Thursday, September 25, 2008

Reading Readiness!

The kids have been horribly under-stimulated for most of the last several months due to my fatigue (and my horrid mood swings).  But we've been trying to get back on track lately and it seems to be paying off.  Keilana is enjoying school and learning lots of new things there, but she is also doing very well at home.

Writing her name (which, believe it or not,  just 3 or 4 months ago, even at 4, was still almost impossible for her), is old news now.  She writes both "Keilana" and "Clark" quite easily and legibly, and is always very proud of herself.  She is getting pretty good at the rest of the letters, too, though some of them are still hard for her (she loves "x", but still seems to have a lot of trouble with "s" without tracing it).  She is reading!  Well, kind of.  We bought her the first set of BOB books.  If you're not familiar, they're a popular early reading set.  Things like "Mat and Pat Sat." and "Pat and Cat."  Anyway, she's sounding out the words and reading me the books.  Its still slow, and every now and then she gets a little hung up on pictures instead of paying attention to the words, but she is reading.  Very exciting!! She's very proud of herself and is making progress pretty quickly now.  Its fun to see her learn.  Everyday while we're walking home from preschool she tells me all about her day, her new friends, what they had for lunch, what her job was that day, the butterfly she saw on the playground, the bunnies in the classroom, and anything else she can think of.  The girl loves to talk!  Doug's office is between here and the school (everything is close--its only about 1/3 mile to the school), and she loves the days when he's actually there (rather than at McDermont or one of the other projects) and she's able to stop and tell him about her day.  I'm afraid she has betrayed me.  Always my little ally, she has switched over to her dad's side.  She has become most definitely daddy's little girl in most every way, and he has become her partner in crime!

And Dylan. . .Oh, Dylan, my delightful little weirdo.  He just hit 2 1/2 last month.  He's still behind on his verbal skills (though finally progressing nicely) but he's whizzing ahead on a few other things.  He only knows about three colors (blue, red, and yellow) and will usually only count to 3 before he loses interest, but he's got the alphabet down.  He recognizes pretty much all 26 letters now and knows the name and sound of each one.  He understands concepts very well, frequently being able to put pictures in an ordered sequence without help.  His social skills are very good.  I've mentioned before his uncanny confidence, but he is also very good at sharing and taking turns for a 2 year old.  He does it without protest or problem with most kids besides his big sister (what are younger brothers for, if not to agitate?) He'll start to yell at his sister or cry to get her in trouble if she's got a toy he wants or is doing something he wants to do, but as soon as I say, "Dylan, you have to take turns," he says "OK" and patiently waits.   We'll see how he grows up.  But I'm thinking that either the charm or the good looks has to wear off by the time he hits high school, because if he still has both when he becomes a teenager, we're gonna have a lot of trouble on our hands.

I've been whining so much about myself lately, its been a while since I updated on my most adorable and brilliant children (hey, don't judge me--you know you think your own kids are, too).  They are thriving and happy and riding through mostly unaware of the stresses of the grown-ups in their life, and we love them for it.  They're a joy.

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