Well, here I am. Fall schedules are in full swing.
We started with Classical Conversations this year. and go to community on Tuesday mornings. Soccer practice Tuesday & Friday evenings. Gymnastics class Wednesday afternoons. Soccer games on Saturday mornings.
It's busy, but doable.
We recently got Jena's results from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. To summarize:
- age wise she should have just started 2nd grade
- grade wise she just started 3rd grade
- her composite grade level equivalent is 4.4, with all of her stanines in the 8 - 9 level, and her NPR in the 95-99 percentile for all subjects
She is excelling in soccer. She was a star goalkeeper last season, and this season she has just continued to improve. In addition, she has started playing as striker a bit and has done fairly well in that position as well. Her coach has made several comments about how much she has improved on the field since last season. Jena loves the sport, and as much as she enjoys striker, goalkeeper is what makes her smile.
We also started her in gymnastics over the summer. She had been asking to do it for a while, then her pediatrician recommended it because she is a bit delayed in her gross (and fine) motor development, so we decided to go ahead, despite the added cost & expense. I have to say, it has been well worth it. Her motor skills have already improved greatly, and I honestly attribute much of her improvement in soccer to her ability to this improvement. She has more control over her body's movements, just in general, and several extended family members have commented on it. As an added bonus she loves gymnastics as well, and has made it her goal to make the gym's competitive team. As a result she spends a lot of her free time in the front yard working on her skills.
I have to say, I have been quite impressed with my little 7 year old's dedication to excelling in both sports, and the work she has put in on her own to that end.
We've only had two weeks of Classical Conversations so far, but so far I am quite impressed. The facts she is learning, the manner in which it is presented, the fact that she enjoys learning history, geography, & science; it's been quite nice. Science has always been the subject that I felt least able to teach well, and not only do they learn facts, but they do an experiment each week on community day, so that is a huge load off. Jena enjoys the way they present facts so much that she took it upon herself to memorize all the U.S. Presidents using their songs, and has already succeeded!
I started doing one preschool lesson each day with Jillian as well, and she already knows most of her colors and maybe half of her letters. Numbers are a bit of a struggle. She is still essentially non-verbal, but I have a feeling a language explosion is right around the corner, as she's added 3 words to her vocabulary in the past week.
I think that's about the only major updates for now. Hope all is well with all of you! As always, thanks for checking in!
