Things are going well. Went to our first storytime this week. It was fun to get out, but it was a bad day. Maizie and Casten both woke up at 4:30 that morning. Maizie had already taken one nap before we left, but we had to leave because she was being mean to the other kids. :( It's so difficult to be the mom of the mean kid. Casten sometimes would get over excited in his playing and get rough, but not in a mean way. Maizie will push and scream because she doesn't want to share, and she HATES when other kids try to touch her. This one poor little boy was trying to give her a hug and she screamed and pushed him away. I was mortified.
It's been a struggle trying to get everyone on routine this week. Hopefully it'll get better next week if Jay goes back to work :) He went for an interview at the Target here. We'll find out soon.
We have our first parent/teacher conference tomorrow. I'm excited to hear how she's been doing. Driving me nuts not being able to know each day how it's gone.

IT'S ALMOST OCTOBER

We've been having a great time in our newly organized downstairs. The toys are organized and put away in such a way it's not overwhelming for the kids, and they have been doing a great job putting away toys before taking new ones out.
Also being down there, we've been able to focus on our routine and school work. Casten can now recognize most of his letters and knows all of their sounds. Some letters he knows the sounds but not the name :) We've been working on his writing a lot since he's showing A LOT of interest. He's now able to write all the letters in his name and is getting close to writing it on his own. His new favorite toy is our magna doodle. He loves making a few marks and then erasing it all.
Alyssa is doing okay in school. Right now they haven't learned anything she doesn't already know. She told me the other day "Mommy it's so boring when they are teaching things I ALREADY KNOW" LOL She was so funny. She's making friends so that's good.
We met up with a new homeschool group on Friday. We had a blast. It was a very nice group, and I think we'll fit in nicely with them. Alyssa made a friend right away, and they were inseperable. Hopefully they will be able to start a nice friendship.
This week we'll start our afterschool routine full swing. We will do a brief introduction to the globe/world. October we will study North America. We will *finally* start our study of Beatrix Potter. For science we'll study what is alive. We'll also start doing music....but not sure what we'll do about that, LOL. Still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do for that. I also found out when Barnes and Noble has storytime up here, so I'll be taking Casten and maybe Maizie this week.
Very excited about the start of the week. I've been looking to find a job in the evenings, so hopefully having to go back to work won't effect our school plans.

Reading and the Zoo!

We've done a little bit of table time with Casten this week. I think we are finally into a good routine and have adjusted to the early days of school! I was very excited to sit down to do his reading lessons and he remembered them! He's such a smart little bug!
Next week we'll continue our reading lessons and number recognition. He recognizes his numbers 0-9. We are working on writing the numbers and will expand to numbers 10-20 next month. He loves math, so it's easy to get him to sit down and focus! (Alyssa on the other hand....I'm glad her teacher has to deal with it now! LOL!!! She gets so frustrated with math!) It's just the opposite with reading. Casten doesn't enjoy it as much, but I don't usually have to fight with Alyssa and she often asks to do extra lessons!
Thursday night we were reading Alyssa's library book and she read about half of it on her own! I was so excited!!! She really could read more on her own, but she doesn't think she can if I'm not sitting with her! LOL!
Yesterday we used my birthday money to get a Zoo membership. I was very excited about that! Casten had a GREAT time seeing the dinosaurs! Maizie LOVED the fish. I think Grandpa needs to take her on her first trip to the aquarium soon! I'm excited to take advantage of this though! Next week we are begining our study of the continents. We'll start with North America and I thought we'd pick an animal from each continent and study that then go to the Zoo and see it and see what else they can teach about it!
I'm really excited about the enrichment activities we have planned. It's going to be a FUN fall/winter!