Here is a video to show the progress Lara is making in her reading lessons. She's doing really well.
She enjoys reading very simple beginner-reader books. Unfortunately, many Early Reader books are not designed for beginner readers. They have four words on a page, so appear simple and easy, but are most certainly not; often, the vocabulary is too much. I went to the library in Bloomington last week, and searched high and low for books that would be appropriate for Lara's level. After reshelving 4 out of 5, I did find a few.

Lara really enjoys listening to the Magic Tree House books. Dustin or I read a chapter or so to her every night or at nap time.

We won't start Kindergarten/1st grade until Fall 2012; it's officially decided. With moving to Homer this year and starting a bee business, it seems like a bad time to start the homeschooling process. We will wait until next year, when I know I will be more ready. Teaching Lara to read has definitely helped me think about the issues and frustrations of homeschooling, so I will have a little more time to deal with that.

This has been a really laid-back week, but yesterday morning, we headed into town so I could pick up some fabric from the fabric store, run a few other errands, and grab some pizza for lunch. A friend had a great idea to make a camera strap wrap, so I had to try it for myself. Dustin was not too thrilled to hear that I wanted to stop by the fabric store, because it sounds like he spent a lot of time there as a child (his mom can sew anything!!). ;D I only needed to find some pretty fabric, but it still took me about 45 minutes...sorry, honey. ;) Here is the finished product:

It is difficult to find the time to do these things, mainly because Claire is a very close and personal child. She always needs to be given attention and to be shown affection; I can't accomplish a great deal with her in my lap all the time. It is just the very sweet and gentle nature that she has. This evening she dropped my hand mirror on the kitchen floor, and glass shattered everywhere. I wish you could have seen her; I thought about running to get my video recorder. She dropped her head in complete shame, a look of utter rejection on her sweet little face. Looking close to tears, she walked over to me for a hug, then stroked my face saying, "Owy, owy, owy" (sorry).

Claire is a daddy's girl. She loves to spend time with him. She likes me too, but enough is enough. ;D She is always so excited to him. Yesterday, we picked Dustin up from work. He took Lara in to tour his work, and when he walked away, tears came to Claire's eyes, while she longingly said, "Dada? Dada?" She was gasping a little as she was on the verge of crying. She sat there in her car seat for about 20 minutes, staring at the one place where Dustin had walked back into the building.

Well, Monday is Valentine's Day. Christian is coming over to play today, so we are going to make some incredibly, terribly unhealthy Valentine cupcakes!