second quarter

Our second round of 9 weeks was the last week of March through Memorial Day. NOW we're going to shift to 6 weeks on, 1 week off. My plan for doing that before was thwarted by taking 3 weeks in March as a break (due to everyone being so sick from the pollen) instead of just one or two. Now we're on track with my calendar - we'll finish 36 weeks in the middle of October, and then have makeup days into November to get to the required 180 days. At this point, we'll need to do 12 days. We'll be able to focus on the holidays without worrying about math or any "work" - just have fun with art projects and baking and all, and start our next school year on January 2 again.

Dance and piano ended with recitals, which I've already written about. We read lots of biographies this quarter, and Sunny went on her Beverly Cleary reading blitz. We're still struggling with math and language because of the workbooks. I'm looking for alternatives, and the new options for math are still in the "wait and see" phase.

I'm staying fairly hands-off with Posy still - she reads by herself now and always has a book in her hand. She goes to sleep surrounded by a pile of books, and often has one literally propped up so she can see it with her head on the pillow. Her handwriting is very preliminary and math concepts are not clicking in her head at all yet. But hey - she's still 4. No rush.

Birdie loves the IXL site because to her, it's a game. "Circles triangles! Circles triangles!" So we go to that section and she identifies the circles and triangles and squares. She also thinks the rewards page is pretty nifty.

So far, we've gone on a short 3-day vacation every "quarter." I didn't plan it this way but that's how it's turned out, and now I think I'll be more deliberate about it. I like it. We started our school year with a trip to New Orleans in December and visited the children's museum, aquarium, and I-Max. In March, we went to Texas and visited the Fort Worth zoo, their Museum of Science and History (which included the children's museum section and the planetarium), and the National Cowgirl Museum. This quarter, we went to the Gulf Coast for 3 days and got up close and personal with hermit crabs and dolphins. The tours of the USS Alabama and Fort Pickens were a distant second. August would be a good time for another road trip ... north next time? We've gone south, west, and east with the other 3 trips.