Life in general

As usual I haven't been on here too much lately. I know I always say I'm gonna attempt getting on here more, but then never do. Although I don't legally need to keep track of the kids' homeschooling till age seven I'm trying to get into a routine of keeping track. I think this blog is going to be a part of that. Most homeschooling blogs I have seen only post the good/great days. I'd really like to get in a habit of journaling every day I possibly can. I spend an hour on facebook, so why can't I do even 10min on here?! I really need to get my priorities straight on that one since it's really important for me to document my kids' lives for them to read later on...

Well, in the last week I think Makenzie has done about 100 pages in her Kindergarten workbook. She's over half way done now. There is a total of 453 pages. There are so many pages that want her to color things. She hates it. It is so mundane and time consuming to color everything they want. I hate making her do it too, but I've told her that there are two main things I want her to learn in Kindergarten. The first one is: Follow directions, even if you don't see a point to them. Second one is: Try your best at everything you do...This book has her coloring so much that she thought the #1 thing they want her to learn is to color in the lines. Thank goodness she's flying through that book, cause we are both sick of forcing her to color everything. Phil makes her do it perfectly, but sometimes I could care less. I'm trying to limit her to 5 coloring pages a day, but when it has to do with math or writing, it's hard to do! She's almost done with the math, art, and thinking skills chapters. After that she'll only have left the reading readiness. There is still a good amount of coloring in that section, but at least she'll be done with everything else. It will probably still take her a couple months to finish the reading chapter. It's over 200 pages! I'm glad about that though. I really want her to have a firm foundation in the reading basics. She's beyond some of it though so we're also using sight word flash cards to play games. I have the 1st grade math & writing books so we'll be ready for those as soon as she is. We are probably going to start the math one soon. She's totally ready for it!!

Nick is really getting some fine motor skills since we started "school". At first his scribbles were all over. Now he can do smaller scribbles, is attempting some shapes, and can write a one. He's so proud of that, even though to everyone else it's just a simple line. But hey, it's a straight, in control line, so that's great. He won't even attempt letters yet. We are working on number, alphabet, and shape flash cards though. He loves the game we play with them which is also the same for Makenzie. If they give me the correct answer, then they get to keep the card. They love to try and get more and more each time.

Nick has also recently learned to pedel his bike on his own. We rarely have to give him a push now. He is so proud of himself. Today he rode past me and said "Look Mama! I'm getting lots of exercise!" It was so cute. I went and got the video camera so I could record him and sure enough, he said it again and I got it on video.

Don't know if I wrote this down or not before...Makenzie learned late last summer how to ride without training wheels. This summer we had to buy her a bigger bike (which was perfect cause Nick was ready for the one she was using). I thought the transition would throw off her balance, but she's been riding it perfect since the first day. She's an awesome rider.