School Days

With visitors here from the mainland last week, we took a spring break. But now, the fun is done. It's time to get serious. We will have a wave of company starting mid May lasting until June. We can't wait to see our loved ones. But if I want to enjoy it guilt free, then it's time to hit the books. Hard!

Here is Miss. Livi. She is a delightful student. Always eager to learn and self-motivated. She has finished her 1st grade school work (except math) and is enjoying the benefits of her hard work.....more free time! Plus, she has learned to swim and float on her back! She has also taken off in reading. That makes me a happy mama.

O'dog is learning about sentence structure in this picture. He loves math (currently memorizing the x's table) science, and reading. His favorite book so far is called 'Moke and Poke in the Rain Forest'. Owen is awesome at figurin', he must have got that from his dad. I hated math and stunk at it!

For our read-aloud, we have been enjoying 'Carry On, Mr. Bowditch'. I love this book. It has everything that makes an excellent children's book (amiable characters that I want my children to imitate, adventure and a topic that causes them to want to learn more). I guess that is why it won a Newbery Medal. After Bowditch, we will be reading The 'Tale of Despereaux'. O'dog chose this book for its cover. He has a soft spot for stories with talking, sword carrying, rodents. It is a Newbery winner as well.

Miss. M is finishing up 7th grade. She took a few enrichment classes (art and drama)at the middle school and played basketball for the school team. Miss. M excels at everything she does. Don't tell her I said that, okay?

She has plenty to read right now. Miss M. is a voracious reader. We both have been enjoying Jane Austen's novels . I'm reading 'Sense and Sensibility' and she's reading 'Emma'.

These are fun books too. Miss M. borrowed them from Grampa Kauahi. Saturday, she spent the day up in his mango tree reading.

Zach does his work out on the lanai. He has become a motivated worker since arriving in Hawaii. When his studies are completed he is allowed to go to the beach. As long as this kid has a board(skim board, boogie board, skateboard, snowboard etc.) he's happy!

It has finally happened! Zach enjoys reading! He has read more books this year than I can count. If you know Zach, than you can appreciate how wonderful this is to me!

Seriously though, we are nearly done with school. There are just a few lessons of math for all of them and the older two have a civics course to finish. It has been an excellent school year! I am proud of the progress that we each have made. (Yes, I do include myself. I learn something new all the time!)