Magic Moments

 It was 58 degrees today so we took our classroom outside this afternoon. It's probably only fake spring in Minnesota, meaning it is going to get cold and snow again. But, we saw all the signs of spring today...mainly mud. But melting snow and lots of puddles aren't bad things. It was wonderful to be outside and the boys were free to climb and explore. The rocks were slippery with snow so Cade has to wait to climb until Tom can come along. I didn't want to have to call an ambulance out in the middle of nowhere. 

 It's the time of year when everything is just blah. The snow has ceased to be fun. I love the days where it's a bit warmer but they are merely a tease because I know it will snow again. There is nothing to do outside because we are in mud season. We're also in the last two months of school. It's the time of year where I feel like I'm a slave to curriculum instead of the curriculum functioning as the tool it should be. I'm sick of the sound of my voice asking my boys to get their things done. Nothing is exciting, we're just in the last push to get things done and I feel like we're checking off lists instead of learning. Today I even decided that perhaps maybe homeschooling is robbing me of any type of life. It's a full time job and it feels like a lot at times with no paycheck coming in. But, I've lived through March 10 times as a homeschool mom and I know this is just the season. It's par for the course. It will pass. We will get the wind ba...

 Pappy and Marme and Ami, Teddy, and Annabelle all joined us for an afternoon at Seaquest. I honestly didn't even know about this place so it must have come into existence while we were living in West Virginia. It's a tiny indoor zoo but you can touch and feed the animals. It's ingenious actually because not only do you pay admission but you pay to feed the animals. After we left the animals were all well fed. :) 

We've been working on reading for so long! And baby step by baby step all the pieces fell into place and now Cade can read. We're still working on fluency, and he still needs reminders about certain letter blends, but he is READING! It's such a good feeling, both for him and for me. I really don't like teaching kids to read. It's a fairly tedious and time consuming process. And it's certainly not fun for Cade either. In fact, even though Cade can read, if I had to guess I'd say he's still not having fun reading. Decoding words takes so much brain power when you're five. And early reader books are actually quite lame. So, he much prefers to be read to, which is fine because so many parts of his brain come together and being read to brings so much enjoyment. But, Cade is reading everyday and he's getting better everyday and everyday it's a little less work. Cade played bananagrams and was making words since now he can read. In true 5 year-old-b...