The Flat on Cabaniss Crescent

New Spanish CD

This arrived in the mail today.  We listened to it this afternoon while cooking in the kitchen.  The music is fun and I think we will all learn from it. 

Hola Rosetta!

In Which we start another Learning Opportunity on the Computer...

After almost 2 weeks of listening to the Spanish CD for a few hours each day, we started the on line Rosetta Stone Spanish program.  It is great!  Tigger loves it and so do I.  I think we will have a lot of fun with this.

So Tigger is now spending a bit of time each day on the computer doing Math Games, playing the Little Einstein Games, playing with the Interactive Skeleton, looking at the DSO Music Site, and playing on the Dr. Seuss Site. 

Happy to be Home in the Rain, even if it is a Tornado

In Which we have a Tornado and Base is Shut down and Tigger plays quietly on the Porch with Spanish Music and Dick and Jane...

This Thursday we woke up tired.  Probably because I was in the hospital for so many hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also this has been a real tough week for Owl and he has not been home much so I have not had many breaks.   

Normally we have OT that we leave early for but this week we had taken Thursday off.  Piglet had Ballet scheduled for 10:30 but for some reason she told me she did not want to go.  She wanted to stay home.  She went on to say how she never wanted to go back to Ballet.  Great!  We already canceled Gymnastics this week and I was really enjoying freeing up the schedule.  I called the Ballet studio and told them we were done.

It was a perfect day to be home all day because it was dark and rainy.  I opened the porch doors so we could listen to the rain and feel the cool breeze.  There was a great smell in the air and I decided to brew another pot of coffee to celebrate staying home all day.

Piglet started playing Barbie's on the back porch so I gave Tigger the Dick and Jane Sticker Book that came in the mail last week from Grandma and Grandpa P.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

He took it to the Front Porch and started playing real nicely.  I put on the new Spanish CD our neighbors let us borrow.  He really likes the first song and put it on Repeat Play and listened to it again and again and again, until probably the whole neighborhood memorized it because it was a little loud.  I thought the rain would block out the noise, but Owl surprised us and came home early and said as he walked in that the Spanish Music was quite loud and he had heard it outside and we should consider turning it down so we do not make the neighbors mad.  We turned it down, but Tigger continued to play on the porch for a good portion of the morning with his new Sticker Book and his music.

And why did Owl come home early? Because there was a tornado spotted on the base.  The whole Base shut down! 

I was happy to be home, drinking my coffee, puttering around the house finishing unfinished projects and catching up on laundry, while a Tornado hit Downtown Pensacola.

That afternoon, I gave Tigger the Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane to look at.  This too was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Paterni and we have not looked at it much.  I have been saving it for Tigger to read himself since it is an easy reader.  I remember reading Dick and Jane myself as a young reader.

Unfortunately by afternoon the kids were not so peaceful.  Being inside all morning was a nice break for all of us, but by 2 PM they had entered Silly Mode.  Tigger had no interest in this book, so we'll have to try again another day.

Later that night while watching the news we saw that the tornado had formed on base around 10 AM and then headed downtown where it destroyed 4 homes and did a lot damage.  Piglet's ballet class is downtown real close to where the Tornado hit and her class was at 10:30.  I thought it was strange that morning when she said she no longer wanted to go to dance but I am glad I listened to her!

Foreign Language

I would like to soon introduce the study of a foreign language into our home school curriculum.  I keep running across Rosetta Stone and think when we are ready, this is the program we will use.  I would love to hear any comments on this program as well as other ideas for foreign language study for young children.