I'm under deadline, but wanting to post this before I forget again.
Gaz is reading, with little to no help from us. Every day so far this week, her Roberto tally starts with a book that she's read aloud to us, and finishes up with what we've read to her (another visit to The Voyage of the Basset and our first foray into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). She wrote some simple words on her homework last night (it was "extra homework for smart students only," so Gaz said) and not only did I not have to give her any help, she was off and writing before I could even offer assistance.
Last weekend she read The Monster at the End of This Book to Gabe, and I suspect she will read to him again after his baptism on Saturday. She is really looking forward to reading a story to Trixie, and also to giving her some hand-me-down dress-up clothes.
This morning I also attended the awards ceremony for the kindergarten and first grade kids, and Gaz got the only two awards kindergarteners can get: perfect attendance (in your face, winter!) and good citizenship.
Basically, we're all glowing with pride over here, and working to keep the good momentum going.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
One of Gaz's Favorite Books
Voyage of the Basset
No brain for a review right now, but it's good. Gaz even dressed up as Cassandra for her school Halloween party. We're finishing up another reading of it now, and it's still good.
No brain for a review right now, but it's good. Gaz even dressed up as Cassandra for her school Halloween party. We're finishing up another reading of it now, and it's still good.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Sugar and Spice and Everything Serpentine
We've recently gone through a couple of months of having to watch Barbie in A Mermaid Tale repeatedly, so when she said she was ready to trade that in for something with dinosaurs, the grown-ups were quite relieved. Barbie was better than some things she's watched (this subject will get its own post one day), but dinosaurs are something we can all enjoy equally. Thanks to Netflix, we got rid of Barbie and ended up with Prehistoric Planet. It's fun little show, and I never get tired of hearing Gaz go on about the old ornithocheirus. She's really into pterosaurs when she's not obsessed (as most kids are, I guess) with T-Rex. Though for the latter, we can probably blame Sue, or rather, our fondness for the Field Museum.
The reptillian fun hasn't just stopped with the constant viewings of dino-drama, though. I picked up a Step Into Reading book on snakes, since we had just been talking about the old family pet (a sweet little corn snake named Biscuit). While I was at it, I picked up a more herpetologically involved book for myself because, amongst other things, I've always been mystified by snakey taxonomy and was hoping to figure it out for once.
What I didn't figure on is how much Gaz would flip for the many color photos in my book, or what her tolerance for mommy stumbling over long Greek and Latin words that don't mean anything to her (and sometimes me) would be. She is in love with the eyelash pit viper and was quite disappointed when I told her they're venomous. But two nights in a row now, she's fallen asleep to me reading random snippets of squamate biology, ecology, locomotion, and evolution. But I am only allowed to read the pages that have photos. Is any of this actually getting through to her, or is she just dozing off to the sound of my voice? I don't know. But I do like that I am able to share something cool about the world with her, and I think snakes are pretty darn cool.
I don't know exactly where this attraction comes from (though the grass snake featured in the kid's book looks like the Utahraptor from Prehistoric Planet, we agreed), but I am so pleased that she is interested in learning about the weird looking creatures and isn't afraid of them. Of course, we've only seen one very tiny garter snake out in the wild, so she might change her tune when she sees her first enormous black rat snake. (Okay, maybe that's just me.)
Still, this all has me thinking about the logistics of getting another corn snake. I'm not sure our landlords would go for it, but when we're ready, I've got a game plan in my head. It would be nice to have a reptile around again.
The reptillian fun hasn't just stopped with the constant viewings of dino-drama, though. I picked up a Step Into Reading book on snakes, since we had just been talking about the old family pet (a sweet little corn snake named Biscuit). While I was at it, I picked up a more herpetologically involved book for myself because, amongst other things, I've always been mystified by snakey taxonomy and was hoping to figure it out for once.
What I didn't figure on is how much Gaz would flip for the many color photos in my book, or what her tolerance for mommy stumbling over long Greek and Latin words that don't mean anything to her (and sometimes me) would be. She is in love with the eyelash pit viper and was quite disappointed when I told her they're venomous. But two nights in a row now, she's fallen asleep to me reading random snippets of squamate biology, ecology, locomotion, and evolution. But I am only allowed to read the pages that have photos. Is any of this actually getting through to her, or is she just dozing off to the sound of my voice? I don't know. But I do like that I am able to share something cool about the world with her, and I think snakes are pretty darn cool.
I don't know exactly where this attraction comes from (though the grass snake featured in the kid's book looks like the Utahraptor from Prehistoric Planet, we agreed), but I am so pleased that she is interested in learning about the weird looking creatures and isn't afraid of them. Of course, we've only seen one very tiny garter snake out in the wild, so she might change her tune when she sees her first enormous black rat snake. (Okay, maybe that's just me.)
Still, this all has me thinking about the logistics of getting another corn snake. I'm not sure our landlords would go for it, but when we're ready, I've got a game plan in my head. It would be nice to have a reptile around again.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Mark it on the calendar
This evening, Gaz has been reading. A whole pile of animal names, a few verbs, and even an article. Tonight in addition to reading *to* her, we're going to try having her read a bit to us in one of her "pre-reader" books. I think she's technically read other words before now, but I didn't make a note anywhere as to what she read or when, so I could be misremembering. But I'm pretty sure she read something while we were out in recent days.
All was well until she tried to write the letter K. But we've got a plan to get up early in the morning and work on that.
Five days remain until she starts Pre-K. She's very antsy for the schooling to commence. I hope her enthusiasm continues!
All was well until she tried to write the letter K. But we've got a plan to get up early in the morning and work on that.
Five days remain until she starts Pre-K. She's very antsy for the schooling to commence. I hope her enthusiasm continues!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Newness
There's new photos up on my Flickr site, so head on over! > > > > >
We've had our first family trip to the Field Museum over the weekend, accompanied by Auntie Aiiee, and it went pretty well from a Gaz perspective. She didn't get very fussy and didn't have a tantrum or lift up my shirt or anything like that. She was more well behaved than some children twice her size. She did get completely exhausted, which was due to some bad planning on our part. I didn't even think about bringing the stroller before we left, and we even walked right past it on the way out the door. We know for next time. Mark and I got so worn out carrying her around that the lesson had been burned into our brains: bring the stroller, and if you forget the stroller, rent one as soon as you get to the museum.
Gaz and I are settling back into home life. Unfortunately, that means that we're spending a lot of time looking out of windows and moping about it being too cold/wet/icy/windy to go outside, but it won't be this lousy forever. Speaking of which, I tried explaining "lousy" to Gaz yesterday, but I don't think it stuck. But now she's got another new word to amaze people with at odd moments.
I'm having trouble getting her back on her normal bedtime story schedule, but part of that is my own distraction. We only got to read our new Knuffle Bunny book a couple of times before we left for Evansville, so I hope I can entice the young'un with that this evening.
You know, she still has her moments and we've still got a number of months to go, but could it be that the most terrible part of the terrible twos is behind us? It seems like we're communicating more with words and less with ear-splitting shrieks of frustration. Time will tell.
We've had our first family trip to the Field Museum over the weekend, accompanied by Auntie Aiiee, and it went pretty well from a Gaz perspective. She didn't get very fussy and didn't have a tantrum or lift up my shirt or anything like that. She was more well behaved than some children twice her size. She did get completely exhausted, which was due to some bad planning on our part. I didn't even think about bringing the stroller before we left, and we even walked right past it on the way out the door. We know for next time. Mark and I got so worn out carrying her around that the lesson had been burned into our brains: bring the stroller, and if you forget the stroller, rent one as soon as you get to the museum.
Gaz and I are settling back into home life. Unfortunately, that means that we're spending a lot of time looking out of windows and moping about it being too cold/wet/icy/windy to go outside, but it won't be this lousy forever. Speaking of which, I tried explaining "lousy" to Gaz yesterday, but I don't think it stuck. But now she's got another new word to amaze people with at odd moments.
I'm having trouble getting her back on her normal bedtime story schedule, but part of that is my own distraction. We only got to read our new Knuffle Bunny book a couple of times before we left for Evansville, so I hope I can entice the young'un with that this evening.
You know, she still has her moments and we've still got a number of months to go, but could it be that the most terrible part of the terrible twos is behind us? It seems like we're communicating more with words and less with ear-splitting shrieks of frustration. Time will tell.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year!
We've got plenty of snow here, which meant that the whole family went out to play in the snow yesterday. Our landlords were awesome enough to let Gaz borrow a sled, so we pulled her around the back yard until we were ready to collapse. There were snow angels and many attempts at snow balls, and Gaz threw every piece of ice she found. I don't know what the ice throwing was about, but she especially likes that. There are pictures, but I haven't done anything with them yet. It was still snowing while we were out and the screen was always getting obscured by new flakes, so I just took a bunch. I'll sort through them today if Gaz cooperates. Now for the New Year's Day hodgepodge:
Mark: We're having Hoppin' John for dinner so we have good luck in the new year.
Gaz: I LOVE Hoppin' John!
Gaz takes a big bite of beans
Gaz: What Hoppin' John mean?
Bridge falling down!
Trees falling down!
My fair lady!!!" (Trying to sing "London Bridge")
"Berry chocka, berry chocka. . . That funny word!" (Trying to sing "Frere Jacques")
Last night we were reading "The Poky Little Puppy" she started reciting part of it--over and over and over again and then cackling "I did it! Hehehehehehehehe!". I was not allowed to finish the story, and then she went looking for dragons in the bedroom.
I fell asleep last night while getting yon Gaz to sleep, so I have forgotten the other wacky hijinks I was going to blog about, but I'm sure they were picturesque and memorable. May all your wacky hijinks be picturesque and memorable this new year!
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