Whole Lotta Lotta Going On

We had a busy and productive day today. After jumping on the trampoline, riding her bike and reading probably the longest story of her career, DD had her first swim lesson today, and she did really well. I was surprised at how timid she was at first, but she soon warmed up. She's now able to put her whole head in the water and even tries to swim without her noodle. She's really close; I hope she'll be swimming solo soon. We practiced in the pool for about an hour after her lesson. It was so cold that my teeth were chattering, but she of course was fine. Then DH called to invite us out to our favorite pizza place. Excellent. After supper, we visited the little pond out back and shared some stale bread and fresh pizza crust with the geese and turtles. We counted 11 turtles. One was a great big old grandaddy turtle who was very curious about us. He watched us intently and even began to scramble up the bank, but one of us hollered and he scooted back into the water. You'll be proud to know that it wasn't ME who hollered, although I did take a few cautious steps backwards.

I've started reading Raising Lifelong Learners by Lucy Calkins and I'm really getting alot out of it. It's early days yet, but I've already become aware of several "what not to dos" that I am doing, like concentrating too much energy and focus on the mechanics of reading instead of fostering a love of reading. So tonight, we read the first two chapters of an old Nancy Drew book that belonged to Grandmama, then me and now DD. And I didn't even ask DD to sound out a single word.