2011 - Talk Birth

• Make lunch and eat. (Boys draw or play while I fix it. Alaina rides in pouch and supervises or plays
on floor with boys.) Today I also made four loaves of pumpkin bread for our work co-op this weekend
with Zander stirring/measuring and Alaina supervising, while Lann drew plans for ”jet shoes” he would
like to invent.
• Do school with boys. This consists of a combination of options from:
1. [3]Reading Eggs
2. [4]Starfall (we pay for the ”more” version)
3. [5]Jumpstart
4. Leapster K and First Grade
5. [6]ClicknRead Phonics
6. [7]Videos from Harry Kindergarten
7. In the past, we have also used [8]Dreambox & [9]Time4Learning
8. I also have approximately 499 educational bookmarks on my computer that we do an assortment of
things with.
9. I get the[10] Clickschooling daily email which often has something good to check out.
Recently, we’ve been doing reading and math worksheets from their [11]Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic
Skills workbooks every day. We stop as soon as they say they are bored and don’t want to do anymore,
because I don’t believe in setting up an atmosphere where ”learning” equals bad. Every day, they also each
read me one new [12]Bob Book for reading practice. Z reads the early reading ones and L is into the first
grade series. I am crossing my fingers hopefully that Z will learn to read more quickly than L has learned.
Just this year, reading has finally clicked for L, but he still isn’t exactly proficient or fluent in reading skill.
Since I, personally, learned to read so early, this is really hard for me to deal with.
• Sometimes we don’t make it to school before Alaina goes down for nap at about 1:30. So, sometimes we
do that after I get back up from lying down with her. Sometimes they watch an episode of something
they are interested in on Netflix while I’m putting her down for nap.
• At about 2:30, boys go to visit my parents at their house. While there, they—surprise!—play some
more.
• If the stars are well aligned, Alaina naps while boys I gone and I frantically work on all tasks I imagined
doing in the morning, while also feeling guilty about trying to finish my blog post rather than visit
with my mom when she comes to get the boys.
• Once a week we go to homeschool playgroup and we do other homeschool events as they arise like
bowling, skating, plays/shows at the university, occasional field trips, pumpkin patch, etc.
• Alaina wakes from nap and we snuggle and nurse and play and I marvel at her fundamental awesomeness.
• Boys return and I start trying to work on dinner (usually with Alaina in pouch). Sometimes while
visiting with my mom (who plays with Alaina while I cook).
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