Catch Up!

Wow I can't believe I've let this slide for so long! I knew that I would slacken with posting here weekly but I didn't think I'd let it go for a month!

I have had a few weeks pretty much off-line. I hurt my back and wasn't able to sit or stand much - spent a week in bed and the next week recovering. I am doing well now though find that I still get a bit of pain from sitting at the computer too long. I really don't want to end up in bed again so am being very careful!

Progress -

LIAM:

Language and Literacy: Liam is coming ahead in leaps and bounds with his understanding of language and literacy. He and I are still doing the Junior crossword from the local newspaper everyweek. We have slacked off with our letters work a bit but that is more because he lost interest in the worksheets etc. The amazing thing is that he is still learning anyway!! LOL! He actually spelt his first two words in the past few weeks. The first was "Leo". He is a Leo so was sitting eating breakfast one morning and just started saying the word over and over again - sounding out the first L sound especially. Then he piped up and said to me "Leo starts with an L"! So I helped him say the other sounds and he spelt the word out! Very proud Mummy Moment! The next word came while we were driving. We had been talking about Liam's friend, Justin. His mum's name is Em. Liam asked me, "Why does Justin's mum's name only have one letter in it - M?". I told him that it was actually two letters and sounded the word "Em" out and he spelt it for me. SO things are definately clicking into place for Liam in terms of how words work and how the letters go together to make different sounds.

Drawing: Liam can draw! He's always been able to draw but has finally drawn things that are true to form and that we can recognise. He has drawn some great pictures for someone that has just started to draw. He puts a lot of detail in and is really enjoying drawing.

Volunteer Work: We are still continuing our weekly visits to the nursing home. Liam really enjoys going there and interacts with the residents well. He is confident and friendly. He is getting to know everyone there - their names and what they like. He loves sharing his toys with them and talking/explaining things to them. It's been great! We take a couple of toys usually but they have also done drawings there, played with balloons, and this week we took bubbles to blow. It is one of the highs of our week - we really look forward to going there.

Social: As usual we've had very busy weeks socially! The boys had a break from their playgroup for a couple of weeks in March (when I had my sore back) but have definately made up for it since then! We have been babysitting the children next door for the past few weeks - usually just in the afternoons - and Liam especially is loving it! They are aged 10, 7, and 4 - so great ages for Liam. Liam has been learning a lot from them in all areas - they introduced him to the joys of dress ups last week and he is also learning a lot about interacting with older kids. Liam has had dress ups in the cupboard for years but has never really "got it" - until now! Shayla (10 year old neighbour), started playing with the clothes in their and dressing up in them last week - suddenly it clicked for Liam how fun it could be! Now that is the first thing he wants to do when they come over!!


EWAN:

Hmm, not sure what to say about Ewan - He's just been cruising along with us! He did have a huge milestone back in March - he self weaned (from breastfeeding)! It happened very easily and with little fuss - and he was one breast obsessed boy so it came as a big suprise! He has also seemed to have a bit of an energy burst. He has never been much of a climber but these last few weeks has started climbing on everything and has been mastering all the playground equipment with ease. He is super confident and now that the time is right has no troubles getting up and over things. It's been great to see him grow in confidence and see him so proud of his achievments.

Drawing: Ewan suprised us all a couple of weeks ago by drawing a page full of spiders, complete with legs and smiley faces! I think he picked up the drawing bug from Liam. It's great to see him drawing - and it's amazing in comparison to Liam who only just started - two years after Ewan. He's also drawing things like mice that he saw in a book.

Ewan's fine motor skills are also coming along well. He has been doing pre-writing worksheets (tracing along dotted lines etc) and is getting really good at them. He's loving scissors at the moment too, so spends a lot of time cutting things up - which is fine so long as it isn't quilt covers or his hair (as happened a couple of weeks ago!!).

Ewan is enjoying the nursing home visits too. He does take a while to get comfortable with them though he is getting more confident each week. They absolutely love having us come and it is great to see how much joy we bring them.



Liam and Ewan have been playing together a lot more lately. I think Ewan is catching up to Liam in terms of his language ability and also physically too. They play Star Wars together and Ewan is able to keep up with Liam and their conversation is hilarious! They are always off building cubby houses together too - which means all the pillows in the house on the floor along with all their bedding!