School School...Home School...

We started our school year this week! We are using Heart of Dakota  this year for school. Roo (5.5yo) is doing the 1st grade level and Friendly the kindergarten. It is all the same core activities though which makes it super easy for me!

All of our curriculum fits on one snug shelf!

So far it's going alright. Roo has been sick (she had a BAD bladder infection a week ago and the antibiotics have been leaving her feeling really crummy for the last 9 days), and off and then Pip came down with a nasty head cold over the weekend, and the rest of us came down with it on Monday. So it has not been the week I expected to have, at all.  Roo doesn't seem to like school right now. Which surprises me. There are lots of crafts and fun singing activities and read alouds. All things she loves. I am going to muscle through because 1) it adds a ton of structure and intention to our day and
2) Friendly LOOOVES it. I mean she is just eating it up. She loves busy work. She loves trying new things. She loves all the silly songs and activities and Science and HISTORY. So that is rewarding.

I am hopeful that once we get past the sickies Roo will enjoy it more too. I do think I am going to have to tweak my curriculum choices for her a bit- she is not into her hand writing book. That's fine, I can find some thing she enjoys.  She has the misfortune of being the oldest child, I don't know what that is like- but apparently it means that you feel you must do it all perfectly. I am not sure where this idea comes from- I am the QUEEN of "get er done! If it looks a tad weird slap the 'creative' label on it and move on!". I mean when it comes to craftie things and school work. I CAN be a  perfectionist about some things, but then again I am also not going to lose sleep over projects either.
Not my Roo. She wants it to look "just so" and if it doesn't she gets very frustrated and crabby. Ah well, this is a great opportunity to practice "good enough" and doing your best and focusing on the positives.

First Day - we made "Family Trees" for history.

After class sitting on the table? 

Todays class- can you see all the awesome things that we've done this week? Collages and Friendly is VERY proud of being able to write her name. 

Pip likes to work on projects too

As you can see we're slowly starting to get more settled here- the book shelf is filling up!

I am excited about this new season of being "home schoolers"! This time last year I wasn't really sure I wanted to home school Roo this year. I was thinking about being crammed together all. the. time. and the fighting and feeling like well, "getting a break by sending her to school would be really nice." It is so nice being in our new home and having all the space to spread out, the fenced back yard to send the kids outside to play in, and the long front side walk for them to go ride scooters and play with chalk on. I mean we're only a few days in- but I really like the structure it adds. It is nice to have some thing to be intentional about. And it is geared to only take an hour tops- and each activity only takes 10 minutes so we can easily stop whenever we want if we're losing interest or have other things we'd rather do. It's been nice. It's also nice to think of all the fun things we get to do together, the "just being" aspects of our days that we'd totally lose if Roo was in school. Not to mention how much more rush and on some one else' time table we'd be.

So I am happy with our choice for this year and I think that this journey is going to be a lot of fun!

Oh some friends and I are also hoping to start a co-op (a small one) with some friends other friends who are also young home schoolers, which will be a lot of fun! :)

The Dog Show...And Doll Houses ...And 19mos!

There is a hint of Autumn in the air and we've been enjoying more of the outdoors. We have officially moved to our new home, and we are slowly moving all of our things over. We won't be officially moved out of our apartment for a bit- and I am so thankful for the time to sort through stuff and really cull down our belongings to what we truely need. This is the BEST way to move! No rush and with care and intention about what we bring with us. Of course, then there is the bother of schlepping stuff to Salvation Army ,but there is so much freedom from STUFF this way- so definitely still a bonus!

I think this was the first week in September the girls and I enjoyed a gorgeous morning out on the front porch preparing for the DOG SHOW and making Paper Dolls. 

Friendly would color and help cut out the dolls clothing

Roo preparing for the DOG SHOW- seriously, the cutest thing I Have ever seen in my life. She was adorable. 

She made the sign herself (well I helped with "SHOW" and "Tonight" but she added "dog does amazing tricks" beneath SHOW. :)

This was the ticket box...We made tons of tickets too but I didn't take any pictures of them yet. 

more crafties. Excuse the messy porch- we've sanded all the old paint off and are going to have some of the decking replaced and new paint put on every thing this month!! Yay 

Roo also strung up some peracord all on her own and hung flowers and every thing...Note the railing above. She took Hasta and special rocks to decorate it ALL. 

I have more pictures of the doll house- I dont' think I have them on here though, I'll have to add them later... The girls made these GIANT doll houses out of paper where they made all the rooms with pictures of furniture. It was a several day thing. 

AND Pip is 19months! Okay actually she is going on 20 months- but I realized I never gave a monthly update on her. Pip has continued to drop words and was pretty much down to "maa" and "baaaa" (barny the dog) and we were all growing increasingly concerned and frustrated because communicating has been getting harder. She WANTS to communicate, she is expressive- she just hasn't been using WORDS. After two VERY early talkers (Friendly especially was speaking in paragraphs by this age): well this is a new experience! I decided to give Early Intervention a call and she had an eval last week. She is certainly delayed and will be starting speech therapy next week, at home, every Thursday morning. She was right on task with pretty much all the other milestones. She is definitely struggling with expressive language though. They are fairly certain it is due to her Lip Tie and Tongue Tie issues and they are going to be work on on some other things that she is having trouble doing with her mouth (she doesn't copy facial expressions or mouth movements, cannot drink from a straw, etc).  She was able to do a ton of things I didn't think she'd be able to, she was right on for every thing else socially, and her gross motor skills are off the charts (Okay, not "off" the charts- but she's quite agile!). She now has 3 molars, and 8 teeth and is working on her two bottom bicuspids and is miserable. Ah well , teething is almost done. almost done!!!!

She can however make the most amazing Mr. Potato Head Creations EVER. <3 

Attic Bedroom Befores and Afters..

The attic bedroom will be Ryan and my room when the kids move down to their new room (not done yet). This was a HUGE job and I did it (besides my Mom and Ryans GIANT contribution of childcare!!!) 100% on my own. All the priming and painting: all me! It took me about 5 days. 
This is the before pics...you can't really get a real idea of any thing, there was a lot of stuff piled n the middle of the room...But you can see the color was like a burgundy (just a primer- it was supposed to be paited red- but never got finished). I primed it white and then painted the walls a blue called "sigh" and the other 2 walls a creamy color called "Old Time Bakery" and the trim in some long funny named creamy tan.

Attic BEFORE:

ATTIC AFTERS...

To add storage and a kind of closet to the room I put together 2 expidit shelves (from IKEA) along the wall to closet it off, and to act as new dressers for Ryan and I.

I also added a new wardrobe (IKEA) for our closet. Excuse the ugly A/C and make shift padding around it.

 

 

 

That is our new KING sized bed with the girsl TWIN sized beds (with more about 3 feet past that!) if that gives you an idea of the size of the room. It is big! And cozy. and AWESOME!

Still to do in the attic: put outlet covers up. Move out some of my brothers stuff that is still up there. And install new windows (the ones there are as old as the 80 year old house and not insulated).

And just because they are adorable (from this morning)

PLAY!

A Daddy-Date to the playground in Late August....

19mos and ZOOMING!

Around Home...New!

My project note book with colors and lists and schedules...

Pip playing on our newly refinished deck (we restored it)

THE MONSTER GARDEN outback. We decided to just leave the garden be this year- we had SO many projects it was just crazy. Well every thing reseeded!! And this is what happens when you intentionally "let it go" wild jungle yard! These are our PUMPKINS! THe past THREE years we have tried desperately to get pumpkins to grow (I love them- it's a thing), and we failed miserably. Last fall we threw away some pumpkin guts there and BAM they went crazy in the spot and we have about 20 pumpkins growing like crazy in there!!!

our tomatoes

Pumpkin and morning glory craziness

Do you see our new patio in process back to my right?Or my left? back there on the left... yup!

Playing in the family room

Story time with Friendly...

Roo is SUPER into the planets right now. Nana got her a magnetic set with all the planets and she's been having fun arranging them...on the heater.

Gorgous pip.

RACE! This is endless entertainment. They start at the corner and I yell "ready set go!" and they FLY as fast as they can to the front steps and I tell them their time. Seriously- we do this for hours a day, wears them out!

Pip helping build the new shelving unit.

RACE!!!!!