Blue Belle

My mom (who, having raised eight children, is somewhat of an unofficial expert in child development) has often expressed her belief that, "it's not the terrible two's, it's the terrible three's!" She goes on to explain that, "around their fourth birthday, however, it all changes. It's like a magic fairy waves her wand over the child, and all of a sudden they're all smiles and sunshine asking, 'how can I help you, Mommy?'"
Now, three with Aubree has been anything but terrible. I'll be the first to admit that she's an easy kid. I wish I could attribute it to good parenting, but the truth is - she came that way. Still, I think the magic fourth-year fairy came a few weeks early. I hear, "can I help you?" frequently, especially right before dinner time. (She's the self-proclaimed "stirrer.") Aubree's also taken to long proclamations of how and why she loves me and asserts, "I want to be with you forever!" She makes sure that I know that even after she's grown up, gotten married and moved to California, she'll still come visit me. I think I'm going to like this whole four-year-old thing.
As always, Aubree loves, loves, LOVES babies. In fact, whenever we go visit one of her friends who happens to have a younger sibling, she almost always first attends to the siblings, then progresses to big kid play. I watched Aubree's best friend Ella and her little sister Raelyn for a few hours last week and for the first 15 minutes, Aubree and Raelyn played in one room and Ella and Bryce played in the other.

Raelyn & Aubree (They really were having fun together, though you can't tell from this photo!)

Ella & Bryce (Strangely, don't they look more similar than Aubree & Bryce?)

Aubree has inherited her father's love of words. For the last few months she always stops us when we're reading or speaking and use a word she doesn't know or recognize. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the question, "what does _______ mean?" She listens carefully to the explanation and asks follow-up questions as needed. I can almost see her storing the words in her brain's filing cabinets.
A couple weeks ago Mark and I were talking with a friend and he asked when Aubree was starting kindergarten. We briefly explained that since her birthday is in October, she just misses the cut-off and so technically still has two more years left. Then we got in our car and drove away. Soon, Aubree piped up from the back-seat, "Mom, what's a 'cut-off'?" I explained as best I could and she sat quietly pondering for a few moments, before proclaiming, "I don't want to go to real school!" Well, I guess I wouldn't either if it meant having things cut-off. I later told this story to my dad and he suggested I explain to Aubree that "cut-off" is a synonym for "deadline." Yep, I'm sure that will help. Thanks, Dad.
Here's another funny Aubree story: Last week the father of one of my friends passed away. I didn't take the kids to the funeral, but did take them a luncheon which followed the funeral. In preparation for the event, I explained to Aubree that her friends' grandpa had died and they were having his funeral. She queried, "why are they having his funeral in this state?" "Well," I answered, "because he lives in this state. He lives here." "That's CRAZY!," she retorted, "Grandparent's don't live in the same state!"
And finally, here's one last observation Aubree made recently:
"Mom, you know, other people aren't like us...they don't buy things on sale."

Honey Boy

Bryce is growing quickly and is ridiculously cute. I frequently find myself singing a line of one of Mark's songs to him, "who's that boy with the honey face?..." He's decided that he now loves books. He spends significant amounts of time leafing through books and often brings Mark or I his favorites (like "Chugga, Chugga, Choo Choo"). Like Aubree, he seems to have a particular fondness for the scriptures, but I think that's mostly because the thin pages are so easy to tear and make such a great rrrr-ipping noise. His favorite past time is pulling down as many books as he can from the nearest bookshelf.

A few weeks ago, Bryce's shoes went missing. He loves his shoes and is always bringing them to me as a not-so-subtle hint that he wants to go outside. So, he's generally pretty good at tracking them down. We searched in all the usual places, plus his typical hiding spots with no luck. It wasn't until two days later when it was time for a bath that the missing shoes were discovered.

Bryce has recently become a big fan of drawing. He loves to scribble across a page and has strong opinions about what colors he wants. He hates it when Aubree is writing or drawing and he's not. Unfortunately, he doesn't yet understand the "only write on paper" rule. Below is his first special "art" on the couch cushion. I say first because he's now progressed to his third masterpiece. When he saw me running toward him, he squealed and intensified his drawing pace. Grrrrr. Good thing for microfiber and rubbing alcohol.

Bryce has also been practicing his animal sounds:

Summer Stuff

Now that September is half over, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that we've successfully survived another Florida summer. Generally I consider summers here our "season of hibernation", but this time around I think we managed to get out a bit more and had a lot of fun. Staying in and around water makes a big difference.

We spent many days enjoying the wading pool at the zoo. Aubree doesn't even care to see the animals anymore. Maybe once it's cooler...

Cheyenne, Aubree, & Olivia (playing Little Mermaid)

Bryce giving his friend Josie the "I'm going to bite you" look

We enjoyed another slip-'n-sliding adventure at the Dokos' home. I think they have the only sloped backyard in all of Titusville, and it makes for great fun.

Aubree wasn't too fond of the slide

A couple weekends ago our friends invited us to go wake-boarding with them. I'd never been before, but was excited to at least try. Amazingly enough, I managed to get up! Granted, once I got up I mainly just managed to wipe-out in dramatic ways (as evidenced by the inability to use my muscles for the following three days), but it was a TON of fun! Thanks Hawkins, Millers, & Cliff!

While I was busy crashing, Mark took care of Aubree and Bryce. The noise of the boat immediately lulled Bryce into dreamland, but Aubree spent the whole outing covering her ears (the boat was "too noisy") and expressing her desire to get back to "swimming." In talking to her later, I realized I hadn't prepared her well enough for what she would see because she admitted, "every time you fell, I felt sooo scared!" Her time on the boat was short, and though she later told her grandpa, "we spent the whole day rowing and rowing," she really spent most of the day swimming in a sectioned-off part of the lake. And don't worry, the lifeguards assured us that the alligators only come out after dark.

Here's another first we attempted this summer: canning peaches. When I was a kid, I spent countless hours every summer canning every sort of food. I wish I'd paid better attention, because now I feel like such a know-nothing! I can't remember how many times I had to call Mom to ask questions. I think this first batch turned out pretty well, though.
Oh yeah, our second butterfly emerged from it's chrysalis! This one was a male and much smaller and less impressive than his sister. We put him out in this tree to let his wings finish drying, then he flew off!

Aubree's Reading Journey

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Aubree has learned to read and I fully intended to write up the story behind that process in a timely manner. However, my camera decided to fight me (it wouldn't upload the videos I took of her reading) and I got caught up with some reading-related research (see the end of this blog) and time got away from me. Here's the story:
Back in April or so, Aubree had mastered all her letters and letter sounds. On her own, she began blending sounds into words, which astounded me. "Okay," I thought, "it's time to focus more on this blending stuff and start the process of teaching her how to read." So, I began to do research on reading programs. I remembered reading a blog entry of some friends of mine (Hi Alec and Jen!) talking about the book "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons," and how it was very successful for their son. I really respect Alec and Jen, especially in matters of education, so I checked the book out of the library.
I read through the introduction and the first five lessons and thought "this is perfect!" It seemed to be exactly at Aubree's level - working with letter sounds, very basic blending skills, and word awareness. What also appealed to me what the sound research-base behind the book (it fit with all I'd learned about reading fundamentals), the fact that it is systematic and thorough, and that it is only intended to be at most 15-20 minutes a day.
Aubree and I began working through the book, and I kept one lesson ahead of her. It wasn't until around lesson 25, (as the reading words had turned into sentences, then paragraphs) that it occurred to me to look at the end of the book. I was SHOCKED to see whole pages of text that supposedly Aubree would be able to read in just a few months. I realized that had I looked at the last lessons when I first got the book, I would never have started. Not because I didn't want her to read, but because I wouldn't have thought it possible. But, since she was already on lesson 24 and hadn't had much difficulty to that point, we kept pressing forward. As we got a little farther, we did make adjustments as needed. Sometimes the lessons took longer than 15-20 minutes (especially as the stories got really long), so we split the lessons into 2 lessons. No big deal.
Aubree was almost always the one to beg for "school" and to do "her reading lesson." When she didn't want to do her lesson, we didn't. Once we got to lesson 75, she stopped wanting to do them at all, so we haven't done one since. But, now she's reading regular books, so I'm not worried about finishing the text book. She's a funny kid though - she prefers to read the Book of Mormon ("she's really good at reading, "and it came to pass...") and the "Illustrated Old Testament Stories" over other level 1 type readers.
So, that's the long version of her story. Here is a clip of her reading:



And not to be left out, here's a clip of Bryce reading too...



Soon after I wrote the first post about how Aubree was reading (a month or so ago?), as I was looking online for practical ideas of fun educational things to do at home with her, I stumbled upon an number of articles and websites that suggest that not only is teaching a preschool child to read unnecessary, it can also be damaging! Many of the articles brought up ideas I'd never heard of or even considered (which I find annoying since I spent 3-4 years getting a master's degree in a School of Education). Since then I've spent countless hours researching, reading, and thinking about education, trying to wrap my head around all the differing opinions and fields of thought, and attempting to determine what it specifically means for Aubree and Bryce. I feel like I dove head first into a swirling sea of theory, and am just beginning to come to the surface to gasp for air. Mostly I've decided that I'm learning what the questions are. I certainly don't have the answers, but at least for the moment, time is on my side.

Full Circle

When Bryce was born, Aubree loved him immediately. Her transition from only child to big sister was nearly seamless; she demonstrated very little jealousy, no regressions in behavior, and generally treated "her baby" gently and kindly. Mark and I were very aware of our good fortune and considered ourselves blessed
Shortly after Bryce turned one and became truly mobile, however, Aubree's affection for her brother took a drastic turn for the worse. Suddenly I found her scowling at him and intentionally knocking him over whenever she walked near him. She would scream, "get away!" when he walked into a room where she was playing. One evening while making dinner, I heard Bryce squawking at regular intervals in the living room. I peeked around the corner and saw Aubree holding Bryce's plush chair on top of him (which was causing the squawking). Once he made noise, she'd pick the chair up, wait for him to try to stand, and repeat the torture. I immediately picked Aubree up and placed her in time-out. Trembling with anger she demanded, "why were you watching me?!?"
One night during this difficult time period, as Aubree and I prepared to say her bedtime prayers, I suggested that perhaps she could ask Heavenly Father to help her be kind to her brother. Her face crumbled. "I don't want to be kind to my brother," she explained, "I don't want him to live in our home any more!" Such a sad time.
Gradually, things started to improve. A couple weeks ago I realized we'd truly come full circle when I told Aubree she got to come with me to a highly anticipated baby shower and her first question was, "can Bryce come too?" When I answered, "no, this is just for us girls!" instead of being excited, she wailed, "but I want my brother! I'll miss him soooo much."
This morning I needed to take a shower and went to get Bryce to put him in his bouncer seat (which I keep in the bathroom so I can keep an eye on him). He and Aubree were playing and when she discovered my intentions she pleaded, "but we're playing! Please, please let him stay. I promise I'll watch him."
They still have their occasional squabbles (usually over some equally desired toy), but for the most part, they've become best friends. Aubree loves having someone to participate in her increasingly complex make-believe games. I'm afraid Bryce might soon suffer from an identity crises as she never calls him by name. It's always, "Little John," or "King Triton," or "Henry Fussy," or "Jack" (from the Magic Tree House books).
On the rare occasions when Aubree is not around, Bryce doesn't know what to do with himself. He always gets up before Aubree, and it's a constant battle to keep him from barging into her room and stroking her hair until she wakes up to play. He adores his big sister. Thankfully, Bryce has gotten much better at not pulling Aubree's hair or biting her (other kids are still a different issue entirely...).

And just as an example of how much fun they have together, here's a short clip from yesterday (I have no reasonable explanation for their behavior):

First Day of "School"

Last Tuesday Aubree had her first day of "school." Together with 4 other moms in our ward, we've put together a Preschool co-op. For now, the kids meet once a week for 2 hours. Each Mom is in charge of 4 weeks (in a row) of sessions plus one field trip. We've each chosen a monthly theme. Holly (Mom to Parker) asked to teach first. Her reasoning was that then the expectations would be lower and she wouldn't have to try to "measure up" to the rest of us. As you can see from the following pictures, that's a laugh! It will most certainly be the other way around (she even made all the kids a special book bag and filled it with school supplies!!).
Holly chose the theme of "camping." She started their morning circle time singing songs around their homemade "camp fire."

Each kid got to make and decorate their own camping first aid kit. Aubree carried hers with her for days afterward and made it clear that making the kits was her favorite part of school (she especially liked the animal band-aids).

Aubree's "class": Ella, Aubree, Cheyenne, Emme (little sister), Tyler, & Parker

The kids even got to set up a make-shift tent and pretend to go camping. As you might imagine, Aubree had a BLAST and thinks "school" is the best thing ever. I concur.

I am the third teacher (October) and I chose the theme of farms/farm animals (mostly so we can go on our field trip to the amazing Green Meadows farm). Anyone have fun suggestions/ideas?

It's a Girl!

Two months later...This is what we found in our screen room today. Can you believe it?!?