First update of the year

I have been busy playing with the toy my daddy left me: an ipod touch. Unlike my dad, most of the applications on it are related to books, audiobooks and learning of various kind. I am now enjoying "The Montessori Method" by Maria Montessori. It is fascinating to listen to her work with "idiot" children, that she then put that knowledge to the use of "normal" children.

In the past month or so, I have been rethinking our homeschooling. I have to admit I could not really improve on what we are doing with Luca, considering that he does read and do math well above grade level, and does well enough on the rest. Amelia is the challenge. She learns in a totally different manner. She is amazing with arts, especially drawing and singing. I will have to find ways to use that to help her.

So what is new with all of us?

Luca just started multiplications, and found that it is much easier than he expected, so he's having lots of fun with it. He is really good up to 5x5. He had no problems understanding the 0 times and 1 times, which makes me very happy, since I'm horrible at math! lol As for reading, we are reading "The lightning Thief" alternating pages, slowly. He still loves the challenge. At the moment, he is reading "Lucky 13, story of survival in space". He amazes me every day.

Amelia now draws wonderful pictures, with faces complete with eyelashes and eyebrows. She is determined to learn like her big brother. She learns a lot from him. Her speech has improved so much she has almost caught up to her brother. She still struggles with pronounciation, but her vocabulary is quite amazing, considering the fact that she could hardly talk a few months ago. I'm looking forward to see what she will become in the next few months!

Rosa is now walking. She also seem to react much less strongly to dairy, to my great relief, but still reacts sometimes. She's a pretty little thing.

Both kids are going to start skating lessons this week, and Amelia will start ballet. Luca just started music classes, but said he didn't like it. We will see what happens with that later!

As for myself, I'm getting cold feet and decided to wait a little longer to go back to school... until Rosa is a little better in the evenings. My husband is back to work, and doing well there.

All in all, life here is relatively quiet and enjoyable.

I wish you all a very happy new year!