So, what about the kids?!?!?

The kids are the main reason I wanted to start this little project. So many of you are so far away and so much happens around here that gets forgotten before we see you. I'll try to update this at least once a week because those weeks fly by. So let's get up to speed.


ALISON

Alison is now 5 1/2 as she tells everyone. We are doing kindergarten this year. We technically don't have to do it until next year when she's 6. So I thought this would be our year to experiment with school. I wasn't sure how much school we would do with Ian around. I was right, if you look for school, you won't see it. We don't do very much sit down and learn this today so you can learn something else tomorrow kind of stuff. But the main thing we've learned this year is that learning doesn't have to be sitting down with a textbook to be effective. You can learn a lot from just living life.


Case in point, Alison is teaching herself to read. She doesn't like it when I try to "teach" her with all the things I learned in college. She's always been independent and had her own ideas and learning is no different. She says "I'm only just learning to read." But in reality, if you catch her with her guard down she reads quite well. She's such a perfectionist that she doesn't want anybody to know she can until she's sure she can without messing up.

She loves to "experimize", to pose a question and find an answer. She loves all things girly. She loves to sing and dance. She has an odd obsession with New York and the Statue of Liberty (thanks to Cash Cab). She tells me what she wants to learn about and I order every book I can through inter-library loan and we read them all. It's funny that I can barely remember my soc. sec. # but have my library card memorized.


For fun I looked up the curriculum standards for kdg in MI. She knows almost everything. Amazing. The things she doesn't, is only because I hadn't thought to talk to her about them (like spheres, cones, cubes, etc). By the end of the summer she'll be ready to be a 1st grader.

We found out that our local art museum is free every Thursday and has family days and homeschool days. It's one of our new fav hang outs.




Ian

Most of you know that Ian had a hard time gaining weight as a newborn. Well, our tiny little guy finally figured out how to grow! Last week he was 8 months old and 17lbs 12oz considering that on Nov 8th he was 3 mo old and 8lb 11oz, he's had one huge growth spurt. He doesn't have a neck at the moment either. He's got dimples on his knees and elbows, it's too cute.


About a month ago he started sitting up on his own without randomly toppling over. He likes to sit on the floor and play with his toys and books. When he gets bored he leans over and flips onto his back or tummy to play. He isn't crawling yet, but I'm in no hurry. I kind of like him staying within 10 feet of where I leave him. He is figuring out how to reach out and grab something and pull himself forward. He may end up doing an army crawl pretty soon. He loves to jump. I put him in his exersaucer at least once a day so he can jump. He lifts both feet off the ground and jumps up, the whole thing rocks and shakes. He loves it.

He's also getting into feeding himself. He loves anything that he can pick up and eat himself. He will let me feed him some applesauce but then he wants food he can "chew" I get bonus points if he gets to pick it up himself too. He doesn't have any teeth yet. It's fun to watch him gum everything.





So that's where we are starting off. If I can figure out how to add videos I'll share some of those. We've got some really good ones I know you'll like to see.


Here are a few last pics. From Easter at mom and dad's house. Alison didn't get an Easter basket. She got a hot pink Barbie tote with wheels to organizer all her Barbie dolls and accessories. She's in love...



















Ian had so much fun attacking his basket. There were so many exciting things to play with. His fav was the chewy Peep squeaky toy, followed closely by the tractor (by his foot).