Gramp making our fairy fly!
Sylvi trying to figure out how to act like a fairy!
Always posing!

Wyatt was mad and didn't want his picture made ... lol
I snuck this one in while he wasn't looking
Wade flying Wyatt thru the air!

My ACE !

Pics from Halloween!

Sylvi was a fairy ... Wyatt the GREEN Power Ranger and Wade a Top Gun Ace fighter pilot ...

Sylvi's reading!

It's amazing how fast things change. Yesterday I was worried that maybe Sylvi had a short term memory problem and that I'd need to have her tested for a learning disability. Today she is reading like a champ, lightening fast!
I wish I knew what clicked.

Pics from the waterfall

Trip to the Space Center

Saturday afternoon Kent and I had a hankering to do something productive with the children and after a little thought decided to drive over to Huntsville and take them to the Space Center.

They were so excited.

It was our plan to arrive in Huntsville early enough that the kids could swim and play in the pool but thunderstorms and lightening prevented that alltogether.

A nice dinner at a nearby restaurant and a less than great hotel room meant Mom and Dad didn't rest too well, but the kids seemed to enjoy the break.

Wade began the morning by going down to get his brother and sister some breakfast. Since the "table" was occupied by the laptop etc. He set up the ironing board for them to eat on! lol

We got to the Space Center around 11 and went right into the IMAX theater. At the space center the IMAX is concave and is exceptionally cool to watch a movie on. We watched the magic of flight which only spurred Wade's quest for pilot's wings.

Kent and I really enjoyed the movie too, as did Wyatt and Sylvi. It was a bit loud at times.

The Space center has a lot more to offer than when Kent and I were kids. Everyone learned a lot. Wade def. wants to go to their Aviation camp.

Even Sylvi is saying these days that she wants to fly an airplane too. Of course she says she is going to be - A horsey doctor, a chef, President and the mail lady.

Wyatt was really tired and loved a lot of it but he couldn't ride some things.

It was interested to see how intergal Huntsville was / is in the space program. Sylvi will learn some space / aeronautical vocabulary to go with this vist.

Wade will write a couple essays.

We will use things Wyatt liked to help him recall letters, numbers and such.

- additionally we are working hard on learning prefixes and root words to help increase vocabulary. Wade will be working on measurements in inches and feet this week. He will have to be precise because he will be helping Kent.

Sylvi is learning new site words with like letter combos ... our goal is to have her reading fluently on 2nd grade level by spring.

Wyatt is still learning all his letter shapes and sounds. We are working hard on all aspects ... both writing, recognizing and coordinating sounds. Our goal is to have Wyatt reading site words and counting to 100 and understanding concepts of addition and subtraction by Spring.

Blessings,

Tess

rackin up the hours

Homeschooling is going well. Sylvi is behind Wade with actual hours doing school work. I hope to change that a bit in the next few weeks.
I am working on some creative projects that will help Sylvi with counting, addition, reading etc but will still be great fun for her.
Wyatt has learned a few more letters. He's a stubborn lil cuss so it is hard to know what he actually understands vs. what he doesn't.
Wade's writing skills are improving slowly. I am introducing him to the thesaurus this week and will have him work on editing sentences.
My goal would be to have his essays on 8th grade level by Jan. or Feb.
Being an excellent conversationalist means you can write ... just learning to put it all on paper is the hard part. Wade is an excellent conversationalist.

I want to get Sylvi reading and learning parts of speech as quickly as possible. The beauty of Wyatt and Sylvi being close in age is that I can use a lot of what has helped Sylvi to help Wyatt.

I do feel I may have to buy a phonics program to get Wyatt reading fluently. We are using Starfall.com with a lot of success.

Working on - counting money
add and substract
reading
parts of speech
writing

Wade
basic chemistry
writing improvement
long division
--
adding in
social studies - world history

And it begins

Today we really buckled down and put Sylvi to work learning to count money, and write her site words.
Wade is learning some glossary terms to help him form an understanding of basic chemistry. He is also learning why multiplication tables are important ... he's trying out long division for the first time.
Wyatt worked on counting money as well on a more base level. He practiced some letter writing, some alphabet recognition and some matching skills.

We got about 3.45 hours in today

Teaching Wyatt

Wyatt got curious this evening about how baby animals eat. This lead to a graphic discussion about the habits of momma and baby birds. He was more than interested in the fact that goats are so omnivorous.
He was also confident that the baby birds were unhappy with their nest meals ... too funny.
He seems to be more and more interested in learning and school ... now that we are working on things at home.

Getting Ready

16 more days of public school.
Worked with Wade on vowel pairs today in hopes of improving his spelling ability. Got the registration in at the GEC.
Will sign Wade up for the Robotics class on the 7th and still trying to figure out something for Sylvi. I didn't register Wyatt this year.
This will be where we record a journal of what we've learned and what we are working on. It will be accessible to family & friends.

Sylvi has completed the stories in the first phase of Starfall. I am planning on going over the stories again and implementing some writing exercises as well.

It's actually fun to work with Wade. He's so smart. Wyatt is a challenge he doesn't want to do any real "work" so I have to get Kent to help me.