Thursday, March 27, 2014

Proud Mommy

 Isaac has overheard Noah practicing a lot of spelling words this year.
 
Yesterday, Isaac decided that he wanted some spelling words for himself.  He took out a whiteboard and some dry erase markers, and I handed him a paper that had some rhyming words that we had been talking about earlier that day - cat and sat.
 
I said, "Here are your spelling words.  You can write them on the whiteboard just like Noah does."
 
Isaac got right to work and I had to leave the room to continue making dinner.
 
Many minutes passed.
 
All of a sudden, Isaac started hysterically laughing.  Laughing uncontrollably.
 
He said, "Mommy, I wrote a word!"
 
I said, "That's great!" from the kitchen, figuring that he had written cat or sat and he thought it was so cool that he was laughing.
 
I should stop here and interject that Isaac is just beginning to write.  He is learning letter formation in preschool and he occasionally writes random letters for fun.  He can write his name independently, but he has never written any other word by himself.
 
The combination of knowing letters, letter sounds, the ability think of what to write, physically form the letters, and also writing them in the correct order is a complex task.  It's a complex skill that doesn't usually take place until some time in kindergarten.
 
Ok, now back to the story...
 
The hysterical laughter continued.  I began to wonder what could possibly be so funny.
 
Isaac called out to me, "Mommy!  I wrote a word!"
 

Then he said, "Mommy!  I wrote an inappropriate word!" and continued to howl with laughter.
 
Well, that got my attention.  I came into the room to see what he wrote all by himself.  It wasn't cat or sat.  It was:
 
There you have it. 
 
Our four-year-old figured out how to write "poop" all by himself.  His very first written word other than his name.
 
Since then, I've found "poop" written on a few other pieces of paper around the house. 
 
Oh, and Isaac now claims it's not an inappropriate word anymore because he's writing about the poop deck on the Titanic.  He has asked me how to spell "deck" so maybe that will be his next written word.
 
What can I say.  Isaac is always surprising us, so it makes sense that his first written word would be a surprise too.  I'm a proud mommy. 

Friday, March 14, 2014

Michigan FANatic!

Noah has become a huge fan of University of Michigan sports!  

He started closely following the Michigan football team this year, and after the season was over he started following the basketball team.  His favorite website is MGoBlue.com, and he checks in each day to check scores, read press releases and see what game is next on the schedule.

Here are some pictures that follow a few days in the life of a Michigan FANnatic:

Noah and Matt playing football in the backyard

Isaac sets up the tripod to be the photographer for the football game

Noah looks like he's going to burst with excitement!  
If you look closely, you can see a blue shirt peeking out from under his uniform shirt.  He had slept in his  Michigan shirt the night before, and he had decided to keep the shirt on and just put his uniform shirt over it for school the next day.  We had to pry the shirt off him that night so we could wash it!

On another day, Noah did homestudy while wearing his pajamas, with his Michigan shirt over his pajamas.

Noah is playing on a flag football team, and his season starts tomorrow.  He needed new cleats, and when he saw these neon maze and blue cleats, he absolutely had to have them! 

Noah is watching Michigan play Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal today.  One of the huge benefits of homestudy is that Noah worked hard all morning and completed an entire day of schoolwork.  Then he was finished and ready to watch a basketball game at noon on a Friday.  How cool is that?

Oh, and if you look closely, you can see that Noah is wearing his favorite Michigan shirt with UNC shorts.

It's fun to have a Michigan FANatic in the house!


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Just Dance!

Did you know that Isaac has some pretty awesome dance moves?  

Here's some dancing to brighten your day!