Friday, October 17, 2003
Benny today, feeling chatty while swimming in the pool:
"Look Mom, I'm flying! Like a dragon! Or a bird! Or a crow! Or, do you remember, when Benny was flying in an airplane? Do you remember and the guys were on the airplane? Do you remember? (coming over to hug me) Oh my sweet love. It's good how you are. It's good how you swim and that's great."
*BEAM*
He did great at the pool today, and tread water for over three minutes, and floated on his back. Ms. Deanah is very pleased with his progress. I'm just floored by the fact that he now PREFERS to swim in the 5 feet part, and while he does come to me to rest up between swims and floats, he also will sometimes swim over and hold onto the side for a few seconds, and then launch himself off and swim around some more. He loves to swim in circles and he also likes treading water and sort of spinning around while he looks up at the skylights. The more he can do, the more he enjoys the water, if that's even possible. The best thing about it as Ms. Deanah pointed out is that if he accidentally fell in deep water, he would now be able to keep his nose up until the lifeguard could get to him.
"Look Mom, I'm flying! Like a dragon! Or a bird! Or a crow! Or, do you remember, when Benny was flying in an airplane? Do you remember and the guys were on the airplane? Do you remember? (coming over to hug me) Oh my sweet love. It's good how you are. It's good how you swim and that's great."
*BEAM*
He did great at the pool today, and tread water for over three minutes, and floated on his back. Ms. Deanah is very pleased with his progress. I'm just floored by the fact that he now PREFERS to swim in the 5 feet part, and while he does come to me to rest up between swims and floats, he also will sometimes swim over and hold onto the side for a few seconds, and then launch himself off and swim around some more. He loves to swim in circles and he also likes treading water and sort of spinning around while he looks up at the skylights. The more he can do, the more he enjoys the water, if that's even possible. The best thing about it as Ms. Deanah pointed out is that if he accidentally fell in deep water, he would now be able to keep his nose up until the lifeguard could get to him.
NOTE: Yesterday I posted something in which I used the word "heretofore" when I meant "henceforth." Welcome to the third trimester, when my brain is like bacon drippings. That is to say, not exactly formed into a useful shape.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Here's the project he did on October 14, forever to be known as the day he got in trouble for pushing at preschool:
The idea here is when you sneeze you get a tissue and cover your mouth.
Here are a couple of math worksheets from recent days:
Here is a fairly uninteresting letter practice. The thing that interests ME about it is how well he's staying in the lines and making his letters regular and even when he concentrates on it. I'm thinking about switching his spelling work to lined paper, but then he wouldn't have the fun of making the lines... I think maybe I should though:
Here is a spelling test from October 6 -- you can see he even put the date on it himself. :)
The words are as follows:
1: swim (again with the e/i thing)
2: fast
3: vest
4: at
5: clip
6: five
7: jim
8: benny
9: ten
10: stick
So there you are.
Here's a particularly interesting spelling test. Benny has been taking over more and more of the administering of these tests, and for this one (done today) he tasked himself to draw pictures instead of spell words, for 8 of the 10 questions:
Here are the words as he told them to me:
1: car
2: potty at the YMCA
3: potty with a tank
4: the original potty
5: tip (again the e/i thing)
6: our truck
7: a guy trying to flush a broken potty
8: this potty is all fixed and has a sink
9: Benny's potty
10: clip
Yes, it's odd, I give you that. But. I will never lose this document.
The idea here is when you sneeze you get a tissue and cover your mouth.
Here are a couple of math worksheets from recent days:
Here is a fairly uninteresting letter practice. The thing that interests ME about it is how well he's staying in the lines and making his letters regular and even when he concentrates on it. I'm thinking about switching his spelling work to lined paper, but then he wouldn't have the fun of making the lines... I think maybe I should though:
Here is a spelling test from October 6 -- you can see he even put the date on it himself. :)
The words are as follows:
1: swim (again with the e/i thing)
2: fast
3: vest
4: at
5: clip
6: five
7: jim
8: benny
9: ten
10: stick
So there you are.
Here's a particularly interesting spelling test. Benny has been taking over more and more of the administering of these tests, and for this one (done today) he tasked himself to draw pictures instead of spell words, for 8 of the 10 questions:
Here are the words as he told them to me:
1: car
2: potty at the YMCA
3: potty with a tank
4: the original potty
5: tip (again the e/i thing)
6: our truck
7: a guy trying to flush a broken potty
8: this potty is all fixed and has a sink
9: Benny's potty
10: clip
Yes, it's odd, I give you that. But. I will never lose this document.
Welp, Benny got in trouble for pushing at preschool. He had been getting a little rough with us while playing at home and in Sunday school he knocked into another kid several times... so this has been looming for a while. In fact, on Sunday after the pushing at church, we'd had a deep discussion with Benny on the subject and had laid down the law that instant and terrible retribution would follow any further incidents of pushing. He pushed me once, experienced the instantaneous terribleness, and that was it.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Steve called home and talked to Dan, saying that Benny had been pushing and had to be brought to the office twice for a serious discussions. He said his policy is not to talk to parents during pick-up time about stuff like this, so as not to expose the parents of the pushers (thank you), so Dan could fill me in when I got home. I had been spending the time blissfully in the fabric store. When I went to pick him up, Mr. Steve told me that Dan would tell me what had happened, but he just wanted to let us both know that he'd been very proud of Benny in the last hour of class. Mr. Steve will be known heretofore as Mr. SAINT Steve.
Okay, that got me EXTREMELY curious about what had transpired in the first two hours of class! :) I asked Benny what had happened at preschool and he said, "The teacher wants you to sit down, so you sit down!" Cryptic. So I called Dan while in the car coming home and Dan told me about The Pushing, and I was just ILL. I said to Benny, "You were pushing at preschool, Benny!" And he said, "Yes, I pushed everybody!" Quite unperturbed. I reminded him about the terrible consequences of pushing and he spent the rest of the trip home angsting about it, and let's just say it was a grim day. Grim, but I'm not going to let my child be That Kid. No way. Benny is too dear and sweet to get into a habit of throwing his (considerable) weight around. He's the biggest 3 year old around -- he must be gentle and kind to other children. So. We're in the midst of a little shake-up and we'll see how it turns out. Blah.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Steve called home and talked to Dan, saying that Benny had been pushing and had to be brought to the office twice for a serious discussions. He said his policy is not to talk to parents during pick-up time about stuff like this, so as not to expose the parents of the pushers (thank you), so Dan could fill me in when I got home. I had been spending the time blissfully in the fabric store. When I went to pick him up, Mr. Steve told me that Dan would tell me what had happened, but he just wanted to let us both know that he'd been very proud of Benny in the last hour of class. Mr. Steve will be known heretofore as Mr. SAINT Steve.
Okay, that got me EXTREMELY curious about what had transpired in the first two hours of class! :) I asked Benny what had happened at preschool and he said, "The teacher wants you to sit down, so you sit down!" Cryptic. So I called Dan while in the car coming home and Dan told me about The Pushing, and I was just ILL. I said to Benny, "You were pushing at preschool, Benny!" And he said, "Yes, I pushed everybody!" Quite unperturbed. I reminded him about the terrible consequences of pushing and he spent the rest of the trip home angsting about it, and let's just say it was a grim day. Grim, but I'm not going to let my child be That Kid. No way. Benny is too dear and sweet to get into a habit of throwing his (considerable) weight around. He's the biggest 3 year old around -- he must be gentle and kind to other children. So. We're in the midst of a little shake-up and we'll see how it turns out. Blah.
Here are some pictures from today at the playground in his new Halloween jacket made for him by his adoring mother.
Is this the face of a kid who gets in trouble at preschool for pushing? Actually, yes.
Love to hang from the monkey bars.
Today was the first day he made it to the top of these monkey bars. He has been trying to do this for a long time.
Beautiful October day, beautiful park, and a pretty cute kid too. Very inspiring.
Is this the face of a kid who gets in trouble at preschool for pushing? Actually, yes.
Love to hang from the monkey bars.
Today was the first day he made it to the top of these monkey bars. He has been trying to do this for a long time.
Beautiful October day, beautiful park, and a pretty cute kid too. Very inspiring.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
I'm behind a bit because Benny's been a little sick. He is now firmly recovered so here is the catch-up. September 31 Benny had preschool and he made the following art projects:
A leaf rubbing.
Some colorful paint.
When I went in to the office to get in line to pick him up, the teacher went back to get him, and then came out looking chagrined. "He won't come," she said to Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve said, "Just give him time, and he'll come out when he's ready." Well, he did come out after a few minutes, and proceeded to hug NOT ONLY MR. STEVE but also both the teachers that were out there, also someone's little brother, me, and then asked to be let back in to the school to hug the other teacher. "Need to hug her in there?" says he. Ahhhh... the child that people used to call "aloof." :) :)
That evening he went to his first big group class in Suzuki violin. His teacher was Ms. Stevens and she was MARVELOUS. I cannot yet understand how these brave souls march into a classroom with a swarm of toddlers (in this case there were 8 I think) where all of said toddlers are armed with a fragile, complicated instrument, part of which is sharp and pointy and shaped like a rapier -- AND YET THEY DO NOT GET FLUSTERED AND FROTHING. They just calmly deal with things as they arise and the children do learn and nobody's violin gets stomped into paste and nobody gets their eye put out with a bow. They are, truly, a breed apart.
Here's a picture of him on the way; he likes to play with my seatbelt.
Here's a picture of the group lesson itself.
In our homeschool we are learning how to write some violin words...
This is what happens when Benny gets to pick his own spelling words. I have been reduced to the level of "studio audience." I appaud when he does something, but that's my only function. He numbers his page and puts the lines on, then he gives himself the word, then he spells it. When we go back over the words, I correct his spelling verbally but that's it. Here are the words: Mama, Benny, Dade (Daddy), clip, clip, teip (tip, and this is becoming a trend when he doesn't know whether to put I or E he puts both), grip, frog, bow, stick. Apart from the first three, these are parts of the bow -- from his favorite song in violin class... called "Where is the bow?"
A leaf rubbing.
Some colorful paint.
When I went in to the office to get in line to pick him up, the teacher went back to get him, and then came out looking chagrined. "He won't come," she said to Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve said, "Just give him time, and he'll come out when he's ready." Well, he did come out after a few minutes, and proceeded to hug NOT ONLY MR. STEVE but also both the teachers that were out there, also someone's little brother, me, and then asked to be let back in to the school to hug the other teacher. "Need to hug her in there?" says he. Ahhhh... the child that people used to call "aloof." :) :)
That evening he went to his first big group class in Suzuki violin. His teacher was Ms. Stevens and she was MARVELOUS. I cannot yet understand how these brave souls march into a classroom with a swarm of toddlers (in this case there were 8 I think) where all of said toddlers are armed with a fragile, complicated instrument, part of which is sharp and pointy and shaped like a rapier -- AND YET THEY DO NOT GET FLUSTERED AND FROTHING. They just calmly deal with things as they arise and the children do learn and nobody's violin gets stomped into paste and nobody gets their eye put out with a bow. They are, truly, a breed apart.
Here's a picture of him on the way; he likes to play with my seatbelt.
Here's a picture of the group lesson itself.
In our homeschool we are learning how to write some violin words...
This is what happens when Benny gets to pick his own spelling words. I have been reduced to the level of "studio audience." I appaud when he does something, but that's my only function. He numbers his page and puts the lines on, then he gives himself the word, then he spells it. When we go back over the words, I correct his spelling verbally but that's it. Here are the words: Mama, Benny, Dade (Daddy), clip, clip, teip (tip, and this is becoming a trend when he doesn't know whether to put I or E he puts both), grip, frog, bow, stick. Apart from the first three, these are parts of the bow -- from his favorite song in violin class... called "Where is the bow?"
