Imagine her as a grown-up...

As Secundus' speech teacher put it, she is very independent and extremely confident in her independence. It is these personality traits that frustrate me like crazy, but are going to make her a great adult.

There are many other things about my little girl that have the same potential to make her successful when she grows up, but just serve to cause problems now. So I'm trying to figure out how to teach her to be obedient and such without totally crushing her spirit. It's tough.

Here's another example: She loves to be in charge and she loves to teach. In her Primary class, occasionally kids want to share at the beginning of class about something fun they did the week before. These are usually short, cute, pointless stories about going to their brother's soccer game. But if you give Secundus a chance to share, she will take it as an opportunity to give a lesson about a scripture story. She will go on and on, holding her scriptures to look important, and even asking questions and expecting class input. She does this at home, too. She will often make up a game or "science demonstration" and try to hijack my homeschool plans for the day.

Another example: She loves nature. If she sees a worm, slug, or snail, she will pick it up and hide it in her pocket or sleeve. She also frequently collects leaves, berries, flowers, and rocks and brings them inside. (Usually with the intention of teaching us a science lesson.) I used to let the kids collect rocks occasionally and keep them in a jar. But the mess, dead bugs, and Tertius eating a wild poison berry has forced us to adopt a strict no-nature-in-the-house rule.

One day she will be a confident, independent, Professor of botany. But for now I just want her to be a trusting, obedient student.

Changing subjects slightly... I really am proud of her academic progress. She will officially start kindergarten next fall. But she is already doing excellent with her reading. We are on lesson 50 out of 100 in our curriculum. We do about 3-fifteen minute lessons a week and she could definitely keep pace with more if I scheduled it in. She has also started reading some little phonics books. She has been so excited for the past two weeks to practice her little books and then participate in the library's Read to Rover program.

I also have her participate with Pimus' science and history lessons. I don't expect her to recall as much information as Primus, but really she is keeping up and enjoys doing it. She is even doing excellent with math and I haven't even touched that subject with her, yet! She will randomly and excitedly tell me during the day, "Mommy! 3 plus 3 equals 6!"

I love her so much and am so excited to watch her learn and grow!