Desmond Is Riding His Bike!!

So, for the last few days Desmond and I have been working on getting rid of the training wheels. At first he was having trouble pedaling and staying up. He was just too wobbly. So, I decided to take his pedals off and lower his seat all the way and turn his bike into a strider. The result was almost immediate. He was able to stay up for a little while and glide along. We have been doing that for a few days. Tonight after going up and down the driveway a few times and him staying up for ten seconds or so until the bike would come to a stop I asked him if he wanted to put the pedals on and he way super excited.

The very first time after putting on the pedals he did awesome! He started pedaling and just took off. I have a feeling he is going to want to do a lot of biking in the near future. I am super impressed with how quick he picked up biking.

 

See Baby #3

We have the ultrasound pictures of our new baby!  Check it out on my pregnancy blog.

Homeschool

It's weird having total strangers share strong feelings about whether or not homeschooling is a wise choice or whether starting homeschool at five is healthy.  People definitely have opinions, and I'm becoming more aware of the fact that I'm not following mainstream.  

But regardless of how others feel I'll do, we are loving it!  We start each day with a little school after breakfast.  Kaylynn often joins in listening, coloring, or taking apart the ABC puzzle yet again.  Often Desmond will ask me for more when we're done so that's encouraging.  Today I pulled out the LEGOS to incorporate his two passions into one: learning and building.  He actually gave me the idea with this note he created during a quiet time.

I love my creative, smart boy!  I'm noticing improvement in his reading and writing skills.  It's really fun to watch.

This week we're learning about dinosaurs and the letter "D".  I found a dinosaur exhibit at the children's museum so I think we'll be taking a field trip later this week.  How fun to have the flexibility to combine a fun play day and school!

Another fun outing we're planning is the LEGO Expo.  Happened to see an ad in a magazine, and I know Desmond will love it!  I'm kind of excited to check it out, too.  Davin and I just have to decide who gets to go play with him.  I want to encourage his building skills.  Who knows?  We just might have an engineer on our hands.

Fall Schedule is Picking Up

It's strange to see all the back to school pictures on Facebook and know that I could be in that group, but I'm not.  Sometimes I feel envious of the moms who send their kids off for a few hours.  I could sure use that break!  But we're also loving homeschool and I know when our time with the kids at home is done I won't be wishing I had more time away from them.

Tonight I register for the homeschool co-op.  I had to navigate the online registration, print out necessary documentation, and sign up for when and where I'll be helping out.  This evening it's all final when I go pay and get any other information I need to get started.  Every Friday morning will soon be committed.  

MOMS Group is starting soon and I'm the communications person in charge of sending out the information and collecting registration responses.  I'm using Google drive to create a form and response spreadsheet.  This will make things a lot easier and more accessible, but I've never done that before and need to make sure it's all going to work smoothly for my list of nearly two hundred MOMS contacts.  Whew!  Soon three Thursday mornings a month will also be committed.

I'm used to having a wide open schedule so having two weekly commitments starting at the same time feels like a lot.  I'm also planning a big birthday bash for my mom in one week.  It's out of town so that makes everything harder.  I want it to be the best party ever so I'm having a hard time keeping it in perspective and not going overboard.  

I'm looking forward to settling in to our new routines.  One day at a time!