computers, but we haven't done that in a while. But that was more for a creative writing purpose. This time I want to do more of a spelling and grammar approach. I know Em and Grace need more work in these areas and hopefully journaling will be a fun way for them to do this. I also picked up a couple extra notebooks for Sophia and Allison so they can feel like they get to participate, too! Also discussed at the meeting was testing. Brooke and Em were required to be tested last year so I went ahead and tested Grace, too. I have decided to have Grace tested again this year, since we held her back. I am really looking forward to the results of this testing. I am hoping we see a lot of improvement in her test, to reinforce what I think we have accomplished this year by keeping her back. But, that won't be until the end of April so we have a bit yet. Well, I think that is all we have been up to this week. I certainly hope that next week will be another great one!