It has been awhile since I have posted an update on Elanor. I did not even do one for her 5th birthday! She is 5 1/2 now and getting so tall.
Elanor is really the same girl she has always been: funny, goofy, smart, passionate and a bit fiery. She feels things deeply and will cry during movies, loves her family and friends fiercely, and is generally caring and motherly to Alice. Elanor is reading now. We have been doing the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and we are almost done with the book. I highly recommend the book, by the way. She loves reading and has started reading books such as "Go, Dog. Go!" and the harder Bob's books. She also loves to be read to, which has been a part of her update since she was born. We have read many books out loud to her the past year such as "The Secret Garden", "Peter Pan"and her very favorite, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (she is on her third time reading it). We read Harry Potter to her out of the new illustrated book (which is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see). A new one will come out each fall, so we will read the Harry Potter books slowly as the illustrated ones come out (that way she has to wait like I did). Elanor is always playing Harry Potter and wants a Hermione doll from Santa.
We have decided to homeschool Elanor next year for kindergarten. There are a variety of reasons and some of them are: there are no half day kindergarten classes in Oregon, I want Elanor and Alice to be around each other more, so that despite their age difference they are close, I think that school is getting way too intense and kindergarteners now have homework (I'm pretty against homework until middle school), kindergarten is optional anyway, so no homeschooling paperwork, I am home and can teach her and want her to have more free time to play, explore, and have adventures, and I would really miss her. I am excited to teach her next year and have been getting ready to do so. She can read already, which will make it easy and my goal is to foster a love of learning. I am not too concerned about being overly academic, as I do not think that is too necessary yet. I am not sure if we will homeschool the year after, as I do think it is good for Elanor to learn from someone other than me. I am excited to see how it will go.
Elanor is such a special and fun girl. She has a great imagination, loves acting and being in plays, loves to dance, craves attention, loves her little sister so very much, loves going to church and loves reading scripture stories, loves to ride her two wheeler and is very good at riding it, loves being around people and can make a friend with anyone and is not shy at all, and is so funny. But also, she can be hard. She is spirited, opinionated, passionate and sometimes a little sneaky. We love this wonderful girl and know all of her hard things can also be her strengths. She has never been a boring child and I am just so glad she is ours.
Also, Elanor is no longer sucking her thumb! Hallelujah!
We love our Elanor so deeply.
