Sewing Projects

Anya needed more pajamas and Talmage has wanted a robe for some time so I decided to make them. Helping them pick our patterns and flannel reminded me of when my mom used to take us to the fabric store. I only had 2 instead of 5. How did she do it. After convincing Talmage that this blue cloud print would work better than shiny pink I was willing to accept just about anything Anya picked. She liked the "ABCD" print so we were set. Both kids love the finished product and try extra hard not to spill breakfast on it.

Anya is wearing my wedding veil because she thinks its from "when Mom was a princess" and I was so flattered I let her try it on.

Piano too!

Talmage has been tinkering with the piano since we bought it two months ago. Somehow he figured out how to play the Winnie the Pooh song. He had one note off so Aaron showed him what it should be but other than that we didn't teach him to play this. I guess he has two variations to it- which you will see in the video. I didn't notice until I was recording it.



Talmage also can point to any of the white keys and tell me what the note is. And yesterday I heard him teaching Anya about how whole notes are round like a pie and you count to four and if the note is colored in and has a line then you only count to one for it. (Aaron taught him about whole, half, and quarter notes while I was at an orthodontist appointment on Thursday.) Talmage is still (for the past 2 years) asking for a violin-- to bad we can't teach him to play it at home. I have only found two people in San Antonio that teach kids younger than 8 to play violin. Both of these people charge a bundle.

Computer Programing

On Saturday Aaron started teaching Talmage how to do simple computer programing. Talmage loves it. He wanted to practice today and got a little frustrated with me for not knowing how to teach him "what comes next".

Anya's Poems

These videos are of Anya reciting the same poems Talmage did in the last post. She picked these up from listening in on Talmage's language lessons. She's a sharp girl and has a great memory too.



"Work"
Anonymous

Work while you work,
Play while you play;
This is the way
To be happy each day.
All that you do
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are never done right.

The Caterpillar
Christina G. Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry;
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk.

May no toad spy you,
May the little birds pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

Poetry

Here are two poems Talmage has memorized from his language lessons. I am using the text "First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind". It is a first and second grade curriculum. He is excelling at it and I usually combined several lessons because the lessons move too slow for him. Some days I wonder how I'll keep up with him. I need more chapter books that are "age" appropriate. We've gone through nearly all of the Beverly Cleary (Ramona, Henry Huggins...), Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach . . .), E.B. White (Charlotte's Web . . .) and many many others. Talmage averages at least two chapter books a week (being read to him). So does anyone have favorite books for younger kids?