Tag Archives: Avelyn

Avelyn Turns 7

My oldest baby just turned 7…that’s just way too close to 10, and then 20. 🙁

If you’re new here let me give you the rundown. Every big birthday (or month for Peter) I’ve written a post about the the birthday girl or boy. I never did baby books for the kids, but this has been my way of documenting what and who they are. Feel completely free to skip right over these posts if they’re not your cup of tea.img_9094

Ave has been asking for a kids party for a couple of years, but honestly the whole idea of it was not something I was up to. Every day of my life is a kids party. We decided that 7 was the perfect age to have your first kids’ party, and it was! It was such a fantastic day for her. She was so excited to have her friends over, to have time with them to play, and the presents were just the icing on the cake!

The guest list will give you a bit of an idea how varied this girl is; none of the 4 little girls who came knew each other. Avie had our neighbor, a friend from playgroup, and the daughters of two of my oldest friends. They all had so much fun playing together (we even had 2 little sisters join us). It was so fantastic to see 4 girls playing together nicely without any nastiness or drama.

My parents came over on Sunday to do her birthday (we didn’t do any family party this year…my ILs are in Hawaii and it was just easier). On Tuesday Daddy popped in before unloading trucks in the evening and she got her big birthday present, the Barbie Glam Getaway House. My goodness! She was thrilled to no end!

img_9641

On to Avelyn!

  • Measuring 50″ tall and weigh 53lbs
  • Wears a size 1/2 in shoes and an 8 in clothes
  • Still very particular about her things, especially projects she’s working on
  • Loves music and is constantly swiping my phone to listen to Ellie Holcomb (she even got her own headphones for her birthday)
  • Still not reading. She definitely understands and knows how but is really just not interested in gaining any sort of fluency with it.

img_9637

 

In her own words:
1. What is your favorite color? Purple and Indigo
2. What is your favorite toy? Barbies
3. Favorite thing to play? Barbies
4. What is your favorite fruit? Barbie…hahaha…bananas
5. What is your favorite TV show? Documentaries
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Turkey sandwiches, with a slight hint of avocado, a teensie bit of mayo, a slice of turkey, on rye bread.
7. What is your favorite outfit? Play clothes that are dressy an comfy
8. What is your favorite computer game? I don’t really have a favorite computer game, but I like playing on Barbie website
9. What is your favorite game? Barbie
10. What is your favorite snack? Oranges and apples
11. What is your favorite animal? All of them
12. What is your favorite song? Ellie Holcomb
13. What is your favorite book? I don’t really have a favorite
14. Who is your best friend? I have quite a few: Esther, Kahrin, Teagan, Meghan, Reagan, Claire C, Clare my cousin, Natalie, Madison, Ellie, and Lilly
15. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit cereak
16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Run around
17. What is your favorite drink? Pink Lemonade
18. What is your favorite holiday? The holiday we’re in today, and yesterday (her birthday and Halloween)
19. What is your favorite vacation we’ve taken? Uncle B’s and North Carolina, because we were on the beach for a week (which was in 2015).
20. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? George
21. What is your favorite breakfast? Eggs and Bacon
22. What do you want for your dinner birthday? Pigs in a blanket and squash soup
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Mommy with 10 million jobs like you.

 

Comment A Look at Our Life

The End of Year One of Homeschooling

The end is in sight people! We have nearly completed (successfully) our first year of homeschooling! Pardon me while I take a moment to do my happy dance. In the Fall I was seriously questioning whether we would continue past the first year. It was daunting, there were arguments and fights, and it was not looking good.IMG_9389

Then sometime this spring it just clicked. We had figured out what worked for us and what didn’t and how and when to do what we needed to do. Just the other day, we had to do school in the afternoon, rather than the morning. Ave realized that she was still done with school before the kids were walking past our house leaving the high school. I was floored when she said to me how glad she was that she got to do school at home.

Hands down this girl’s favorite subjects this year have been Math and Science! I always ask what should be start with, and the answer is always science! She loves learning how things work and why things happen. Math I think she loved, because for the most part it came really easy to her this year. A lot easier than reading and writing.

We’re planning on continuing Read, Writing, and Arithmetic through the summer. I’m not going to be all crazy about it, but I do think she will benefit from the extra work, as well as being fresh when we start in the Fall. There won’t be a ton of time wasted covering things we’ve already learned.

I asked Avie about some of her favorite things about this past school year. Her favorite books were Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Owls in the Family, she loved our field trip to the Museum of Natural History. She didn’t like math so much because it got harder over the year.

I really loved Sonlight’s curriculum. Being that this was our first year, I really felt prepared each day. If you are not into reading and really don’t like reading aloud, then it’s not for you. I love books and I can stand reading aloud. We still haven’t finished all of the books that were assigned as part of the curriculum, but, again, I figure we’ll work through them over the summer.

I think going into Sonlight and KNOWING that we wouldn’t read every single book during the year helped me. That was part of our struggle,  I felt a lot of pressure to READ EVERYTHING and then realized I don’t have to. If it’s not working for us, move on. There were a couple of books that were really hard to get through, so we got them on audible and listened when we were in the car. Some of them, became ones that we read at bedtime. It works. That’s the wonderful thing about homeschooling, you figure out and do what works best for you and your kiddos.

While Matthew and I were away, we had given the grandparents a list of things to read. My father in law spent quite a bit of time with Avie doing her world history reading and he was blown away by how intense and substantial the readings were. I never felt that what we were doing was a waste of time or frou-frou. I have to say, that with everything subject we covered it was always meaningful.

I’ve put together an Amazon store of some of our favorites from this year! I’m hoping to keep adding every year to our library.

Our Favorite Homeschool Books

 

Comment A Look at Our Life, Motherhood