Homeschooling Update

Life has been busy here in the shoe.  We have been plugging away with our homeschooling.  My days are full with homeschooling seven children!
Jesse, my second grader, is doing well with reading.  He eagerly brings books to read to me.  Math is another story.  It is more work for him.  He would rather do the things that come easy, and skip those things that take time and effort.  Pretty typical for all of us!
Josh, my first grader, who has the eye problems, is doing well, too.  He is my only south paw, and that has been interesting.  He is reading well, and sometimes thinks he is in a competition with Jesse.  Some days he cries because Jesse is ahead of him. 
Seth is my fourth grader.  He is doing well, is really beginning to bloom as a student.  He likes to work outside with his daddy on the weekends, and enjoys seeing how things work.  And he LOVES dinosaurs!

Aaron is doing well with his school work, after his big ordeal last summer.  He still creates ways to get out of work, so I would say he is back to his former self:) 

Sarah is a freshman this year.  She is enjoying being a bit more independent with her work.  She has a heart for learning and desires to be a speech and language pathologist someday.  She is in the process of starting her own ministry.  She is selling handknitted hats and other items, to raise money for more yarn.  With the yarn she buys, she is knitting hats to send to an orphanage in eastern Europe.  She hopes to someday go and work with the children there, but for now, she sends them her love in the form of hats.
(The items she sells are mostly made of handspun wool, which is not good for donating to places where handwashing would not be an option.  The would quickly end up with unusable hats.  Thus, the selling of items to buy yarn.)

Bethany is a junior this year.  She is one of my artsy ones and is working toward an arts honor diploma.  She is getting quite good with her drawing.  She also enjoys knitting, but is not driven the way her sister is.  Bethany is learning to drive, which has proved to be quite interesting for her dad!

Christopher  is my preschooler.  We are doing a K4 program that is especially for children with T21.  We just started this level and are working on getting a feel for the program, and getting organized.  Currently, he is learning more sight words, and attempting to put them together to form very simple sentences.  He is learning to match the names of himself and family members to their pictures.  He enjoys this.  We then use the names with the sight words in sentences.  I have noticed this helps Christopher attempt to say words he otherwise would not.  He is able to say his own name now!  Well, the nickname we call him:  Topher.  I love the joy he has when he has accomplished something new! 
In math, Christopher is working with learning his colors.  We are doing all sorts of "red" things now.  Red hearts, red ladybugs, red playdough,  finding red clothing in story books.  He is counting to 5 and stacking blocks, and doing sequencing with the blocks.
His muscle tone in his hands is quite low, so we are squeezing putty balls, and poking playdough to help strengthen and give better control.  Holding crayons and pencils can be a challenge to little hands that have low muscle tone. 
Trinity is my little toddler girl.  She is busy playing and developing her speech and other skills.   When we work with Topher with his speech, she is by his side, saying all the words we are trying to get him to say.  They laugh together and fight together.  She has passed him in speech, which we knew would happen.  In many ways, they are like having twins, they are so close in development right now.  I know this will change, as Trinity speeds into the next stage, and Christopher enjoys taking his time and savors the moments.