This is a paper Will brought home from school a couple weeks ago. Daren was at school with Will when he wrote his own name for the first time, and to the regular person this may not look like anything special, but to Daren and I it is a shout of hallelujah!! We knew going into this school year that Will was quite a bit behind where most of the kids his age are, especially Jake. I know, I know, he is only four, but I had to agree with his teachers from last year that it was more than just being a little behind. Certain things were just not connecting. It was very hard at first, especially on me, that we had to split up Will and Jake, not only in separate classes, but into separate schools. It wasn't easy, but we got Will into Newcastle Preschool in Draper, and that has been the best move EVER for Will. He is in a class with 11 other boys and he has the most amazing teacher, Ms. Jeri, who is so patient, loving, and positive, and I don't think we could have found anyone better for him. They teach those "Love and Logic" classes for parents at his school, we made it to a couple of classes, and it's what the teachers use on the students as well. Ms. Jeri is a master at it, and because either Daren or I have been in class with Will every day for over a month now, we have seen how well Will has responded to it. Ms. Jeri and I (and Daren) have had plenty of time to talk about Will during these times, and I think part of the problem is that there wasn't ever too much expected of Will, because he has always been pretty quiet and has kept to himself wherever he was. When he is around Jake, Jake is so outgoing and overbearing that he, Jake, would make decisions for Will or answer questions for Will. It's amazing how all of this can happen right under our noses and we didn't even realize what a problem it was becoming. Will seems to be learning for the first time that he can make his own decisions, and that some choices he makes on his own can have either positive or negative consequences. He is doing so well and is making so much progress that this week Daren and I have been "phased out" of going to school with him. It has been so fun to be in class with him and get to know all the cute little boys in there, and to learn from Jeri, whose classroom motto is, "Hakuna Matata," which means "no worries." I can be pretty high strung sometimes when it comes to kids, and I need to take a chill pill and not worry so much about things--hakuna matata! Funny enough, I miss going to class with Will already!
So on to other things: I've learned my lesson--never leave Daren and the twins alone with an Etch-A-Sketch in Cafe Rio while I'm in line to order the food. Ya, this is supposed to be me; I'm sporting a John Lennon look I suppose!! The twins got a kick out of it, though!!
Last winter one night, Daren and Ben were messing around on the internet and found a playhouse that they thought would be fun to build. They bought the plans, we went shopping for all the materials, and finally got started on it in early April. Back then, in our family newsletter, Daren jokingly wrote that he would try to drag this project out for a month so we could get our boys to eat their dinners better (their reward for eating their dinner before the timer went off was to work on the playhouse, and it worked well for a bit). So life happened, and the playhouse got put on the back burner for a while, but recently it has been revived...
We had a couple big pine trees in the backyard die (shocker...not!), so we decided to put the playhouse back there where the trees had been. Daren worked a few days on the playhouse last week and it's coming along nicely--although Ben is a little disappointed that it's not as big as he thought it would be.
Ben was taking pictures this day of Daren--otherwise he probably wouldn't pose so willingly!! Ben can't wait until the playhouse is done because he want to make it into a school house and teach his brothers, and other kids in the neighborhood, how to read and write. How cute is that?! He's got big plans for it, and it has been a fun thing for all the boys to do together. It should be done soon...we'll see!
As far as other happenings go in our lives: we had our first snow a week ago Sunday (Oct 12), and we have church at 9am, so there wasn't any time before then to go play in it (not even time for a picture), and by the time we got out it had all melted. The boys were sooooo disappointed! Will kept asking why "Mr. Sunshine was out melting all the snow?" Of course, the first thing out of their mouths that morning was, "Where's Santa?" Is it really only 2 months until Christmas?!?!
I've decided to sign up for the St. George half marathon (13.1 miles) in January with my friends I grew up with, so I figured it's time to get going on it. I've started back at the classes at the gym again, and already it's killing me. At the same time, I've started playing soccer again with those same friends, and that too is a major killer on my body. We have been playing indoor soccer for a few years together and it is such a blast. I think Teresa and I have been playing soccer together since 3rd or 4th grade, and we won the state tournament for Davis High back in 1987 when we were juniors--although it wasn't a school sanctioned sport back then; my how times have changed!! Someone had to pave the way I guess:)
It's turning out to be a great year for the University of Utah football team. We are still undefeated (8-0), ranked #11, with a bye week this week. Daren had fun with a bunch of his friends at the football game last week when I opted out of my ticket to go to a great parenting seminar that my good friend Willie, from Kaysville, had arranged with Dr. James Jones. He was amazing and I learned a lot that will hopefully help in our parenting here. Anyway, football has been fun, and with 2 huge home games left (TCU and BYU), it should be even more fun. Once again--GO UTES!!
I went to Ben's school yesterday for Mother's Visiting Day, and it is always so much fun to see what is going on in the classroom and to see him interact with his friends. Ben has a great teacher this year, Mrs. Duke, and school is really going good for him this year. He has even started doing his homework on the bus ride home so most of it is done by the time he gets here, because when he gets home he either wants to play with friends or play on the Play Station--which I'm sure will be the death of me, except that we finally set some rules on it.
So that should catch us up for a few days at least. I wanted to send my Aunt Martha some well wishes and let her know that we are thinking about her and praying for her. She is not in good health now, and has been in the hospital and in a rehab center for the past couple weeks. We love you Aunt Martha!! And to everyone else, love you too and take care!
3 comments:
Nice to see you back in the blogosphere. :) I love that Ben has ambitions to turn the playhouse into a school. He's so sweet.
Kudos to Will for his progress! The playhouse looks great:it will be such fun, though we're surprised they want to play school; isn't that something most kids run from at the end of the day?! We love you!
The play house looks awesome! And of course your boys art is fantastic as well. : )
Scott was telling me about your Salsa so we will definately need to trade jars.
It would be awesome if our boys worked together. They seem to get along so well. They might not up end up working if they are together. They would probably do some car talk or skiing. : )
Post a Comment