Olivia & Lindsey’s Splash Book List

We're continuing school through the summer, on a less intense scale.  Part of our book list will include the reading that goes with our curriculum.   Here are a few extra books we're hoping to get through this summer.  I'll update it each month as I see how we've progressed through our stack.

June:

Little House in the Big Woods (with accompanying lapbook)
The Pup Speaks Up by Anna Jane Hays
The Star of the Show by Dena Neusner
The Berry Best Friends Picnic by Jackie Glassman
Ralphi Rhino by Lisl Weil
Ten Little Bears by Kathleen Hague
The Little Pie by Thelma Johnson
The Big Green Bird by Joyce Braithwaite
Our Week
Bib by Sue Lovegrove
Tim Can Sue Lovegrove

Summer Reading Splash

It's summer and time for the Old Schoolhouse Summer Reading Splash!  Be sure to go here for all the information and to get your kids (and you) motivated to read read read!!

Preschool Week 1

Lindsey is three, going on 21.   She's my fast child.  She walked at 9 months, was talking in complete sentences at 12 months, potty trained herself at 24 months.  So I'm starting her on her PK-4 program now...slowly so as not to overwhelm her with too much information.   Yeah.  So we skipped the first 5 lessons in her curriculum and jumped in on day 6. 

Day 1:

I was supposed to introduce the letter "i" both upper and lowercase and work on the sound...yeeeaaah...then she read the example word I had written on the board.    I was supposed to work on introducing numbers 1 - 3 (I stopped at 27 when she lost her train of thought and stopped counting).  I was supposed to work on her colors...yeah, blew by that one, why torture myself.   Then I thought, well lets add some geometric shapes and teach her those....yeah....of course my 3 year old knows what an octagon is...what was I thinking showing her those hearts and stars?   So we did the "Hokie-Pokie" to reinforce her concept of right/left and called it a day.  The little darling looked at me and said "Mom, I really think I need to go faster in school."     Well, alrighty then!

Days 2 - 5 were much the same as day 1.  I added some lacing beads to the mix to work on hand/eye coordination. grouping and patterns.  This worked well until she realized she could make up a pretty interesting story using the various beads.  The horses were grouped into a family.  One horse was lost and couldn't find his way back, he was attacked by a "sharptooth" (T-Rex being impersonated by a sheep bead).   Luckily the family of horses heard his horrific screams (my gosh that child can hit some high notes) and came to his rescue and defeated the "sharptooth". 

So next week we'll be doubling up on her lessons and she'll be starting to write in cursive.  By golly, she wants faster, we'll do faster!

Gardening Year 1

This is our first summer in our new house, and our first year to plant a garden. Our yard is all up-hill...very little flat land, which is typical for our city.  Red clay is also typical, instead of lovely black topsoil.  So we bought a load (DUMP TRUCK LOAD) of beautiful black dirt, built a couple of raised bed gardens and went to work.  We got everything in the ground right before we left for the beach, and so far it's looking pretty successful. 

This garden houses our corn, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, marigolds, sunflowers and onions.

Here is our 2nd raised bed garden.  It houses our green beans, peas, eggplant, zuchinni, cabbage, onions, pumpkins and sunflowers too.   This one is a bit behind garden #1, because quite honestly, we hadn't planned for 2 gardens...but we had (and still have) a lot of dirt left.

We also have cantalopes and cucumbers planted along the sides of the privacy fence.  I figure that way they can run without crowding the veggies in the garden.

The remaining dirt is slowly being worked into my flower beds.  The girls and I finished two flower beds on Friday evening.   Tomorrow I hope to fill in my new flower bed (the flowers aren't new, but the landscaping timbers to box it in are new).  I have irises, peonies and redhot pokers growning there. 

Here are photos of some of my roses, and sweet williams. 

I'm hoping that the girls will be more interested in trying new fruits and veggies since they are helping to plant, tend to and eventually harvest with us.  Lindsey is willing to try most things....but Olivia is a bit more stubborn (read FINICKY). 

Proud Momma!!

As I've mentioned before, my girls attend (and LOVE) Awana at the local Baptist church.  Tonight was the last meeting of the year, so it was awards night.  Both of my girls finished their books for the year and had perfect attendance so I knew they'd be getting their awards for those areas.

What I didn't know what that they also give out awards for "Leadership", "Evangelism", and "Sportsmanship" in each of the three age groups.   Neither Olivia nor Lindsey received an award for these areas.  However, they also give out a "Clubber of the Year" award in each age group, for the child who shows excellence overall.

Lindsey won "Clubber of the Year" for the Cubbies (ages 3 and 4), AND Olivia won "Clubber of the Year" for the Sparks (K, 1st & 2nd).  We were so proud of both of them!    Of course, there are photos for your viewing pleasure. 

This is Olivia's third year in Awana; but it's our first year at this church (we moved last fall).  I was really impressed with the awards ceremony.  Not just because my kids won!  There was a total of 15 children who accepted Jesus this year during Awana club time; tonight they had a baptism ceremony for the kids at the beginning of the festivities.  I think it's totally awesome to see the fruit of such a wonderful program and to see that the church takes it seriously for the kids.

Brrrrrr at the Beach!

The last few days, we've been at the beach on vacation.  Saturday was warm and nice.  Sunday morning was ok....mid-morning the temps dropped, the rain and winds set in and we spent the rest of our 4 day trip looking for warm clothes and indoor acitivities.

Lindsey loved the sand...running in it, digging in it...but not sitting in it. 

Olivia loved everything about the trip!  She loves the water, and the change in scenery.  Although, by the look of this picture, photos aren't a big hit with her.

Flat Stella arrived home from Alaska last week.  So we took her to the beach, thinking she'd get to warm up after her trip up north.  I'm pretty certain she didn't warm up a great deal...and we almost lost her to a big wind gust.

Next week, Stella will be heading out to Ontario or Pennsylvania; I'm not sure which yet.  We'll be starting back to school (abbreviated summer version).  We'll be starting on our new curriculum, and incorporating an exciting new (new to me) spelling program as well.   So check back soon to see what we're learning and how!

Progress! Finally!!

I'm  a big "to-do list" kind of gal (shocking I know).   I'm one of those people who, if I do something that isn't on the list, I'll write it on the list just so I can check it off (sad I know).  We leave for the beach in 34 hours and this was the list of things I wanted done before we left.

Spring clean the house
Yardsale (been trying since March...rain doesn't cooperate)...still not done.
Plant my garden
Build a 2nd garden since the first didn't hold it all
Catch up on all of my scrapbooking
Build a compost bin
Remove ugly wallpaper from kitchen, then paint...

Now obviously, some of these things I've been working on for some time; but the goal was to have it done before our "vacation".  My gosh I've worn my self out getting ready for this!  So tomorrow all I have to do is pack for the 4 of us, take Olivia to her ball game, go to a board meeting at church and clean the house.  

Oh, yeah...and I need to make a list of things to do when I get back from vacation. 

Feeling Creative

With Mother's Day only a few days away I broke out the scrapbooking supplies and went to work making cards.  I made three for the moms (yes, and odd number of moms...don't ask) and I threw in a bridal shower card while I was at it.  Here are the results of my efforts.  They look much better in person (my gosh I hope so...they don't look that hot now that I'm publishing them for the world to see!)

The Awana Grand Prix was this week as well.  Olivia had a great time building/painting/reworking her car with her dad.  In the end, it was NOT a fast car (dead last each heat)...and was not the most original design...so no trophy this year.  But she had fun and was a good sport and cheered for the winners, so that's the important thing. 

Drum roll please.........(insert noise in your head here)......I give you Olivia and  the "Cotton Candy Mobile".  Seriously, that's what she named it!

It matches her shirt well, don't you think??

The Good Ship Lollipop

Olivia had dress rehearsal tonight.  Her group is dancing to the "Goodship Lollipop" by Shirley Temple.  Their costumes are supposed to be little sailor suits...I think I need to iron and starch Olivia's hat for friday...it's a little off kilter.

Last year we opted out of the recital because Olivia would burst into tears anytime the parents were allowed to watch the class, so we knew she wasn't ready to perform.   This year, she's very excited and has really improved in her self confidence.

Here is the entire troop....

I'm really exicted about the recital itself, and so are the girls.  We scheduled a vacation day for my husband that night so he can attend.  I think that is what the girls are most excited about...daddy gets to come watch them dance!

So..yeah, you'll get more photos on Friday.  Brace yourselves. 

Ballet Anyone?

It's spring, and time for the official spring ballet recital.  The theme this year is "Hooray for Hollywood".  Lindsey's class is dancing to "Once Upon a Dream."   Tonight was her dress rehearsal, and here she is in all her glory!

Here she is with her "very bestest friend in the whole world EVER"...Gracie.

This week, I had the opportunity to over hear Lindsey praying for Gracie while she was playing.  Her prayer was this "Dear God, please touch Gracie.  Touch her and love her, and don't ever ever EVER let her die. Amen!"

How my heart danced as I listened!!