Emma surprised us while reading scriptures tonight. Not only is she reading more and more words each night but tonight she discovered she has a loose tooth! It was pretty exciting. She started yelling with 4 verses to go. She was able to contain her excitement with some help. Then she proceeded to jump to where Annie was sitting to show her. We have all wiggled her tooth. She is making plans for her tooth fairy money already.

It is pretty great to be able to witness firsthand when a child learns how to read. I have been looking forward to sharing this with Emma. In the beginning of the school year when it was a huge fight I almost gave up. But it is so worth it when the light of understanding is turned on. She still sometimes questions why she needs to learn. I hope I can do a good job of inspiring her. She has read 3 books in her program, many Bob books and read Are You My Mother? last night with Annie. She wants to read Junie B. books and I think we will be there sometime soon.
She is also starting to get her math doubles facts. I encourage her to use counters so she has a sense of security but she is using them less and less. I don't want her to hate math so I am making it low pressure. If she needs counters, fine. If she takes a while, fine. After all, it is 1st grade math.

Its kind of nice not keeping track of scores and grades. If Anne or Emma misses a question they just redo it so they get it right. With The Story of the World Annie can use the book to answer the questions. She retains more from the fun stuff we do, not the drilling. Annie bombed a spelling test so I made up some new lessons and she redid the unit. No sense making her feel like a bad speller, she just did some review before we move on. And she asked me today to help her with her handwriting. Its so cool when the learning is child led.

Laura made some progress today. We have been working on getting her to hold toys in each hand. While we were in the schoolroom today she was laying on her gym/mat. She grabbed some hanging toys in each hand and talked to them for quite some time. She is also saying mmm when she is upset. It doesn't matter why she is making the sound, I am happy she is making it.

Sarah is still not there with potty training. But its her thing, not mine. She will get it when she is ready. She has a large vocabulary. Hopefully we will understand more of it as she develops better speech patterns. She still gets frustrated when we don't understand. She has cute little ways of saying things. She will say, there my doll is. I know its wrong and I do model the correct way but its so stinking cute.

What can I say, my kids are all cute. Even when they give themselves horrid haircuts, put gum in their hair or get watercolors all over their faces and look like they have beards.
No pictures to back it up, the camera is dead. Just the battery but I don't feel like changing them right now.