The Adventures of Mia and Lennon

HOME SCHOOLING

It is so different than I had imagined. We have been spending the majority of Lennon's 2 hour nap time reading books together, working on English lessons, memorizing poetry, studying maps and the globe and being fascinated by Chopin and his beautiful music. I think I am learning just as much as Mia is, or at least rediscovering things on a different level. We're getting a big 2 foot by 4 foot world map for the wall that is laminated from Papa and Nana for my birthday and I can't wait to put it up so we can mark on it where we are studying and see it every day. Mia is loving her English and History books. We haven't done much work in the Greek and Latin roots book yet, but we have talked about several of the first few roots we learned often when they've come up throughout the days.

We decided on a math curriculum, but I still need to order it online. I just read an online article about how the curriculum we are going to order is top ranked year after year and that the children who use it score far higher on math aptitude tests regularly. We've been having her do more and more money math as it comes up and she seems pretty good at that.

CLASSES AT THE YMCA

Her science class at the Y is okay. She has fun and the instructor is nice, but the kids are rowdy, even by Mia's standards and she never seems to be really excited about what they've just done when I pick her up. She said she'd rather do something else next session. Also, Lennon's swimming class at the Y has about 3 weeks left. He is doing great and the teacher moved him up a class, but he isn't that into it and wants to just stick with gymnastics next session. So, it looks like we won't be spending too much time at the Y over the winter anyway.

THE ARTS

Ballet and piano are both going really well. She seems to be enjoying both and thankfully not bringing home new pop songs she wants to sing and dance to. She does really miss gymnastics, so we're going to try to find a way to make that work. It may be best to just ditch ballet and go back to gymnastics. Anna, her piano teacher told us last week that Mia was her favorite student. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'm sorry Anna, I am one dollar short this week. Can I give you the extra dollar next Monday?

Anna: (don't forget to read with strong Russian accent) Oh, Jenna. Please. It is not an issue. You don't even have to pay me. I love coming here. I love Mia. Come here Mia, give me hug. I love you. You are my favorite of all student.

Of course, we do still have to pay! But it was nice to hear all that praise. She always throws in there when she's telling us how well she thinks Mia is doing something like "this not a compliment. It's just the truth." We really like her.

Gaga was looking at Mia's piano book today and realized it is the very same book she learned to play piano from when she was a little girl. They had fun playing around on the bench together this morning.

The Museum of Fine Arts has a great home school program every Friday afternoon from 1 30 until 3. Each week they focus on a different area or aspect of art or the museum and have a project for the kids to work on. They are split up into several different age groups. Mia is going to a series of classes on sculpting coming up soon.

FUNNY STUFF LENNON HAS SAID

Lennon was running up the stairs tonight for bedtime and Shelby sort of playfully popped his little naked booty as he was following him. "NO Daddy! That's not a drum, it's a BUM. It's how I poop."

If he is having trouble communicating a particular word he will just pretend to spell it. He mostly uses the letters L, N, O and H for some reason. For example, he wanted a "pen thing" today and he spelled it "LNOHL." He says it so seriously, it's funny.