Zoo with Friends

We had some friends come visit us in Tucson. We had fun at the zoo. The girls were sure to ask for them as soon as they woke up the next morning and were extremely disappointed when I told them they didn't live in Tucson anymore. You think they'd be used to the idea by now.Here are some fun pictures my friend took.

The smiles the girls are displaying for you are Nathan's smiles. Something they've inherited or learned, I'm not sure, from him. Cute! and so funny.

The girls were so excited to see the baby. They were all over her in loves and kisses. This new baby girl coming to our house will have to stick close to mommy.

Butterfly Kisses

The other day I taught Meredith how to do butterfly kisses. Emily just looks at me like I'm nuts and she just doesn't like it. Meredith thought it was hilarious! She wanted to give me butterfly kisses. Later on in the day she came up to my bump like she was going to kiss the baby and just put her face right next to it. Then she looks at me with a great big smile and laughing she says, "I gave the baby butterfly kisses."

I'm sure the baby will appreciate all of the butterfly kisses. :)

Speech, Learning, and Growth - Part 3

Good, Better, and Best Books

I spoke of other books in my last post and just couldn't leave you all high and dry without a good book list. I'm certainly not the expert for knowing what books are good, I'm still learning, but I can share what I have found. (In other words, I will probably update this post sometime in the future.)

First - I have found a great book. One that I think every mommy should read. Maybe even get for a baby shower. :) Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys M. Hunt. Really, I could just end the post right there.

There are also some excellent lists online. I've started here.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/eyguide/eyreadalouds/
You'll also find a list of books half way down this page. It also has some wonderful information about good books.
http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml (also has a list of poetry.)
For older children you can find books listed by year. (Kind of close to grades, but I may not start a 5th grader in a level 5 book.)
http://www.amblesideonline.org/index2.shtml

A couple of other things I have learned. 1. It's ok to be choosy about picture books. You don't have to have a ton. That's really not the idea. There should be some wonderful, very loved books that is your child's favorite.

Some of our favorites:
Green Eggs and Ham
Pinkalicious
Brown Bear, Brown Bear

These books are the ones that my girls will sit down and "read" all by themselves. Or will quote, or when we get to a favorite part they'll shout a part out. For example, in "Pinkalicious" the mother asks the girl what color she wants to make the cupcakes. My girls will shout, "Pink, Pink, PINK!" Or, Meredith will read the whole "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book all by herself. She turns the page a little bit early.

2. Get the original versions. It can be a newer print, but don't get the dumbed down version of books. This goes for any book, even for the older ages.

3. Every child should have a nice illustrated scripture book. We have 4 board books and 1-2 other scripture books for children. I do not think this should take the place of actually reading scriptures in the home though. They need to hear the scriptures in their "real" form to get used to the sound and flow of the words. This will help them when they begin to read the scriptures on their own. This I know from experience. (Nathan is amazed at how young my memories begin.) My parents did read to me from the scriptures and I was not one of those who struggled in Sunday School reading the scriptures. I also got my own verse to read during scripture study. (I'm sure they carefully found a shorter, easier one for me when I was just beginning.)

4. Talk about the books. Don't just read them. Ask them about the pictures. Teach them positional words. For example: The elephant is on the tree (Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss). The dog is under the house. The bird is beside the rock. Etc.

Teach them colors. Ask them to count the number of objects. Ask them to repeat to you what is happening in the story. The older they get the more they should be able to narrate back to you. (Narration being a whole other topic of itself.) Whatever you can possibly think of, do it.

5. Read poems and nursery rhymes. Wonderful to have in your own personal library.

Random thoughts: So, the next couple sets of books I want in my home is the Winnie the Pooh series and the Beatrix Potter series. I've also found that I don't enjoy reading the Disney books, and we have lots. I really love "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". It will be a special memory for Emily and myself. (Caution: Have lots of patience!) I found my book for less than $10 w/ shipping. I'll also share an Early Years Guide for ages 3-5.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/eyguide/ For the math section for the 5-year-olds. I found something online for free that we can print out our own workbook pages. I'll share it if you ask. It goes through 6th grade without any special permission and above that you have to email them.

I hope that this will help.

Speech, Learning, and Growth - Part 2

What I Wish I Would Have Known About Speech and Language Development
*What I Think Any Parent Should Know About Speech and Language Development – Even Those Without a Problem

First – know the speech milestones. Those parenting books are good for something. They have lots of milestones listed. Speech isn’t the only problem children come across. But, here’s for the speech milestones because so much revolves around speech.
Here’s up to 2 years: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-development/AN01026
Here’s from 3-5 years: http://www.scottishrite-child-language-center.org/?page_id=23

Second - start a speech journal, if you haven't already. Know exactly when they started what. If there is a problem later, you'll be happy you did, or even if there is no problem at all. Record all of the firsts.

There were many stories about late bloomers, surely my child would be one of them. So, you wait. And wait. And start feeling guilty, but don’t know what to do, all the time hearing the stories of late bloomers.

Don’t wait. You don’t even have to wait until you “think” there is a problem. There are things you can do at home to stimulate speech.

Stimulate Speech - Talk about everything; force yourself to talk if you’re not a talker (how many parents are talkers when you’re child can’t carry on a conversation? Not I.) Sing, read poems, read books, tell them stories about your childhood (did my mom realize this while I was a kid, because I loved hearing her stories and constantly asked for them), tell them fairy tales, tell them what a fork does (I’m really quite serious.) Or if they can say a little, ask them. What does an airplane do? What does a car do? What do we eat with? What do we eat on? Etc. Also, turn off the TV. Teach them to sign. I realize there is some controversy here. From a parent who has a child with a speech delay, it’s much more important that they understand speech than say it. Comprehension has to be the biggest problem.

Next – find where to get help and go. Sure, DS or DD (dear son, or dear daughter) may be just fine, but wouldn’t it be better to have some peace of mind.
If you live in Arizona: https://www.azdes.gov/azeip/
Any other states, this website can direct you to where you need to go: http://www.nichcy.org/Pages/StateSpecificInfo.aspx?State=Select%20a%20State

There are a large percentage of children who fall underneath the 50% of other children their age who will not get help. Their best teacher, and any child with a speech delay for that matter, is their mother. Always work to say more: more words, more sentences, and longer sentences, depending of course upon age. Also, see the section above, Stimulate Speech.

Speech, Learning, and Growth - Part 1

Emily has made some wonderful progress with her speech lately. Coming home in the car today she was saying some wonderful sentences. Finally at one point she couldn’t come up with the words to say what she was thinking, got frustrated and says, “I need help with an idea.” She also told me she wanted to go to the park, but I had to explain that Meredith didn’t have a sweater. So she says, “Mom, you say, ‘We’re going to the park after we get Meredith’s sweater.’” It thrills me. It thrills me more to know exactly what kind of progress that really is, what kind of thinking goes into saying something like that. It makes me realize, or at least begin to realize, how much I take for granted.

We’ve changed what we’ve been doing around here. It’s finally occurred to me after our last speech evaluation a few weeks ago that what we’re doing isn’t working. Very sad it’s taken me that long. Sure, what we’ve been doing has been helping, probably, possibly; but we just haven’t been making the strides in speech that I want to see.

So, with prayer, studying, and the Lord’s inspiration (hopefully) I’ve been trying to do whatever I thought would help. I’ve been teaching her how to read. It sounds crazy, I know. Why would you teach a 4-year-old to read? That is a little young. But as she reads the words they are so much clearer. We’re working even further on making sure everyone can hear those sounds. We’re learning comprehension. She’s made wonderful strides in comprehending what she is reading.

I’ve also been reading a lot more to the girls. But not just any books, the best books I can find. Not all books are created equally. I’ve also been asking questions, talking more about the pictures in the books, and discussing the books. We also recite scriptures. Having Emily recite the 1st Article of Faith to me has been thrilling. Seeing the 2-year-old keeping up and insisting upon her turn has brought many smiles to my face. Emily has gained a lot of clarity in her speech through working on reciting scriptures and we will continue to add scriptures to our repertoire. There are other things that we’ve added to our routine. Some that seem to be less speech related and some very speech related. I found a free math curriculum online. It asks questions like: Which one is wider? Which one is taller? Who is sitting beside Tom? Etc. It makes me realize how much even a subject like math is very speech related.

I quite honestly believe that we’ve been going through this for a reason. It pales in comparison to some of the trials in life that I know others go through, but it’s been no cakewalk either. Both of the girls are benefiting from what I have been learning. I think that this new child to our family will be an even greater beneficiary. I also hope that there may be people I come in contact with that will benefit. One day, this won’t be our problem anymore. I feel more hopeful now than ever. This has been a wonderful learning period for me and our family.

Part 2 - What I Wish I Would Have Known

Dear Mr. Sunshine

Dear Mr. Sunshine,

Please come back. I have two little girls who would like to go swimming and doing all the fun activities that only sunshine can bring. And, I definitely do a lot better with sunshine.

Book Reading

After taking Emily to school it was just so quiet and peaceful that I was a little worried about what the 2-year-old was getting into. She was just reading a book. Gasp - actually being peaceful and quiet! I had to take a picture. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you that when I took the camera out she was being peaceful and quiet looking at her book and not giving me a mischievous smile. (Doesn't she just look like she's about to do something?)

The Smiles and Laughs

The girls are constantly bringing me a smile to my face. I love it. Like today...

Mom: It's time to take a nap.
Emily: I don't want to take a nap.
Dad: We have to take a nap so we can be happy.
Emily: I don't want to be happy, I want to be sad.

Or after Meredith and I take Emily to school, as soon as I sit down she says, "I want my lesson, Mom." She brings me the "Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten" book. She also has to have HER TURN! to recite the scripture we're memorizing all by herself. Unless of course she gets stuck and asks for it.

And then after preschool I question Emily on how school went and about her friends. There are a couple of things we can be pretty sure about. #1 - Jack was naughty. #2 - Sarah and Grace and Brian are her friends. #3 - Someone was naughty in school and someone was nice. #4 - Someone was missing. So, as soon as I'm done talking to Emily, Meredith loves to talk about Jack and the other names that she hears about from Emily. Although, it seems Jack is starting to be nice at school.

The Art of Cleaning (or Stuffing Under Furniture)

So a couple months back the girls learned the art of stuffing their books under the couch. They didn't really try it after that because Mommy wasn't happy and made them clean up all the books yet again, or for the first time depending on which point of view you're taking.

Yesterday we were preparing for the missionaries to come over for dinner. I was in the kitchen, Nathan was vacuuming the living room and the girls were "cleaning" their bedroom. After they were done I walked past to at least throw my hair in a ponytail (we went swimming just before this) and I looked at the lovely, freshly vacuumed room and saw this...

That's right. They'd stuffed everything under there bed. I went to go get the girls to fix it and Nathan told me the rest of the story. He'd told the girls to clean up so that he could vacuum the floor. Well, they made it so he could vacuum and were so proud when he walked into the bedroom. "We did it, Daddy! We did it!" He just couldn't get after them, but he did tell them that they couldn't stuff their stuff under the bed again.

Easter Egg Coloring

So, I told Nathan that I really didn't want to color Easter Eggs because nobody eats the eggs after we're done. So, while I was taking my Sunday Afternoon nap (the only nap this pregnant woman gets all week) he made sugar cookies for the girls and I happened to have bought an egg shaped cookie cutter for Easter last year. We didn't use it last year, but we won't go there. Then we had 4 seperate bowls of different colored frosting. The girls loved it!

Then, we were able to immediately enjoy our efforts.

The 2yo really just wanted to eat the frosting.

This picture is from later in the week. Meredith has been actually needing a nap lately. Completely surprises me because at one point she dropped her nap and I let her because she stayed happy throughout the day and it was nice to have her go to sleep immediately instead of wandering. She even fell asleep with her favorite thing we got the girls for Easter.

*I just love pictures of my beautiful, sleeping girls. They just look so peaceful and beautiful.

Conference, Lessons and Teaching my Girls

*Note: The following is a list of my garbled thoughts. I'm still working on organizing them in my head. There just seem to be an overwhelming number of them. Does pregnancy contribute to this?

Conference was wonderful. We loved it. The week before conference I had been really studying what to teach my girls. I've been reading a TON and teaching Emily how to read. I started searching through for the "best" books to be reading my children. Not just randomly going to the library and grabbing what I thought looked interesting. After spending quite a bit of my time researching what I should be teaching my children I was interested in noting what seemed to be the theme of the conference, Teaching Our Children. One of my favorite talks (how can one possibly choose just one favorite) was the first talk of the Saturday Afternoon Session. http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1207-11,00.html

I then spent the next week looking into the things I had found the week prior to conference a lot more closely. We've implemented a few things in our home for this week and I'm eager to implement more. We're keeping up with Emily's reading lessons, which she is doing great at. But this week I added a "scripture time" where the girls color while I read the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes and quiz them periodically about what we're reading (we have not replaced this with our Family Scripture time in the evening with Daddy. We just concentrate a lot more on reverence with Daddy because that is a 4-handed-parent lesson ;). We've also added, "scripture memory" (see my links at the bottom of the post for the system) and we've been working on the 1st Article of Faith. Emily has it down and Meredith almost has it down as well, so I'll probably stick to it for another week and let her get it before I move on. The one thing that has surprised me is how much clarity Emily has gained in saying the scripture by memory. It sounds wonderful! And is music to her mother's ears. We are also continuing to read our "Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten" book. Meredith loves it. She's learned her left and right hand, she knows all of her capital letters and their sounds, most of the lower case letters and most of her colors and shapes. Emily has upper/lower case letters and sounds, shapes, colors, and quite a few numbers (although numbers is what I will be focusing on for the next few weeks, including telling time.)

Anyhow, here's my list of "favorite links" that I've found.
simplycharlottemason.com, but in particular the Scripture Memory System found there.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
Also, there's a book list, or a "book finder"
http://apps.simplycharlottemason.com/
But, I think my favorite book list I found was here, http://www.amblesideonline.org/index2.shtml
The Ambleside website I'm still digging deeper into and love what I see.
And then, more websites for handwriting worksheets
http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/multi-word_handwriting_worksheet_maker.html
http://www.handwritingforkids.com/

Speaking of handwriting, I need to search for a book like this next one to improve my own, less than desirable, handwriting.
http://www.pennygardner.com/italicsbk.html

Easter 2010

Saturday, between morning and afternoon conference, we had an Easter Egg hunt with some of our friends. Here they are before. (I knew I wouldn't be able to get them altogether looking at me with their baskets if they got their candy first.)

Here's a picture of the actual "hunt". Meredith in her cute braided pigtails. :)

Here's the girls Easter morning. You can sort of tell that I've been really focusing on teaching them. We got them the "Let's Get Ready for First Grade!" because we've loved the Kindergarten one so much. Of course, they took it around with them and plopped it down in some water they spilled which promptly ruined it, but we're still going to use it. They've also LOVED listening to Peter and the wolf. The candy jewelry was great at keeping Meredith quiet during conference. (Must keep note of that for October.)
She's thankful for Easter, or at least the candy. We try to explain Easter, but how much do the girls actually understand?
The whole day Meredith was saying, "Jesus is Resurrected." So cute!
It was wonderful to celebrate Easter and to have Conference. It was a fabulous weekend.