First day of a Fall Break 2014

After the Michalmas performance we came home to enjoy the day.  I went to Micahels over the weekend and bought a bunch of crafts to get us through the break.  They were excited to start some. 

Water color paints

Swimming, of course!

Quiet time

Candyland

Michaelmas 2014

The girls were excited to attend the Michaelmas performance at DMS this year.  It worked out the Fall Break fell during it, so Paige was able to attend too.  I think this year Paige is really beginning to understand to use her good to help others or make ugly situations better.  We all enjoyed the show and the day.  We even made Dragon Bread! 

Hailey's 1st Book

Hailey is just really smart. I think there is an article circulating right now about never telling your kids they are smart.  I haven't read it.  Because we tell our kids this all the time.  We are proud of them and want them to have self confidence.  But seriously, Hailey, is really smart.  She connects things really quick.  Today, she read her first entire book.  It's the short /a/ book.  The only words she did not know, which are site words, were, "are" and "for".  Now, on to the next...short /e/.  Yippee!

Charlotte

Paige's school does a huge fundraiser called a Read A Thon.  They raise over $30k and all of it is kept at the school.  To kick it off, they ask everyone to dress as their favorite fictional character.  Of course, Paige picked Charlotte, from Charlotte's Web.  I had to make it simple since she needed to wear it to school all day.  Her shirt used Garth Willliams' illustration of the web reading TERRIFIC.  She had a fun day. 

 

Bubble Bath

Brain worked late this night, so I got to give bath.  Of course, because I never do it, I had to make it a bubble bath.  Santa beards and soapy hair are super fun...STILL. 

 

Love Bugs

So thankful these girls love us.  The feeling is overwhelmingly mutual. 

 

Record Breaking Rainfall

We had quite the rainfall on Monday morning between 2am and 10am.  We got over 5" of rain in our little desert city.  It was so much that Hailey's school was closed and flooded and Paige's school was optional.  Neither Brian or my mom could get to work because the roads were all flooded.  Here's was we woke up to.  And of course mud pies needed to be made in the afternoon. 

 

Side yard.  Brain had to pump the water out to the street

Pool

Mud pies!

Delicious!

Tea anyone?

Dollie Poses

 

The girls still love their dollies.  They really are a big part of their day.  They dress them and get them in their jammies at night.  Paige is now reading to her dollie after her own bedtime story.  

 

Hailey coordinated this set up for breakfast the other day. 

Breakfast for 4 girls.

Seriously, Paige set her doll up this way.  She' all tucked in bed, on the Boppie, with snugglies and reading an open book!  Perhaps Paige has Merchandiser in her future career?  Her ability to set small things up with such detail has always amazed me. 

Paige, so proud after I pretty much freaked out about how amazing it was. 

Paige's 6 year well check

Paige had her 6 year old well check on August 19.  We had to go after school, so it was late in the day. 

Here's her percentiles:
Weight:  45 lbs (50%)
Height:  46 inches (60%)
BMI 15 (45%)
BP 109/74 --- a little high normal is 90/60, but we were rushing and it had been a busy day for her. 

• At age 6 Paige is full of spunk and ambition. 
• She loves to be the leader, yet she takes her time getting things completed. 
• She has been officially diagnosed with dyslexia, however, with her intense tutoring twice a week she is at appropriate age/grade level with her class in reading (probably higher, but we don't want to pressure her.  Her DIBELS revealed a 41, benchmark for kinder is 22).  In tutoring, she is currently working on her site words, because they a "rule breakers" and increasing her reading fluency. She is able to read short paragraphs, by sounding out words and using all of her tools to figure out words.  She then has to break the sentences apart by who, what, when, where, how phrases.  She also writes and finger spells the sentences she reads.  Her grasp and understanding of the language will far surpass any person without dyslexia after her tutoring is complete.  The things she is learning are things that those of us without dyslexia would never think of.  An example would be the word HAS, it is a site word, yet she can understand that this word has a /z/ sound at the end and her throat will vibrate when she says it.  Or the word, WAS, she can understand that the A sounds like a /u/ and the S like a /z/.  So much for a 6 year old to take in, but she will be a proficient reader in the long run.
• She adjusted very easily to kindergarten
• She plays with Hailey extremely well and she genuinely loves her.  She always looks out for Hailey and usually says Hailey is her best friend. 
• She still sleeps with her Snugglie and her Bobbie.
• She still loves warm milk after school and at bedtime.
• Choosing clothes and making a decision can prove difficult for Paige.  Giving her too many options is overwhelming for her.  We try to control her environment so that she can easily make decisions without too much difficulty. 
• Paige is a good eater in the foods that she likes.  Her intake is much larger now, which helps.  She is open to trying new foods and then will decide if it's to her liking. 
• Her swimming ability is uncanny.  She is surely made of mermaid.  She dives beautifully, it's just a natural thing to her because she's never been taught.  She does flips in the air and is very speedy around the pool.  It's pretty impressive. 
• Her interests include, unicorns, rainbows, horses, dollies, swimming and recently reading to her dollies. 
• Paige LOVES to draw and color. Her work is amazing.  It has so much detail, including eyelashes, fingernails, color, sparkles and animation in all the right places to make the picture come alive.  Her blending of colors is really amazing too.  I want to capture it and hone it, but have not been able to find the right art class for her.  Either the time is wrong or the age group not appropriate or it's too far away. 
• I'm sure there is so much more this coddling and smothering mama could say about this sweet child, but I will stop there.  I do love her so, just the way she is. 
• She will start a new ballet class, begin soccer and is enrolled in a music class this year, as well as continue tutoring and of course, kindergarten.  But most of all, I want her to be a kid and have lots of time to play, play, play. 

Enjoy being 6 my buzzing Bumblebee.  You are extremely special to me.  Thanks for being you.

5 year:
http://bandkstwogirls.blogspot.com/2013/08/5-year-well-check-for-paige.html
4 year:
http://bandkstwogirls.blogspot.com/2012/08/4-year-well-check.html
3 year:
http://bandkstwogirls.blogspot.com/2011/08/3-year-well-check.html

Legos

My aunt got Paige a Lego set for her birthday.  We sat down to put it together and Paige really focused and pretty much built the entire pet store all by herself.  Her first try!  I was shocked, in a good way.  She had a ton of fun doing it too. 

 

Finished product!

August Pictures

Some silly pictures from August 2014:

 

Hailey dressed herself.  I thought she looked very sporty.

With Paige's dyslexia, we started a new music class called "let's play music."  It's sollfeg (do, re, mi) based instead of letter based.  I was really concerned that while she is still trying to figure out the difference between /d/, /p/, /b/ and /q/ if would be difficult to learn music notes, which look just like those letters, but with actual letters assigned to them (ie, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C).  It's music through play too, which makes for a fun after school activity.  Both girls are in the same class.  So far, they both really like it.

Practicing writing the number 8.  I was pretty impressed.

Library time. 

Monsoon Weather

5:45am.  Lightening.  Crash, Bang, Boom! The girls were in our room about 15 minutes later on Tuesday morning.  Then....rain.  Yes, I allowed them out in it at about 6:30 to play in the puddles and slosh in the rain before school.  It was so fun.  Paige and I even walked to school that morning in the rain.  Lovely, lovely. 

 

 

The next afternoon another rain storm hit after school.  They were in the pool waiting for it to come and then ran and played in the drops as it poured down.  They were butterflies with their towels on. 

Read to Dogs

I've said this so many times, but our city puts on the greatest events.  Once a month they have the therapy dogs at the library and the kiddos can read to them.  The girls had such a nice time being with the dogs and telling them stories.  After, they were able to check out some books and then we enjoyed some tea in the coffee shop located in the library.  It was a lovely morning. 

 

Time with Hailey

Hailey and I get to hang out on Mondays and Fridays all day and in the afternoons and Tues/Weds/Thurs.  She's such a good sport about running errands or allowing me to get to work done around the house.  She's so easy and flexible.  It's a delight to be with her. 

 

One of our friends gave us this pirate ship her kiddos were done with. 
It is now a cruise liner for the princesses. 

She's loving doing dishes lately. 

2014-15 Montessori for Hailey

Hailey started back to Montessori without Paige this year.  She was sad on the first day and missed her sister, but appeared to of had a good day.  I think she likes being a "big kid" in the class this year.  In Montessori it is encouraged for the older kids to help the little kids.  She's always been the little sister, so this is her year to shine.  She is attending three mornings a week now, increased from 2 last year.  She will then attend 3 full days beginning in December (but I am NOT rushing it!).  I love her sweetness and calmness so much.  She's such a good girl. 

 

Didn't want to pose for a picture.

7:28 am on 7/29

For Paige's actual birthday we went and got a donut for breakfast and to make a wish on a candle.  (Perfect before school breakfast on your birthday!)  I was able to get her picture at the time of her birth because she was still home despite it being a school day!  (I won't be so lucky when Hailey starts school next year.)  Her teacher allowed us to bring in a treat for the class, so yogurt tubes turned into Princess and Wizard Wands for her classmates.  My aunt, Hailey and I went to have lunch with her at school, but of course, I got the time wrong and we showed up an hour late!  I was so disappointed.  But we took Paige to the school library to give the librarian the book we donated for her birthday and then her class sang Happy Birthday to her.  Mrs. Glennen has a special song to sing and both she and Hailey loved it.  I'm glad my girl had a good day.  (Her well check is scheduled in a couple weeks, so I'll talk about her milestones there.)

For classmates

Donut

Making a wish

The big 6 year old!

 

Mrs Glennen and Paige with Hailey standing next to her 

7:28am

Book 2 Achieved!

Last week Paige finished Book 2 of the Barton Reading System!  Hooray!  She can identify and sound out all the short vowels and consents,  identify and sound out 5 diagrams, and spell any sentence containing three letter words with these sounds.  She uses all her tricks that she has learned thus far on her tutoring journey and I'm so happy for her.  It took her four months to complete 2 books attending tutoring two times a week.  There are 10 books in the system.  Her confidence and enthusiasm is really good towards reading.  I'm so proud of her work and look forward to her learning how to read.  With this system she will know the grammar and structure of the English language more than most folks.  It's truly the nuts & bolts.  Her school teacher even sent home a note. 

 

Proud Mama Moment

Tonight we were reading a new book I bought about how to be a friend and empathy.  Paige told me that today in the cafeteria at lunch, her new friend was crying.  Paige went over to her and saw that she was upset because she could not get her granola bar opened.  So Paige opened it for her and gave her a hug.  She was so happy to help her friend and have her stop crying. 
These stories make me feel good because I worked really hard to grow them as humans to this point.  I hope that our family influence and Montessori & Waldorf made that moment happen.  May those moments continue through life.