Christmas Is...

After talking with Cavett's teacher about his writing skills and conveying the problem to Nana, Nana helped us come up with a solution.  We are now using graphic organizers to help with getting his thoughts down on paper.  He and Nana did a fairly in-depth practice set about our trip to San Diego.  Tonight while waiting for the 4:00 service to start, we worked on a very short practice-6 sentences about Christmas. 

While he came up with the thoughts, I did promt a little and after the main points were determined he was tired of writing it down himself (the opening and closing) and had we had the time or energy, he could have expanded on each sentence.  We talked about them, but he was done.  I mean, it is Christmas Eve after all.  But, without further ado, if you haven't figured it out yet, here it is from a 7 year old perspective.

"Christmas Is" by Cavett Hill (age-almost 7)

Do you know what Christmas is about?  Christmas is not about toys.  It is not about Saint Nick.  Christmas is about Jesus being born.  It is about Jesus being the best present of all.  I hope you have a wonderful "Christ"mas. 

May each of you have a very special wonderful "Christ"mas and remember the true reason we celebrate.

Quiet Time

Kendrick is being weaned from his morning naps. The past week when he received a morning and an afternoon, it would take him a very long time to go to sleep. No screaming, just playing. It's going well so far. The only difficult part is making him wait until after we pick up Cavett at 2 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Any other day nap begins around 1.

Last night Cavett didn't fall asleep until 10 pm. So, we decided to let Cavett have his choice--nap or read quietly in the study. Of course, he chose to read and I got a shower in peace. Afterwards, we took turns having quiet time interspersed with activity while Kendrick kept snoozing. We read one of his new magazines, Click, and made a flip book. I totally stole Adrianne's "Literacy Bag" activity and we wrote the alphabet in some salt on a cookie sheet. After the alphabet, he tried his name and then he suggested a word "see-saw." We sounded it out and did pretty well except the "aw." he wanted it to be an O. Then I gave him a few words that he accomplished quite easily alone--dog, cat, frog, bed. Cat, of course, had 2 T's just like his name.

So, I guess no nap isn't that bad after all, once they are older and can play on their own. The one-on-one time is great and we can explore so many things.