Who Needs Summer Camp?

On Monday we called Comcast to schedule internet shut off for Thursday. As soon as Captain hung up we lost our wireless connection. Coincidence? He called back to see if it was a glitch and we had already been terminated and removed from the system. Really?? Meanwhile he was still supposed to be working online. The kids were using the wireless for the ipad and their ipods so they weren't pleased either. Therefore, I haven't been able to stay connected or update the blog until now. I've been totally relying on my phone to stay connected and using tons of data. I'll do my best to catch up...

I really don't see why all our friends stress out about finding summer camps for their kids all day. Just do what we do, drop them off at the airport and come back for them 7 hours later! Okay, before you call CPS, that's not really the entire story. We had planned on Mr. T and Divagirl flying early to their grandparents and we booked them on United months ago. I even called the airline to clarify their somewhat beguiling policies. We got there an hour and a half before the flight and its already delayed 45 min. We find the Special Services desk and ask for a gate pass. Because Mr. T was allowed to travel as his sister's guardian only one parent can get a gate pass. Hmm, ok, Mr. S and I waited until Captain got them through security and settled comfortably at the gate. Then we bid them farewell and went home to pack. We'd been following the flight info through notifications and the flight kept getting delayed. Long story short, after many hours at the gate and 2 hours on the plane the flight was cancelled. Stop packing, return to airport, pick up kids and carry on. (to be continued...)

6/26

Locks of Love and Ballet Wrap Up

Divagirl (on the left) is our little ballerina. She takes 2 classes a week, but during the month leading up to the Spring performance she can take up to 4 classes a week. And she still wants more! That means that up to 4x per week her slick, slippery Chinese hair is wrangled into a sleek bun. There has been a considerable amount of breakage over the year, so back in February we started talking to her about donating her hair to a child that needs a hairpiece due to medical conditions. She loved the idea as long as it went to a girl "because its girl hair".
The day after the performance we went to the salon and had nearly 11" cut off. She was a little concerned initially, but after it was dried and she got to swish and swing it, she was sold. Since we are heading to FL in a week, she will be much more comfortable in the heat and humidity. She even made a little card to send in with her donation. I don't know if anyone will ever receive it, but its the thought that counts.

I think she looks adorable, but I might be a little biased. ;)

6/22

2 Weeks Left

Two weeks until we leave and the landlords have already re-rented this place. We've sold a handful of things on Craigslist. We're trying to eat up the food we have in the house. We're trying to sort through our belongings for those that will make the cut. But we have a problem. Its HOT. We are experiencing a heat wave here and we don't have a/c, heck we don't even have a breeze. Its in the 80's in the house and no one wants to pack, no one wants to eat the meals I have to make, and we're all a little cranky.

I'm starting to wonder how this move is going to come together...

Sort and Sell

This is a process of minimizing. The first step is to sell any belongings that you don't love, need or use on Craigslist. Wait for people to call and inquiry. Arrange time for pickup. Wait for said pickup time and wait and wait and wait...Yes, that's usually how it works for us and C*list. Although we have managed to sell 2 tables and the patio furniture.

I've been going through knick knacks and home decorations and deciding which I want to reuse and lovingly pack and catalog them away and which ones I'm really tired of looking at. My stumbling block at the moment is the box of old photos and the box of last year's art work (for 3 kids), both of which need scanned or photographed so that the originals can be tossed. This type of project overwhelms me!

The goal is to get most or all of the big stuff sold first then have a yard sale for the remaining little things, donating whatever doesn't sell after that.

I've packed up several more boxes to go into storage. Doesn't it always seem that things get messier before they get tidier? The garage is on my list for this weekend. Although, the kids may win out and we may just hang at the pool and wait for Captain to return from his business meeting. It is supposed to be in the 80s and 90s this weekend.

And then there are days...

...when you feel like you are talking to a wall.

Just when you've finished patting yourself on the back on how well Divagirl has been progressing, you take a day to review some concepts she'd mastered months ago. Sounds easy, right? Evidently not. She's had her numbers to one hundred since January. Every once in a while she'd forget some of the bigger middle numbers so we'd been working on numerical order NOT starting with 1. Things had been fine. Until today. I challenged her today by having her start at 33 and end at 51 and all went well until 39. So I reviewed tens place and ones place and asked her what comes after 3...(4) and what comes after 9...(10) and showed her the pattern of the other numbers such as 30 is 3 tens, 20 is 2 tens, 60 is 6 tens, you need 4 tens, what would that look like? Um, 5? (insert head slap) No. Repeat previous lesson, she says she gets the concept, there should be a 4 and a 0, do you know of a number that has a 4 and a 0? Yes, 90! (hitting head on table) No. I finally guided the process more by putting the number in front of her and asked her to find the number 40. Yes, I totally cheated and she totally needs more work in this area, but not today.

Lessons al Fresco

 

It was so gloriously wonderful outside today we just HAD to do our lessons on the patio. We reviewed our presidents 1-15 and learned 16-20. Is it weird that I have a crush on Franklin Pierce??

 

Then we moved on to our Spelling lesson and worked on spelling with the short 'a' and short 'i' sounds. She's getting really good at segmenting words into sounds.

 

Next came handwriting. She wrote 4 new letters for the first time today: h, k, f and qu. We learn them as phonograms so 'qu' is the team we learn instead of 'q' since its very rarely used on it's own in English.

 

Finally, we finished lesson 11 in her Reading Lesson. I can't say enough praise about this book. It breaks new concepts down into manageable increments and uses temporary hints to help decipher different sounds. After you've had enough exposure to the new concepts the hints slowly disappear.

 

Time to read aloud together. Snack time is over and my computer time has expired, lol.

I hope you are having blissful weather wherever you may be.

Reading Update

Divagirl is a Daisy Girl Scout and yesterday she had a troop meeting. They worked on Sunny's petal, friendly and helpful, and the girls who wanted to participate could take turns reading Sunny's story out loud to the group. Divagirl took turns reading! I was so proud of her progress I could've burst :) She did so well reading fluently for the most part, sounding out the bigger words when necessary and getting a little help now and then. And to think in January she couldn't retain a handful of sight words! I really had my doubts whether or not she'd be reading anything at all until next Fall. It just validates that I made the right decision to homeschool her.