Happy 11th Birthday F

 

 

This guy turned 11 yesterday!  Super late last night to be exact.  We love him to pieces :).

 

Blowing out his candles!

 

A close up of his cake - decorated with chocolate rocks.

F's 9th Birthday {Lego Party}

We finally celebrated F turning 9 with family and friends over the weekend!  He had a fun LEGO themed party and David made him a green LEGO cake at his request.  Unfortunately I did not get many pictures but a great time was had by all.

One side of F's cake had his name.

 

Another had his age

And here's a good view of the top of the cake!

Happy 9th Birthday F!

F turned 9 yesterday!  We didn't get to do everything that we had planned because he wasn't feeling 100%.  Thankfully he seems to be gearing to go today.  We should be having a party to celebrate him in a few weeks.

F is currently in the middle of building his big Christmas present from us, a giant LEGO Tree House.  I cannot wait to see it finished.  Happy 9th F - you are a truly amazing kid!

Sports Fun

The kids are currently involved in numerous activities.  I thought I'd give an update on a few of them.  I'll continue this in another post I'm sure 😉.  C is playing baseball and he just joined the Austin Royals track team.  He had his 1st meet last Saturday.  He ran the 1 mile and 2 mile as he prefers long distance running.  There was a mix-up with his 2 mile time (he had to run an extra lap) but he completed his fastest 1 mile time at 6:08!  It's not quite competitive for his age but I am super impressed with his individual performance and his desire to improve.

A competed in the Rodeo Archery competition again this year!  She came in 4th place.  I'm so proud of her.  She improved her score from last year and was competing against girls who have been involved in archery for many, many years.

F is playing soccer and baseball right now.  He scored 3 goals in his 1st soccer game this season and he just got his 1st hit in a baseball game (coach pitch) and it was a beauty (see above)!  I'm super proud of the work he is putting into both sports.

Tumbling Rocks

One of F's Christmas presents from us was a rock tumbler.  It has been so fun to see him use it; he really loves rocks!

Setting up his first batch of rocks to tumble.

After using the first grit.

After the 2nd grit.

F's finished rocks after all the grits.  It took ~ 1 month to finish these.

I think F's rocks came out great and he has already started his next batch.  This was definitely a win as far as gifts go.  I look forward to seeing more of F's tumbled rocks soon.

Spelling Ninja from Reading Kingdom Review

Disclosure:  I received this complimentary product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW.

I needed a spelling program for F so I was so excited to receive one year access to Spelling Ninja from Reading Kingdom to use with him.  Spelling Ninja is an online program geared for students ages 5-10 and they should already be reading before using it (1st grade level and up).

 

F with his spelling!

Above you can see our dashboard.  You can use an on-screen keyboard or a physical keyboard with Spelling Ninja.  You can also change the program speed and response time.

F working on his first lesson.

 

Spelling Ninja is specifically designed to help children look at words and decode them.  It specifically helps with visual memory skills that helps them develop improved spelling, reading and writing.  This program is based on years of research and rests on writing.  This is due to the fact that reading can often be achieved without exactness as children can sometimes end up guessing at a word.  However, for a word to be written with accuracy, every letter must be placed in the correct order - this is the concept behind Spelling Ninja.  And well, ninjas are fun 😉.

 

How exactly does this program work?  There are 15 different levels within Spelling Ninja.  Each level has 10 exercises to be completed.  Each exercise gives students a sentence with a picture for them to copy or retype.  The program reads this sentence to them and then they look at it and copy it.  Sometimes the sentence or some words are visible to them as they type and sometimes not depending on the level they are working on.  Students have to make sure to follow writing rules - capitalization, punctuation, etc.  There is color coding to help them identify if they are missing a space, a word, punctuation, etc.  Students are given a certain amount of time to complete the words and sentence.  If they make a mistake they are shown that.  If they take too long to complete the exercise, they will have to repeat it until they master it.

You can see above that F was currently working on Level 13 when I took this screenshot.  You can see what levels he has finished and how he performed - needs attention, good performance, very good performance or excellent performance.

Here is an example of the first exercise in Level 1.

F working on this lesson.  You can see the words and then they disappear right before you need to type them.

As you move through this program and the different levels, the sentences become more and more challenging.

Here is the first exercise in Level 15.

Everything is blank in this more difficult level and you have to remember the complete sentence from memory.

After your session, you will see a dancing ninja that will tell you how well you did.

As you see, Spelling Ninja improves your spelling by having you write the sentences from memory.  This took a little adapting to for F as he didn't really didn't type much before this program.  So at the beginning, he not only had to think about the spelling but where to find the letters and all the writing rules as well.  It was a bit frustrating for his first few lessons but I will say that he adapted well and really got the hang of it.  His scores starting improving and he has made his way through all 15 levels now.  I love that he can continue to practice his reading, writing, typing and spelling with Spelling Ninja.  And I know that when he does begin a typing program he should be way ahead of the curve as well!

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Soccer Has Begun {Go Thunder & Pirates}

 

G right before his game.

F and G had their first soccer games last weekend.  F is on Team Thunder again this year, which is so awesome!  This is G's first time to play soccer and he is on the Pirates.  Both of them have bright orange uniforms, which is kind of fun that they match.

 

F right after his game.

G was so excited because he scored 4 goals ⚽.  Enjoy the short video montage I made of G (since it was his first ever game!).  And yes, I'm loud (sorry not sorry).

Summer Soccer Champs

I'm so proud of F and his soccer team, Thunder!  They ended the summer season as season champs and tournament champs - undefeated ⚽️ 🏆 🏅.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they accomplish in the fall.

Let's Hear It For Penguins

Happy 7th Birthday F {Star Wars Style}

F as Kylo Ren

F turned 7 on Monday!  David took the day off work and we had so much fun as a family playing games, hanging out and celebrating F.  He wanted a Star Wars themed party :).

F eating a cinnamon roll

We had Princess Leia cinnamon rolls for breakfast, hot dogs with mac and cheese for lunch (F's favorite) and Wendy's for dinner.

 

David made F a chocolate R2D2 cake.

 

About to sing to F 𝆔𝆕𝆔

 

Inside the cake...

 

G dressed up as BB8

 

The BB8 donut holes were a hit.

 

E as Princess Leia.

 

C (as a Jedi) pouring Yoda Soda!

 

F is fierce, fun and an all around great kid.  I love his passion and zest for life.  I hope he knows how much he is loved!

F's Bike Party

F's Bike Cake

Earlier today, we had F's bike party and celebrated him learning to ride his bike!  He can start, stop, turn - basically do everything independently.  I cannot believe how quickly he learned once we removed his training wheels (we probably should have removed them sooner).  Normally we would celebrate at a park but with everything going on we just celebrated at home, in our front yard, and down our street.  C taught himself how to ride and eat his cake at the same time, not an easy task.  Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.  We are looking forward to Easter tomorrow!

 F with his cake.

 He wanted his piece to be the bike.

 A closer view...

 F riding down our street.

G riding his tricycle.

 A and B zooming down the street.

 David and G in the background.

Riding down the street.

No More Training Wheels

 

Today was the first day F rode his bicycle without training wheels and he did awesome!  I have a feeling it won't be too long before he has his bike party.  We shall see.  Enjoy the video below.