Family Visit

Brian's sister, Nancy and her family, stopped for a visit on their way to Durango from Mexico.  It was so nice to have family here.  The girls really enjoy playing with their cousins, especially Mason because they are so close in age.  He's not quite a year older than Paige. It was a really nice time to visit and hang out.  We wish they lived closer!!!

 

Hailey, Paige & Mason

Brian & Nancy

Mayhem when the cousins are here...swimming at night....waaaaaayyyy past bedtime.

Missing the 3 girl cousins. 

Paige's Learning Progress

A few more pictures of Paige's reading progress.  She's really doing well and her improvement is easing my nerves about starting kindergarten.  She is for sure ahead of other kiddos which will help to make her journey easier.  Tutoring is well worth it as is a Montessori early education.  

Reading books of all the short vowels and
can read most of the site words now too. 

Paige brought this home from school. 
She is working on the 100 board and clearly has leaned the number 40. 
This is a birthday party for my 40th (which is still over a month away!). 
She also added her and Hailey's ages too. 
I'm so happy about the progress of her printing too. 
I'm trying to nip the possible dysgraphia early!

Playtime

A few pics of play over the last two weeks:

Dinosaurs are the new norm. 

Goldie Blox. 

Hailey's play time after school and before Paige gets home. 
She got out the bowls, straws, paints and water. 

POP Rocks!!!  Brought home as a treat by Dada. 

Paige will play for a good hour on the deck and bench of the pool with her Princess. 

Arizona Girl is Cold in JUNE?

Hailey has been cracking me up.  The A/C really bothers her and makes her feel cold.  Mind you, it's always over 100 degrees outside right now. I keep the air at 80 at home, but I have a feeling it's much colder at school.  She says she doesn't like school right not because the classroom is cold.  In fact, the second morning of school, she came in and woke me up carrying a sweatshirt, asking me if it was a jacket for school.  She wore it all day, with the hood on.  So this week, we have picked winter clothes to wear, pants and long sleeved shirts.  We'll see how tomorrow goes. 

 

At home with a poncho on to eat lunch. 
Granted the air in the kitchen blows right down on her spot at the table.

Sleeping under all the pillows on the couch to stay warm. 
She still naps most days. 

Excited about new clothes that auntie sent. 
Summer clothes, but you see, she put pants on under and took a sweatshirt.

All bundled.  It was 104 degrees this day. 

Missing Front Tooth



Paige fell on the tile a couple weeks ago and knocked her front tooth loose.  It finally came out this week.  I think her "kindergarten smile," as we are calling it, is so sweet!  She is growing up so fast.  I'm terrified of the changes that will occur when school starts, but I know she needs to grow a bit too.  I love this little girl so much.  May her sweet, toothless smile last a while. 

Father's Day 2014

The girls were over the moon to have Brian come to school with them for Donuts with Dad.  They were really excited to give him their gifts, a poem about Dad and a colored tie with a donut, of course!  He was very special because he got TWO donuts. 

I am constantly amazed at how this logical and extremely unemotional man has these two dramatic and emotional girls wrapped around his fingers.  He is like a magnet for them.  They LOVE to be around him and can never have enough of him.  It is so precious to me.  They have a true and loving relationship.  He will do ANYTHING for them and does. 

He had a pretty simple Father's Day in that we stayed home.  They swam and played on their computers together.  I made a dinner that he likes called Salisbury Steak Meatballs which is a Ree Drummond recipe.  My mom came over for dinner too.  It was a relaxing day. 

 

Learning Time

Besides, tutoring, Cogmed and school, the girls have been doing learning time at home.  Great Summer, eh?  Paige is doing really well with tutoring.  She is getting the full gamete of language and is now demonstrating huge reading comprehension.  They give her phrases to put together from the following types, "What?" (noun), "Where" (prepositional) and another that I cannot remember right now.  But by building these phrases on her own she is gaining on her reading fluency and comprehension.  It's quite extraordinary.  I feel like she is getting an excellent foundation.  Yay!  At home we are working on penmanship and numbers.  The Handwriting Without Tears is really helping.  I'm really glad I learned about it and highly recommend it.  Numbers seem to come very naturally for both girls.  Hooray for that! 

Numbers using the Frozen themed packet I found online.  They loved it. 

First time writing their last name.  We are still practicing this one.

Playing Goldie Blox.  They loved it!

Paige's work from tutoring.  She is building real words here.

First day back to summer school. 

AZ Natural History Muesum

With Summer, has also come a bit more TV.  I have included a show called Dino Dan in their lineup to watch.  They really like it.  So I figured since we were home I'd take them to the Arizona Natural History Museum.  I was pretty impressed with all the specimens they had!  It definitely shows what kind of dinosaurs roamed here in Arizona with some pretty spectacular bones.  They girls really liked it.  They were able to relate to the area where they had life size models of the dinosaurs with their skin on.  I did a little pre activity with them the day before using the museums educational tools and they actually could apply what they learned the day before to what we saw at the museum.  I really enjoy living in a large city so that we have close access to places like this.  I hope their lives are richer.  

 

Paige in front of a mammoth

Life size models of dinosaurs

Juvenile Tyrannosaurus.  Not a Rex, but one that lived in AZ.

Very cool fossil

Dinosaur bird

They also have an area where you can pan for real gold. 

Another area where they highlight all the movies filmed in AZ. 
They have a green screen where you are imposed on
the screen of some movies filmed here. 

Summer Play

With summer also comes play.  These are a few pics of them playing the last couple weeks.  

 

Sisters in the raft

Playing in Paige's room

Swingset with Dada

My AZ girl.  She was "cold" in 100 degree weather. 

Summer learning

The girls have been out of school for two weeks now.  Paige has been to her tutoring quite a bit and we are seeing huge strides.  She knows words with short /a/, /e/ and /o/.  She desperately wants to read more and keeps attempting.  She has been taught fun tricks that help her to decode her letters and words.  It's really working.  I'm so happy that she is enjoying reading and readily wants to try.  At home we've been reading our short  /a/, /e/ and /o/ beginning books and they both have been practicing and now know all the site words with these sounds in them. 
Her tutor has also put together a Summer Reading Challenge with the incentive of having a party at the end of the summer.  That definitely has them both motivated to listen to me read during the day and for story time at night.  Right now I'm reading Little House in the Big Woods to them. It's actually really gruesome!  But surely shows what life was like in the Pioneer Days. 
I'm really proud of them both and so glad they are learning and enjoying reading. 

Paige's work at tutoring

Each practicing their printing

Summer Reading Challenge

Hailey working on math

Paige spelling out site words

Sleeping sisters

Mama is definitely missing the JackNJill connected bedrooms.  I still lay with Hailey while she falls asleep.  In the other house, Paige could still see me as she fell asleep.  In our new house I find that Paige is calling for me while I'm with Hailey because their rooms are separate. So, one night I just let them fall asleep in Hailey's bed after story time.  It worked!  I'm trying it again tonight so see how it goes.  It still took the same amount of time to get them to sleep, but I think both were more calm and relaxed.  We'll see.  I'll move Paige to her own bed before I go to bed myself.