Weekly Wrap-Up May 12

It's been a busy week! The weather has been wonderful and we were able to spend a lot of time outdoors which was great for both of the girls.

Playing at the park!

On a hike with mom and dad.

We installed a couple eye hooks in our living room and hung hammocks. This has been really good for Monkey. She's able to swing or spin just about any time. She likes to hang from it with her arms hooked over while she does work in front of her, too.

It didn't take her long to discover at least a dozen ways to sit in it!

We also got a climbing rope that can be attached here or outside on their swingset. She is definitely a climber!

That one is nothing. At tumbling she can climb all the way to the top! 

More park time! This time with a friend.

 Swimming with family from out of town.

Bear has shown more interest in learning to read so we are starting in on that. We have been doing a lot of pre-reading skills and letter play, but not pushing reading until she was ready. She has started bringing me her phonics book so here we go!

Monkey has been happy for the break and has been doing really well. We started spelling this week and she did amazing. We use All About Spelling and had made it almost to the end of level 2 when she went to PS. I asked their service rep for advice on where to start and she said to review all of level 1 and 2 before picking up a couple lessons back from where we left off. Monkey nailed all of that review in one session! She remembered every single phonogram and rule!

She has definitely been a spelling-queen lately. She spells all of the time. One of her favorite games at the moment is finding words with 3 consonants in a row. She loves when she finds more. Yesterday she found a word she loved: scratch. 3 consonants, a vowel, and 3 more consonants. She thought that was awesome! I love that she just loves to find these words naturally. She doesn't want to sit down and make a boring list of them, she just spells in her head every word that pops up that sounds like it might fit what she wants. I'm going to ramp up the spelling this year and look for a spelling bee for her.

Math is going well. Monkey still loves Beast Academy and is getting more used to the idea of having to struggle through them sometimes. I give her a break if she gets too frustrated and she usually does better when coming back to it. I love how excited she gets when she figures out a difficult one. It's definitely helping her math confidence to see that she really can do it if she keeps working at it.

Next week we're picking up the pace a bit with school work. Monkey has had a nice break but I think we're ready for a bit more structure to our days. We will still be spending a lot of time outdoors and playing with friends, though!