Videos

Leaning on the Learning Curve

I have been trying to work with Connor on his letters and pre-writing skills for the last few months. So far we've covered A B C E F G M O R. I gather ideas from homeschool blogs (written by moms who are much more organized than I, and from what I can gather, don't sleep much.) Then while he has rest time I gather supplies from around the house and set up our lesson on the dining room table. He gets so excited and says things like "Mommy, can we pweeeease do a wesson (lesson) today?!" There are so many ways for me to improve our lessons and my time with him but as I titled todays post, I'm leaning on that curve. Hopefully I will improve with time but for now I will rejoice in the small successes.

For example, check out his improving scissor skills!

On this paper I drew three lines and had him cut along the lines. This was his first time using small children's scissors. The lines were zigzag, wavy and straight.

These are from today when I gave him a worksheet where he needed to cut out small pictures and glue them to the corresponding box.

I always have him trace the letter a few times. First with his index finger (90% of the time this is his right hand but occasionally he mixes it up with a lefty.) Then he gets to use a marker and today we added beans and made an F with them! Working on his dexterity & fine motor skills!

We always make a picture with our letter.

And most recently I've added printable worksheets like this one and the seasons one above. He was instructed to circle the healthy foods and put an X on the unhealthy ones. He got them all correct but had trouble with the X's. He forgets to pick up his marker for the second line.

Overall, I am really pleased with his progress and mine. More than emphasizing his knowledge of letters and their sounds I want to focus on skills that will help him be a better student in the future. Things like developing fine motor skills and a love for reading are much higher on my list than being able to recite the US Presidents or state capitals.

A Year Ago?!

It amazes me the changes that occur in just a year. Here are the boys last February.



Now Connor is just a jabbering conversationalist. You can't keep him quiet and there is no way to even count the number of words in his vocabulary. And Cameron is now learning to speak too. It's still quite small, but his little vocabulary is grow. He added "hippo" to his word list this week. He has lost several of his rolls since that video was shot and he is running and nearly keeping up with his brother as opposed to not-quite yet crawling a year ago. Oh my how they are growing so quickly.
Thank you Lord for these boys! Let me not forget to savor their precious presence!

Connor's Prayer

In the most timid voice with hands folded in his lap:

Dih God

tank-ooh food.

Caweb feew better.

Tummy not sick.

Wuv you.

Geezis (Jesus) name, Amen.

My prayer,

Thank you Lord for this precious moment in my darling child's life. I am so grateful to have a compassionate, loving son. Thank you for prompting his heart to pray for his friend. Thank you for calling him even now. Please direct me as I do my best to mother him well. Show me when I fail and how to do better. Give me grace for the mistakes I make. All praise and glory to the God of the universe and of little children!

Summer Evening in Austin

This past Last Saturday Matt's mom called during nap time and asked if we wanted to meet in Austin for dinner. It was a fun impromptu outing! We met at the Arboretum and ate at the Cheesecake Factory and then played around outside for a while before heading back home. It was a beautiful, HOT summer evening!

Cameron loves to hold your fingers while he walks.

Connor: "Teeekol teekol!"

Telling Grandma thanks for some fun new Handy Manny toys!

These really are steps of faith for Cam. He is so timid about walking on his own!

This is the absolute best shot I got of the boys together. They are so active it's almost impossible!

We also had a tough time getting a decent family shot.

Will Walk for Food

This is not a great demonstration of how well Cam is walking but it's the best we've got on video so far. He's going, at his best, about 8-10 steps. He still crawls everywhere except on occasion when he's already standing and it occurs to him that he can walk somewhere. He loves to hold your fingers and walk, which Connor never did. He is doing really well. I'm glad that he's taking his time with it. Connor was walking before his first birthday and did it so fast we didn't get to enjoy this learning process like we are with Cam.

Video Updates

Cam is learning to walk!

Later the same day...

Cameron loves music and claps all the time. Watch how he applauds his brother's piano playing. Soooo sweet!