Sunday, March 28, 2010

Celebrating 100 Days of School

We've been making our way through the 7 days of creation and studying about all the different creations. We recently finished up the creatures of the sea and birds. More on our nests later. A few weeks ago, we celebrated 100 days of school. First, N and I brainstormed a list of activities the day before.

We started our day by eating pancakes in the shape of 100.

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Then we counted 100 fruit loops...

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100 grains of rice...

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100 pennies...

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100 m&ms...

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100 blocks...

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100 books...

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shot 100 hoops (with T-Max's help!) and jumped 100 times.

We also wrote "100 days ago I couldn't ..., but now I can..."

She filled in the blank and wrote,
"rebusentis" = read a sentence (the "b" is supposed to be a "d")
and "broahrt" = draw a heart (the "b" is supposed to be a "d").

We are working on discerning between these two letters. We use the visual of the word "bed" which both looks like a bed looking at it from the side and helps her to remember which is the "b" and "d". Very helpful for her! She didn't use any spaces between words yet, but is writing very phonetically.

N made a list of what she would buy if she had $100.
"a dres" = a dress
"a bik" = a bike
"a noo mine girl calr" = a new mini girl calendar

We had a great day!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

What are we up to?

I hate that each time I get to blog, it's a back track of the past several months. I would love to be able to keep it current and share what we are doing NOW, but oh well...perhaps when the kids are older? I'm also trying to take more pictures of the kiddos. I've resolved to take and post pictures on Peter's flickr even if they are not the greatest. It's about capturing the moment, and I don't want to miss those fun and special moments, even if half of them end up blurry!

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(Peter actually took this one, but it was mixed up in the middle of pictures)

Zay-Bear is 8 months old...what is he up to? Actually, what is he NOT up to? He is EVERYWHERE! If there is dusty corner, he's there. Under the exersaucer, he's there. Behind the sofa playing with the surge protector, he's there. Under the school table or dining table, he's there. I've often, exclaimed in surprise, "What's Zay?" looking in all of the obvious places, only to find him in a random place. He's gotten SO fast at crawling, and it's sometimes hard to keep up with all of his adventures. He's all about trying to stand up these days too. He'll be cruising in no time!

He's by far my best eater. I thought the other two ate well, but he surpasses them both! Most doctors and literature tells you that babies self-regulate the amount the eat, making it clear when they are full. Well, this boy will eat until I stop feeding him. He's mastered the pincer and so he's really into eating table foods, especially meat. He still takes purees, but would much rather feed himself.

He's been waving "hi", and probably by coincidence, babbles something that sounds like, "hi, hi, hi, hi." He's been babbling "umma" (mom in Korean), but I don't know if he's connected it to me yet (although I'd like to this so because my other two kiddos said, "Abba" first.)

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Zay Bear loves playing our toy keyboard. Perhaps he'll be musical in some way?

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Now to our T-Max! He's been SO talkative, speaking complete sentences, expressing feelings and opinions. He learned all of the sounds of the letters and most of their names through a letter DVD without us even knowing. We were showing it to him periodically, and he just "picked" them up! He's been "reading" books on his own talking through the pictures. A few of his favorite books of late are Go, Dog, Go and the Sandra Boynton books. He's always telling us, "Read this book!" and "I read this!" The other day I heard this:

T-Max: Go, dog go!
Big dog,
Yittle dog.
Byack dog. White dog.
Goodbye! Goodbye!
Dog crash.
Red dog.
Green dog.
Swimming! Tail.
The End.

We're just discovering how sweet he is. The other day when N was feeling nauseous in the bathroom, he started rubbing her back and leaning his head on her head. I asked him to pray for Noona, and this is what he prayed: "Dear God, Thank you for this food. Amen!" N and I locked eyes and cracked up (even in her sickness) because he was so cute!

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What is N up to? We've had a great year with preschool so far. I've not been able to update on some of the different things we've done in school, probably in another post. But she's been reading, writing, and spelling so well. She loves reading these short little readers I got her several months ago. Titles like Fat Cat, Pig Jigs, Hot Dog etc...We're finishing her third chapter book, The Doll People, which she absolutely loves! It's about a family of dolls that is actually alive, and the adventures they go on when the humans are asleep.

Her latest obsession is fashion and dressing her dolls and stuffed animals. So much so that she had me to sew a dress for her little nut brown hare, and I am not great at sewing. She's drawing different outfits on little girls and cutting out paper making clothes for her paper dolls.

We're getting ready for kindergarten in the fall! Can you believe it? I can not! My little girl is growing up so fast. I've decided to homeschool her for next school year as well, but this is the first year that it's "official" with the state and such. I have to submit paperwork, choose curriculum, and teach every day. I'm a bit nervous, but excited at the same time.

More on what we've been doing in school lately to come!