April Photo Mashup

Grace has a habit of peeling her nails.  I have tried lots of things to help her to quit, including polishing them, but she has been unable to quit...and very frustrated about it.

My friend, Katie, sent her a sample set of Jamberry Juniors to see if that would help her break the habit.  Here is the face Grace made when she saw this surprise gift.

And here are the Juniors on her nails.  She has a hard time keeping them on, but when they are on, she doesn't peel her nails!  Yay!

Grace's class was doing a unit on the "If you Give..." books by Laura Numeroff.  The kids got to come up with their own ideas for book titles, and I loved Grace's!

You might recognized this skirt.  It used to be a dress.  I think it was the first Matilda Jane dress that Grace owned - Doreen gave it to her - maybe three years ago?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, the top was too small, but the skirt was still perfect, and I couldn't bear to let it go.  So, I cut off the bodice and turned it into a skirt.  Isn't it great that Target had a matching T-shirt?

You'll find that this post is rather Benjamin-heavy since he is home more than Jonathan and Grace.  My friend, Tammy, handed down this amazing brain teaser to Benjamin in trade for some vintage puzzles we gave to her.  He LOVES it.  I would highly recommend it as a gift!  We were thankful to get it for free.

He continues to ride his bike like a champ, with the occasional spill.  When he falls, he usually yells - or groans - "I'm OK!!!" although occasionally a fall is worth a few tears.

Trains are so exhausting!

The rare chance to play with water is so fun for a drought baby!

We wait for Grace every day...but this day, we had to pose for a picture.  I love these times with him.

Why yes, I do have an undie ninja in the house!

Sweet sleeping baby

Two talking friends.  Do they get to come on our big trip?

Grace made little paper vases of flowers for me.

It looks like her dolls and their pets were having a big time!

Somehow, I don't think two toothbrushes will get the job done twice as fast!

I found this in Grace's room.  We need to work on the spelling, but her excitement about our upcoming trip is apparent!

First Swim of the Season

When the weather began to think about warming up, of course my little fishes wanted to get in the water.  It was still too cold for even my pinky toe, but I still loved watching my swimmers.  The pool scared me to pieces when we first moved here with our very little kids, but we sure do enjoy it now, and especially enjoy sharing it with friends.

Jumping through that ring maybe wasn't the best idea!

Train Day, as Promised, with Benjamin

Benjamin had been asking to go to a special train place for months, and April reminded me that the school year - and my year to spend just with Benjamin - was coming to a close.  So, we went to look at the trains and had a really special time together.

One-on-one time is really fun with this guy.

Benjamin was one of the only kids on the property, so one of the volunteers let him rind the LOUD train bell and talked shop with him.

One of the main reasons we came here was to see the functions turntable, so he and the volunteer engineer talked about that, too.

We concluded our time with a play session at the train table.  I managed to bring a Virginia Lee Burton book (Choo Choo) home with us, too.  It was a really fun day!

Teaching Benjamin to Read

Each of my kids is different, so sometimes raising the third baby is like starting all over again.  It's not this way for most things, but it has been for teaching Benjamin to read!  For Jonathan and Grace, I gave them the tools to learn to read, and when they were ready, they unlocked the code and became fluent with very little persuasion - if any - from me.  With Benjamin, I did my best to give him the tools, also.  For whatever reason - whether because he has less hours of one-on-one reading with me over his lifetime, or has lacked my attention, or is less motivated, or just wasn't developmentally ready, I don't know - but he wasn't unlocking the code.  And it probably goes without saying, but teaching my kids to read and to love reading is one of the most important things I will do for them in my life - or theirs.  So, we decided to give something else a try:  This book.

For some reason, I remember a friend talking about this, and she had taught her four children to read this way, so I figured it was worth a try.  With potty training, with all three kids, they never would have caught on with the child-led method.  I had to push the issue and decide that it was time to train.  So, I thought that maybe Benjamin was the same way, and we got started, just a little bit each day.  This book's approach was really different than what I had done with Jonathan and Grace.  And, let's face it:  I am not trained in Early Childhood Education, or am I a reading specialist.  All I know is what worked with my older two kids.  So I was totally willing to try something new with Benjamin.

We had to be diligent with our daily lessons - he called this our "word lesson book-" and there were a lot of days that one of us was not in the mood, but we kept at it.

It turned out to be a really special daily routine with him, even on the days that I just about fell asleep during the reading session.

 And I think it helped him make great strides in his journey to becoming a fluent, independent reader.