New goals
In January we switched over to late church. Late church is not my favorite thing, it feels like the whole day is used up getting ready for church. Alison doesn't love it either, but at least we don't have to have two lunches. The kids seem to be adjusting OK.
This week Gideon started sleeping all night long. It is a much appreciated development. He still has rough nights, and he still doesn't always sleep all night, but he does it a decent amount of the time. He is almost two and a half months old. This might be the youngest that any of our kids have slept through the night, but we aren't sure.
Alison and the kids have been really regular about doing Montessori time; they've done several hours every morning this week. They are really enjoying it and learning a lot. Sara can count much better than Alison expected and is moving quickly through the Montessori math materials; it's time to start the Golden Beads. We are also doing a read aloud challenge, where both Rea and Sara read aloud for 15 minutes a day, and Sara is making lots of progress in her reading ability. Timmy is too young for real Montessori materials, but he can concentrate on a few things for long periods of time; he is getting less destructive of our Montessori environment. His current favorites are the small animal models Alison got to place on the map of the world, and drawing (on everything - we're working on that).
Rea started the Great Lessons, which are the Montessori Elementary curriculum. Monday they started with The First Great Lesson: The Coming of the Universe. It starts with the Big Bang (popping a black balloon full of confetti and sequins) and goes through the formation of galaxies, the solar system, the earth, and volcanoes. Rea enjoyed it, especially erupting the play dough volcano with baking soda and vinegar and writing a report about it. Throughout the week she and Alison have done follow up activities with matter (particles, states of matter, density) and astronomy (making models of the solar system). They'll continue those subjects once a week, working through air pressure and vacuum, evaporation and condensation, and dissolving and crystallization leading to the formation of rocks and fossils, at the same time as they begin The Second Great Lesson: The Coming of Life. Rea is incredibly excited to study dinosaurs. (In future weeks, there are Great Lessons on The Coming of Man [geography and cultures] and The Coming of Numbers and Writing [math, language, and history]. Alison thinks Montessori is so cool!)
With the new year, we made some new goals. Alison loves setting goals, and I like accomplishing goals, so it is a fun activity. We made goals in the following categories: Physical, mental, spiritual, and Emotional/Social. Here are the goals that we made:
Mike
Go to sleep by 10 for 21 days in a row.
Try out 4 passive money making ideas.
Get to 30% fluency in Italian (according to Duolingo).
Read the entire Book of Mormon while reading every footnote.
Teach the children instead of getting mad at them when they are causing trouble.
Alison
Complete Pain Free Body Shop 1 time without soreness
Speak in French for a whole day
Have an attitude of worship in all things (first, figure out what that means and how to do it)
Complaint-Free for 21 days
Rea
Learn ballet and present a choreographed routine to music.
Write a report in cursive
Read the Book of Mormon through Words of Mormon
Be nice to Sara for 14 days in a row
Sara
Learn ballet and present a choreographed routine to music
Timmy
Swing all the way across the monkey bars
Know 10 colors
Tell stories from the scriptures (1 from each book)
Do team clean as a full contributing member 1 time
Gideon
Is perfect. He has no goals.
We reviewed our goals during our Family Meeting today and realized that Emotional/Social goals are the hardest for all of us to follow up on. We will be working on that.
This week I submitted games to the Cardboard Edison game design competition. Hopefully they do well. I will know in March if I became a finalist. I am also waiting to hear back about my Ion Award submissions (I will hear from them in February).
I have also started working on adding laser cutter abilities to the 3d printer. I have already mounted a laser, and got (what I think to be) the correct electronic components. I just have to put it all together now.
This week Gideon started sleeping all night long. It is a much appreciated development. He still has rough nights, and he still doesn't always sleep all night, but he does it a decent amount of the time. He is almost two and a half months old. This might be the youngest that any of our kids have slept through the night, but we aren't sure.
Alison and the kids have been really regular about doing Montessori time; they've done several hours every morning this week. They are really enjoying it and learning a lot. Sara can count much better than Alison expected and is moving quickly through the Montessori math materials; it's time to start the Golden Beads. We are also doing a read aloud challenge, where both Rea and Sara read aloud for 15 minutes a day, and Sara is making lots of progress in her reading ability. Timmy is too young for real Montessori materials, but he can concentrate on a few things for long periods of time; he is getting less destructive of our Montessori environment. His current favorites are the small animal models Alison got to place on the map of the world, and drawing (on everything - we're working on that).
Rea started the Great Lessons, which are the Montessori Elementary curriculum. Monday they started with The First Great Lesson: The Coming of the Universe. It starts with the Big Bang (popping a black balloon full of confetti and sequins) and goes through the formation of galaxies, the solar system, the earth, and volcanoes. Rea enjoyed it, especially erupting the play dough volcano with baking soda and vinegar and writing a report about it. Throughout the week she and Alison have done follow up activities with matter (particles, states of matter, density) and astronomy (making models of the solar system). They'll continue those subjects once a week, working through air pressure and vacuum, evaporation and condensation, and dissolving and crystallization leading to the formation of rocks and fossils, at the same time as they begin The Second Great Lesson: The Coming of Life. Rea is incredibly excited to study dinosaurs. (In future weeks, there are Great Lessons on The Coming of Man [geography and cultures] and The Coming of Numbers and Writing [math, language, and history]. Alison thinks Montessori is so cool!)
With the new year, we made some new goals. Alison loves setting goals, and I like accomplishing goals, so it is a fun activity. We made goals in the following categories: Physical, mental, spiritual, and Emotional/Social. Here are the goals that we made:
MikeGo to sleep by 10 for 21 days in a row.
Try out 4 passive money making ideas.
Get to 30% fluency in Italian (according to Duolingo).
Read the entire Book of Mormon while reading every footnote.
Teach the children instead of getting mad at them when they are causing trouble.
Alison
Complete Pain Free Body Shop 1 time without soreness
Speak in French for a whole day
Have an attitude of worship in all things (first, figure out what that means and how to do it)
Complaint-Free for 21 days
Rea
Learn ballet and present a choreographed routine to music.
Write a report in cursive
Read the Book of Mormon through Words of MormonBe nice to Sara for 14 days in a row
Sara
Learn ballet and present a choreographed routine to music
Read a chapter book
Read the picture scriptures every day for 2 weeks
Not whining for 7 days
Swing all the way across the monkey bars
Know 10 colors
Tell stories from the scriptures (1 from each book)
Do team clean as a full contributing member 1 time
Gideon
Is perfect. He has no goals.
We reviewed our goals during our Family Meeting today and realized that Emotional/Social goals are the hardest for all of us to follow up on. We will be working on that.
This week I submitted games to the Cardboard Edison game design competition. Hopefully they do well. I will know in March if I became a finalist. I am also waiting to hear back about my Ion Award submissions (I will hear from them in February).
I have also started working on adding laser cutter abilities to the 3d printer. I have already mounted a laser, and got (what I think to be) the correct electronic components. I just have to put it all together now.
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