The first week in November we had a run of warm weather. It hasn’t felt like fall at all, with highs in the low 80s. Kamy even asked if they could get out the sprinkler and play in the water. In November! But, I said yes anyway. They spent about 3 hours playing outside in the water, on the trampoline with water, and in the mud. Who knew they’d be wet this late in the year?
Kamy and Daddy are slowly working through reading Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire at night. This is the longest book thus far. Each individual chapter is getting longer too, so some nights they only do part of a chapter. Kamy covets her reading time with Daddy though!
Kamy made another run at level testing this month. She really really really wants to move up to level 4. Her weak point has been the back hip circles on bars, which is a non-negotiable to advancing levels. She made it! She was very excited to get to move up to level 4. It actually works a little better in my schedule, because now instead of Kamy’s hour long class, followed immediately by Caden’s hour long class, they both start at 7pm. Caden finishes at 8 and Kamy ends at 8:30. It does make for a later evening, but at least the kids can sleep in in the morning.
We planned a One on One Day with the kids this month. Daddy and Kamy teamed up, while I took Caden. We all spent Saturday together and then split up first thing Sunday morning. Keller took Kamy to a local Steampunk festival in the morning. From there, they went to a mall in Arlington where they were demoing the new Nintendo Switch system. Keller’s been teasing and baiting the kids about wanting to get a Switch and Kamy said she wanted to buy one. She’s slowly saving up her money, so this was a neat opportunity for Kamy to play on one and fuel the fire. Her favorite game at the demo was Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle — which surprised Daddy! They also tracked down a carousel for Miss Kamy. After playing on the Switches, they then had dinner with Garin and Jess before heading to a large arcade at Grapevine Mills. Keller’s motto is usually, “We will stay as long as I am still having fun” … which means that Kamy is doing great and everyone is still enjoying themselves. Well, they must have had fun because they didn’t get back to Min’s house until after 11pm!
Back home, Kamy helped put up Christmas lights on the house the week of Thanksgiving. Since Keller would be traveling the first week of December, we needed to put them up a little early in order to appreciate them. This was the first year we put lights on the house and it looked great. Kamy said, “They are so beautiful!” When our house was built, some genius had all the outlets under the eaves wired to one light switch by the front door. So now to turn on the lights, it’s just one switch! Keller labeled it too, because why not?
Kamy has been learning Happy Birthday in voice lessons. It’s not a simple song to actually sing, despite being so well known. Some of the pitch intervals are not very intuitive. She also earned her first wrist band for voice. After every 3 months of lessons you get recognition. The first level is Apprentice. She was very excited to earn it.
In school Kamy is just starting 4th grade math. We’re mostly hitting review this month and doing a lot of multiplication practice. She continues to roll right along in math and take whatever I throw at her. When she hits a new concept, I hear a lot of, “That doesn’t make any sense,” until the light bulb goes off and it turns into, “This is easy!” The mastery style program continues to work well for her — it allows us to spend the time necessary for her to learn a new concept, and then quickly move on to something new. In history we’re covering early English kings and knights and reading a fictional book about the Viking explorers and what living in a castle was like.
I talked the kids into getting dressed up for some Christmas card photo attempts. Kamy loves having her photo taken and was very happy to pose for me. She’s growing up and looking so much older! This is one of my new favorite photos of her (and them).
