Let's Read and Stuff

We're in our third week of a super cool Reading Readiness class with our oldest, Thomas, right now. We signed up with our buddy, Isaac, and me and Isaac's Mama, go with the boys every Friday morning to see their eyes widen and brains expand with wonder. It's pretty amazing. My cheeks hurt after the first class from smiling so much at them.

Our workbook dedicates 25 pages to suggested reading. This book-list is full of beloved, revered, Caldecott winners. I even love some of these books. Some from my childhood, some just from reading them with my kids. To make this reading thing seem like the big deal that it is, we went and got Thomas his very own library card. The day we got it, he learned how to scan a book to check out (much advanced since my day of scratching my large, awkward handwriting onto a card found at the back of a book), how to play the computer games for Pre-K kids and he did puzzle after puzzle. Did you know you can check not only books out, but puzzles, videos and cd's?

Well, several of the books on our list were already checked out the day he got his card. I asked the Librarian and she showed me via computer system, how to reserve them. So, I did! I reserved half a dozen books and we picked them up today after dropping off three from Thomas' maiden voyage.

Today, we checked out Hansel and Gretel, Madeline, The Story of Babar, The Very Quiet Cricket, Frog and Toad Are Friends & the soon to be released made into a movie Where The Wild Things Are.

Here are some others we've loved that I wanted to share them here so you all could share in the love: Corduroy, A House for Hermit Crab, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Snowy Day, The Little Engine that Could, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Curious George, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, Caps for Sale, The Polar Express and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.

After we got home and my youngest went down for a nap, I let Thomas pick one of his new books to read. Like the good mischievous Max that he is, he picked, Where The Wild Things Are. We read it through twice and talked through it. I decided that a little activity would be fun for this book so I had Thomas pick construction paper, colors and all, and he drew some and had me draw some shapes he wanted to make to pretend that his room turned like Max's did, into a "forest".

Here is his room, complete with a house, sun, moon, an octagon and several "play" areas. While I did most of the cutting, he did ALL of the gluing.

And, since he was busy and this was our activity together, I made one too. I free-handed Max and two of the Wild Things, cut them out and glued their shapes onto pink and black paper Thomas picked out for me. We had a blast! We read it a third time tonight and he went to bed reading this beloved classic all by himself (oh, the warm fuzzies here).

Off to Gulley We Go

Last month, we packed an outdoor blanket, drinks, our camping chairs and a 9x13 dish of freshly made Rice Krispies Treats for the boys first "Concert in the Park" put on by Gulley Park here in Fayetteville. We took Thomas as a baby and have gone since, but have gotten babysitters for shows we really wanted to see because it can be a lot of work to coral two spunky and curious little boys. So, this was the first time all four of us have gone.

What an interesting study of our two kids to take them to something like this. Besides little things we've noticed here and there, we're just now really being able to tell about their differences, their distinctness. Here's what I found that night:

Thomas thought it was loud and plugged his ears, a little irritated. He wanted to go play.

Wyatt, loving every loud minute of it, just about hopped the fence to get to the band.

My Sugar

On St. Patrick's day of spring break week, we made cut-out sugar cookies with green icing. With a sun-kissed face, Thomas smiles with the two he decorated with Valentine's sprinkles.