On the Agenda

This week was a success workbook wise. Summer worked on lowercase letters a-f. She is still not overenthusiastic about repetitive writing of the same letter, but somehow we make it through it. The reading readiness book seems to be more fun for her. Right now we are working on ending and beginning sounds. I hope we will use her Tag system sometime over the weekend and work on short vowel sounds. But, she has a friend over so that might be asking too much. It is funny how when there is someone else here for her to play with I am chopped liver. Well, maybe not funny, but that's the way it is. I didn't even get to read her a bedtime story last night because her and Katie were finishing up crafting and she didn't ask when I told her I was going to bed. I'm sure they had their own stories though. Hopefully, she will not come down this morning saying "You're phone ringing. Hey, you're phone ringing...." Last time we had a sleepover with Katie and her cousins, they stayed up late listening to Katie's phone ringers and repeating the ones they really liked. I heard the one above again yesterday, and for some reason it is slightly annoying to me and makes me cringe. Maybe one day it will leave her memory, but I'm not going to count on it.

We've also worked on numbers up to 25. Now when we do dot-to-dot number pictures, I have her say the numbers out loud so she will associate the word with what the number actually looks like. I think it is helping her because she still doesn't really know above 10 just by looking at the numbers. She also had to count backwards from 10 on one of her math worksheets. These things seem small, but it is neat to see her learning them.

Her first swimming lessons were this week. To be honest, she was not looking forward to them --at all. She has a fear of going under the water because she doesn't want to get water in her nose. She doesn't like it at all apparently. I hope she will overcome this. To get her used to it, the teacher has them blow bubbles. First, with their mouth in water. Then, with mouth and nose. And last, with their eyebrows in the water. We may have to have a couple of practice sessions this weekend in the bath to even get the nose in there. I'm not going to count on eyebrows for sure. I could probably bribe her into doing it by letting her get in the hot tub. I hope she will just do it in the bath tub though. Maybe Lexie will jump aboard and blow some bubbles too. After her first class, she let me know that she was not excited that she had gotten water in her nose during class. But, other than that there were no complaints and I think she enjoyed the parts where her head was above water. At the beginning of the 2nd class, she looked more nervous than the first. I kept a smile on my face and a cheer in my body language to try to give her a little more confidence. She didn't complain after class and at the end even swam a little by herself -- head above water. The teacher was trying to get her to blow bubbles, but Summer insisted on doing it the hard way with her head above water. One day.....

Gymnastics also started back after a two week break for the holidays. She was very excited to go to her class. I'm glad she is enjoying it. When I watch her, I see her not doing some things and taking the easy way out. It is a good thing we are not in the room or I am sure I would find myself scolding her. Sometimes, it is just better to step back and let her get out of the class what she will. I'm glad I realized that because I could've very easily been one of those parents who yells across the gym at their kid to do better. Lexie thought she was ready to start back, but she did not make it through the whole class and was ready to just go watch Summer before it was over. Her attention span just isn't long enough for the whole 45 minutes yet. She did really good on the first station and was all gung-ho and leading the way. There are 4 stations at each class and they spend about 10 minutes on each one. On the 2nd station, she was ready to head over to where Summer was. I think she wants to be in Summer's class. Maybe then she would be able to stay on track the whole class, but she is not ready to do it without someone holding her hand and leading her yet. In Summer's class, she wouldn't have that.

Next week music is added to the mix. Summer and Lexie both love it and enjoy being in the same class. Summer has even learned to share my lap with Lexie without a fuss. In addition to all of the classes we have lined up, I'm sure we will still find time to go to their other favorite places -- the Creative Discovery Museum, Chuck E Cheese, playgrounds and ice cream shops. This week we went to the aquarium to check out the new octopus. We started at the end and went backwards which felt pretty weird the whole way. But, they really enjoyed the underwater viewing area a lot more than usual. I guess their attention span had not been depleted since it was the first stop on our visit. Afterwards, we went to the snack place across from the aquarium and we all three fell in love with their chili Frito thing that has cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, chives, chili and Frito's. I had initially gotten it for me, but Summer and Lexie ate at least half of it. They quickly set their brownies down when it got to the table. Summer said it was delicious, and I think Lexie agreed. They both like chili so I'm not surprised. We may also try to start going to story time at the library again. I know Summer used to enjoy it, especially the craft at the end. Not sure if it will be a firm commitment though since we already have so much on our plate. I sure am glad I get to spend my days with my little girl. I know it is truly a blessing to be able to do it, and I am thankful for every moment of it.