I signed the kids up at the Fine Arts Academy and then went to the library. I used to have the complete Hiedi series and now I cant find any of the books. So I found one at the library. I'm going to use it for supplemental reading for Tink. Every day I have to go through it and figure out what parts I'm going to read though. There is no way Tink is going to listen to all the fill in stuff like the conversation between Aunt Dete and the towns people when she's taking Hiedi to the grandfather. When I think of how I devoured books as a kid I just want to cry that Tink wont do the same.

I've explained to her that reading a book is like traveling and living with the characters. I've told her all the fun things you get to do when you read. She looks at me like I've grown two heads.

And speaking of books I just have to tell you about this wonderful resource I found through ambleside. The Baldwin Online Childrens Literature Project...Bringing Yesterdays Classic to Todays Kids. Volunteers have offered to retype entire books for our use. You can print out chapters and use them in your homeschool or just your reading time with the kids. They have books like The Tanglewood Secret, Parables From Nature, The Princess and the Goblin etc. You must go check it out. There are literally scores of books there.

I've been very pleased at the learning that has gone on in this house lately. Peter watched the Letter Family video by Leap Frog three times yesterday. Earlier in the day when I drilled him on letter recognition there were 10 of the 26 letters he couldn't name. Now the cards were both lower case and upper case together. If I separated them I don't know how many letters he would know out of the 52. When Tink went to public school Kindergarten she was tested the first day and only knew seven of the 52. Now knowing how hard it is for her to remember anything I'm proud that she got the seven. But back then I was horrified.

Both kids have been spending quite a bit of time with the tanagrams set and the pattern boards. I'm pleased t see Tink sitting on the floor figuring out the patterns. Yesterday was such a balmy day that we only had school for about two hours. Tink flew through her work without any crying or resistance! That's the very first day since pulling her out of public school last spring that she has gone that long without a meltdown in homeschool.

I let the kids out for break at 10:30 and it wasn't long until she came in the house with the neighbor girl, who's school hasn't started yet, and grabbed her art book and her paints, informing me that she was going to paint a butterfly in the grass. I stopped in my tracks. She was doing nature journaling and didn't even know it. No way was I going to stop her. I helped her get her art stuff together and off she went. She played outside all afternoon so I just let it be. There will be plenty of rainy days ahead. She's so incredibly proud of this butterfly, it's sweet to see.