He's Reading!

I got my pink boxes redone (minus the lamination) and today I decided to use the object boxes with Collin. He surprised me! He is now officially READING (yes!!!) his first 3-letter phonetic words. It is quite a step to get to sounding out letters to blending them to form a word!

Snow! And lots of it!

Today we woke up to lots of snow. We had church at 9 a.m. and when we got out at noon, our cars had about 4 inches on top of it! Brother Cox was so nice once again to clear our driveway of snow before we came home from Church. Kevin helped him out as soon as we got home. Then it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing...so Kevin and Collin went out tonight to shovel some more -- he says there was about a foot of snow. Of course he was in heaven even though it was freezing cold out there. Shoveling is his favorite winter chore to do with Collin!

Dress-up Day

Allie got new glasses on Saturday. She had wanted to get a pair for a couple of weeks now, since she and her friend Alyssa like to play dress-up (as long as it's not princess stuff :)) and Alyssa had a pair. We went to Claire's to get them, with Dad in tow. She told me maybe Kevin should wait in the car while we go in and get them, just because he might think the glasses were too girly. Kevin went in with us anyway - I guess he better get used to going in "girls' stores" since he's got three of us girls!

Collin played police today -- he gave everyone "tickets" -- Allie was his secretary. She wrote the tickets for him. At first Allie wanted to play the bad guy so that Collin could chase her around, but that wasn't Collin's plan. He wanted both of them to be police officers. He gave Allie his police cap to wear. Fun dress-up day!

Collin's Goodbye

Collin on his 1st day at Preschool, Aug 2007

Today was Collin's last day at his Montessori preschool. I think I was a lot sadder than he was! We had planned on having him stop going in January because of our anticipated move to Arizona. The school directress called last night and offered to pro-rate the months and only charge us for the days he actually attends, but after giving it much thought, I decided it was going to be a hassle to try to juggle school and trips to AZ, packing, etc. especially as our impending move comes closer.
So today I picked him up with a heavy heart! Miss Brianna had made this cute goodbye card from everyone in the class. She gave Collin a big hug - so sad. I was misty-eyed almost all the way home. So silly I know, but that just goes to tell you how much we all love Montessori and what a great experience it was for Collin to attend, even for just a short while. Collin (and I!) learned so much. I will miss packing the little lunches and hearing the cute reports Collin gives each time we drive home from school!!!

Miss Brianna & Collin on his 4th Birthday

A New Best Friend

Collin has found a best friend -- except he will have to say goodbye this week, since Thursday will be his last day at preschool.  Miss Brianna tells us Nishit and Collin are inseparable, stuck-at-the-hip on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and either choose the same or similar work, and work side by side.  Here are a few photos of them at school.  They are both so cute.

(Photos courtesy of Miss Brianna)

Sleepy Sunday

Look at that smile!

Maddie slept thru Church for the first time today. She has been napping from 9-12 every day this last week - so it worked perfectly with our 9-12 Church schedule. She will be two months old next week -- how time flies!!! We are all having a blast having her around. She is so cute, and such a good baby too (and hoping she will stay that way!).

Yes! It's Saturday!

Saturdays are great! Last night Maddie slept for five hours straight (11-4). So this morning I woke up feeling refreshed - and had a little bit of fun getting Maddie dressed. She did like her little panda shoes - she kept looking at them while she was in her car seat!


Kevin took Allie and Collin to a basketball game (BYU vs New Mexico), did some grocery shopping for me too, which he always does on the weekends when he's home, so I can have some time to just "chill". Sweet!

Our First Day Back in Home Preschool!

Collin and I did school at home today for 2 1/2 hours while our sweet Maddie napped. Our Montessori materials arrived in the mail yesterday so as you can imagine, Collin and I (maybe me more than him) were excited to use them. So we started out with work time, then did our sandpaper letters. Collin knew half of them by heart! Then it was off to another work cycle, where I presented how to juice oranges. He did hand washing also, and played the bank game again among other work he chose. Then we did our weather/calendar work, national anthem and pledge before heading off to another work cycle and snack time.
 

Scripture Study - Me and the Kiddos

The kids and I have been reading the Book of Mormon together so far this year. I have been trying to find a good study method and came across a great study help for kids called "Learning to Read Using the Book of Mormon" by Camille Funk (thanks to Jen Lund, who is also using it with her kids and love it!). So far, Allie has read six full chapters in 1 Nephi, and is very eager to keep reading. Tonight she begged to read one more chapter! Collin is halfway thru 1 Nephi 1. He and I read it together. The book includes sight words to memorize -- so far Collin is learning the first three on the list -- I, a, O, then as he progresses to the next few chapters,the words get harder -- yea, of, ye, or, from, want, etc. etc. You get the picture. The chapters are divided up into small sections, and the kids get to check-off everytime they finish a section. I think THAT is what keeps them motivated to keep going. Also, we like the discussion questions at the beginning of each chapter -- I am learning so much! Plus I love the time I am able to sit and read the scriptures with these wonderful kiddos.

Impressed with Montessori (again!)

Collin & friend washing clothes


Collin decorating the Christmas Tree


Triangle work (see the different types - isosceles, equilateral, and scalene used to create triangles)


Brass polishing work (so cute!)

(Photos taken by Miss Brianna - she is so nice to document the different works the kids do at school!)

I spent the morning observing Collin's preschool class. I learned so much, and was so impressed with the things these little four year olds are learning. These kids have memorized most of the 71 Phonograms (see Spalding method) and have carefully learned the different writing strokes used in cursive writing. I mean, Miss Brianna can ask them to close their eyes while she secretly writes a phonogram on her small dry-erase board; she just simply tells them the strokes she is using, as in "connector stroke, uphill stroke, downward basement stroke..." and then when she is done, she asks the kids if they know what phonogram she just wrote. Three out of three - the kids got them right - and they were not easy phonograms either (qu??).

I observed Collin hand-washing, remembering each and every step Miss Brianna showed him, including carefully folding and rolling his apron; and then happily playing the Bank Game. It is a game where the teacher asks the child to get a certain quantity, like 250, and the child goes to get that in object form: 2 100 squares and 5 tens. Collin did this for a long time, maybe 10 times, stopping by where I was observing and telling me "She told me to get 9 tens again!" or "She told me to get 6 hundreds, 4 tens, and 9 ones Mom!"

Needless to say, I was amazed at how much he has learned from there -- it just inspired me to kick start my home preschool again - in "hibernation" since Maddie was born!