Kamy has been enjoying gymnastics! She likes the more challenging skills and has been learning quickly. She’s in a hurry to advance from level 2 to level 3 already, so she has been trying really hard during class. She attempted level testing this month but didn’t have enough of the skills mastered to progress yet. Bear in mind she’s only been in the level 2 class for 5 weeks! Her running pullover in particular needs work before she can do it consistently.
Kamy has been asking for more paying chores around the house lately. She is feeling the lack of income (as compared to the lemonade stand over the summer), so she is on the hunt for money. Not that she needs it, but she has pretty much burned through her savings and she can’t buy things willy-nilly anymore.
In response, we set up a chore system! Both kids have certain daily responsibilities — brushing teeth, clearing off their place at meals, and keeping their room neat (definitely a work-in-progress here). At the end of the week, they receive $2 as allowance. We have also offered additional chores like vacuuming and unloading the dishwasher that are “paying” chores. These chores pay-out at the same time as weekly allowance, so they have all week to build up extra income. Plus there’s a little lesson in delayed gratification. <wink> So far it is working pretty well. I need to be more consistent about enforcing the clean-room clause, because I have been letting that one slide.
Oma and Opa came down to Texas this month, so we met up with them for two days out in Linden. As usual the kids had a great time — especially in the water. It was too cold for me, but apparently not for them! Getting them dry and dressed was also an exercise in futility. =P
Opa took them fishing and Kamy caught her first first on her own! Both kids love to fish, so we need to get them a kids size fishing pole. Opa pulled out the sailboat too since it was breezy and we actually got to use it!
The kids and I have been running several times per week to start training for a 5K. They lost interest, but while we were training, we changed up our running path one day and ran through the woods behind our house. Things were going just fine when I saw a small snake in Kamy’s path. She didn’t see it and stepped ON it’s head! I am guessing it was groggy from the cool morning and then getting stepped on didn’t help it’s awareness. I went to the barn, obtained an axe, and removed the snake’s head. It was a copperhead, so there was no way I was going to leave it to its own devices. This is only the second snake we’ve seen at the house, and the first venomous one, but it sure gave me a jolt of adrenaline at the time!
Since it’s Caden’s birthday month, we were able to spend time with family in DFW too.
For school this month, we finished our geography study of Australia and the Pacific Islands. This curriculum has been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to moving on to the next level (1st grade). Kamy also finished the first half of her second grade math curriculum. A lot of the math material is review, so she is breezing through it.
The kids had both been clamoring for a pumpkin to decorate for Halloween. Why did they opt to paint the orange pumpkins orange? I don’t know. But they had fun regardless!
Kamy decided that she wanted to be a peacock (or peahen) for Halloween, so she picked out a costume from Amazon and she ordered it. We went trick or treating at one of the neighborhoods in Tyler and the kids had a lot of fun. They didn’t get as much candy as the previous year, but they like the experience of it a lot more than the candy input anyway.
