a side note of hilarity before i forget. pace still likes to watch industrial shredders/car crushers/combine harvesters on you tube. one day i was getting dinner ready and he had somehow clicked from shredders to some korean car cartoon (don't worry, we have filters on so he can't find some sort of...pornographic shredder...or something). i think it's korean. maybe it's japanese? anyway, he asks all the time now to "watch korea" (which he pronounces exaggeratedly koh-ree-uh)! pace has really gotten into singing the theme shows of his favorite shows, and this one is no exception!--he totally sings along with the theme song to the cartoon--in korean (or japanese)! is there a korean/japanese immersion school in utah county?...
another funny story--one night last week it was time to get ready for bed, and pace started throwing a fit, saying he wanted to watch a show. well, our mantra before having kids was "we don't negotiate with terrorists", so when david started bargaining with pace and said, "ok, pace, if you are good for bath and good for getting ready for bed, we can watch one show." well, i just gave david the eye and said, "you bargain, you stick with the deal! you go ahead and give both the boys their bath and get them both in pj's, and i'll join you later." normally i'm the one doing bath and pj's by myself, and david moseys on up for reading/scriptures. i reminded david to also wash the boy's hair. i settled down with a book for 20 minutes, heard lots of squawks, pace crying for me (mama's do things a little differently from daddy's, don't they?!), and when i eventually made it upstairs, pace, on the point of tears, said, "mama, i had a hard bath. i just want to go straight to bed." i started laughing and david said he apparently had a hard time washing hair, and some water boarding may or may not have been involved. ha ha! needless to say, we had a quick prayer, and the boys happily climbed into bed!
after taking essentially all of march off, we are back to our routine of theme days, project boxes, abc's, and fun in the dirt. we spend between 10-20 minutes on an activity box or learning activity, depending on pace's interest. i was particularly pleased on this day last week when pace matched all the rhyming words perfectly from one of our workbooks. he couldn't/wouldn't do this a few months ago, and i was beginning to wonder if he just wasn't an auditory learner, which was starting to worry me with learning to read and phonics teaching. but on this day, he not only listened intently and matched all the rhyming words, he also drew lines to the matching rhyming pictures, and was very excited to discover he had drawn all "x's", connecting the pictures.
when we read i pick out a 3-letter word that we call his special word, we sound out, and every time we see it, it's his job to "read" it. examples: pop, moo, cat, dog, etc. i'm very impressed with his attention span and attempts at reading. there's a book we read about popcorn, and he really gets into it, reading every single "pop". other books he sounds out one word one time with me, and that's it. and other times he just makes the sound of the letter, and then hides. but he gets the concept of reading, and gets that letters make sounds, and sounds make words--he is on his way!
pace randomly whips out holding his pen with his left hand, but i'd say 99.8% of the time he's right-handed.
i love how pace embellishes his name. the "e" cracks me up every time.
this name he turned into yet another diagram of the digestive system. it blows me away that he has all the organs in the correct order, and pretty much the correct location! i have no idea why he focuses on just the digestive system--we have also examined the heart and cardiovascular system, the lungs and respiratory system, bones, etc. we must have a budding gastroenterologist on our hands. so we were writing his name, and he at first drew a backwards "c" and when i pointed that out, he drew a "c" the correct way, but touching the backwards one, so to him it looked like a mouth. so naturally he drew (and vocally labeled everything as he drew) the teeth, the uvula, then the esophagus, the stomach, intestines, the bladder, and the p____ (ha ha). then i asked him about the rest of the body--"what about the trachea, where does that go?" he gave me a look like, "what's the trachea?" so i reminded him it was the tube that brought oxygen to the lungs, and then he drew the trachea, the lungs, and the heart. smart little cookie. (the intestines, bladder, and organ are all on the left side of the drawing, and the lungs are one on each side of the trachea, and the heart os on the right side, by the "a")
and how does little max attack keep himself occupied? max likes to color--he first names all the colors of the pens, then picks his preferred color of the day and colors on the page opposite pace's letter practicing. i remember spending time with pace going through colors, shapes, quizzing him, doing flash cards and lots of games with shape blocks. max adores pace, does everything pace does, and follows pace around everywhere. so, naturally, max picks up on everything pace knows without any "study sessions" with mama!
i don't know how many times my jaw has dropped when out of the blue max has rattled off all his colors (when did he learn those?!), or grabbed the right shape when i asked for it (wow! did david teach him the difference between a triangle and a square?), or shouts out the letter that pace is working on, before i say what it is! i love it! max knows all his colors, consistently shouts out numbers 1-5, 8, and sometimes 10 whenever he sees them anywhere, anytime (i think #8 is his lucky number--he loves it and sees it everywhere!), and independently knows a, b, e, m, o, and s (o seems to be his favorite letter--he shouts it out not only when he sees the actual letter, but also when he sees a wheel, a toy with a screw, a light, etc.). he also "sings along" the last syllables of most songs--abc's, twinkle, twinkle, etc.
