I don’t think this will be a weekly feature, at least not now. I just don’t find myself having enough time at the computer (usually late in the evening, when the girls are in bed, is the only time I can write uninterrupted). Also I am trying to be more present with the girls during our main learning time (mornings I would say) and that includes not having the phone or camera get between us. So maybe bi-weekly is a good goal for now. Tuesday is 5.5 and Bennet is 2.

Tuesday asked me about money. So we got some out and investigated it. I wasn’t sure what she was trying to find out at first so I got out a bunch of different materials. We weighted rolls of coins, looked at them with a magnifying glass, talked about quarters being a quarter of a dollar and looked at other types of money. She wasn’t so interested in how much they are worth right now, and I don’t think she understands that a nickel is five pennies.

While most of the time we are doing things that Tuesday wants to investigate, Bennet gets to have fun too. Here she was using some fashion plates a friend gave us. I’m trying to be more aware of where Bennet is an what she wants to do.

She surprised me the other day by wanting to zoom through some cut and paste books. She really liked using the glue stick once she got the hang of it!

I stayed up late one night re-arranging our basement. We are just too loud to work right next to Bj’s home office all day (he has to take calls that require us to be VERY quiet). I have goals set to rotate materials. Especially for Bennet who can not sit and work on one project as long as Tuesday wants too.

I moved Tuesday’s desk over to this area. The bookshelves behind her are full of our encyclopedia’s and childcraft books. She loves diving into these things. We had fun reading an old Indian legend in one and learning about lungs in another.

I’m never sure exactly how much Tuesday soaks up, since I don’t test her. Well we had an interesting conversation with a friend that we picked up from school one day. She was talking about the various ways kids get in trouble and told us that one had said another girl had “dirty blood”. Tuesday looked thoughtful for a minute and then said, “perhaps he was just saying her blood wasn’t oxygenated enough.” I thought it was quite amazing that she put that together with what we had casually read about the day before!

Bennet checked out our new block area. I made the little platform to get her started, but so far neither girl has taken much of a liking to this area. And oh I am determined for them to try it out! I’m going to use some of these great ideas to spice it up a bit.

Tuesday draws all day every day and recently made this for me, which I love. It’s her representation of our house, from the front. I think my favorite detail is the small bit of polka dot curtain peeking out from the front picture window.

She asked me for a coloring book with people and I have a ton of the dover ones, they are easy to spot on the Goodwill shelve with the little red, yellow and blue strip on the spine, and are always 99 cents. Well I’ve amassed quite the collection, but was saving them until Tuesday was older, because they are so detailed. I showed her one and then went to put Bennet down for a nap. Twenty minutes later I came to find her like this. She found the same page colored and was copying it as exactly as she could. She is not happy with the skin tones and I told her at art supply shops you can buy individual colored pencils, so we’re hoping to do that this week.

She also wrote more letters. This is how I help her do that independently. She has a little notebook she helped me make with pictures of friends and family and then address stickers. I got this idea from Meg.

Tuesday wanted to work on a scrapbook of her babies so she set up this little scene and let all her dollies take a turn in the tub. I particularly like the water coming out of the faucet.

Bennet just loved this sandbox at a birthday party we went to. We were some ways off, watching her in the distance for a good half hour happily digging and pouring. It makes me want to get a sandbox… almost.

I’m happy to say that Bennet seems to like books as much as her sister. Here she is with one of her favorites, a little animal book just the right size for her hands.
Speaking of reading, I thought I’d share our current reads.
-Tuesday is reading Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing for a second time, this time Papa is reading it to her. I’m reading her These Happy Golden Years in the little house series. We read about three chapters a night.

This is what Tuesday has tucked up next to her top bunk (it’s a high window that also works as a shelf!). The Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa series. One of the annuals from the set of encyclopedias we got. Dance Spirit magazines, The Quiet Book, It’s so Amazing and It’s not the Stork. Tuesday has not asked me to read any of these to her. She can not “read” to herself yet, but that doesn’t stop her from reading alone quite often in rest time or with a lantern before bed.

Bennet LOVES these cozy classics. We have almost all of them, and she knows them by heart. The illustrations are all needle felted and pretty much amazing. Of course my favorite is Pride and Prejudice. She also regularly requests “Where’s Spot?” by wagging her finger wildly (the ASL sign for where) and saying “Where’s Spot????”. We picked it up from one of the Little Free Libraries around town.
I so love this free learning style! It is working very well for us right now.