Joseph's FIRST three paragraph paper

Writing has always been like pulling teeth with Joseph...until this year. Last year, I would pick and choose which writing assignments we did because I would lose him and it would turn into a huge battle of wills to try and get it done.
He had an assignment last week to write a 3 paragraph paper on perseverance. It was supposed to be how HE persevered in something, but we couldn't think of anything. ;)So, he wrote about Alexander Graham Bell instead. I am so proud of him! He wrote the outline himself, then I took dictation so that he could get the words down on paper that he wanted and then he typed it up.

The new "master" bedroom

Here is another change in our space. Ken and I moved into Joseph's room.
And if you were jealous of the lovely pastoral setting that we are now calling home, you will be simply green to find out that we have a zillion twinkling stars on the walls and ceiling when the lights are out. ;)

Some of us are handling the changes better than others. I am happy to report that all of the two legged members of the family are fine with it. One of our four footed members is happy as long as she can lay in between two humans. The other four footed member, however, is completely befuddled. He tried to run into our "old" room last night when we told him it was bedtime, then he ran back downstairs when that didn't seem right and he ran back up again. He did this several times and finally laid down in what we are now calling "The Dormitory". I went to bed and after a few minutes, he was barking to get out, but he ran back downstairs as soon as the door was opened. He had to be physically escorted to his new space in his new room.
This morning wasn't any better, he ran out as soon as Ken woke up (normally, he sleeps until I get up and doesn't really stir until I am ready to go downstairs). I had to get up at 6 to let him out and then he wouldn't come back up with me. Poor old Toby. It may take him a few days to get used to this. ;)

A new school room

Since we have grandparents moving in with us at the end of this month, we are doing a LOT of rearranging, reorganizing and repurposing of space.
In fact, every room except for Alex's room and the family room is affected by it.
Here is our new school room (which used to be the living room).
(Joseph is working on his new species of bird....sssshhhh...don't tell him that you are not supposed to do schoolwork during spring break. ;))

What a Scottish Rite day looks like

Four days a week, our daily routine includes a trek to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for the Dyslexia Program that Libby attends.
I have been meaning to post what a morning looks like since we started doing this last September...so here it is.
We load up the car at 8:30.

On a good day, we can be at the hospital in 45 minutes.
This was not a good day and the reason we leave at 8:30(we were actually sitting still when I took the picture).

This was the latest we have ever gotten there. We parked at 9:57....her teacher comes for her at 10:00, so we had to run.

The first of two elevator rides on the way up.

Libby's teacher meets us in the waiting area by the second elevator. She was there when we got off the elevator and Caroline had serious need of a tissue, so I didn't get a picture. Libby heads off with her teacher and we head down to do school.

We spend the next hour in the main waiting area/check-in area/temporary cafeteria area of the hospital.
Today, the kids are reading their two chapters of Abel's Island.




Here is the big distracting contraption that we don't even notice anymore. ;)


After they finished the chapters and we discussed them, they started brainstorming to write a three paragraph paper on perseverence.
Caroline is writing about Helen Keller and got started right off on her outline.



Joseph had a bit more of a mental block.


Normally, we would have done several things....handwriting and math included. Writing that much is quite time consuming for them and that is all we did today.
After an hour, we headed back up to get our Libby.
Mrs. Putnam said that Libby and her two classmates did incredibly today and she hopes it rains everyday. ;)


Then we are back in the car for the ride home. We are home by noon.

Abel's Island

The kids are reading Abel's Island in conjunction with their unit on Animal Adaptations in Moving Beyond the Page. Today they made a boat like one of the one's that Abel tried to make to escape from the island.
I have been holding onto this awesome piece of bark for a few weeks waiting for a good time to do this project. (Thanks for letting us take it Shari!)
Alex took the kids down to the park water feature to see if their boat would work better than Abel's did. ;)

"Eco-Explorer"

The girls did a workshop at the Dallas Zoo today and earned their Brownie Try-It Eco-Explorer Badge. It was a lot of fun! We have never gone to the zoo and gotten a guided tour before, that is worth the money by itself.
Here are a few pictures from the Workshop.
Waiting for it to start


Animal scanvenger hunt


Learning how to use binoculars




The best part was meeting some animals! They brought out a tarantula (I couldn't get a picture of it), a corn snake, a box turtle and an adorable armadillo!

I wasn't quite ready to snap Jake the Snake. :p


When they set the turtle and the armadillo on the floor, they both headed STRAIGHT to Libby out of a circle of 20+ girls.

The only one that Caroline would touch was the turtle...


Look at the cute little creature!




Libby loved that she was able to touch the animals

Aquatic Animal Adaptations

We are still working on Animal Adaptations at our house. Today, it was aquatic adaptations. I gave the kids a basket of different "props" and they had to figure out what adaptation it represented in the ocean.
Here is Libby wearing the "eyes on the top of the head"(Headband with eyeballs) and the "nictitating membrane"(goggles).


Joseph is trying out ways that fish.....fish. (scavenger vs. filter feeding)