So far this week

 A peek at what we've been up to this week:

On Monday, Adeline was able to read the entire board BY HERSELF!!  We've since added another 5 or so words to her growing list of "can read."  

Hello, friend!  I found this little guy about two and a half steps outside our classroom door one night.  He was promptly moved into a more appropriate habitat - the yard!!

One of Adeline's workbox activities this week.  She loves it!

Braxton is working on the letter B.  He doesn't understand the concept of letters yet, but he will happily sing you the alphabet.  I only care that he has exposure to letters and numbers this year.  Next year he will learn to recognize and write the alphabet.

Meanwhile, Adeline finished a few of her shape boards... :)

This just might be the most exciting part of the week!  A very talented, dear friend of mine has agreed to teach music for me.  Hooray!  Adeline started Kindermusik for the Young Child on Tuesday.  She will be taking a pre-piano course with the glockenspiel.  We are all excited!  

Adeline and her teacher, Miss Jessica, work together, while I entertain the rest of our kids in the playroom.  Consequently, I don't have a lot of pictures, but I did snap this one of the board after the lesson was over.  Adeline told me that she played rhythm sticks, learning how to hold them at rest, ready and play positions.  She also listened for the sounds around her during her lesson.  It's her homework to be listening for music in her day-to-day life.  She was disappointed to learn that Jessica will only be coming once a week!  Jessica says Adeline is doing well.  I'm just happy she's enjoying it!  

After we finished school yesterday, Adeline was sitting at the table coloring.  She came to me very excited to show me that she had "written a sentence!"  Her sentence is "Adeline is it."  I'm pretty proud of her, too.  :)

 Some nights I'm strict about the kids cleaning up toys before bed and sometimes I decide to forego the battle and just do it myself.  I'm always amused by what I find.  Braxton is his father's child, no doubt about it!

All last week and part of this week, Adeline worked on writing her thank you notes for her party.  Here is a sampling.  This week we are conveniently learning about the postal service, so tomorrow we will address envelopes and visit the post office!  

This is Hopper the Frog.  Hopper loves to hop on sight words.  Adeline loves this activity because she gets to shout really loud.  As she reads each word, Hopper makes his way to the puddle.  When he arrives, Adeline gets to yell out "SPLASH!"  She happily does this over and over.  Shh... don't anybody tell her she's learning at the same time.  :)  

We have handwriting practice every day.

In Math, Adeline is making a number book.  I thought it would be nice for Braxton to make one, too.  This is Braxton's:

And this is Adeline's.  I thought it was cute that she colored her tree to be a "fall tree."  The book goes through number 10.  It's an easy activity for Adeline, but after she has worked so hard in Reading, it's nice to do something that doesn't require quite as much effort.  

Which brings us to tonight.  Both kids earned their vests tonight at Awana!  And Braxton immediately spilled water on his.  :)  Adeline moved up to the Sparks club and Braxton is starting his first year as a Cubbie.  We love Awana!    

Our extra workbox activities this week have focused on apples.  We are reading apple books in preparation for a trip to the orchard on Friday.  Today we read Applesauce Season.  Love this book!  We already planned to make our own applesauce next week, but I think we will also give the recipe in the book a try.

Oh!  I almost forgot.  Our other fun thing this week was the first meeting of our VeggieTales co-op.  We hosted it at our house this time.  The kids watched Duke and the Great Pie War which is derived from the book of Ruth.  After the video, they had a coloring sheet and a discussion about loving your family.  It went pretty well.  We will meet twice a month.

Well, that's a wrap!  I'm looking forward to the rest of our week!  I have a blog entry in mind based on some things I learned at Bible study this morning, but that will have to wait until I'm a little more awake.  :)