Kid Updates

I haven't been posting much here as our family has been getting over stomach issues, preparing for the Christmas season, and simply trying to get our family back on track (read here for the back story.).  In other words, there have been higher priorities lately.  Nonetheless, it has not been boring around here. 

I believe it is time for a few updates on the kid front.

S leads the way in passing milestones at a little over seven months.  She taught herself how to sit from the crawling position in one day!  I saw her beginning to try two days ago and yesterday after a few more attempts, S had it down.  Much to my dismay she has also learned how to pull herself up to standing on many things!  We now find her standing at the couch, at kitchen drawers, on the open dishwasher, pulling on my leg, etc.  But, of course, S has no idea of how to get down so she most often ends up falling back on her head... hopefully she will learn how to lower herself down as fast as she has the other skills.  She talks a ton!  When she is tired or in distress we will hear "Maaa, Maaa"  Other times there is Daa, Baaa, etc.  S also seems to like to wave.  I am not sure about the full level of understanding with that action, but it is funny, anyhow. It is still much too exciting to feed her and she does still insists on waking up once between 3 and 6 am, but we seem to be making some small steps of improvement.  You can read more about our little firecracker here. And yes, her hair stands on end all on its own! Rather appropriate for her, if you ask us.

M has discovered coloring.  This kid is something.  One day he calmly climbed up at the kitchen table where the other kids were coloring and looked very interested.  So I grabbed him some scratch paper and told him the crayons only go on the paper.  He hasn't looked back.  Never have I handed any of our children crayons and let them be much before the age of 3 (otherwise you never knew what would become colored).  Now, M passes most of his late afternoons doing this hobby, taking occasional breaks to come and show me his art! M has also learned the joys (or pains) of having a younger sibling.  The whole family nearly lost it one evening watching his reaction as he was calmly working on figuring out some toy only to have S come over to take it all for her chewing pleasure.  He looked at her with the biggest frown, seriously furrowed brows, and a stern look that said, "You are not supposed to do that!".  Then he stood up and said very demonstratively, "AAAHHHH!"  This was not a cry, not a whine, but a very serious statement and he never touched her. You must picture a very proper looking linebacker.  That is our M.  A widely built gentleman who knows how things should be!

Today T had me absolutely flabbergasted!  She asked to do her phonics together and we did.  Understand that with the two tiny ones I have it really only allows me to do 'school' with the girls about once a week.  Thus, T has not made as much progress reading as I know she is capable of.  However, she is not even in her Kindergarten year so I have not sweated it much.  Well, today we worked on her blend cards and then did two pages in her Kindergarten Phonics book.  The second page challenged her to read a sentence.  She faced it head on with no hesitation.  At her success I informed her she was nearly ready for her first reading book!  T then asked to see it.  I wasn't about to suppress her excitement, but I didn't want this positive to quickly turn negative. 

So, I handed her the book, but wasn't about to have her read it.  She promptly sat down and began to sound out one word after another.  This first 'reader' only contains one sentence, but has them work on sounding out 58 words.  It is about 6 pages long.  As I sat by quietly watching for any mistakes and clarifying 'b' and 'd' she made it through the entire book!  Then said she was ready for the next one.  I couldn't decide if I should fall off the couch or laugh! 

I am very well aware of the differences between boys and girls in regards to reading, but this is not even in the same solar system as my first experience in teaching reading. Her determination combined with a positive attitude in life is going to take her places, I would venture! She was hardly bothered one bit when I would correct her or she would stumble a bit.  It was unbelievable to watch her calmly push through it without one frown. 

I informed her that the way we do these books is that she has to read them twice before we go onto the next one, thinking about how I would like to give her brain a few days to work on the first book.  I learned this my first time around.  Otherwise, they don't get enough practice and end up moving on too quickly.  So, of course (every kid would, right?), she sits down and does the whole book again, even bringing it to me in the basement while I moved laundry along to check if she had something right.  I am still wide eyed about the whole event.  May our path to her reading continue this smoothly!