Epiphanies

Justin got a tb test today for preschool.

Rusty nails…

J was tested for speech today. The way they test is that they keep asking him questions til he gets 7 wrong but the lady testing was amazed because he wasn’t getting anything wrong. She finally arbitrarily stopped questioning because according to her, we “would’ve been there all day”. She stopped him at 97 percentile meaning only 3 kids his age would’ve done better than him. She expressed that it would probably have been higher but she stopped it early. She said his level was like a 4 1/2 yo and he’s not even 3… Can’t believe how far he’s come lol.

I’m sold.  It couldn’t get any easier.  Cut up a pot roast into smaller pieces, salt and peppered it and threw it into the slow cooker and wala – dinner.  Well, I had to do the rice cooker too but still, it was an easy breezy way to cook meat.

Practiced multiplication with B.  I almost fell asleep during one of the sessions.  I broke it up so that I could keep B’s attention a bit longer and mine too.  Talk about boring stuff.

J had stinky poop today – I think it’s a residual formula poop from the other days.  Makes me want to nurse him for longer if it means I could avoid changing the stinky diaper.  Boy was it nasty.  Forgotten how foul it could smell.

Forgot to mention C did diving in the outside pool again yesterday.  Well, more like belly flopped in but he’s still cute doing it.  I should have filmed it.  B came along since he’s on spring break.  I made him write a book report on one of those Deltora books that he’s reading.  P and I chatted about her new movie which is going to be shown this friday but unfortunately I can’t make it because Dh has a poker game with his buds and I have to take care of the kids.  I mentioned that I heard her neighbor is selling her house (which has a lake front view) for $1.1.  It’s tempting but she said it wasn’t worth it.  I already knew that but it’s still tempting.

B went to the batting cage with Dh the other day but I think he took out his frustration (couldn’t  hit a lot of the balls) on DD and DD had a  nervous breakdown (haha).  Poor Dh.

We played Candyland – Dora the Explorer.  B won so he was happy.  Think he’s been a bit perturbed by his losing streak so this was good.  I really want the kids to be laid back about losing at games.  It’s all just a game – nothing to get huffy about.

I guess I was getting overly frustrated with C the other day with the worksheets. I always thought he was a bit advanced for his age and teachers led me to believe so too since he was able to write his name right around 2 1/2. This led me to have higher expectations for him and I guess I felt I was letting him down because I didn’t focus on encouraging his abilities. So last week, I figured I would try to work on it with him. I do make time for that albeit sporadically. Even though he was learning to put together words “b” with “ig” to make “big” or other three letter words, it didn’t seem to be the light bulb going on the way that I thought it would. It’s a much slower process.  I happened upon this article warning parents to “Don’t start too Early”.

Basic points from the article that I will try to keep in mind:

1) Keep it fun and within reach. Positive experiences to build confidence. Don’t be too regimented.

2) Identify surroundings beginning with a certain letter. Point out letters and numbers – street names, house numbers, billboards, road signs, shop signs, advertising logos, food items.

3) Keep it short. No longer than 20-3o minutes. “Research has shown that young children are naturally far-sighted as their eyes have not fully matured to function like that of an older person. For this reason, to avoid eye-strain, a child should not focus on a book or a page for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. When they write, encourage your children to make big letters at this stage. Later on (when they start Grade 1) they can learn to write neatly between lines!”

4) Don’t be critical, just encourage him to keep improving.

I wonder what they mean by young children. I consider B young but he’s 8.