Photo of Fiona by Annalee Bayer
Super fast, here’s 10 things we’ve been up to…
- Jack took his CAT online today. All in all, he did fantastic. He could use work on spelling and language mechanics (I think this is knowing what an adverb is). He was especially awesome in Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Concepts & Problems, and Language Usage & Structure. The online version only tests 9 math and language arts subjects and not science and social studies, which I know are strong subjects for him too.
- Anna took the pictures that a local theater production will be using for their posters and their Facebook promotions about an upcoming play. She’s quite stoked!
- Victoria is finally home from her adventure in the Twin Cities with friends. She had a fantastic time and made a bunch of new friends in addition to the ones she was visiting. A certain song about keeping them down on the farm keeps coming to mind.
- We all went to the Renaissance Festival last weekend. It was pretty fabulous. Now we need to find a talent to share there so we can take part and get in free….
- Fiona is being especially darling lately. She loves to mimic Victoria sticking her tongue out, clapping hands, etc. and also loves physical humor. The kids bash themselves on the head and say “ow!” again and again while she giggles like crazy. She is also standing, crawling 50 mph, saying a few words and trying like crazy to walk. Tooth #4 has emerged. She can slow down with this growing up business.
- I’ve started reading “America: The Story of Us” as a family read-aloud for American History. It was free on the Kindle today (if you’re subscribed to my homeschooling column you knew that!) so I downloaded it and am quite pleased so far. We have the textbook but I really like being able to just carry it around on my Nexus.
- We’ve started a new tradition of hiking every Monday. I’m hoping we’ll wander through a different area each week, including woods, parks, fields, wetlands, etc. Yesterday we went to Pat’s Grove, a wonderful out-of-the-way park with woods, a river, an abandoned stone house and lots of great stuff to find. The kids found several small skulls and most of an entire deer skeleton, and brought it home to reassemble. Homeschoolers.
- I’ve started a new personal challenge of posting one magical moment each day on Instagram. It’s a fun way for me to keep myself on my toes as a mama. The goal is to just take one photo of any of us doing something magical each day and post it. (This is me visiting my dream house in New Ulm… it has a library, and a bannister to slide down and room for all of us and history…. swoon. Oh how I wish I had an extra $200k!)
- I’m going to see if the kids want to try to earn Mensa t-shirts for reading these book lists. I think it sounds like such a fun challenge!
- We’re off to Ohio at the end of the week to see my grandmother and visit with my dad’s side of the family. My mother hid me from him until after his death and I only found his family a little over 10 years ago, and we’ve only visited once. I want my kids to know them (and I want to!) and I also want them to know my grandmother before it’s too late. We’re leaving Saturday or Sunday and will be gone about a week. We’re taking 5 kids and a big dog in a van for a 17 hour drive. Pray for us.
And with that, I’m off to organize a substitute magical moment, as plans for playing with fireworks when D got home from play practice were dashed by a sudden thunderstorm.
Talk to you soon!
