Kindergarten

On Monday Summer started Kindergarten!  She is a big girl now, all grown up.  

Still as goofy as ever of course.

Class of 2025!

So how do I like homeschooling so far?  Well I will be honest, we just started so I can't really say.  I do like having her home every day, I like being able to teach her things myself, I like the concept of the school, I like watching her learn, I like waking up whenever I want, I like her being to wake up whenever she wants, I like having the support of a teacher, who seems very nice.  It has been a challenge with Pepper around, I am still not sure how much work I should have her do each day to get finished with the assigned work each week.  I don't know how well she is going to like it but we have time to figure it all out.  

I decided to homeschool for several reasons:

1) because the schools in Nevada are just not the best.  You might get a great teacher but you might also have more than 20 kids in your class and that is just not a practical way to teach (in my opinion), it creates too much down time, or coloring time, or time spent doing nothing.  I saw this when I volunteered at a school a few years ago, several of the kids needed help and were getting attention while the rest had to sit there and do busy work, and be quiet.  They were not learning anything but how to be patient I guess, which isn't a bad thing but just not what I want.

2) because I feel Summer is smart and can learn fast on her own.  I wonder how she would do in Kindergarten if she is ahead of other students, would she learn to find something else to do, would she help other students, or would she be bored and get into trouble.  I was the bored get into trouble type.  They wanted to put me on meds, my mom told them just to give me more work.  I remember racing to be the first person done.  

3) because I actually like having her home with me, I did not look forward to sending her away to school.  It was a little sad to so many facebook updates from moms looking forward to school starting so they would have a break from their kids, of course Pepper may be a different animal :o)

4) because I like teaching, if you really know me you might know I always wanted to be a teacher or teach, and have thought about it several times.  Something has always prevented me from going in that direction, oh like wanting to do a million other things, but I really like teaching and I think I do it very well.

I had my reservations at first, I wanted her to go to a public school to make friends, to get socialized, not that she needs any more socialization but I really honestly enjoyed school - even the bad parts.  Hopefully choir, dance, and piano classes give her some of those opportunities to socialize more.   

For now this is working for us, we are figuring it all out :o) and I am happy with where we are.  

Halloween

Thanks to Cotton Tail Boutique for these amazing princess dresses / halloween costume - look at Pepper and Summer rock it (and their friends Amy and Alexa) and look at my sweet decorations.  Of course I have to put the decorations back up for another two months but they sure are fun and I can't wait to get the girls dressed up for real and go trick or treating!

Let's Compare

Summer is across the street at Amy's house, Pepper is napping, Kris is upstairs on the computer, Charming is napping, Killer is walking around making sure there are no bad guys close by and I am sipping (more like gulping) on a Me Happy Jamaican Wine Cooler and I thought - hey I should blog about the difference between Pepper and Summer.  Why? Because my mom asked me the other day and I could not remember but I have it all written down!!!

At 9 months Pepper was 29 1/2 inches and 22 pounds
At 9 months Summer was 29 inches and 22.5 pounds
- give or take

Teeth
By 9 months Pepper had 6 teeth
By 9 months Summer had 3 teeth (but got 3 more in her 10th month)
Pepper got her first tooth at 5 months, 20 days
Summer got her first tooth at 5 months, 9 days

Pepper started clapping at 9.5 months, Summer was 10.5 months.

Both girls rolled at 5 months and sat up on their own at 7 months and started crawling right at the end of their 7th month.

They sure seem to be a lot alike, and if Pepper continues to be like Summer she will be walking just before she is a year, but I think it might be soon.  I guess we will see soon enough, in the meantime I have a birthday coming up 10 weeks, maybe I should think about a theme ...

Kindergarten

On Monday my little girl will be starting Kindergarten.  Do you know what that means?  That means I will have completely finished her baby book and that makes me sad :o(  Since we are doing school at Odyssey Charter this year Summer will get to stay home with me and learn, and that makes me very happy - in fact I don't even think I will cry on her first day!  Odyssey Charter is actually a public Clark County School, but it is a hybrid school and most of the work is done at home online using the K12 program.  This is a win win situation for me, the benefit of being at home and involved with teaching Summer while having the support of a teacher - who will come to our house once a week for an hour to make sure we are on track, and if we need help we have it.  Plus there is an actual school and they do fun activities like other schools, like parties!  I am very excited and I think Summer is too - of course she really has no idea what is about to happen - how could she?  Here are a few pictures of Summer taken a few minutes ago :o)

Of course Pepper needed to get in on the action so here are a few pictures of her wearing a school outfit too - actually an outfit of Summer's from when she was about this age, maybe a bit older, but hey I thought it looked like it matched!

This little girl is Amy, she lives across the street and her and Summer play together most days.  Amy is also starting school and going into Kindergarten.  Hopefully they have fun learning and growing together :o)

Back to School

We are starting school next week, at least I think, I am still waiting on the school to contact me and give me all the details.  I can't wait - I am so darn excited .... this year we are doing homeschooling but it is  through a public school, kinda odd but I like the program so I am looking forward to getting into it, like I said I think next week.  In the meantime I got a new outfit for Summer that needed modeling and guess the theme - back to school!  We went to the Barnes and Nobles to model the outfit, what do you think, did she rock it?  Thanks for the outfit BowPeep Boutique!