Park Morning

Hey, it's time for my annual blog post!

I just made a new schedule for myself now that Catherine is sort of, kind of, once in awhile, sleeping or playing long enough for me to accomplish something and the new schedule includes blogging a bit.

We've been enjoying the mild spring days (the few we've had in between the rainy days).  One of the best things about home educating is getting to the park in the morning when it's relatively empty and the air is cooler.  The kids are really into climbing lately.  The top picture here is Gregory (3.5) at the top of a complicated, twisty ladder.  The other had been scared of it for awhile and one day he called me over and said, "I just climbed that."  I didn't believe him until he did it again.  Within five minutes the three middle kids were chasing each other up it repeatedly.

Catherine Rose is almost eight months.  We are still working our way through a list of potential nicknames for her but "Rosie" is the current favorite.  She is a maniac.  Constantly on the move and seldom sleeping.  She's pretty cheerful but I spend a lot of time chasing her around and picking "choking hazards" and making sure she is not about to fall on something sharp.  Our house currently has no carpeting and she's developing a thick skull.  She is happiest when standing but, as you can see, the little boys are always very nervous about her falling--even though this playground turf is much softer than our wood floors.

William is 5.5 and is really struggling to find his place.  He continues to swing between extreme sweetness and extreme storminess.  He can play equally happily with his younger or older brother, playing elaborate imaginative games with Gregory and building with physics sets with Joseph.  He has energy to spare and loves to race around the park on his little bike.

Margaret is 7.5 and really determined to master all the physically demanding parts of the park this summer.  She's been working on various sections of the climbing wall.

And teaching Rosie to do the same . . .

 
And she has now officially conquered the lower set of rings.  Eric and I marvel at this since neither of us could do this as kids.  She's working now on a much higher set.  I've been really pleased to see her patient determination with these since that is not generally characteristic of her personality.

A few days after the rings she made it to the top of the climbing wall.

How does Joseph keep busy at the park?  Sometimes by making up imaginative games, often by bird watching.  He is an avid birder and recently began a nature journal.  His first entry was a starling and he's looking forward to cataloging our entire park and journaling on our trips this summer as well.