My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

We hit the beach every day of the vacation, and I was very pleased that my kids didn’t seem to inherit my reservations toward the sand/salt/sun combo.  In years past, the girls were terrified of the waves, and Becky disliked the feel of the sand on her feet and hands.  But this year, as long as I had snacks nearby, all my kids were blissfully happy!  Susie was the most content to just sit in the sand and dig, especially if it involved a water puddle, and Jimmy wasn’t far behind her.  He had great fun plopping down in the puddles and splashing like a dog in mud.  He didn’t display any fear of the waves, and was thrilled anytime someone accompanied him in for a dip.  Becky loved walking into the waves, then coming out and strolling around, singing to herself, then making her way back up to the towels and chairs for a snack, then coming back down to repeat the process.  And me, the non-beach-lover?  Watching my kids love the beach nearly made a beach-lover out of me!  (But I was still always very thankful to get showered and back in the shade!).

We just got back from our annual trip to the Jersey shore with Jim’s extended family.  We had a wonderful time strolling up and down the boardwalk, playing at the beach, splashing in the pool, and riding the rides at the amusement park.  We generated a lot of laundry that’s now piled beside the washing machine, but it was worth all the chocolate stains to have ice cream every night!

I’m not a teacher.  I don’t have the patience or wisdom of an educator, and I find it difficult to explain concepts verbally.  So my hat really goes off to anyone who can stand in front of a classroom and instruct a bunch of wiggly kids how to add, subtract or understand the life cycle of a butterfly.  I can barely get my two wiggly girls to look in the same direction at once!  That said, I really enjoy playing “school” with them and watching their nascent skills develop.  Just a year ago, the girls couldn’t properly manipulate a pair of scissors to save their lives; now, they happily snip-snip away like they’ve been doing it forever.  For quite a while now, the girls have recognized all their numbers and upper case letters, and they’re getting close to knowing the lower case alphabet.  The program director at their just-ended mini-preschool said that they need to work on spelling their names and learning sight words, so those are our next objectives.  To that end, I splurged on a laminating machine (okay, I probably just really wanted one so I could make regular old pieces of paper super slick and shiny, but this gave me a more legitimate excuse).  I’ve been letting the girls use dry-erase markers to trace different images I’ve laminated.  They think it’s all fun and games, and I’ve already seen an improvement in their penmanship.  They still have trouble forming letters without a guide to trace, but I’m excited to watch them get better and better.     

(Forgive my weird editing job in the above picture as I was trying to obscure the girls’ last name!). 

Becky was very excited to show me the “dog” she drew today:

It may be missing ears, but I don’t think it’s missing personality! 

It took a while, but I finally got one of my kids to love frogs almost as much as I do!

Step 1: Introduction

Step 2: First Touch

Step 3: Careful Transfer

Step 4: Slow and steady

Step 5: Play peek-a-boo!

(Come to think of it, that process kind of mirrored the girls’ exposure to their little brother!  Jimmy went from being viewed with weirded-out fascination from afar to being a fun playmate!)