The Twinkies

This week on our Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood reruns there was an episode with Sam Weber the tap dancer. Both kids like watching the dance but J is absolutely riveted and has been making me rewind the big number over and over again which he watches, transfixed.

These are the November reports from the kids’ school. The ones from last spring are HERE.

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F

Social Behaviors: F always has a big smile for us all. She enjoys interacting with her peers and participates in group activities enthusiastically. She shares and takes turns nicely.

Language: F usually expresses herself in three and four word phrases. She lets us know when she needs assistance and asks for what she wants. Her vocabulary has really taken off.

Grace & Courtesies: F has very nice table manners. She sits nicely at the snack table and asks for “more….please”.

Fine Motor Skills: F enjoys cutting with scissors, peeling vegetables, using finger mitts to polish objects,paints with a paint brush and draws with crayons and chalk. She also likes to practice buttoning and zipping with the dressing frames.

Gross Motor Skills: F carries pitchers and buckets of water without spilling. She has become proficient at emptying the larger basins of water into a bucket as well. She carries furniture and trays of materials easily.

Self Care/Toileting: F can dress and undress herself. She urinates on the toilet at school.

Care of the Environment / Practical Life: F almost always cleans up after herself. She knows how to clean up spills and other messes on her own. F enjoys the wood polish and metal polish. She also likes to help prepare snack.

Work Cycle: F chooses her own work and stays busy all morning. She enjoys getting lessons and is interested in many different things. She is very independent and likes to do everything for herself.

F’s Plan: We will continue to introduce more challenging activities which require greater fine motor skills and require a longer sequences of steps to remember. We hope to transition F into the Primary program in early spring of 2009. We are enjoying our time with F.

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J

Social Behaviors: J likes to run around with his friends. He is quick to laugh and wants to join in on any fun going on. He takes notice of what others are doing and often comments on it. J has become better at taking turns and sharing. It is still hard to share the soccer ball sometimes.

Language: J likes to talk and has a lot to say. He talks really fast and it is difficult to understand him sometimes. He does not always enunciate clearly.

Grace & Courtesies: J has learned to sit nicely at the snack table. He is always willing to help others. If someone drops something J will help pick it up.

Fine Motor Skills: J uses a knife to slice bananas, draws and paints. He can do the velcro and zipper dressing frames. J also loves to do puzzles.

Gross Motor Skills: J still moves around the classroom pretty quickly. We have to remind him to slow down. He is getting better at taking his time. He loves to climb and throw balls. He always helps Miss Becky move the furniture for snack time.

Self Care/Toileting: J is quite independent in his dressing. He sits and urinates on the toilet regularly. We remind him to sit on the toilet a few times each morning.

Care of the Environment / Practical Life: J sets up his place setting for snack and cleans up after himself as well. He is quick to mop up a spill and enjoys washing dishes.

Work Cycle: J works well all morning. He is sitting longer with his work and focusing well. He enjoys lessons but it is a little hard for him to wait his turn. He wants to jump in right away and wishes Miss Sheryl would not take such a long turn.

J’s Plan: We will observe J and provide him with activities that serve his interests and abilities. We are planning to transition J into the Primary program in early spring of 2009. We will miss our sweet friend.

I am a horrible person because whenever I see Lady Aberlin in the Land of Make Believe all I think is “someone send that woman a better wardrobe.” She super nice, super sweet and me, I focus on the mumu.

The kids are in big kid beds. My father gave us his childhood twin beds and after determining that the beds didn’t really fit in one room we also moved the kids into their own rooms. Guests now get to take over a kid room and that child will get moved to our bed.

They actually both slept through the night on the same night shortly after being separated and I was excited to think that maybe we had found the magic bullet of toddler sleep but, alas, that happy event has not repeated itself.

They are now night weaned. This would help but J likes to get into bed with us instead now and he wakes up and makes sounds - loud sounds - every hour and I find that not a good recipe for sleep. Not my sleep at any rate. Brian, however, sleeps right through it. Bastard.

I decided to go back to work when the kids are four rather than five. We had planned to wait until they were 5 and in extended day at school (known as full day kindergarten every where else in the country) but, really, I am not temperamentally suited to staying home full time even with a home business. I am thinking that by 4 they will be ready to be in the after care program at school until I get off work, especially with teacher hours, and though I won’t actually clear much between the school tuition payments and the after-care payments it does bring the number of years we have to scrape preschool tuition out of the couch cushions to one.

Finding a Latin teacher job won’t be hard. There are more jobs than certified teachers.