Small Successes

1. I make a point of cleaning the house once a month. But, with a new baby to be arriving next month and the house needing some serious spring cleaning, this month's cleaning has been much more thorough than most month's. I'm so happy that, with the lone exception of my closet (which I plan to get to today or tomorrow) the entire upstairs, including all closets, drawers and cabinets, has been thoroughly cleaned and organized. That includes fishing out all the baby stuff and organizing all the baby blankets and newborn clothes and burp cloths, etc., polishing, vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, etc. It needs to be done to the whole house, but at least one floor is (almost) entirely done. I don't plan on having the energy or overwhelming inclination next month to do this.

2. In addition to the house, this same treatment is needed for the garage and car. We haven't dealt with the car yet, but we did get through the garage. It is swept, sprayed, and completely organized. We had a whole bag of garbage this week just from the garage. And Cecilia is still talking about the cricket we found that we thought was a spider - makes me wish we hadn't sprayed him, but he was so big we didn't realize he was a cricket until he jumped from the spray. We also don't see many crickets - mostly spiders and ants.

3. Well, I think I've decided as far as a homeschooling math curriculum. I got to look at Singapore Math and, while it looks like it would do a good job teaching math, it is all black and white and very straight forward and I have a hard enough time holding Cecilia's attention on anything even when it is colorful and fun. So I think I am going to go with A Beka's Math and supplement it with some learning materials (like Melissa and Doug's Puzzle Clock, Cuisenaire Rods, Money Bags A Coin Value Game, etc.) to give that physical hands-on practice and experience. Cecilia, as active a child as she is and as much as she needs people interaction and movement, I don't believe, will simply sit with a book and do a bunch of number crunching so I think this will hold more interest for her and make it more interesting and fun for her to learn.