End of the First Quarter

I realize that I haven't blogged in over a month. Unfortunately, with school being in full swing as well as being back to my regular work schedule, time for blogging has diminished.  We are already about a quarter of the way through the school and work year already! Here is a little update on our lives, school, and everything else.

Sebastian

The dear kid is so excited to begin division!  We just finished Math-U-See Gamma and it looks like we will be able to do the entire Delta book the remainder of this year. Math is one subject that is miss or hit with him. Sometimes he LOVES it, and sometimes he hates it.  I have learned that is he is hating it there is a reason and I should slow down and let him simmer in whatever lesson we are doing for a bit.  He is still having problems being neat during multiple-digit division which can lead to silly mistakes, so we are going to continue to review and reinforce that concept for him.

He is continuing to take ballet class and he has also added in some tap. To be honest, I am surprised he is continuing to dance. He usually tries something out and then wants to quit six months in, but he is more committed to this activity. I am not asking why; I am just going with it.

My favorite subject to teach Sebastian is Latin. I am learning so much grammar!  He told me he isn't as excited for Latin as I am, but he is willing to give it his all for me.  Lol. That kid...

Sebastian just started playing Kerbel Space Program (a video game that is great for engineering and problem solving).  Realistically, I could never get into this game myself, but it is fueling his love of space. Once school is over for the day, he races to the computer to get some time in to build rockets and send them into space. Besides playing video games, he reads books constantly and loves to draw/paint. He is also interested in learning how to cook, so I have a few recipes ready for him to do on his own (with just a little oversight from me).

Kaelyn

Dance is Kaelyn's life. She lives for her dance class and has cried when I told her we would be away for a class. I am so glad there is something that she loves to do and it takes out a bit of her wacky energy. 

Although she wouldn't be eligible for kindergarten at the public school this year, we are going some kindergarten work with her at home. She is taking to reading very well (better than I expected) but has the typical wiggle of a five-year-old. I try to only contain her for about 20 minutes at a time and let her dance as needed for a break. Her favorite school time is math because she loves the worksheets. She makes me laugh!

It is intriguing to see the differences in teaching Kaelyn over Sebastian at the same age. They are similar in ways I didn't expect and Kaelyn is rising to the challenge more than I thought she could. Kids keep you on your toes, and mine aren't any different. Kaelyn is smart!  Sometimes her goofiness makes me think she isn't as smart as she actually is, and for that I am sorry. Having said that, she can sometimes think acting stupid is cute and that needs to end. There is nothing I hate more than girls "dumbing down" in order to get a boy or fit into society. I want Kaelyn to be educated as well as Sebastian and be confident in her abilities.

When she isn't dancing, singing, jumping, rolling, or otherwise being her crazy self, she loves to paint, make crafts, and use lots of glue, glitter, and tape. She wants to learn how to cross stitch, so I am hoping to do a simple craft with her to teach her. I love sharing my passions with the kids!

Miles

Oh Miles. He is so much trouble! I love my dear toddler with all my heart, but he can cause so much agitation and stress during the day.  Here are some of his favorite things to do: scream, color the walls, color the floors, spread glitter all over everything, find glue and glue glitter onto floor, scream, go behind TV and pull plugs, sit on the UPS for the electronics in the living room, scream, stand on the back of the couch, stand on the back of the futon and fall behind it, scream, pull out all toys in the den, point and grunt at things, drink roughly 565 gallon of water a day, scream..... He is a handful!  I am working on a way to contain him during

school time. I try to have the kids alternate playing with him, but Kaelyn can be a bad influence on him at times. My goal is to make some busy bags for him so that during school he can get a bag and play with those things ONLY during school. I just need to make time to get these bags together for him.

He just got his first haircut this week and he looks like such a big boy now!  Along with the hair cut we ended nursing. It seems to be going fine and I am glad for it. 

 

While at his last check up with the doctor, I had mentioned that Miles isn't talking much. Our pediatrician suggested getting him evaluated for some free services. At first I didn't think he would qualify, but he does so he is starting speech therapy.  We have a few tips we are working on with him for now.  We have gotten him to say "more" and "up," although he doesn't like to repeat his performances. Doing the same activity another day and he won't say the words. Is he really unable to talk or is he just stubborn?

Matthew and Elyse

Us old people are the same as before. Mostly. We still work. We still are exhausted. We still love each other. 

I am not volunteering at church working with a children's and youth choir. Additionally, I continue to cantor at masses and am attending a Bible study group once a week. I am trying to keep that Hope a focus in all I do.

Matthew also has a group at the church he goes to every week. Although he stopped posting much on YouTube, he still has fun with his video games. We having been playing more board and card games as a family and that is always fun.

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~St. Augustine