Aunt K and Uncle J

My sister and brother-in-law, Kand J, came to visit this week, and we all loved having them around. The entourage was expectedly shy when they first arrived in late afternoon (we haven't seen them since Christmas), but by the end of dinner, Bug walked up to me and whispered, "Mommy, Uncle J is a boy and he's big. Can I wrestle him?" My response: "Absolutely! Go get him!" It didn't take long for the whole entourage to jump in; although, I think I overheard them giving him some instruction on proper rough housing techniques. They kept coming back for more throughout the visit, but he must have been a fast learner. Their favorite activity with Aunt K was playing picnic. They'd get out all the plates and play food, and K (a personal trainer with an interest in nutrition) would lead them in sorting out the foods by food group. During my absense for some me-time one afternoon they also got K to start reading them The Wizard of Oz (Illustrated Classics edition). By the end of the evening they were 160 pages in, and we finished it the next day! We attempted a visit to the swimming pool, but distant thunder kept us from getting in, and we gave up and returned home. Fortunately, the girls had another present from Daddy waiting them: a sprinkler! We found a setting then send out a bunch of tiny streams about shoulder high to Goose, and they loved it! Monkey and Bug enjoyed jumping over/through, and they all eventually got their faces wet on purpose. Bug also decided to relocate the sprinkler a number of times, so the lawn got watered too!

READING!!
Monkey and Bug decided they just couldn't wait until they turned 4 and asked if they could start learning to read this week. Between Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening, we completed the first five lessons, and they LOVE it! The curriculum we have is a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. It's very a very simple and straightforward, phonics-based program made up of 15 minute lessons intended to completed while snuggling on the couch with your kid. Perfect! So far they know the sounds m, s, e (as in me), and a (as in am), are working on the concepts of sounding out letter pairings, and practicing rhyming words. It also includes learning to write each letter as it's introduced. For this purpose, I purchased three small white boards and a handful of dry erase pens. Bug is a hardcore perfectionist, and I thought the ease of erasing her mistakes on a white board might be the best way to free her up to practice writing letters and pen control in general. Let's just say, it's good to be right! She (and Monkey and Goose) love these boards and they pull them out alot just to practice drawing as well as writing. Bug's pen control has particularly improved over just a few days along with her acceptance of making mistakes and taking correction well.

Practicing on their white boards

Bug wrote es!

Goose is indeed involved in this process as she is in just about everything her big sisters do. On Friday she was sitting in my lap and sounding out letters along with Monkey and Bug and has insisted that I write letters on her board for her to scribble on top of too. (Monkey and Bug are mostly tracing letters at this point.)

While Daddy may not be around to help or observe this process, he is definitely on their minds! Monkey and Bug are incredibly excited about the possibility of being able to read books to Daddy when he gets home (at this rate it just might happen!). I also let them pick out a special pencil bag to put their markers in. At first they picked out a sparkly one with stars, but it got ditched without a second glance when Monkey spotted one that "looks just like Daddy's work clothes!"

Math? Physics!
Monkey and Bug have been counting everything lately, and I've overheard Monkey counting accurately up to 15. However, they hijacked my "official" math activity for the week. I set out to do a fun gluing project (Goose could do it too!) in which we would play with arranging construction paper squares in a variety of patterns and shapes of their choosing. As soon as I had the supplies out Monkey and Bug started throwing their background pieces of paper in the air to make them fly, showing no interest whatsoever in the glue and squares, so I went with it. A conversation about basic aerodynamics ensued, and I helped them build paper airplanes out of their paper instead. We experimented with a couple different designs and different take off locations (something they called a rocket tossed from the top of the stairs proved the most popular combination). We never did get back to the "official activity," but they learned alot and a lovely time was had by all.

Swimming!

Once again, the Monkey and Bug had a fantastic week at swimming lessons. Monday was a little rough since their teacher was absent, and the girls weren't happy about having a new face to deal with. Fortunately, nobody had an actual meltdown, and they paid attention and did eventually get in the pool with the substitute. By the end of the week they even participated in the "talent show." (Thanks to the foresight of the head lifeguard who remembered them from last time and had them go first. They were showing off before they even figured out what was going on.) They both demonstrated that they could doggie paddle all by themselves with just small floaties tied to their hips. In class I saw them putting their heads under without a problem, doing starfish floats, using kickboards, and jumping in to their teacher.

They didn't have swimming lessons on Friday, but I took them to our neighborhood pool instead. I was so proud of them! They spent very little time in their floaties. Mostly, they wanted to practice their newly learned skills and experiment with their newfound ability to touch the bottom in the shallow end. Of course, Goose is fearless and takes her cues from her sisters, only without the ability and height. She had no hesitation about sliding into the pool from the side without checking that I was planning to catch her. Fortunately, she's mastered holding her breath, and I never got out of arms reach, so I was always on hand to fish her out again. Needless to say we are really looking forward to when Daddy comes home, so the girls can show off and have another grown up on hand!

Projects

Mostly led by Goose (who keeps walking up to me with a glue stick demanding, "Open! Open!"), the entourage has done several collages lately. Goose loves sticking things onto paper then methodically pulling them off. Monkey and Bug like to pick out the letters from the pile of magazine cutouts I have available, then count how many they've assembled on their papers. Inspired by their interest, I've started collecting a box of odds and ends of various materials for them to use in projects, and I'm looking forward to future seeing their future creations!

Library Day
Library day was quite the adventure this week. It started at the library playground/splash pad with an afternoon playdate with two other families who have kids the same age. The entourage refused to get on the splash pad (disappointing--it was miserably hot outside), but they had a great time climbing and sliding on the playground with their friends (Many Busytown Mysteries were solved). When they all got tired and hungry, we said goodbye to our friends and enjoyed the special treat of dinner in the library's cafe before looking for books. This week we came home with:
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy
My Many Colored Days
Curious George Rides a Bike
Tasting
As a result of my asking, "What do you want to learn about this week?" we also checked out:
A First Look at Dinosaurs (Monkey's pick; she loved finding the ones she knew from Dinosaur Train)
My Body (Bug's pick; she specifically wanted a book about what's inside the body illustrated with children of different races. That can be challenging to find, but this book was exactly what she wanted--it had transparency cutouts of all the systems for an African American boy and a Caucasian girl. She's been studying it every day.)