We have learned letters A-C and are working on the letter D this week. Although they don't have them perfectly memorized they get the concept and will be ready to go further with their letters next year before they begin kindergarten. They both know that "A" makes the long "A", short "A" and "ahhhh" sounds. "B" makes the "Buh" sound. "C" makes "ssss" and "Ka" sounds. This week "D" makes the "Duh" sound. They like that one. We also know that "B" is the beginning of such lovely words as booger, butt and bellybutton. They recognize all of the basic shapes and can even draw some of them freehand, usually by accident. We know all the colors and are learning how two colors who meet in the middle magically make a new exciting color. We practice this only once a week now because they have it down already and it can get boring to do it everyday. Their favorite story to be told is Three Billy Goats Gruff. I do the voices for the goats and the GREAT MEAN TROLL and they love it. We take a walk every morning before we begin to get some fresh air and our energy out. Sometimes they'll pick up nice things to put on the nature table. It's been a much easier endeavor than I imagined it would be when I first started. I have two very rambunctious three year olds with strong wills and I thought they would be difficult to wrangle, but they have both been great. Obviously we have our moments, but all in all it's been a fantastic experience.
Joey is doing great as well. We got off to a slow start because I was so busy all the time. So we did a lot of math worksheets, handwriting practice and free writing. Now we are studying Beowulf. We have been for the last two weeks. It's an amazing poem and I'll tell anyone who has seen the movie that the book is nowhere near what the movie portrays and the language in the book adds to it's brilliance. Amazingly Joey understands what it's saying. Every once in a while if I feel the language was hard to interpret or if it looks like I've lost his interest I'll explain the passage in more simple terms, but mostly I read it to him as it is. He's excited to hear how it all comes out. He asks wonderfully engaging questions about the story wondering if Beowulf wins, what happened to Grendel. We both grossed out at the description of one warriors death at Grendel's hands. Brutal. Each day Joey writes passages from the book. While his handwriting isn't the most beautiful it is so much better than it was last year and the year before. It's especially better than when he was in school. You couldn't even read any of his writing out of second grade. We've really enjoyed this book and are about half way through. We are going to do some drawings to go with our passages a little later as an after school activity. Joey is also working on a great paint by number painting. He really likes working on it and asks if he can paint. Our neighbor gave it to me after finding it in a closet. I was going to do it for fun and Joey saw it and asked if we could work on it together. He's done most of it.
Eden is still very much enjoying high school. It's a lot of hard work, but she's doing well. We received her progress report in the mail and she had all B's and one C. The C was in drama class of all things. Go figure. The drama queen makes a C in drama. I guess she doesn't actually know it all. She is trying hard to pull all of her grades to an A, but I'm happy with a B average. That's fantastic for just getting back into public school and taking advanced classes. I'm very proud of her. She has joined three clubs: Christian Club, Drama Club and The Pink Ladies Club. No, not Pink Ladies like in Grease. This club will be fundraising for breast cancer research and awareness. She chose to join all on her own because her Grandma had breast cancer. It made my mom very proud. She likes all but one of her teachers. That's pretty good considering she has 6 classes a day. Right now we are just trucking along. I can't wait to see her report card and find out if she's done well. So far I'd say she's worked really hard.
On a more personal family note we decided the other night to just take a drive and on the way home Jerod decided ice cream cones were in order. So here are pictures of the kids eating their ice cream. This was Jager's first ice cream cone. Think he liked it?
Also, Joey has been playing soccer. He doesn't like it a lot, but he plays anyway. Here are some shots from his soccer games. 
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