I've been wanting to do posts to update the specifics of what the kids are up to lately. They are growing up so fast I thought it'd be fun to have a record of what they're into right now. I'll start with Weston and do separate posts for each child.
Weston has officially started Kindergarten this year. We are doing a great homeschooling curriculum called
Sonlight and are enjoying it very much. We are pretty relaxed with our schedule as it's his first year. A typical day includes a math worksheet, reading time, maybe some copy work, and Weston has just started reading 3-word books on his own. We are way ahead of the curriculum schedule for the parent reading, way behind on the science projects, and right on schedule for the math :) I'm still learning how I want to structure our "school" time. I'm not a creative teacher, so my weakness is teaching the concepts as opportunities arise in regular life. When Weston wasn't understanding the math concept of counting by tens and working with dimes and pennies in the math worksheets, we took a week off from the worksheets and worked with beads and real pennies instead. I'm trying to train myself that I don't have to stick to the curriculum if I don't want to. The curriculum is there to serve us, we're not there to serve it!
Weston also spends a good part of his day coloring. Although his personality seems to be headed toward type "A", he seems to have freedom from perfectionism when he's doing art. Last week he colored about 30 army guys with various vehicles, uniforms, weapons, etc. He's really into military stuff right now (I'll have to scan one of his artwork pieces to display on the blog).
Other activities my son enjoys include bossing his sisters in pretend play games. He's pretty put-out if they don't want to play attack/war/boy games with him. In the summer, he spends a lot of time outside doing boy things. He usually wears some type of camouflage clothing every day.
Weston looks forward all day long to when Mike returns from work. Mike is definitely his favorite person in the whole world. This can be a little exhausting to Mike as Weston is so intensely needy for his attention when he's home. Usually Mike and Weston spend their time playing sports together or wrestling. Weston played soccer this past spring and we plan to have him try T-ball this next spring. Although he's small for his age, he's got surprisingly good hand/eye coordination. He can really whack the baseball over our fence!
One of Weston's quirks is that he doesn't want to throw things out. Broken toys, random piece of thread, cardboard, you name it, he thinks he'll have a use for it! Hmmm, wonder where he got the "keeping everything" quirk? Papa John, any ideas? ;)
Weston is very loving toward his sisters. He especially is tender toward Elsie and does great with gently leading her and teaching her. He likes Noah and talks to him often but hasn't been too interested in holding him much. Weston's chores include helping to fold laundry and dust, Swivel-Sweep the floors, run errands for me (fetch diapers, etc), and help his sisters with things.
Some of the things he struggles with are being bossy (hmmm, I have no idea where he got that one, I've never been bossy :) and not desiring to be independent (he'd rather be told and helped than to try it himself first).
Well, there are some highlights of my son and his life! I'm sure I'll think of many more things I should have included after I finish this post. I can always go back and add more later. Below is a picture Weston colored for me today. It's a princess with a flower in one hand and a coffee cup in the other :)
Here are a few photos of our Thanksgiving wreath. I ordered these cut-out leaves from the Oriental Trading Company catalog last year, but they didn't come in time so I put them aside to use this year. My friend, Crystal, cuts out a paper tree to put on her wall which they add leaves to (very cute). My tree last year wouldn't stay up and the leaves didn't arrive so it was quite a flop :) I opted to just tape our leaves to the mirror this year. I think it turned out pretty well! Even Elsie got involved and did some scribble leaves. If I had to guess, I think she is thankful for crayons, candy and her family...probably in that order ;) Grace and Weston even drew some pictures of Jesus on their leaves! 
How true and beautiful this verse is!
I told Mike to do his best pose for this mirror shot. This is his "thinking man" pose.
Grace loves to hold the baby every day. One day she sat and held him for over an hour! She was happy and he was happy so I just let them be.
