Meet the Teacher

We met Mary and William's teachers last night! What a fun experience for us all. Mary was drawn to her classroom and warmed up to her teacher, Ms. Christine, within just a couple of minutes. She found the dry erase easel (and the marker found her dress - any tips to get that out would me much appreciated) and I filled out a survey of her favorite things for her. According to Mary, her favorite food is bananas, which I can easily believe though I probably would have put pizza, peanut butter sandwiches and string cheese above that. Simply put, there's not much Mary doesn't get excited about eating, so banana must have been the magical thought for the moment. Mary's favorite color (today) is red. Her favorite song to sing is "Holy, Holy, Holy." Mary spent a while jumping on one foot...her newest talent and way to show she's excited. She's thrilled to start school next week and hasn't stopped talking about it.

William's room is decorated like a jungle and when we walked in the door there was a little green bag with his name on it. I tried to get him to find the bag with his name, but he was too busy looking up at the vines on the ceiling. Silly mommy. I filled out the same survey for William while he found his name no less than 4 times around the room. One of his two teachers, Ms. Kelly and Ms. Kim, gave him his goody bag and told him what was in it - raisins - so his favorite food is, of course, RAISINS! Also inside the bag were crayons, so he pointed to and named all the colors on the front when I asked him what his favorite color was. That's typical of William - the best time of his life is right now. When asked about his favorite movie, William listed every one he's ever seen, but I asked him to choose just 1 and he said, "I want 5." (Five is, amazingly enough, William's favorite number.) William's favorite songs to sing are "I'm In the Lord's Army" and "Wheels on the Bus." William was so tall compared to the other chlidren. Most have just turned 2 and look like babies by comparison! I've spoken with the school about placing him in the Young 3s class, where he was originally enrolled. His birthdate does fall into the range for the 2s class, but only by a smidge and his skills really match up more with the 3s than the 2s. I don't want to be a pushy mother right off the bat or present him as the brightest kid in the world, but I do want him to be challenged and matched with peers, regardless of his age.

Mary and William are both so excited to start off to school and are literally jumping for joy about these new beginnings next week. I'm so surprised to see them growing away from me so quickly. I'll admit that I'm looking forward to the break and the time alone with Robert, but I'm also going to miss them while they are off learning at school.

Mother's Premonition

I was in the shower this morning thinking, "I don't have any pressing plans to get out of the house until this evening, so I could send Doug with the car." But visions of needing to visit the ER popped into my head and I realized that we hadn't had an injury in a while. Mary chipped her front tooth (and blackend the other) back in January. William split his forehead open in April, but other than the smallest bruises here and there, we've not had any injuries since then. It hit me that we are due and that I should expect something soon. Not an hour later, as William tried to get himself settled at the kid-sized table to color, he slipped and banged his mouth on the chair, sending his tooth into his lower lip. You see it happening in slow-motion, then hear the scream, and then the bloody mouth comes running toward you, but you still can't believe it's happening.

Once we got all the blood cleared away and got a good look at it, it's not so bad. The lip is swollen and bruised and he is complaining that it hurts a lot. A little ice, a little Tylenol and he's acting like himself again, but I can tell it hurts him still.

How on earth did I know this was going to happen today? I love my boys dearly, but I'm really beginning to wonder if I'm able to handle the "tough boy" stuff that mothering entails. I'm not queasy at the sight of blood, but I ache to my bones when one of my kids is hurt.

Food

This little guy ate with us last night. His first regular meal: italian pork and angel hair pasta. It's crazy how fast they grow up.

Short vowel words

Mary already knows all the sounds of the letters and she was getting quite bored with the first 26 lessons. So, I skipped ahead (just to see) to Lesson 27: Short Vowel words, which was a discussion about how to sound out words and sounding out /at/. That went superbly well so I tacked on Lesson 28: Beginning sounds of /at/ words.

Mary read: mat, fat, rat and hat with no problems. We worked hard on pat and bat because of the truncated sounds of /p/ and /b/.

I'm so proud of her. I've ordered BoB books for her to start with and we're only 10 lessons or so away before she can really start reading books.

What a big little girl I have.

A dog scare

It's no secret that our kids are a little skiddish around dogs. Mary is better off around them and as long as they lay still, she's happy to move about around them. William, on the other hand, freezes if there is a dog in sight. This morning, Doug opened our garage door and was walking the kids out to the (borrowed) car in our driveway. I heard blood-curdling screams from outside so I dashed to the garage to see what had happened.

A dog had darted from a neighbor's house, two doors down, and ran at them barking. According to Doug, this dog was small enough to throw 60 yards (he's a dog person, really!) and even Mary agrees that the dog was smaller than Robert. Yet, the fear and panic set in and they went running (and screaming). It doesn't matter the size of the dog or how friendly he's being, they have a natural fear. I remember when Mary was less than 2 years old and she finally verbalized what scared her about dogs. "Doggie bite." I don't know where she got that idea, but she certainly passed it along to William. Of course, some dogs do bite, but a majority are perfectly safe. A tough concept for a 2 and 3 year old to grasp.

I thought we'd made progress for a while, after visiting a pet store and watching through the glass crates for a few times, then Mommy would hold the dogs and even William would pat them. My goal was to start little and then visit big dogs. But, as luck would have it, they gave me a very squirmy tiny dog and he wriggled right out of my hands and fell to the floor (3-4 feet). He yelped and I passed him back to the store operator. They checked him out and reported that he was fine, but I felt so bad that we never went back.

The kids speak very fondly of our friends' dogs. Walter and Finnegan seem to be the most memorable and the most talked about. But face to face, dogs cause great anxiety for them. I hope that "yippie" as I've been calling this morning's darting, barking, fluff will not set them back further in their appreciation for dogs.

The cheese.

William stutters when he's excited, upset, or particularly eager to get his point across, which just delays him more. In the car this Sunday, William broke the silence and eagerly said, "M-m-m-ma Ma, Mmmmm-m-m-ma, Mama!"

"Yes, William?"

"Mama, the cheese stands alone."

Sparkly Clean

Not that anyone really cares, but I had my teeth cleaned today. I love that fresh feeling when all the gook has been scraped off and they are all polished and smooth.

And, a doubly nice day, our housekeeper came today and my kitchen floor is clean again. Woohoo!

E and I

We combined the lessons for E and I today, which would have been a good idea except that I also included William. He is too silly and distracting to allow Mary to focus. Mary already knows the short-vowel sounds of these letters otherwise, she would not have done as well today with William present.

We'll repeat the lessons alone on Monday (perhaps Saturday if she's willing) to really reinforce without distraction.

Today's verses were:
A is the first vowel we will say,
/ă/ is the short vowel sound of A.
E is the next vowel, don't you see.
/ĕ/ is the short vowel sound of E.
I is the third vowel that goes by.
/ĭ/ is the short vowel sound of I.

Does anyone have any ideas to keep William occupied (he really can't even be in the same room) while Mary and I complete her lessons? It takes about 15 minutes.

A is the first vowel we will say...

Today was Mary's first reading lesson. She's been asking me to teach her to read for a couple of weeks. I knew she was ready. She knows all her letters and their sounds and is eager for alphabet activities. She asks me to write words and sentences for her to trace and she can write her own name. I'm excited for her, but also in awe of her growing up. I'd purchased a book a while back called "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading." and it is a lovely little organized program.

I set William in the living room with a movie, because I wanted to see what Mary could do without distraction (and William is definitely a distraction) and she did great!

Today's lesson was on the short A vowel sound. We'll begin with the 5 vowels and their short sounds, move to the consonants and then begin reading short vowel words. In 26 lessons, she'll be reading beginner books.

Today, Mary learned about vowels and that our tongue and lips do not block the sounds of the vowels. She felt the letters in 3D form using letter magnets. She pointed to the 3 ways to write the letter A in real literature (one of my favorite ways to teach...in real books). Made the /ă/ sound while looking at the letter A. And learned the first verse of a new poem called, "The Five Vowels."

A is the first vowel we will say,
/ă/ is the short vowel sound of A.

William joined us while we recited the poem and asked if he could have a reading lesson. So, I sat down with him and did the same lesson Mary had. He too, pointed out the letters in the book, made the /ă/ sound and learned the poem, but he was more distracted and interested in the magnetic letters. I know he'll be ready soon and I'll continue to give him lessons when he asks for them, but for now I think I'll stick with Mary alone.

I had a wonderful time teaching again. I think I'm going to like this homeschooling.

Our FIRST Circus!

Prompted by a discount promotion from the University of Dallas, (is this their career suggestion for those of us with liberal arts degrees?) we purchased tickets to see the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus this Saturday. Not only was this Mary and William's first circus, but it was also mine! My mom graciously gave up her Saturday morning sleep to come stay with Robert while Doug, Mary, William and I rode the DART rail from Parker Rd to the American Airlines Center. It's about 20 minutes faster than driving and a lot cheaper than parking our car there. Plus, what kid doesn't want to ride the train to the circus??

We arrived just in time to eat our lunch and let the show begin. Mary was quite fascinated with the seats that popped up and watched quietly for the first several minutes. Her eyes darted from act to act and I could tell she was overwhelmed. She loosened up pretty quickly and clapped for the performers. She reports that her favorite part was the elephants. William says his favorite part was the dogs who jumped through hoops and over hurdles and each other and acted very "silly." When the Super Silva, the aerialist (they aren't called acrobats anymore, apparently) walked on the ceiling he said, "I could do that." He was also impressed with the 7 motorcyles in a metal cage.

We really had a great time all day and the AA center is really a great place for a circus. If you have a child under 1 year old, visit the site below and submit your information for a voucher to get a ticket to their first circus free! It doesn't expire, but you have to register before their first birthday. http://www.ringling.com/offers/baby.aspx

I'm sorry to report that we have no pictures from this event, as cameras as large as ours are prohibited in the arena.

Jump back on the horse!!

I read my friends' well-thought out and very purposed blogs and think...I really need to post on ours! Unfortunately, my perfectionist/procrastinating brain can't bear to start a new post without catching up on everything I should have said over the last few months. But, I'm throwing caution to the wind, jumping back on the horse, feet first...and all of those "get-right-to-it" things.

Here's a little tid-bit for you.
I've been redecorating Mary's room. We're both enjoying the newness of it and I love the creative outlet. Given the choice between birds and horses, Mary so sweetly chose a different one each day. Finally, I went to the hardware store to pick out paint. Since I had colors in mind for horses and not for birds, horses it was!! I painted 3 walls a soft pink and one wall cocoa brown. The brown wall is now accented by embroidered ribbon in a criss-cross pattern. The new bed, a hand-me-down from my sister, is assembled and covered in layer after layer of waterproof pads, topped with pink sheets with horses and riders, and a brown and pink quilt. Three little stuffed horses take center stage when the bed is made, something Mary is very proud of.

I've got lots of ideas for the rest of the room, but delay acting until I find the right piece of furniture on sale. I'm choosing between a dressing table and a bookshelf, as there is only room for one or the other. The placement of this furniture and it's height will determine where my other hand-crafted accents will go.

Mary is thrilled with her new big bed...it's huge...and will surely tell you the next time she sees you, if she hasn't already.