....Two months later, with gratitude
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I noticed my last post was when the 3 public school kids started classes. I was going to work on reviewing some math and chemistry tonight to help Carolyn, but I know some of you really enjoy these updates. I'll "write the book" first and post all the picture at the end. Enjoy as much or as little of this as you like.
Although I enjoy everything I do, I am barely keeping up! I have found some things to take off my plate though. (I finally found a chemistry curriculum that does most of Carolyn's teaching - and that I watch to refresh my knowledge, and we sometimes watch a pre-calculus lecture on YouTube rather than me teaching the lesson, especially for subjects I like less. Like logarithms. Half of you probably don't even know what those are. Don't worry; they're a pain.)
Gideon has been interested in knowing what words say, so we've started working on learning to read. (Very very basic...like knowing m says "mmm" and s says "sss".) The first day I let him play a "computer game" (like StarFall or ABCya preschool games), so now he thinks that reading lesson complete means he gets a computer game. (I try to line this up so he's playing a computer game while I'm helping Alee so he's not bothering Kaitlyn in her classes.)
Seth has decided he wants to stay virtual this year. He likes his schedule, and he has classes he likes. The downside? The twins really really want to go back. I filled out the form, and we'll find out the last week of January whether they are virtual or in person next semester. If they are in person, I'll have to go pick them up every day since Seth is in class at home until the moment their classes end at school.
Seth and Carolyn are returning to early morning seminary in person. For Seth, he was ready to go back in person. Carolyn really liked the online learning version and almost decided to stay online. She ultimately decided to go back to seminary in person too. They'll be transferred to the in person teacher's class soon.
The twins continue to turn home based schooling into a fun experience, but they are the most distracted of everyone, so I can support their decision to apply for a change. Kaitlyn is disappointed that her grades are affected to be low A's.
Rob is very ready for the semester to be over. His classes are not his area of interest; they're just required to move forward. They are hard to meet requirements and draining. This is also a heavy period of the year for church and work as the year closes out. Please pray for him to survive the semester! Thankfully, it ends before our anniversary. (In fact, that's why our anniversary is where it is! Because we had to finish the semester before we got married.)
Alee is becoming more independent and really handles her assignments well. I'm so proud of how diligent she is to get things done and be efficient, but not sloppy. Carolyn and I are learning what is a reasonable workload for her day. I tried to give her too much freedom (and too many assignments) to plan herself, and she overworked to keep up. I really love the progress we've made in learning how much is just right and in learning the speed to move through subjects so the subject is learned and not just memorized.
Gideon is finally at the point where I'd call him potty trained. Yes, I still have to walk him through the process every time (especially the handwashing part), but he almost always recognizes the urge to go, and he rarely has an accident. He had one this week for the first time in months. Seth had to deal with it since we girls were watching a broadcast meeting and Rob was at the church doing interviews. Poor Seth. He barely manages Gideon at all, and he got that dropped on him.
Kaitlyn is Gideon's best friend. In fact, sometimes, he calls her "Best Friend" instead of Kaitlyn. He asks her at night, "Would you mind bathing me?" (This is one of his few polite moments. I spend most of my teaching moments with him fixing his sassiness and rebellion. sigh.) He thinks only Mommy or Kaitlyn can do anything.
Seth used some of the money he earned to buy a bass ukulele. He loves instruments and wanted a smaller version of the bass that he could take along on his mission. I hope he can find ways to include his music as he teaches, serves, and loves others.
Natalie has done well becoming the 3rd roommate. I can't believe the girls have made it this long with hardly an argument! (They had 1 or 2, but they are really growing up.) Her portion of the room is still a wreck, but we don't fuss too much. She's our comedic relief in this house. She reminds me of my brother (not in his ridiculous words, but in the way she can say things that no one else says and it's funny). It's a good thing she's got a sense of humor or she'd take offence at Gideon's rejection of her. (She, of course, uses it as a joke and aggravates him back, offering to do things just to hear him tell her to go do something else.)
Blogger has changed some of the way it works, so it's easiest if I dump all the photos in at once that I want to use, and I don't want to spend the time sorting this into a well-laid out post. So, here are all the pictures from the past 2 months that I want to share. I'll comment a little.
Since we basically "skipped" Halloween, both grandparents we visited had planned games and activities for the children. It was really cute.
Looking forward to a great holiday season with family time and (HOPEFULLY) no sickness! :)
I'm sorry it took so long to post again! I hope I can get in 2 more before the end of the year. (I hope you enjoy this peek into the Bailey zoo.)
Comments
Post a Comment