Baby Conducting, Haircuts, and Homeschool Wins {7QT}

--1--

I glanced over at Andrew while he was going over his music for Sunday and saw that Peter was conducting along. Adorable much?

Wrong hand, though.  But he's got time to learn ;)

--2--

The other day the twins were in the playroom and I heard them talking about hair cuts... At which point I ran in to check on them because I was pretty sure that meant they had found scissors and were cutting each others hair...

But no!!!  They were making pretend scissors using the craft sticks with velcro that we use to make various shapes (easiest ever - jumbo craft sticks + adhesive velcro on each end = less than $10!):

Mary Claire LOVES pretending to have her hair cut. Which is good, because she desperately needs a REAL hair cut and we've been practicing a lot...

Then they wanted to "cut" MY hair. And I was being nice and let them... Which basically means the hook part of the velcro kept getting caught in my hair and pulling it out.

So, you know, I've done my "good mom" duty for the week.

--3--

We have this Encyclopedia of Music (which is GREAT if you happen to have a kid who likes big books with lots of information) and John Paul's been reading it a lot lately.  Which leads to random pretend play in which he's Bach and the girls all call him Johann and it's hilarious.

And then he'll just leave random stuff like this on the chalkboard:

Or on the whiteboard:

(Yes I know, PEMDAS. I didn't have the heart to correct him when it is not at all necessary that he know algebra at the age of 5. Or division, for that matter...)

Part of me wishes I could give him access to a computer so that he could explore all these composers to his heart's content.  The other part of me knows that he would just go to the PBS website and play Curious George games if he were allowed on the computer...

--4--

He's also been reading Leviticus aloud to me. 

Me: Don't you want to go play outside? Him: Well, I'm just reading from Leviticus...

— Rosie Hill (@RosieHill425) March 25, 2015

And now the 4yo is sitting on his head and he's STILL reading his Bible... Leviticus 15 now, all about "that time of month" #awkward
— Rosie Hill (@RosieHill425) March 25, 2015

Needless to say, I'm learning a lot.

(Oh! My sister even did a podcast Bible study with him and Cecilia - you can check it out here if you want to hear them talk about saints! And we did one together too but John Paul & Cecilia are probably more interesting than me...)

--4--

Meanwhile, Cecilia is trying hard to learn how to read and write, and I'm trying to decide how much to help her...  We did like, the first 9 lessons of 100 Easy Lessons, but it was soooo boring and she already knew all her letters and the sounds they make, so I was cutting a bunch out anyway. And she just wanted to get to the parts in the book with pictures! So at this point she can pretty much sound out 3 & 4-letter words, and can often sound out longer words with context clues. And she's trying to figure out how to spell, which is hilarious, and a stage I kind of wish John Paul had gone through, since he's hard wired to spell everything correctly and we never had any hilarious errors!

This is a picture of a hospital, spelled "LODI HOSB" (or HOSBIDOL if you can tell what she's going for) - she ran out of space in the middle, so she kept going on the other side, but in mirror image. I will treasure it forever!

Anyway, she's enjoying herself so much and figuring things out on her own and asking for help when she needs it, so I'm thinking I need to go against my instinct to teach all the things and...  Just let her be. Because she's 4.

--5--

It's been a couple weeks since I did Quick Takes! If you only stop by here via Kelly's blog, here's what I've posted since the last time I linked up with her:

What We Wore Laetare Sunday

Candlelit Prayer Card (we're making these today!)

What to Say Besides "Your Hands Are Full"

WIWS: It's Passiontide!

Decorate an Alleluia Banner With Your Kids

What Your Kids REALLY Need (In Their Easter Baskets) - Glory Stories review with a coupon for a free product!

Spring Style Roundup (in case you need ideas!)

--6--

I was tempted to do a house tour like Jenny, only to make YOU feel better about YOUR house, because I have zero eye for decor and the only things we have hanging on the walls are there because the nails were already in when they staged the house...

Then I realized I'd have to make sure things were actually clean to take pictures.

So no, not gonna happen. Although my strategy of sending the kids outdoors for hours at a time is actually keeping things MUCH tidier! Yay, spring!

But just in case you wish you could see it, the theme of our home is "Things we bought in college or got at IKEA" so you can probably guess what everything looks like :)

--7--

I'll just leave you with one last picture of the baby, because he's the cutest!

Check out more Quick Takes at Kelly's!