NEED TO POST

I just felt the need to post something. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture while Laura and Bryant visited, so here is another photo from the month. One is proof that Luke played basketball this year. I think the ones of Sarah are on the other camera. So check back.


These next photos are from last fall, but they are so cute I wanted to share. Throughout the football season they have a variety of themes for pep rallies. This particular theme was "Punk."

New school year

A new year has begun. Here is a picture of Luke's first day (the girls' second day). They were waiting for the bus at 6:30 a.m. When I got home from work, I asked Luke what his favorite part of school was. He said, "THE BUS! There are NO SEAT BELTS!"

Listening

Yesterday I attended a pre-k workshop all day. One of the presentations was all about teaching listening skills. Although hearing is a natural process that develops, listening is a learned behavior involving mental processes. It makes total sense right? But how much time do we spend teaching our children how to listen? I think I can recall maybe two times I've played listening games with my children to help them with this. I also learned that listening is the first step in the phonological awareness continuum. It goes likes this:

Listening - Rhyming - Alliteration - Sentence Segmentation - Syllable Blending and Segmenting - Onset/Rime Blending and Segmenting - Phoneme Blending, Segmenting, and Manipulation.

Each skill builds upon the prior skill and prepares children to read and write.

Modeling: To teach listening, one must model it, so first take time to really listen to your children. Try listening to your child for five minutes. That can seem like a really long time when you have a million things to do, but pay attention to what listening skills you are teaching through your actions.

Listening Games: Listening is developed through practice, so here are some games you can play with your kids no matter what their age.

• Books on cd: Provide books on cd with the book for your child to listen to. Children have to listen for directions to know when to turn the page. This also helps teach book knowledge.
• Egg Shake: Gather those old plastic Easter eggs and fill them with a variety of materials. Make sure you have two of each material, so the children can match the eggs by shaking them and listening to the sound each makes. Some suggested materials include dried rice, beans, and peas, pom poms, safety pins, paper clips, and buttons. Begin with just three pairs for the children to match and add more to increase the challenge.
  
• Egg timer: Set a ticking egg timer and hide it in a room. Have your child walk around the room listening for it to find it. As their listening skills improve hide the timer in an unknown room and send your child listening for it.
• Listen to food: Sort a variety of snacks by the sound they make. Label some crunchy and not crunchy. have your child bite into the foods to figure it out.
• Play Simon Says.
• Play Red Light Green Light.
• Play Mother May I.
• Read a book: Choose a book and some sound effects that your child can make when a word is repeated. For example in Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, your child could growl each time you read the word bear and say "Oh my!" each time you read Goldie Locks. Read the book and instruct your child to listen for the words.

How a field trip saved my education

Two hours ago I turned in my last assignment for my child and adolescent development class. I have to say I truly didn't think I was going to make it through that class. I wanted to quit school at least once a week throughout it, and one night I nearly did. Luckily for me, Luke had a field trip the next day. I decided to blow off my paper due that day and enjoy the day with my son instead. I even went to the Trunk or Treat at church that night. Although my stress was not gone, I felt much better after that and managed to get my paper written the next day.

Feeling stressed? Go on a field trip and discover the world again through the eyes of a four-year-old.

Halloween

My children had a great Halloween. Eliza spent the evening with a friend handing candy out at the home of one of our local millionaires. No, I'm not kidding. She came home with lots of goodies. When Luke got home, he promptly sorted his candies into three piles.

The hard candies, the melty candies and the chewy candies.

Leah was a fairy, Sarah a vampire, and Luke was "SUPER LUKE!"

Update

1. My class is going great so far. There is a lot to learn about the program itself. That is what we are focusing on right now. I feel like I am making it okay so far. I have been assigned to a Learning Team, and one of my peers lives in Japan! How cool is that!

2. Eliza had a bike accident today. She got scraped up a little, and she hit her head on the pavement. She had a massive headache at first. It got better throughout the day, but she went to bed with it still aching. No, I don't think she had a concussion. Her stomach never felt sick, and she didn't get dizzy or anything.

3. Luke told me yesterday, "Mom . . . I LOVE SCHOOL! Today we had Cheetos for snack." This week Luke learned to identify cylinders, spheres, cubes, cones and rectangular prisms. A couple of his older sisters couldn't identify the shapes as such, but Luke could. Watch out sisters!

4. Leah remembered which way to write her letter P on her spelling test, and she made a 100!

5. Friday the kids dressed up for spirit day at school. Since the school is small, even the elementary kids participate in school spirit stuff and pep rallies. This week the theme was "Accident Prone." My girls got really into it. They borrowed crutches, a sling and a wrist brace from my mother-in-law. The mother of one of Sarah's friends said that Sarah's fake bruises were pretty convincing. Sarah's grade won the spirit stick at the pep rally.

6. Paul continues to work hard. His employer has increased production! This is wonderful considering that in the last year half of the employees were laid off. They have also begun hiring people back. Paul also continues to play guitar everyday.

School days

I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but here they are now. What cute kids! They were up and ready to go bright and early. I'm still not used to getting up before 6 p.m. I was really enjoying sleeping in over the summer. Oh well, at least the sun is still shining in the early hours. I hate getting up when it is dark outside. It just seems wrong.

For the record they are: Luke, Pre-K; Leah, first; Sarah, third; Eliza, fifth.

Luke and I at his school. I will have to get pictures of his classroom. It is the coolest ever!

Gap-toothed Leah! And yes that is a potty chair that no one has used for a very long time. It was drying on the carport. It is all clean and ready to be owned by someone else:)

Sarah has this thing about wearing her hair in a ponytail with a headband. I think it is overkill, but it's her head. Whatever! Plus she's cute regardless.

This one is growing up way too fast! Are any of you other moms freaking out that their children are growing up faster than you ever imagined. Everyday Paul looks at me and says "they are getting big, aren't they?" or something to that effect. Scary! Eliza is ten. In another ten years she will be 20 (I'm good at math, see?) She could be married by then, and I could be a grandma! AHHHHHHH! Surely those thoughts cross someone else's mind too.