Valentine's Day

Spelling Interesting Words

Allison is very proud that she can now sound out words. I attended Parent Observation Day in which she sounded out little pink cards with words like Rug, Pup, Cup, Mug and then put the cards next to little objects. Accordingly, I’ve dug out an early reading work at home. Basically the work consists of little Scrabble-like tiles and mats with 3 letter words. Object is to put the tiles on the appropriate words and sound them out. To scale the work for Katherine, Steve started rearranging tiles to create more challenging words. Allison decided to participate – putting together different tiles “COSO.” She then declared, “Look Dad….Costco!!”

We’ve also started “math minutes” for the Katherine. She now does as many simple addition, subtraction problems in a minute as she can. Allison has decided she needs to participate too. Tonight she did four little addition problems (ex. 1+1, 2+1, 2+2, 3+1), and wrote the answers….backwards! Katherine was highly amused that Allison’s 2s, 3s and 4s are pretty much all backwards, but resisted the temptation to say anything. 🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day

The girls both had Valentine’s Day parties the last couple days. Allison’s party was Thursday afternoon, and Katherine’s was this morning. For Allison’s party, we had little activities like beaded bracelets, bookmarks, cards and tattoos. I really enjoyed this party, and it was a great opportunity to meet Allison’s little classmates. She was so proud to have her mom at the party. Her little face beamed as I walked in with materials – and all her friends sat at circle waiting for the party.

Katherine loved her party. She came home with her bag bulging with party favors and cards. She also helped the parent volunteers put party bags in lockers while her classmates were on the playground.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today was a very special day for Katherine. She and her classmates at Eton had a big party – including a valentine swap, lots of snacks, face painting, games, crafts…She and Audrey climbed in the car at pickup today regaling me with the contents of their bags. Little did I know that a valentine swap including swapping candy and treats! Katherine’s bag was a hodge podge of valentines, candy, chocolate, pencils and such. We spent quite a bit of time in the car, with Audrey and I trying to convince Katherine that she should share some of her treats with Allison. Audrey’s reasoning…”Katherine, it’s greedy not to share.” Katherine finally came around and decided to share her non-chokable candy with Allison. Allison received one M&M and one Smarty – and of course wanted more. “Please …. Katherine, Share…Please…” I then settled matters by bringing out dessert, a little box of candy with four pieces of chocolate. All discussion of M&Ms and the M&Ms went away. Katherine took the cake for slow chocolate eating, finally finishing her little caramel after 10 minutes. Allison ate her coconut candy in about 5 minutes. She finally stuffed half of the chocolate in her mouth and went off to play.

Allison celebrated as well at Toby School yesterday. The little ones swapped valentines, brought in snacks to share and spent much time eating. According to Patty, Allison had a very proud moment where Ms. Ginny sings a song and then throws a stuffed snake. Having seen this myself in previous years, I can attest that this can take the kids and parents aback. But, Allison rallied, ran and brought the snack back to her teacher.

J…All Gone…Meola

Allison has been working with a little wooden alphabet puzzle for a couple months now. At first, she learned which pieces went where, often trying to put the H in the N and vice-versa. Then, she learned to put the puzzle together more and more quickly – now finishing the puzzle in a couple minutes very steadily in one sitting.

Little did I know that this puzzle was so attractive to the dog. A couple weeks ago, Katherine shrieked, “Mom…Bisco is eating the puzzle!” I ran into the family room to see Bisco chomping on a puzzle piece. I extracted the letter J from his mouth and threw it out. Allison quickly learned what happened. For the next couple days she would work on the puzzle, point at the J area and say, “J … All Gone” or “J…Meola.”  I finally found a replacement puzzle that doesn’t make sounds, have lower case, or any other fancy features. The old puzzle is now serving as spare parts (Bisco ate F the other day) and Allison can complete her puzzle at home. Interestingly enough, she has also started to learn her letters. She can recognize “A, B, H, J, K, M, Q, S, W, Y” and is trying to enuciate the letter sounds as well. She’s well on her way to learning her letters!

Do It Again! Read Again!

It’s becoming quite clear that Allison’s strengths are her spatial, verbal and musical skills. She often speaks in three word phrases and is picking up slang. For instance, Steve was roughhousing with the kids when we heard her pipe up and say, “That Cool!!” Or, she’ll run around and say, “Superman! Garbage Can!” (long story) or when playing with Katherine, “Share” or “My Turn” or “Allison Turn” or “Do it Again!” For instance, the other day Katherine originated a new game. It involves attaching a Slinky to the top of Allison’s little marble run with balls. One adult holds the run, another holds the other end of the Slinky allowing the kids to stuff balls down the Slinky and into the ball run. Allison was beside herself. She squealed; she danced in place with her little feet going up and down; she talked incessantly “Do it Again! Do it Again!” Speaking of spatial skills, other favorite games are building blocks, new Wedgits and Little People Amusement Park. Allison will call out “build house” and then run to her building blocks – looking for her cylindrical, colored wooden blocks. We try to see who can stack these blocks end on end and when they fall, Allison squeals “KABoom.”

Musically speaking, Allison’s repertoire of songs is long and growing. She sings many of her favorite baby songs and others from Toby School (Fish Swimming in the Water), songs that she’s picked up from my Mom (like Row, Row, Row Your Boat or a little Chinese song about Tigers), and songs that she’s picked up from Patty. Allison learns useful songs from Katherine like the Days of the Week song – starting out strong with Sunday and then petering a bit out with Thursday, Friday and Saturday before she belts out “These are the days of the week!”

Allison’s new favorite books: Any Dora book she can find, There’s a Wocket in my Pocket (She calls it “Pocket”), Twinkle Twinkle (lights up and plays music), Chugga Chugga Choo Choo (an old favorite from Katherine) and Where’s Coco (otherwise known as “Coco”).

We’ve also reached a milestone. After virtually everything being yellow, Allison is learning her colors. We’re starting with primary colors for now, and her batting average is increasing.

Get Down PLEASE

I must say this at least 20 times a day. In the late afternoon, I let the kids play in the family room while I cook in the kitchen. This works out pretty well because I can see just about everything that goes on – like when Allison climbs over the sofa to reach the window ledge and back again. Or, Katherine will lay out a blanket on the floor and practice jumping off the couch with her sister. Their new trick is having one of them sit on the little blue chair and then the other pull the back of the chair down. Needless to say, I’m not as efficient as I’d like to be because I have to intervene at times.  I’m hoping that common sense will kick in soon before someone truly gets hurt.