Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hello! We've been busy, AND our computer broke a few days ago! And before that, we were in LA for a few days (it was a great visit, by the way!) We're using a computer that's about 9 years old. It works good enough for me to check my e-mail and that's about it! If you have 2 or more programs or webpages open at a time, it will freeze. I haven't even attempted at uploading pictures, I'm going to wait until we get our new computer (Michael ordered another Dell). Michael tried and tried (it was almost an all-day affair!) to get the other computer working, with no success. SOOO, it'll probably be a few more days before I post again.

I started ALL of Josephine's 2nd grade schoolwork yesterday, and so far it's gone surprisingly well. I made up a more detailed daily schedule (for Josephine's school and for what goes on after school is done) and yesterday and today have gone very smooth, because I actually followed the schedule! I wake up by 7:00, start school by 9:00, 9 subjects later(Mon.-Wed.), w/ 3 breaks in between, we get done by 2:30. We actually only spend about 2 1/2 to 3 hours actually doing school work. It's amazing we can get 9 subjects done in that time! Thursday we only do 7 or 8 subjects, and by friday it's only 4 or 5. I'm even doing a pretty solid PE program this year, too... I got a homeschool PE book, written by a man with a doctorate degree in Kinesiology, who ALSO had 8 or 9 kids (don't remember) that he and his wife homeschooled... I LOVE it so far, and look forward to doing it the rest of the year. I've been doing the exercises with Josephine, so I'll hopefully be able to get a little in shape, too!!! I added a link on the left of the page, labeled "PE book" if your interested in more info...

I started Maureen's preschool last week, and she's really enjoying it. So far we spend anywhere between 30 min. to an hour per day, which more depends on her mood and attention span than anything else! we've done a handful of arts and crafts...I'll get pictures and post them next time.

Well, I'm off to bed! I even set a bedtime for myself, so that I can actually get up by 7:00! 7:00 is almost like sleeping in to some people, I bet!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Josephine's 2nd grade school books! I just realized I forgot to put up her Reading books... she has three Catholic "readers" that she'll read over the course of this next school year, plus other easy readers from the library every week. I'll also be supplementing History and Science with books I haven't purchased yet... We've already started math and I plan on starting everything else this Monday.

Maureen's "Little Saints" learning games nicely organized (finally!!!). See unorganized picture below :)
Maureen's books for preschool - I'll be spending about 30-45 min. (maybe more) with Maureen every day. Our main focus will be the "Little Saints" preschool program, "Who am I: Image of God series" (religion book) and "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" (the same reading program we used for Josephine.) We have video of Josephine reading at the age of three (a young three, too), thanks to this book!
These are the "Little Saints" learning games that I've been making over the summer. I haven't started the art projects yet! Those won't take long to prepare, so I'll be preparing those as I go along throughout the year...



Here are three pictures of Josephine's planned out and staged "Fashion show." She told me she's not smiling because "in fashion shows, you're not supposed to smile." She even gave me flowers to throw to her at the end of her show :)


Two times this past week, Veronica rested her head/body on Josephine, and fell asleep within a couple minutes!
This is a DAILY occurance! I pick up the books, and Veronica pulls them down! She still loves books more than anything else, even more than all her baby toys. She could be surrounded by baby toys and a book, and will choose the book over the toys!


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

For Jada:


I know I said I wouldn't post until I was done w/ preparing school stuff, but Josephine really wanted to reply to Jada's video from her blog (click on the "Jeanne, Mike and Jada's blog" link on the left side of this page) to see Jada. Jeanne had the idea to do a "modern day pen-pal" type thing, where Jada and Josephine would post videos back and forth to each other - I think it's a great idea and Josephine is excited about it! Of course, grandparents and other family members can enjoy the video cuteness, too!