Riley and Avery

Big girl on her big girl bike. Later that day she was riding through an old rain puddle (by old I mean full of road grime) and there was a pot-hole hidden at the bottom and she fell face-first into the grime puddle. She scraped her face up and had road grime all over her. That was fun. But she got back on her bike a little later with no problems. I really can't watch her ride her bike that much. They way she turns and maneuvers scares me. It's stressful to watch.

The chap stick girl. Oh yeah.



This is our first lapbook. We really had a blast making it. The "Predator" and "Defenses" are flaps that unfold and there are a few booklets in there about the monarch butterfly migration. She wants to do a lot more. Right now I'm working on getting library books on the solar system and tigers (a few of her requests) so that we can do more lapbooks. I also saw online that many homeschoolers to an Iditarod lapbook, and that looks like a whole lot of fun. There are free sites online where you can pick a musher to follow and help your child track their progress on a wall map. We can learn about the dogs, Alaska, the history of the race, and the basic needs of man and animal on the Iditarod trail. I'm all excited about that, but the Iditarod is not until February, I think. As Riley gets older, she'll be able to do more of the lapbook herself, but for right now it's a little time-consuming for me, looking online for resources to print out. I found a lapbooking yahoo group and there is a treasure-trove of info there so it's been a lot easier lately. Ack, I just googled the Iditarod and it's not 'til March. Poo. I hate waiting. They used to have dogsled races in Montana, and I'm wondering if they have them in Colorado. That would be a fun field trip. Hmmm...

Riley and Avery have developed a closer relationship, which is not always good. They have mastered the art of aggravating each other and pushing each other's buttons, but they also engage in spontaneous play together too. It's nice to watch them build a fort together and come up with imaginative scenarios.

I lost a whole long post and don't remember what I was posting about. Autosave on Blogger seems like a good idea in theory, but it always fails. Whatever.

I think that Riley is on the cusp of learning how to read. I think. She was lamenting last night about being afraid that she will never learn to read. She sounds out words as she's falling asleep. She writes random letters in her journal and on the chalkboard side of her easel, all neat and small. Like everything with Riley (walking, talking, riding a bike, and tying shoes) she seems to do things suddenly and all at once. Once she sets her mind to something, she will get it all within a short amount of time. I guess we'll just wait and see...

Avery can count up to 9. I guess she learned it from Riley. I certainly didn't teach her. Well, I would ask her to count up to three, I think. Mostly because she always wants three of everything. She also likes pushing the buttons on the microwave. I was reheating my coffee and asked her to push the "2" and she said "That's not a 2, that's an S." Ah, when they learn on their own...

I should be doing homework, so I'm going to run...