Christmas

This Christmas was the best Christmas EVER! Both of the children were finally old enough to understand exactly what was going on and to enjoy finding presents that they had asked for and wanted. Despite the mess from Hurricane Ike, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute.

Abram LOVED his Light Saber!

Abby and Abram were both in need of bigger bikes and really liked them.

Santa left a red firetruck for Abram. He played with it ALL MORNING long!!!

Both of the children recieved instruments to play with for school:

ROAR!

Abram's got a thing for Dragons! Dragons and a light saber were the only things he asked for this year.

After our morning Christmas, just the four of us, we headed to Josh's parent's for Christmas lunch.

Then, later that evening we went to Nana and Papa's house (my parents) for Christmas dinner.

He LOVES his train conductor outfit!

Between Marmi and Pappi's house and my parents, we stopped by home to let the dog go potty and let the kid's ride their new bikes for a little bit.

Ready to 'joust'?!

Abram's a little Under the Weather

Poor lil Bub is under the weather lately. He's been a real trooper taking his medicine, but it's hard to keep him still. Every time he's rambunction, he gets to coughing and I have to settle him down. He got a fever this morning though and didn't feel to good, so he's been in bed watching movies the whole day. Maybe just resting a whole lot will change things, along with medicine and lots of Vitamin C.

As for school, we're off right now preparing for Christmas and New Years.

My Lil' Superman

Mama's Lil' Superman starts Sonlighting with us!

Abram is Mama's lil' Superman, and has been since watching Superman for the first time a year or so back. He LOVES Superman and runs around in a superman costume (pjs) and a Marmi-made cape almost every day. I will get him dressed in the morning, and by the time Daddy comes home in the evening, he's usually in his superman outfit! He's my funny little man.

Abram with his big Si'ser and his new Alphabooks:

Abram has watched his sister homeschool everyday this school year with great interest--sometimes to my frustration. He wants to do 'big school', which I really thought I was going to put off for awhile with him. I wanted to wait until Abby was able to fluently read before starting anything but storytime with Abram, but it's just not working that way. He is very jealous of the attention she is receiving during school times, and wants to be included. So, I guess I'm giving in--Oh darn!(said with sarcasm, since I love teaching).

For table work, I'll have available to him two things; a coloring book and a Kumon 'My First book of Tracing' workbook. And when I say "available" that's just what I mean. He is only 3, and I am not going to force him to do school work. However, when he gets settled in the chair right beside Abby and watches her work on a worksheet, I want to be able to offer him something to work on, too.

The only thing I've been specifically working toward at this point is learning his letters in a very casual way. We have puzzles, mini Alphabooks from Baby Einstein that I just found yesterday, and some little felt letter cards I'm borrowing from my dmil. We are working specifically on "a" right now. That will only change when he knows 'a' so well he can say it in his sleep. He is getting introduced to the other letters through his sister's playing with him and through a website called "starfall".

When it comes to storybooks, I am pretty picky! I trust Sonlight, so I go mainly by their P3/4 curriculum for books to read to Abram, and then add in when I find something truly worth reading. We spend a great deal of our school time reading aloud, so I'm not going to waste my time on junky books. Most of the books shown above come from Sonlight's Core P3/4 program, but not all. I added in "My Big Golden Counting Book", Baby Einstein's "Windows to Color", and a poetry book. I also bought him a little PreK workbook to color in whenever he wants to.