Back to School

Amanda and Caitlyn headed back to school on Monday, and they were back in full swing right away. I missed having that first Monday after New Year's off, as they did last year.

Eliza also went back to work on Monday. I got her a blank calendar over the break, and she was excited to get started on it. We took one month each day of the week and she did a little art project to illustrate the month, and then we read some books that went along. She also worked on writing all the numbers 1-31. She's doing a great job! We'll continue working on it for the next couple of weeks. We took today off to run errands and then went to two different parks, since it was sunny and over 60.



I had planned to introduce reading lessons this month, also, since I wanted to wait until after she turned five. Eliza, on the other hand, decided she was ready last month and started reading a week or so before she turned five. She sped right through the first couple of Bob books, so we'll continue working our way through the first set of those for now, along with some other beginning readers that I like to use, which Caitlyn preferred to the Bob books. We only had two reading lessons this week and I expect that will be how it is for a while, at least until we're done with the calendar.
Eliza got a journal/diary for Christmas that she's been using to store words. She fills the pages with different words she wants to use so that she can copy them when she wants to write them, so she doesn't have to keep asking me how to spell them. (Mommaw and Aunt Kay were some of her first words!)


Eliza and I spent one afternoon this week preparing and playing with one of the Christmas presents we got her - Little House on the Prairie paper dolls. Or, as she calls them, her Laura and Mary dolls. She was quite pleased with them and spent several hours this week playing with them. Her only complaint was that there are so many pieces and articles of clothing and she didn't have any storage space. The little fold-out scenery didn't come with built-in closets. It was so sweet listening to her play with them. I tried to get some video of her, but she didn't like that very much.


Amanda started ice skating lessons this week. She had to start at the beginning, since she'd never taken lessons before, but she'd mastered all the first level skills by the end of the half hour. Hopefully they will move her up to more challenging skills at the next lesson. Here's a picture of her after her lesson...



We're looking forward to making the most of another gorgeous day tomorrow. All those books about snow that I got out after Christmas will have to wait a while.