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| Getting ready to watch the pig race |
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| The girls riding their first "roller coaster." |
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| Adelaide looking at her butterfly in the butterfly tent |
We did enjoy a weekend of General Conference and Daddy made us cinnamon rolls as he is the baker in the family. When we were at Myrtle Beach, Eleanor saw her grandma sewing and was fascinated. I decided that although I am not a crafty person, she would probably enjoy it and I should facilitate that. The week before General Conference, I took her to Hobby Lobby and helped her pick out a kit for a stuffed animal she could sew by hand. She worked on it during General Conference and finished it after about 5 hours of work. I only helped by giving her directions and tying the starting and end knots. Everything else she did herself. Here's her completed project. I think it turned out very well:
And of course, we enjoyed Halloween this weekend. We went to a Trunk or Treat at our ward and then came home and Trick or Treated. They girls had a lot of fun and were very excited. Oh, and Daddy helped them carve a pumpkin, although I didn't get a picture of it. The girls requested it be a "happy" pumpkin, so it had a smile and goofy eyes.
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| A dragon, a super hero, and a fairy princess |
School was very productive in October, and Lydia and Eleanor finished several of their books and moved on to the next level. When they do this, we have a dance party where the child who completed their curriculum picks a song and we all dance to it. There were many dance parties this month.
Reading:
Lydia had a Book-it goal to read 3 chapter books with a good attitude and she reached that goal and got her little pizza. That kid loves Book-it. She also read some books I got to go along with our history.
Eleanor is on lesson 115 in OPGTR and is doing well. She has even started reading a verse during family scripture study (with help). She also read a few little readers we got from the library and enjoyed reading "real books"
Math:
Lydia finished CLE math 1! She is officially moved onto second grade math and we were both very excited about this. I like it because it is formatted more towards the child, so there is less whining at me and more just doing the check list in the workbook. She finished October with Lesson 2.
Eleanor finished Miquon Red, which means she officially is in the third Miquon book, which is second grade level as well (each book is half a grade level and she finished Orange already). The chart she is holding is where we colored in every page she completed as we went. Since Miquon isn't linear, it is the best way I can keep track of her progress. She started Miquon Blue today. She also continues to progress through MEP math and finished lesson 66 by the end of October, which means she is more than halfway through with the first grade level. I view Miquon as her primary math and sometimes if she had an especially difficult day with it, we will skip MEP. They both approach math so differently, though, that I see a lot of value in doing both. The biggest weakness I see for both programs is a lack of word problems, so I just ordered some word problem books that use the Singapore math style, so she'll be starting those soon enough.
Adelaide doing school isn't a high priority, and she only did math once last month. Oh well, the kid is only 3 and a half. :)
Language Arts:
Lydia is on step 20 in AAS, which means she is only 5 away from completing level 2! I went ahead and ordered level 3 so we'll just move right on as soon as she's ready. She also finished the first grade level of Writing With Ease and the first week of work for Writing With Ease 2. So far she seems to be handling the level of difficulty and I'm proud of her. She finished less 167/200 in First Language Lessons, her grammar.
Eleanor is on step 13 in AAS level 1 and is definitely slowing down. It is good though and she's starting to learn some things as they introduce more than just CVC words. She finished her Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten book, which means that she officially got to start Writing With Ease level 1 today. She was excited about that and that the first week's work revolved around Little House in the Big Woods, which she has listened to several times on CD.
History:
We are on chapter 15 in Story of the World and just learned about the Phoenicians. We probably should have gotten a little farther than that, so I think I'll up our history pace this month.
Piano:
The girls are still enjoying piano with Hoffman Academy quite a bit. It is challenging them at just the right level and they are both progressing well. So far, I've managed to keep them on the same lesson and they have finished through Lesson 7. They have learned the musical alphabet and where those letters are on a keyboard, 2 songs, and have started learning some exercises that I can see will benefit them later on.
