Weekly Report: Days 81-99

It has been a while since I did an update, so I thought I should probably do one.  One of the reasons for this is that Lydia's schooling is at a minimum right now.  Her therapy takes up so much of her time that I am focusing on the 3Rs and that's it.  Her therapy should end here in a month or two, though, so we should be getting back to normal after that.

Another reason for my long silence is my trip to Japan!  Tyler and I were able to visit his parents in Tokyo for a little over a week while the girls spent the week with my parents.  We all had fun, but we were happy to be back together.

We also just found out where Tyler matched for residency!  So we'll be moving to North Carolina in a few months.  I am so excited and think this will be a great thing for our family.

Me and Tyler in Japan

All three girls at a science center in Lubbock

Eleanor the vet

Eleanor and Lydia walking Grandma's dog Brodi

Reading:
Lydia is now a mostly fluent reader and is able to decipher many of the words she comes across.  She is on lesson 163 in OPGTR (r-changed vowels) and is zooming through it.  I think she understood about r-changed vowels naturally, so she isn't having to struggle with it at all.  Our OPGTR lessons take 5 mins or less per day right now.
She is also still participating in Book-it.  She reached her February goal and is well on her way to get her March goal.  Book-it ends this month, so I need to figure out if I want to do a mommy-subsidized book-it program or what in the meantime.  For Book-it, she is checking out several leveled readers from the library every week and can read almost all the books in the beginner reading section of the library.
Finally, we've had her start reading a verse every night when we do family scripture study.  She has been doing a great job and I'm surprised at how many words she can read.

Paper dolls I printed for Ellie

Math:
Lydia wasn't loving the flashcards for math facts practice, so I started xtramath.org.  After the placement test, she scored a 1 (out of 100) for addition facts.  We do xtramath every day now and she now has a score of 17, so that's good progress.  I feel like for now, this is enough.  After Lydia's therapy is over, I will add some extra math concepts, but right now, she's making lots of connections like I hoped she would.  I think Lydia works the opposite of a lot of other kids, so while I wouldn't go this direction with my other children, math facts and then concepts may be a better option for her.

Eleanor wanted to do some math too, so I went ahead and started her Essential Math A book.  She breezed through several pages and keeps asking for more.  I also showed her the Arithmetic Village pdfs I have and she LOVED them.  I told her I could make them into books for her and she said yes.  So I made the first one and she has made me read it to her several times over the last few days.  I'm going to work on making the other four in the next week or so.  She also did some of the stick designs from the vintage book, Primer of Industry that I found a while back.

Spelling and Handwriting:
Lydia is in lesson 17 in AAS and progressing nicely.  She is understanding when to use c or k as the first letter in a word.  I also have her finishing up her HWT K book, which I sort of ignored for a while.  She is writing noticeably faster now and fairly legibly.
The other day she wrote the word "William" as "Wileeyum" on one of her pictures.  I thought is was super cute.