Sisters in 2013: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Piano time

Leah and Kate are both really enjoying the piano.

It's been about a month now since we pulled Leah out of Challenger. This was the BEST decision!!!! Leah now meets twice a week with her former Challenger teacher and two other girls and once a week with just her teacher. She is learning so much more! The smaller group has really helped her come out of her shell and actually make friends! She REALLY loves school now. Never wants to leave and gets super bummer if it is not a school day.
It was tough for me to have her quit Challenger. I really hate to have her quit anything and this was a good test for me. I knew it was the right choice as she was learning so much more form me at home than she was at school. And Challenger is WAY to expensive to not be teaching anything. She was also not making any progress socially because the class was so big(26 with 2 teachers). The group was so big she just stood on the outskirts and watched for 6 months. They also had no idea where she was academically, did not even know she was reading. How can you adjust a curriculum to fit a child if you don't even know where the child is? So I had to get over my "quitting" issue!
Well now that Leah meets with Ms. Sharon one-on-one once a week she always knows exactly where she is and can suggest things for us to work on when we "play school". And the small group class of three is simply THE BEST THING EVER! The girls are challenged and motivated by each other and also have a great time together. The best part..... it's way cheaper than Challenger.
My advice if your thinking of spending money on preschool, look into hiring a private tutor or arranging a small group class.
More reading videos to come as they are so cute!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Snow

Dave shoveling the deck Friday morning. This was after the biggest dump!

Feeding Kate

Too much snow!

We have so much snow this is the only way Leah can really play in it!

Monday, January 7, 2013

It's too cold!

It has been so cold here. Too cold to do much of anything outdoors. It's staring to get to me. Dave and Leah get to escape this weekend to Arizona and get some relief. Kate and I will still be cold.

More photos.....as if you needed more.

I had no idea how much Kate would enjoy this toy! I just brought it out by accident and she LOVES it! Leah loves Kate using it too.....she can't wait until she is big enough to really play and to Leah this is a big step in that direction!

Leah trying to teach Kate to walk

Leah and her friend "cooking"
Leah ADORES her if you couldn't tell

Dave got this GREAT microscope for Christmas from my parents. Dave and Leah are having a great time inspecting everything they can think of. Lab geeks.

I bought some markers for windows today and Leah went to town on the slider. This is how most of her drawings look as of late. I think she is trying to sole some type of equation?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Leah update

Leah has been so busy learning! Not only is she working so hard at reading, she has also been working on learning about the calendar, learning how to tell time, and she suddenly knows the Pledge of Allegiance!? They must say it in school? She just started spouting it off today out of nowhere! Here are a few videos of her super cuteness! I think the reading video really captures what goes in to learning to read at this stage....so much work! This was a new book to her and she is just starting to learn about two-vowel words. She is super excited to "play school" every day which involves reading one of her school books and whatever other school-type thing I come up with for that day. We generally do this during one of Kate's naps. I am throughly enjoying our time together and get such a kick out of watching her progress!