Ingrid and Grandma started this cute little couch on Monday and I helped Ingrid finish it today. It’s cotton fabric sewn and stuffed with batting or Polyfil, over a cardboard frame.
Marisol is Ingrid’s mouse that I knit for her birthday. I got the pattern from Ravelry.com. I made her sweater on my own, but it came out bigger than I wanted and I’m going to make another one soon.
Now that it’s September and the summer is traditionally over, I decided it’s time to go back to more formal homeschooling. Ingrid has been learning all summer regardless, as questions come up and are answered. She’s been asking about addition so we talked about that frequently. She learned the lyrics to several TMBG songs; to swim a little more. She learned how to paint with a roller on our dinette, and a bunch of other small things while daddy was working on the house. She made several paintings on her own. And played with her cousins, also very important work.
I’m starting out this school year by returning to the Math workbook. This week Ingrid learned all about a ruler, how to use it, what measuring is for, what inches are, how to measure things bigger than a ruler (measuring tape). I gave her a bunch of items to measure around the house. We just happened to finish a little doll sized couch from a sewing pattern, and I’m going to let Ingrid do all the measuring for the next piece of furniture.
Ingrid has gotten pretty good at sewing and can just about use the sewing machine on her own. I’m not sure where that fits into the plan but she sure does love it : ) We’re going to mix in sewing projects (measuring, cutting, planning, fine motor skills?) with reading which she now does on her own for pleasure. Also will continue to read to Ingrid daily. We just finished Frankenstein. By finished, I mean: put away. This is the first book we did not finish. The subject matter got too sad and I read ahead and it only gets worse. So we picked up The Swiss Family Robinson and will start it tonight. Also we’ll continue with Art projects because that’s another thing she loves. Then once we get back on the road there’ll be natural/people history, or whatever opportunities come up.
In this pic, we’re at Fort Funston. We’ve been going regularly, as the dogs are allowed to run free there and it’s such a beautiful beach. It’s a good hike to get to the beach, about half an hour down and 45 minutes back up, and that’s part of the appeal for me. It gets us out of the house and exercising. Usually we bring a yummy picnic but this time we ate first as we were pressed for time (homeschooled in the morning). Ingrid built a castle and danced around on the sand while I threw the ball for Ginger and kept and eye on Otto. Otto loved it most, jumping around like a puppy and swatting other dogs to entice them to play with him. Ingrid and I also played a little frisbee until the ocean took it away from us : (
Aunt Tana gave this little set to Ingrid for her birthday. She’s been wearing it daily ever since! I like seeing it on her, as it matches nicely with our new wall color : )
We got up early and it paid off big time! We got great parking, and awesome seats for the free They Might Be Giants concert at Stern Grove, San Francisco. They’re miniscule but they’re right there on the stage, behind Ingrid, John & John. So exciting!
Ingrid’s new buddy Keith takes her around in his jeep. She’s learned a couple of new things since meeting Keith, mostly about guns ‘n stuff.
