Parties and Popcorn Plants

Kirsten had a great time at her end of the year party in ballet. It was hard to get her to be still long enough to get a picture! The girls sat and watched their dance from the recital and had plenty of cupcakes, cookies and candy. I would have gotten pictures then, but the teacher had turned out the light, and when I tried to take pictures, they just wouldn't turn out.

Well, we have been using the new schedule for the past few days now, and it seems to be working. Brianna is still hard to keep on task, but for some reason, it doesn't take us as long to get math done. We are almost finished with our study of quails (birds) and the letter "Q". Time has begun to really fly for me. The end of the school year is two weeks away, and I can't believe it. We only have one more unit in our lessons, and then we will be doing about four days of just math and reading lessons. That will be a nice change of pace. Then we have a whole week off! Yea!

I thought an update on the popcorn would be nice:

I am going to have to throw it out here shortly. We can't have a corn plant growing on the kitchen window sill for ever!

Short and Sweet with Candy On Top

Thankfully, today was a short day. We wrapped up our study of vegetables today with finishing the bean experiment (did you know there is a tiny baby plant in there?!), and read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The girls really enjoy Beatrix Potter's tales. Their grandmother found a video collection of them animated, and they have been watching them over and over again.

Tomorrow, we will begin studying the letter "Q", and learning about quails and birds in general. This is our next to the last unit study, and I am so excited! I am looking forward to the end of school, but I am especially looking forward to the beginning of first grade. I am really excited about the new curriculum and the different scheduling. I really hope it helps with the dawdling. There are a lot of hands on activities, which I know the girls will like. I like doing them, too. We are even going to be mummifying a chicken! I know, right?! I will be sure to take lots of pictures to share that one. lol

Brianna had her End of the Year ballet party today. It was fun. The girls got to see the video of their dances for the first time (well, we've seen our video, but not the "official" one from the school), and it was fun to watch all of them giggle and laugh over themselves. Plus, they got to eat lots of snacks and candy.

Brianna, you are supposed to eat the candy, not put it on your head!

Come back next time for some interesting facts about quails. Are there any interesting facts about quails?

Watch Me Grow

We finished up our study of the letter "X" and foxes, and have now begun studying the letter "V" and vegetables. I think the girls are really enjoying it. We have sprouted popcorn, and are soaking pintos in water to be able to open them to see the tiny "baby" plant inside.

I have started trying a new schedule for school. I have been having some trouble getting Brianna to stay on task. She is so bad about wasting time and dawdling. We were doing math first thing in the morning after reviewing our Bible verse. Something that should take about 40 minutes, has slowly turned into 2 hours!!! Yuck! Everything else in our schedule only takes between 10 and 30 minutes to do, depending on how involved the subject is that day. I was talking to Michael about the problem, and he suggested doing math at a different time. I know, right?! Duh!!! Anyway, on Friday, I gave that a try, and I was amazed at how much it helped. It was so great to get everything done in about 2 and half hours like it is supposed to, and not 4 or 5. She did still dawdle, but not quite as bad, and it was easier to bring her back on task. I hope that it continues to be that way. I am open to mixing it up some, though. If I have to, we will swap up days were sometimes we do math first, sometimes last. I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see.

We are headed ever faster to the end of the year. I can't believe how fast it has gone by! Tomorrow is the last day of ballet for Brianna, and Tuesday is Kirsten's. They are having parties to celebrate their accomplishments of the year. I am going to try to remember to bring the camera. We are signed up and ready for next year. They had lots of fun, and are sad that they won't be going to ballet through the summer. Maybe swim lessons will soften the disappointment. LOL

Dance the Afternoon Away

We have had a full weekend! On Friday, we went to the final support group field trip of the school year. (My how time flies!) We went to the Alys Stephens Center to watch Alice's Even Bigger Tea Party, and this time, Daddy got to go with us! The play was wonderful. We had front row center and we got to sing along with the characters. We all had a great time.

After the play, we got some lunch, and headed to the ballet rehearsal. Boy was I stressed! Two girls in the dance, three different dances and three different costumes. Yea, I was up to my eyeballs in spandex, sequins and feathers. It was great! I am thankful for the summer break, though. It will be nice to be able to stay at home on Monday and Tuesday nights. We will have a breather, and get rested for next year. The girls have already told me they want to take again next year. I love it! Here are a few pictures of the girls in their costumes:

After the rehearsal, we took the girls to their grandparents' house, and me and Dad got a chance for an evening together. We went out to dinner and got to watch a movie. We had Chinese food, yum!, and saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was so cute! Even Michael enjoyed it, though he blows it off. I heard him laughing during the movie. He can't fool me!

There are only about 3 weeks left in the school year, and I am so ready for a break. I have decided that we are going to go year round, so there won't be a very long break, but we will have a week off. Brianna's birthday is also this month, so we will be celebrating the big 6 soon. It is going to be a pretty crazy month, but I am looking forward to it.

Oh, on Thursday, we had a good time finishing up our study of foxes. I have pictures of the girls doing their science experiment. We did an experiment to see if bigger ears would help us hear better. Foxes have large ears, and very good hearing. We found out that if our ears were bigger, we would be able to hear better and more.

I will leave you with pure joy:

Isn't that fun?!