Monday, October 29, 2012

Emily: 10 Months (Bonus Video!)


Another month has come and gone. Emily is 10 months old today. She had her "9 month" check up about a week and a half ago and weighed in at 16lbs 8oz (10th percentile) and 28in (50th percentile). Size isn't the only way I can tell my little baby's growing up; I can't help but notice the everyday changes. She's oh so close to pulling up. She actually had both knees off the ground yesterday but failed to straighten her feet. So close! But I'm ok with her taking her time!! She still does her funny crawl but it's changed a little. She now does it with only one hand, leaving the other free to carry things. I jokingly say it looks like a monkey crawl.

If it's easier, you can view the above video here.

Socially, she's grown up a lot! She has learned her first sign. I knew she knew what she was doing when she handed me the boppy and signed "milk" when I asked her if she wanted to nurse. She also truly believes that everyone understands her baby babble. She loves to have conversations. And my favorite thing that has grown is her empathy. No one can cry without her getting concerned and without her trying to hug them. It doesn't matter if they are hurt, sad or in timeout. She crawls to them, leans in with a concerned look and then wraps her arms around them. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen!


Left: The proper way to eat cheerios; dump them on the floor and throw the bowl behind you. 
Right: Em making a phone call "ra-row" = "hello"

Her sleep is also changing. She still sleeps wonderfully at night. Naps are what are changing. They were getting really bad until I realized she wanted to sleep in the bedroom alone instead of in the living room like she had been. I always have little babies sleep in the living room because not only do they seem to sleep better with noise but it also allows me to constantly watch them (call me paranoid!). She's still in transition so there are still some bad nap days but then there are some really really good naps. Lastly, solids. She really enjoys her solids now that she has more of a variety  She's been introduced to sauces and spices and loves it; especially spaghetti and chili (just the meat, sauces and rice. no beans yet).

 
Snoozing away *swoon*


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Monday, October 15, 2012

Best Shots: Oct. 15

Emily has a new fascination with mirrors so her newest toy is a mirror on the wall.

"Who's that!?"

"I think I know her!"

Kisses!



Linking up to:

and  then, she {snapped}     Sweet Shot Tuesday with Kent Weakley 


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Thursday, October 11, 2012

School Days: Australia (And Update)

I would like to start this post with a thank you to the friends who have sent post cards so far:
If you would like to help out too check out this blog post for more info.

We now have a month and a half of kindergarten under our belt. Sean has been busy. I'm proud to say that he's reading! That is something that actually surprised me. Not that I didn't think he could, but he went a while with no interest at all in sounding things out and trying to read. Instead, he wanted to spell. Then one day out of the blue, he asked to read. By that night he could read one of his beginner readers by himself. Writing is getting better too. He's starting to understand placement on lines and spacing. He enjoys writing in his journal. Math is going well too. He has been introduced to what coins are and how much they are worth, has been learning addition and just recently has been introduced to subtraction. Math is something he really likes to sit down and work on by himself. I've printed off many worksheets for him to work on. While things are going well, I am going to be buying math and reading curriculum for him soon. It's becoming a little over whelming for me to put together everything from scratch. This way, I will only have to put  history, science and art together. Our around the world unit helps combine these nicely anyway. 

A little early morning reading:

The past month and a half has really been a time of finding what works for us; tweaking the schedules until we get there. I think we finally have a daily schedule that works with have a daycare in the home too. It involves doing journals while the littlest ones nap. The older babies enjoy coloring and drawing during this time. Sean has given up naps so he now does math and reading during nap time. And finally, our around the world unit is left until after daycare kids have gone home. My goal is to work on the unit 3 days a week. I think we also have our big schedule figured out now. We finished up the Australia unit a couple weeks ago. We ended up spending 2 weeks on it and I think about 2 weeks per stop will work out nicely. Once we were done with Australia, we spent some time doing basic kindergarten topics. I believe we'll continue this rotation. It gives me a chance to plan our next stop better and gives us a chance to do science, history and art that does not fit into the big unit. It's a win-win!

On to our stop in Australia:
This was a fun unit to work on. We started with coloring a map and the flag. I started thinking about how we would store everything and decided that everything Sean does for each mini unit (each country) will be going into a big notebook, similar to the Travel Log Homeschool Creations did.

We talked about one of my favorite topics when it comes to Australia; the aboriginals. We concentrated on art and music. We used sandpaper and crayons to make cave drawings one day and then later used paint and our fingers to make dot art. Youtube was a key tool when it came time to learn about their music; the didgeridoo. Then came the fun part. Side story: while in college and taking a world music class, I happened across a didgeridoo in a tourist shop, in the outer banks of all places. I bought it. So, Sean and Maddy got to see a didgeridoo and even got to try it out. Boy is it a hard instrument to play!!








Our lap book for Australia was on the animals of Australia. We stuck to marsupials (mainly kangeroos, koalas and wombats) and the platypus. Lastly, we talked about the children of Australia. I created a worksheet just for this section of each mini unit. It's a nice way to tie in all the cultural information he learned about. The kids also made boomerangs out of cardboard but they have been lost and therefor are not pictured..


There were a few more things that I would have liked to cover such as the Great Barrier Reef but we were on the verge of burn out.

Australia Resources:
Map, flag and more printouts: http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/social_studies/places/australia/

Thank you Walking By The Way for these lap book resources:
Marsupials: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Marsupial_Lapbook.php
Platypus: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/platypus.php

A Kid Just Like Me sheet was inspired by this sheet from Homeschool Creations.

Our next stop is Germany!

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Monday, October 8, 2012

Best Shots: Oct. 8th

One day this week Em decided that she didn't want to nap when the big kids did. So while she sat in my lap talking to me, I pulled the camera out. The little stinker thought the lens cover made a great toy and just had to hold it if I had the camera near her.

My favorite picture of the week is not a great picture if you go by photography rules. To be able to get decent lighting, I had to really up the ISO which made the picture quite grainy. The story behind the picture is why I love it. Here's it's story, Wednesday morning I had gotten up after nursing Em back to sleep and was in and out of the room as I got ready for the day. Sometime during this Sean had gotten up and quietly gone into the room. I walked in to find him kissing his baby sister. I of course quickly went and got the camera. He was still kissing her when I got back so I snapped the picture below. He then just sat there watching her so I told him to just be quiet so not to wake her and I stepped out of the room again. As I walked out, he started kissing her again. Shortly later I hear her wake up. As I walked in, Sean told me, "I guess I kissed her too much". 




Linking up to:

and  then, she {snapped}     Sweet Shot Tuesday with Kent Weakley 


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Monday, October 1, 2012

Best Shots: Oct 1

I did not take out the camera nearly as much as I wish I had. So, I didn't have much to choose from for this week's Best Shots post.

Our crazy pug puppy, Gizmo

Sean reading all by himself!


Linking up to:
and  then, she {snapped}Sweet Shot Tuesday with Kent Weakley
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