Celebrations, School, etc.

Today has been an extremely busy day. We started with lessons around 7:30am and kept going until about 10:30. Since I had a few errands to run, I wanted to get as much done as possible. Once we were back from the store, we got to decorating around the house. Just setting up some spider webs and other fun stuff for Friday. What was really fun to see while I decorated, was Isabella making her own creation. "Mami, I'm working on a sculpture for Halloween." Although I would like to say that Marco and Anthony helped, it was really her creative genius who did all the work!

Isabella working on her sculpture.

Marco and Anthony get in on the picture.

Lessons continue to go well with Marco and Isabella. We are still in the review part of Saxon 2, so everything is fast and easy. Isabella is also doing extremely well with Saxon 1. Phonics and reading is a bit more of a struggle with Marco, but we are making advancements. He just doesn't like it as much as Isabella does. The word wall has definitely added a fun element to our day and Marco is responding well to it (that means he doesn't whine when I tell him it's word wall time).

As for Anthony, today we revisited Yellow Ball. It is such a simple book, that he practically has it memorized. I was afraid that with the lack of words, he wasn't going to enjoy it; but he actually really does like it and likes to make comments on the pictures as we go along. Our activities for today were painting a yellow ball and an ocean scene. I used white construction paper and drew ocean animals with white crayon. When he started painting with his watercolors, the images appeared. It was lots of fun for him (and the other kids!).

Anthony painting an ocean scene.

The kids really love painting!

And since we'll be celebrating All Saints Day on Wednesday both at co-op and faith formation, we've been reading a little about each one of the saints that the children will be dressing up as. Today we concentrated on St. Therese of the Little Flower. We read some stories from Catholic Treasure Box and we made good deed beads. It was a simple enough craft that both Isabella and Marco did it with little assistance. I do think, however, that Marco liked that craft the best and has spent all day carrying around his beads trying make his presents for God.

Marco working on his sacrifice beads.

The finished product!

Sacrifice or good deed beads.

To further help us celebrate All Saints Day we also colored pictures of some saints and posted them on the kids' bedroom door. We'll be saying the Litany of the Saints every morning instead of our regular devotionals. I thought it was a good idea and a good way to celebrate All Saints Day.

So today really was a full and busy day. Tomorrow doesn't look to be any easier since I'll be squeezing in swimming lessons at 1pm and 6:30pm. I'll be doing history during Isabella and Anthony's 1pm class. For Marco's evening swim, I just need to drop him off with dad. We'll see how this new schedule goes!