Friday, November 28, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
The Rest of the Catch Up
For the first three weeks of November we have been learning hard and playing hard.
The big boys are both doing great in school. Elliot has started a kindergarten math program and is sailing right through. He has also proven to be excellent at memorizing poetry, even if his severe speech delay means you can't understand a word he is saying.
Peter is starting the second grade math book and is now reading at a strong mid-second grade level. He is devouring the Frog and Toad books and as many superhero readers as he can haul home from the library.
I have also hit upon a genre of literature that I can read to the boys without Peter getting "worried". The genre is "Nothing Much Happens" - lots of benign description without much of that unnerving suspense or emotion or plot. We listened to Anne of Green Gables on audio book and most of the chapters went over fairly well. A few of the Just So Stories were tolerated. And then we hit on the All of a Kind Family books...now those are some gentle books. Peter will happily listen to long narratives about how Mama makes Gefilte fish or the intricate steps necessary to get pinafores clean and pressed on laundry day.
School only lasts for about 45 minutes, so the rest of the time the boys play, play, play. Spencer is now almost a full time walker.
The big boys are both doing great in school. Elliot has started a kindergarten math program and is sailing right through. He has also proven to be excellent at memorizing poetry, even if his severe speech delay means you can't understand a word he is saying.
Peter is starting the second grade math book and is now reading at a strong mid-second grade level. He is devouring the Frog and Toad books and as many superhero readers as he can haul home from the library.
I have also hit upon a genre of literature that I can read to the boys without Peter getting "worried". The genre is "Nothing Much Happens" - lots of benign description without much of that unnerving suspense or emotion or plot. We listened to Anne of Green Gables on audio book and most of the chapters went over fairly well. A few of the Just So Stories were tolerated. And then we hit on the All of a Kind Family books...now those are some gentle books. Peter will happily listen to long narratives about how Mama makes Gefilte fish or the intricate steps necessary to get pinafores clean and pressed on laundry day.
School only lasts for about 45 minutes, so the rest of the time the boys play, play, play. Spencer is now almost a full time walker.
Wow!! Long Time No Write...
Things have been the good kind of busy around here. School is going well, extracurriculars are going well, speech therapy and allergy shots are going well. Halloween was fun and now it is almost time for Thanksgiving already!!
I'm going to share some of the October and early November highlights...better late than never.
In the middle of October Peter learned to swim. He had been in swim lessons for over a year, and then suddenly, over the course of a week, he went from not being able to swim even a foot on his own to being able to swim half the width of the pool. Since then, he has been hitting milestones fast and furious; he is now in the Advanced Beginner class for the older age group (6+).
Shortly after that, the boys all made cards for Uncle Scott's birthday. We pulled out the griddle to do hot crayon drawing, and Spencer made his first masterpiece. The hot griddle might seem an odd medium for baby's first art work, but it makes the crayons flow across the paper so easily that he could make bold, bright marks even if he did not press hard. No babies were harmed in the making of this art.
Then we got ready for Halloween.
Spencer was not a fan of the dark or the eerie glow of the pumpkins.
We were at Nana's and Papa's for Halloween, but cold, sleety weather sent us trick or treating at the mall rather than taking to the streets.
The next couple days we hung out with Nana and Papa and ate a lot of candy. Spencer was just taking his first couple steps.
A bit more to follow in the next post...
I'm going to share some of the October and early November highlights...better late than never.
In the middle of October Peter learned to swim. He had been in swim lessons for over a year, and then suddenly, over the course of a week, he went from not being able to swim even a foot on his own to being able to swim half the width of the pool. Since then, he has been hitting milestones fast and furious; he is now in the Advanced Beginner class for the older age group (6+).
Shortly after that, the boys all made cards for Uncle Scott's birthday. We pulled out the griddle to do hot crayon drawing, and Spencer made his first masterpiece. The hot griddle might seem an odd medium for baby's first art work, but it makes the crayons flow across the paper so easily that he could make bold, bright marks even if he did not press hard. No babies were harmed in the making of this art.
Then we got ready for Halloween.
Spencer was not a fan of the dark or the eerie glow of the pumpkins.
We were at Nana's and Papa's for Halloween, but cold, sleety weather sent us trick or treating at the mall rather than taking to the streets.
The next couple days we hung out with Nana and Papa and ate a lot of candy. Spencer was just taking his first couple steps.
A bit more to follow in the next post...
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