Amazing!

It's been one of those weeks when I have been amazed by what my kids can do. Since I always seem to get caught up in all the day to day stuff (and sometimes all the stuff they *won't* do), it was really nice to have a few moments of "Wow - that's so neat!"

Amazing Moment #1
So this all started on Monday of this week when Clara wanted me to show her how to write her name. She hasn't asked about this in a long while, so I thought it was interesting that she was asking. She was using the whiteboard on the easel at the time, so she had me help her by guiding her hand. Then she erased it and wanted to do it again. I did again with her then offered to draw dots so that she could practice on her own. I also wrote her name at the top of the board so she could look at it and see what she was trying to write. So she practiced a few times & then it was on to bigger and better things.

Later that day, Gracie had homework to do for school. John Michael was napping (yay!), so I asked Clara if she wanted to do a workbook or color at the table with us while Gracie was doing her homework. She decided on a Pooh Bear workbook. So we had a nice, peaceful time where I was able to work with both girls. Gracie really only had one sheet she had to complete for school, but they have optional worksheets and she wanted to do some of those. We ended up working for about 45 minutes. Clara was just flying through her workbook pages - at one point she said she wanted to do the whole workbook. I suggested that maybe that was a bit much for today (it's about 30 pages). Anyhow, at the top of every page she had me make dots for her name so that she could trace her letters. I think she must have completed about 9 workbook pages that afternoon.

The following afternoon, we were driving back from music class in Fort Worth, and Clara started asking how to spell her name. She was using a little notebook & pen to practice her "writing." After I had told her all her letters (with a few questions along the way about what an "A" or "R" looked like), she said "I am soooo proud of myself. I wrote my name all by myself! Look, Mommy!" As anxious as I was to see what she had really written, I decided keeping the van on the interstate was probably more important. So I told her I would look as soon as we got home.

When we got home, I asked to see the notebook. There were two lines: CAR CAR. Okay, so we had missed a few letters in "Clara" but I couldn't believe that she could write that after so little practice! Amazing!

Amazing Moment #2
This Amazing Moment was brought to us by Gigi! She is so busy these days with all these ideas, plans, parties, etc. I never know what she is up to (although, thankfully, it is not usually trouble!). Today she made dog "collars" for her stuffed animals using her bead kit. Except for exploding all over the kitchen floor several times, they were really cute. But back to the amazing moment - last Sunday, we were all outside playing and Gracie started inquiring about what picture we would like her to draw. She told us she was going to make a book of drawings. So a little later, she came outside to the swingset, climbed up to the fort platform and gave us a presentation of her "book" (yes, she fashioned the book part -clothespins- all on her own) . Check out the pictures below; I've captioned them based on what she told us:


The front of our house. Those are bricks at the bottom.


On the left, our swingset, and on the right, the front yard and porch swing.


This one is a little tricky if you have never seen our furniture. These are small, open bookcase/end tables with two cubbies at the top and one at the bottom. When commenting on this drawing, Gigi told us that she was going to start drawing everyday things she saw around the house.


A "Bonus" picture - does anyone remember Gracie and her "bonus story"? This wasn't in her book, but she drew them a few weeks ago.


Ernie & Prairie Dawn

Amazing!