New Year!

I know I haven't written in a long time! I need to talk about lots of stuff. I might end up going back and trying to catch up, or I might see something shiny and go off down the street and never look back. I get easily distracted by the shiny...

So Aurora and Silvermist are both at their new preschools now. Here they are with their melted crayon art that we did for parent Christmas presents. Bye girls, we love you! :)



Their absence, along with the fact that Tod, Copper, and Alice are hugely mobile and want to be big kids, has really changed the face of our day. The "big kids" are basically just O'Malley and Tarzan, plus Roo on the afternoons that she's here. O'Malley has started to be a bit apprehensive about starting kindergarten in the fall- he knows that I homeschooled Duchess and has asked me to do that for him too. I figure if I do a semester of that here then he'll feel better. So I've pulled out the Sonlight K curriculum, and bought a couple preschool workbooks for Tarzan and Roo, and we're doing some structured reading and writing time during what used to be nap time. There's a fun ticket and reward system that I adapted from this post, with the jars of treats. They're excited and I am too. I love starting new stuff. Let's hope I stick with it and that the shiny doesn't defeat me. :)

Then we have the middle sized kids- Tigger and Hercules, plus Lady and Mater who sometimes fall into that group and sometimes still stay with the babies. These are the ones who mostly motor around independently. If there's art, they might want to do it. If there's reading, they might sit and listen. Or they might ignore all my efforts to get them involved and just do their own thing. I like that about this age- I really feel like play is the most important thing and I don't start to do more rigid scheduled stuff until they're bigger.

Tod, Copper, Alice, and Perdita are moving up quickly too. Pretty soon we're not going to have anyone who is willing to hang out in the living room. They're working on eating table food, pulling up and trying to walk, (or crawl in Perdita's case- she's a bit younger) and just loving the fact that they can hang with the older kids.

We'd love to fill the spots we've got, so check with your friends and see if anyone you know needs daycare!