Daddy's Girls

I kept telling the girls what we did in the spring, and even the first six weeks of the school year, wasn’t what real homeschool is like. The people I know that have always  homeschooled are very social and have plenty of extracurriculars. Of course being pretty much fully locked down does not allow for that so they did not have the best opinion of it at first. (Well, Katie’s always liked it- I really mean Lil) But that has all changed in the last couple of weeks.  They love the schedule flexibility and the fact that they can do work even while we sit outside Matt’s doctors appointment or the groomer and that when Katie is not really in the mood we can watch the Abeka teacher together with her in my lap. (In fact, she says she wants to keep being a homeschooler until middle school. I don’t know what will happen but I love that she loves it.) Lilli REALLY liked the fact that she had her first book report this week that was a pretty big project but even her “homework” was still done by 4

It was a big few days in this McCormick house because after 6 months of practically no socializing, the girls each got to spend time with their best friend. ❤️ It was a total surprise to both of them but we are finally close to that milestone of Matt being out of the hospital for a year and it was time. We’re not going to be seeing everybody in the world but Kelli and her whole family have been mostly staying in since March and Britney’s mom is battling cancer so we know they are also super careful. We have been studying mammals the last couple of weeks in science so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go to Gators and Friends on Friday and invited Lily Jordan (she’s doing virtual school). This was HUGE because other than blueberry picking in May, it was the first time the girls had been anywhere other than Vivian, the deer camp or to meet a friend to have a picnic next to each other in a parked car. We only stayed about an hour but it was fun and they loved it!  Every

Well technically not for another week, but it’s starting to look like it around here. Dove season is always our unofficial start and I took last weekend to pull the decorations out of the attic. I normally don’t do that until October 1st but I needed something to look forward to. I don’t have a ton of stuff that’s strictly fall and not Halloween or Thanksgiving but I put out what I did.  While Matt was planting mustard greens and turnips, hunting squirrels and dove hunting I did that plus we got (car) ice cream with Bella and Britney, had a picnic with Lily Jordan and did a lot of relaxing together. And of course we were very excited when Daddy got home Sunday night. All the “kids” need attention. 😉 (Katie is very excited that Sammy has finally decided to forgive us for moving her 3 times, lol) But we only got the one night with him before he was gone again because teal season started today. It’s normally Christmas morning for Matt but this year definitely has a different feel. It was

Katie running through the field yelling “got ‘em!” is one of those things Matt will probably remember for the rest of his life. He and the girls had the best time at the deer camp this weekend and I know they made memories they will never forget.  They were up at 5:00 both mornings and spent about 8 hours in the field between the 2 days and the girls were troopers. I know it got hot at times and the hunt was a little slower than he had hoped but there were no complaints. And they told me they loved being with their Daddy.  (No electronics in the dove field- books only)  After the Saturday morning hunt they went for a long 4-Wheeler ride to put out deer corn/set up cameras and Austin went too. Then they had down time at Log Cabin before going back to big house to (socially distant) play with cousins (everyone but Josey was there- she was having a “girls weekend” with Mom in Plano) before their evening hunt. And this morning they were the only ones back out to see today’s beautiful sunri

We have officially completed 18 days of school and I feel like we are finally starting to get this figured out. The girls did not like the Abeka video teachers so we have switched to “parent led” as of this week. It was too fast for Lillian and they also just needed interaction. Lilli may not be little anymore but Katie still is and I would catch her staring at the wall instead of really paying attention and she was constantly pausing it. (Not getting nearly as much out of it as she would if she was engaged) So with me teaching we can be more hands-on and I can catch the things they are not grasping right away instead of as I’m going over the worksheets. And I’m trying to make it fun. School will inevitably sometimes be boring but Katie and I have used cheez-its as counters in math. (That she ate as we subtracted) Used LOl dolls to act out word problems. And they both LOVE working on the white board. Lilli’s math may not be able to use toys but she and I have done a lot of laughing. (S