I feel a little better about math

So we are starting homeschool kindergarten 3 weeks from today! How do I have a kindergartner already!?!?

I've been really worried for a few years about teaching math. Yeah I know kindergarten math should be easy, right? But I was more worried about giving her a bad start... Her not really getting it, which is what happened to me. How I coasted through math for 14 years I'll never understand. I never understood anything. I remember nothing I learned. I know I'll have to relearn everything along with Madeleine.
So my friend Rebecca (shovedtothem.blogspot.com) has been "talking me down" since I confessed this to her. She pointed me in the direction of Miquon math, which teaches math as a language in a way kids can understand. I went ahead and ordered the first book and the teachers manual then had a mini breakdown the day I got em in the mail. Then Rebecca wrote this awesome blog post:

http://shovedtothem.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-blame-math-teachers.html?m=1

(you're welcome for inspiring that post, Rebecca! :)

So I just figured I'd follow along with the program and see how it goes. Miquon uses cuisinaire rods as a manipulative. Rebecca told me to go ahead and let Madeleine play with them and see what happens. I showed her the rods (each one is a different length and color and represents a different number.) I told her which rod went with which number and she had em memorized in about 2 minutes. Then I showed her the "10" rod and asked her to see how many ways she could figure out to make 10.

She figured it out immediately! She was saying, "1 and 1 and 8 make 10!"
And
"2 and 3 and 5 make 10!"

She probably found 20 different ways to make 10. I was amazed! Then she started building other structures with the rods so I thought she was just messing around. But then I heard her talking, saying things like,
"I don't have any more 5s, so I'll just use a 2 and a 3 to make 5."

She blows me away on a daily basis. And I feel better about teaching (and learning) math... For kindergarten anyway :)

Thanks Rebecca!!!

Beautiful baby girl

Placenta moved out of the way and she looks good! So thrilled I will not need a c section (unless there's some other unforeseen circumstance.)

She's measuring about 5 days ahead of schedule, so just over 20 weeks. About par for the course with our kids.

Oh and she's super cute! We gave Madeleine her own picture to keep and she kept kissing it! She's soooo excited for her baby sister. She told the ultrasound tech that she had asked God for a baby sister and He answered her prayer :)

Madeleine's favorite day of the year

Farm day with Nicole C!
She loves the baby pigs and may have kissed a few! She was telling ken all about it at supper and I was joking about her marrying Jack and being a farmers wife. She said, "will you tell me when Jack is grown up so I can marry him?" lol

Oh and someone was terrified of the pigs...

Annual first steps evaluation

Leo had his annual eval yesterday to see if he still qualified for speech and feeding therapy. We love our speech therapist and want to keep her once a week til he ages out of the program at age 3. They had an occupational therapist and a speech therapist evaluate him for about an hour. He does say several words now but still qualifies for therapy (wooooo!!!)

So his speech therapist read the report and said it said he has above average intelligence, cognitive ability and understanding :)
I knew it! Lol

We are thrilled we get to keep our therapy!

And yesterday he built a big block tower. I'm very happy he's starting to be able to entertain himself for short periods of time. This could make my meal preparation go much more smoothly :)

Typical family gathering

My cousins clinging to guns and religion.

John Paul isms from today

Leo starts crying in the yard. John Paul runs up and says, "Mommy did you SEE me do anything to Weo??"

In the bathtub with Madeleine. She's saying, "you have to scrub your back, legs, feet, tummy...."
John Paul, "Don't forget your PEEnee!"

Very late July 4 pics

And we aren't making much progress on baby girl names over here!

If you had a baby girl....

What would you name her?

Fun at the farm

Jp: do the chickens peck you?
Me: no but mommys gonna peck you!
Jp: mommy! You don't even have a pecker!

So I don't forget

What the kids said when they told them they were going to have a baby sister:

Madeleine got a huge smile on her face and said, "God answered my prayer!!"
Then,
"Can we get the baby baptized in church??"

John Paul first said, "I want a boy!"
Then, "can I hold her?" and "is she going to come out of your tummy today??"
Then later he said, "I put Baby Sister in mommys tummy!"
And Madeleine said, "no, God did!"

And we all celebrated with strawberry cupcakes!!!

It's a......

Beautiful baby girl!!!!!

Who thinks...

This is what my ultrasound will look like on Wednesday?

Vacation bible school

We are all having a great time! I got there yesterday and they made me a "lead teacher" of crafts. It is working out pretty well so far!
Leo had kind of a hard time being in the nursery yesterday so he stayed with Grandma today. John Paul is having a great time in the nursery! They feed them snacks, take them outside to play, do crafts, and go to story time. They have so many teens in there's it's pretty much one on one!
He did miss me today so came to "help" for the last 2 classes. Tomorrow is green day!

14 weeks

Father Dominic!

Leo's godfather got ordained a priest on Saturday! So proud of him and happy for our Church!!
Madeleine and I went with mom and Jenny and had a girls day out :)

Madeleine waved to Deacon Dominic on the way in and we all received one of his first blessings. The next day we all went to his first mass and reception. What a great weekend!!

Good report!

We had madeleines post op appointment today. The doctor says she is doing great and there's a huge improvement. Her eyes focus straight ahead and her depth perception is perfect. She was a tiny bit more nearsighted than last time but she said that happens with the healing process and she will get back to normal in a few weeks. She doesn't have to go back until the fall and them not until the next summer! So glad these two surgeries are behind us!

In other news we found slugs and some kind of giant white beetle in the garden today. I scooped em out and the kids stared at them and picked them up with sticks for about two hours. I got my whole kitchen cleaned, mopped and put away all the laundry! Thank you slugs!!

How Leo is celebrating 18 months

My baby is a year and a half!

Working for the weekend

So a friend gave me the genius idea of putting music on and everyone cleans for a half hour. John Paul always requests Beatles radio on pandora and we have a great time! This morning Jp mopped and picked up and M picked up the screened porch. I cleaned the kitchen, got BBQ short ribs in the crock pot, baked a loaf of bread, folded all the laundry and organized the school stuff. I think this will be a great routine to get into! It's fun for all of us and the house is getting into shape :)

Poor sick boy

He's on breathing treatments every 4 hours, steroids and antibiotics. Looks like he's following in his brothers footsteps :(

John Paul-isms today

After I finished reading Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV

John Paul, longingly: Mommy someday can I watch too much tv??

And about 100x a day:

John Paul: I WUV you Madowin!!!