An Awesome Day of Firsts!

Lillie had a WONDERFUL day yesterday!  Me, not so much!  As I was writing my blog post yesterday, I was feeling sick.  An hour later I was aching and feeling feverish :(  So I decided not to take her to CC and Instead, my sweet husband took her on his day off!  And .... she did awesome!  She even raised her hand and stated the endings for the First Conjugation Present Tense for Latin.  Proud daddy/mommy moment!  Her teacher lives on a farm and has TWELVE horses, so Lillie was endeared to her right away.

(At CC, listening to a story about MLK...why she still has her coat on, I have no idea!)


Then, after CC, we went to her horseback riding lesson.  She was such a pro ... not scared at all.  She DOES have a healthy respect for the horse, but she's not scared, which is important.  Unfortunately, the instructor forgot we were coming, so the class had 4 grown women in it, and then little Lillie, but it didn't seem to bother her!  She is going again Thursday when another homeschooled little boy, who is her age, is in the class.  Then we will make Thursday's at two our regular schedule.

                                                        (Lillie and Tuffy!)

                                                     (off on her own, for the very first time!)

                                                           (trotting .... her favorite thing!)

So there you have it!  A big day of "firsts"!  Feeling blessed!

Everyday is a chance for a new beginning, right?

I really, really want to be a regular blogger.  You know, one that actually....well, BLOGS! 

Soooo today, we shall begin anew!

In three short hours Lillie and I will arrive at her first day at a Classical Conversations community.  She has already nailed all of her memory work for Week 13, so she shouldn't have any problem with review work during class.  I'm super impressed with how easy it was for her to memorize all of that information!  Frankly, when I put it all up on her memory work board, I thought "there's nooooo way she'll memorize all of this!"  But memorize it she did!  Here's the week 13 work:

Math:  The Liquid Equivalents are:
8 fluid ounces = 1 cup
2 cups = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon

Science:  What are the states of matter?
The states of matter are:  solid, liquid, gas and plasma  (hey, this plasma thing must be new since my day!)

Latin:
First Conjugation Endings - Present Tense
o
s
t
mus
tis
nt

English:
The Indefinite Pronouns are:
nobody, none, one, other, several, some, somebody, someone, such

History:
Watts steam engine, Cartwright's power loom, and Whitney's cotton gin spurred the Industrial Revolution that began in the 1760's.

Geography:
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland (she can locate all of these on a blank map)

Plus she memorized 7 events from the timeline.  Whew!  That's a LOT of work!  But after our homeschool mom's retreat this fall, I realized that a couple of the goals I had for Lillie were to:  1) help foster her independence and 2) strengthen her memory.  Classical Conversations (CC) met both of those goals perfectly!  So, here we go!

Lillie is also taking an art class and an U.S. Geography-type class called My Amazing America at Thursday Connection.  She is working on memorizing her states and capitals for the states/capitals challenge.  I couldn't be more proud of her for getting up and taking on the challenge in front of her class!  Makes this mommy smile!

Oh! and today she starts her first "real" riding lesson.  She's been taking lessons through equine therapy, but this will be the first time she actually gets on a horse without someone leading it and walking beside her.  She is soooo excited!  Her goal is to be a jumper one day and I have no doubt she'll do it!

Also, just so no one thinks he doesn't exist, Michael is doing well and is attending Rivers Edge Christian Academy, a 3-day homeschool co-op.  He goes Mon, Wed, and Thu.  You likely won't hear much about him, because being a teenager and all, I think he would frown upon his mom blogging about him!  So, let's just say this:  no news is good news :)

Blessings for a beautiful day!