Before we talk about homeschool adventures for the day I have to share a funny story. My lovely Sister watched my three youngest boys yesterday while David and I attended the Middle School meeting with Dalton. My Sister has one kid, my gorgeous almost 2 yr old niece Abigail. Now Keaton and Abbey are partners in crime and we joke all the time about them being the terrible twosome but yesterday I think they almost caused her to stroke out. Katie is great but she is not big on the whole babysitting thing or for that matter more then one kid at a time thing, she makes regular statements about my mental state for having all these kids. More then once she has made the comment that if she woke up to the chaos of my life everyday she would be a raging alcoholic. Bad humor maybe but she is being truthful. The road that we live on is more like a driveway to us since our entire family resides on it and it has virtually no traffic except for us but it is in fact a public road. Yesterday evening Keaton and Abs decided to take a little stroll from the front yard, up the driveway, down to the curve of the road(about 1/8 of a mile). By the time we got back home from the meeting I'm fairly certain Katie had came close to needing medical care. As she tells me the story of them walking and her chasing them while barefoot and yelling I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. She told of how Keaton would finally stop for a second and then cute little Abs would turn around wave her hand and say "Come on Keata" and then the chase would continue. After she resolved the situation all children were banished inside until my arrival. As I'm laughing she told me I just didn't understand what she had to deal with, I mean she was having to chase two kids down the road and yet make sure the other two who were also in the yard made it safely back to the house. I gave her a hard time about better supervision and maybe some exercises since she was outran by two 2 yr olds but really what she thought was a disaster is just part of my day to day chaos. I know exactly what she had to deal with. I finally took pity and told her if I manage to make it through one day without chasing someone that is not where they are supposed to be then we celebrate that night. Chaos is what our household thrives on, not by choice but by necessity. I mean sure I make schedules, lists, chore charts, labels, you name it I've made it but realistically it just doesn't work. If I had four girls maybe my efforts would be more successful but I am quickly learning that there is just no containing boys. One of my favorite sayings is boy- a noise with dirt on it. Once you throw Abs in there who is the only child I've ever seen who manages to be both prissy girl and tomboy at once then you have created a even more perfect recipe for disaster.
Now onto educational accomplishments of the day. Dalton will be finished with his entire years worth of Science on Monday and Math two weeks after that. He has worked so quickly and efficiently to get done early and I am very proud of him. I finally received my copy of "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" in the mail so Colton and I completed Lesson 1 today. It was fantastic, he picked up on the skills I taught just like the book said he would. I am so excited about watching his progress with this program I think he is going to do wonderful. The information and guidance they give on how to teach this particular reading program is very impressive. It is recommended for ages 4 through 1st graders and by the end of the 100 days your child should be reading on a 2nd grade reading level. I also found a wonderful website that is a completely free online preschool curriculum. There are different programs from ages birth-6 plus a couple of ideas for older kids. It comes complete with links to printouts, poetry, stories and teaching techniques. And it is all free!! I gathered the 1st weeks worth of lessons today and Monday Keaton and Brennen will be starting the program for 2-4 yr olds while Colton and Weston start the program for 3-5 yr olds. Dalton is also going to do some research based on the older program to supplement his Social Studies. Even though my OCD tendencies have definitely kicked in and I am on information overload I am thrilled to be able to stay home and work with my extraordinary boys:-)
http://www.startreading.com/ -Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
www.letteroftheweek.com -Brightly Beaming Resources Preschool Curriculum
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