Arboretum, the beach, and a tick

Today was gorgeous!!  It started out a little rainy but it quickly cleared up and warmed up.  While we were out we had to take our jackets off it was so warm.

First, we went out to lunch at Pita Delights, then went to the library before we headed out to the Arboretum.

The Arboretum is a special 7 acres in the county where people can see native plants that grow well on the coast.  I bet this place is wonderful in the spring but it was still a lot of fun today.  

This cool pond was in the middle of the park.  It had a cute turtle and a big dragon.

 Skylar had started "smiling" like this but today I finally got her to see that this wasn't a smile.

 First, we took this picture and then...

 this picture.  I showed it to her and all of a sudden I had real smiles from her again.

 I loved this little tea house.  We might have to do some research about tea houses when we get back.

 See the pretty smiles from Skylar.  She would pose and even ask for pictures to be taken of her.

 This was a pretty Christmas cactus in one of the greenhouses.

 Cairn liked this statue titled, 5 kids in a tree.

 This adorable little house was in the Children's garden.

 This tree is the one behind Cairn in the picture above.  We really like it because the bark is smooth.  We love to pet it.

 Here is the dragon in the pond from the other side.  Everyone wanted a picture with the dragon.

 After we finished up at the arboretum, we went to the Shuga Shak and picked up these cute little desserts for after dinner.  They had a lot of peppermint treats but Skylar doesn't care for peppermint much so we got one peppermint treat and then a sugar cookie.  Aren't they pretty?  All handmade and made daily.

After we picked up our dessert we headed to the beach.  It was so warm!

 Within a few minutes of us being there, these helicopters flew by.  They were so close I could feel them through my body.  It was amazing.

 After 2 1/2 hours at the beach, we headed to Trader Joe's to pick up a couple supplies for dinner and then back home for showers.  I helped Andrew wash his hair.  While I was washing his hair I felt this guy.

 I thought it was a scab from an owie he got a week ago.  So when I got him out I checked it.  It looked like a loose scab but when I went to pull it off it wouldn't come and that's when I looked more closely.  I reacted coolly but I wanted to freak out.

We got it out, cleaned out and put on some neosporin but I will be keeping a close eye on his head.  I also have the tick in a little baggie just in case we end up at the doctor's office.  I want to be able to show it to the doctor if needed.

During one of our drives today, I heard Skylar reading to herself.  She was reading the actual words not just retelling the story from memory.  I didn't want to say anything because I was worried she would be self conscious.  On another drive, Andrew heard her reading and she told him, "I learned how to read, so I am reading this book to myself now."  I smiled to myself...we have been working on reading for a few months, it finally clicked and now she can read to herself.  I love that I was the one that taught her how to read and I was able to watch her go from struggling with sounding out words to reading fluently.

Just a day

Andrew slept next to my bed last night for some reason.  The good thing about that is he sleeps in - we got up at 7:30 today.  We were up later and Skylar was up earlier so we got right to work this morning. The kids did schoolwork and I did the laundry.

Cairn finished up her 4th grade math so we had her teacher order 5th grade.  Everyone worked hard on their piano homefun.  Andrew and Skylar have a couple solos to do next week so they need some extra practice.

Cairn also finished up her skeleton for her body unit.  Skylar finished up her skin layers.  I decided to color Andrew's skin layers to help distinguish some of the different parts.  They were getting confused which were blood vessels versus nerves and such.

Andrew read some words today on his own.  Then tonight he sounded out a word and told me how to spell it.  Man, he likes to do things early before I am ready for him to do it.  I thought I had another year before he was going to read but he is doing it now so this weekend I will pull out my reader books for him and get him going.

Late in the afternoon, Dad walks in early from work.  Andrew looks outside then turns to Dad and says, "What are you doing home, it isn't dark out?"

Tonight, we watched Stars Wars: Return of the Jedi.  Andrew became Luke Skywalker, passed out markers for lightsabers and we all helped defeat the Death Star.  Andrew was jumping and spinning all over the room.

I know I saw that movie when I was a kid but I did not remember the ending at all.

Try again

Today, the kids sat down and got right to work on their schoolwork.  It was an amazing thing but I screwed up and when they walked away I called them back, I got upset when they wouldn't stay on task.  I should have kept my mouth quiet and let the consequences do the teaching again.

Cairn worked hard for about an hour before I started reminding her. She worked on area of a rectangle, reading Gulliver's Travels, new spelling words and Spanish.  She had to do yesterday's work and today's.

I got several books from the library called "we both read".  I read one side of the book and Skylar reads the other side. She is feeling very successful so today she wanted to try the reading comprehension side of Reading Eggs.  She actually did very well.  She read 3 books on her own with me only telling her a couple sight words that she hadn't seen yet.  She liked being a person instead of an egg (the characters for the program)  She also worked on length, and spelling the digraphs.

Andrew had piano this afternoon and had his first solo.  He did a pretty good job.  He doesn't quite have the same dexterity as the other kids in class but no one said anything.  You could tell his song didn't sound as good as the other kids but he got all the notes right.  I may add in some extra practice for him to see if that helps.  I certainly don't want to frustrate him because he loves it so much.

After piano we ran to Sam's to get a few things and some gummy bears for a science project.  The kids of course asked for pretzels but because they had argued and complained throughout the store I said I didn't have the energy to buy something extra.  No arguing, no pleading - they just got it that my words were gold and that was it.

The kids all finished their schoolwork but I wasted a lot of energy getting them back on task.  Tomorrow, I will work on me not getting them on task but letting the consequences do the teaching.  I am making myself some post it notes so I don't forget.  I may have to bring a book down to keep myself occupied.