This Week at MES

Nicholas was intrigued by a live dragonfly and caterpillar. The class hopes to watch the caterpillar turn into a butterfly soon.

Language: Nicholas reviewed initial sounds. The class enjoyed Beatrix Potter's beautiful stories and illustrations.

Nicholas defined which animals are hatched or born.

Math: Nicholas worked on Math Mats

Good Shepherd Lesson: Learned the story of the Road to Emmaus.

This Week at MES

The school arranged for the local fire department to come talk with the students. Of course, they all loved going out and looking at the fire engine! Nicholas' class had worked together to bake a cake to give to the firemen.

The class has previously discussed the Chinese New Year and made dragon masks. This week they made a flag of China. Then with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, the class began to learn about Ireland and they discussed some myths and customs in that country.

Nicholas worked on lacing and tying his shoes. He also continues to work on tracing his name. The teacher writes out his name in yellow highlighter and then Nicholas writes over it with a darker marker. He's definitely getting better.



Math: Nicholas counted green M&Ms and worked on the teen board. He can count all the way to 100 by single digits and by 10's.

Good Shepherd Lesson: Palms and a donkey.

So Much Fun All The Time

For those of you that check the blog daily for updates (Granddad!), I'm sorry that I keep falling behind. Sometimes we're just too busy living life to find the time to write about it.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Here is Nicholas performing a song he learned at school called "Elephants Have Wrinkles". Cute!



Take a look at our furry friends. I don't know that I'm really excited about this but we have (at least) two rabbits that seemed to have made a home under our deck near the kitchen window. They come out into the yard to eat every day around dusk. You can see one up close in this picture and the other is farther back in the picture under the bird feeder (sorry the pic is crooked but I was taking it in a hurry before they scampered away).





They are cute to watch but I know what they say about rabbits multiplying and I don't really want a huge family of rabbits living under our deck but I'm not sure what to do about it!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I kept Nicholas home from school today so we could go on a cool field trip to see Slim Goodbody at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth. It was awesome! Slim Goodbody teaches young children all about the human body and how it works. He wears a body suit printed with all of the internal organs and he performs the entire show by himself with the exception of some audience participation. He was just great. He made it fun with songs and dances and the kids particpated with him. We learned about the circulatory system. He had half of the room say, "Lubba" and the other half say, "Dubba" and we did it over and over again to make the sound of a beating heart. I think this was one of Nicholas' most favorite parts. We also learned about cells, skin, respiration, digestion, nerves, bones, and muscles. We will definitely go back next time he is in town.





After the show we went to a phenomenal used book sale that I go to every year. It is a warehouse-size sale with books priced as low as 50 cents! Of course, being the book-addict that I am, I had to stock up! Like we don't have enough books already. Where in the world will I put these new ones?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Back to school. It was cold so Nicholas was all bundled up. He always has fun playing with me while we wait to drop him off in car line. Today he brought some of his stuffed animal friends with us. He set them up on the dash board and sang to them, showed them his Nemo toy, and waved good-bye to them when he got out of the car.





Monday, February 25, 2008

Nicholas has quickly picked up how to use a computer mouse - thanks to his Webkinz. His little dog, Capaccio, comes with an online subscription in which you can play with your pet online. He has a little online house and you can play games to win money to buy food and furniture for your pet. Your pet can even meet up with your friends' pets in the online world. Nicholas really likes it and he looks so serious when he is playing.



Sunday, February 24, 2008

I couldn't resist catching this picture of a sleeping angel! It's so rare to see him lying so still :)





The weather was nice so we took Nicholas for a bike ride over to our neighborhood park. Nicholas absolutely loves his bike. He rides it all the time, weather permitting. We love it too. It is really well built with hefty tires which makes it easy to go over uneven sidewalks.



Saturday, February 23, 2008

After breakfast, Nicholas climbed up into Stuart's lap and cuddled. Stuart asked if he was cuddling because he was cold. Nicholas said, "No, I'm just a baby armadillo. Take care of me."



Nicholas loves to act out all kinds of cute scenarios. You just never know from one minute to the next if he is pretending to be an animal, superhero, baby, or rocket ship. It's so much fun having him around!

Going Bonkers! is a fun place Nicholas loves to go to play. They have great climbing structures and games. He is quite good at some of the games like shooting out the horse's teeth with balls. Poor horse!



But his favorite game is the motorcycle racing game. He isn't very good at steering his bike but he sure has fun pretending to drive it.





Friday, February 22, 2008

Nicholas seemed to be cough-free so we headed over to a friends house to learn about the symphony. We got to see a really old violin. We listened to classical music and danced to it with colorful scarves.



After all the dancing, Nicholas started to cough again so I tried to get him to leave so we could go home. He ran around the yard some trying to avoid going home.



Eventually I wrangled him into the car though. We went home and I gave him another breathing treatment and let him take a nap. He hasn't been sleeping well because of the coughing.

He seemed to do much better after catching up on some sleep. Here he is entertaining us with his singing and guitar talent.



Friday night we got to hear Bishop T.D. Jakes speak at our church. He is an incredibly dynamic speaker. I've watched his sermons on TV many times but it was awesome to see him in person.

This Week at MES

Nicholas has fun in the mornings while we sit in a line waiting to drop him off at school. Since we are on the school property and moving at a snail's crawl in the line, I let him out of his car seat. He loves sitting in the front, playing with the buttons on the dash, rolling down the window, etc. At home, we've been listening to the birds in our yard lately and trying to identify them by their songs. This morning in car line, Nicholas rolled down the window and pretended to be a blue jay for everyone to hear.







Mrs. Carrico sent home the following to all of the parents this week. It is an except taken from a book titled, The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon by David Elkind.

Do not pressure your kids to learn. Children today are under a great deal of pressure to grow up too fast, too soon. As a result they develop a fear of failure, an absorption in measuring up to the unrealistic expectations of others, and a host of stress symptoms. David Elkind, professor of psychology at Tufts University, has dubbed this cultural tendency the hurried child syndrome, and advises parents to let children be children while they're young, allowing them to enjoy stress-free, spontaneous play activities that they regulate themselves.

We have learned a great deal in the past twenty years about the importance of early intervention in influencing a child's chances for success in life. We've also been exposed to a wide range of techniques, activities, and resources for enriching children's lives. The temptation is great, even among those parents who are not part of a fast-track family, to unleash this knowledge upon kids in mega-doses to force a positive mega-effect.

However, here, as elsewhere, the motto less is more seems to apply. Children often do their best learning without adult supervision during unstructured playtime. It is often only when they make their own choices about what they wish to learn and how they want to learn it that their motivation and achievement levels go way up. Parents should realize that they can usually better help their kids by simply listening to them, respecting their lives, and allowing them the freedom to explore new ideas and subjects on their own, rather than by piling on another French lesson or computer class.

I enjoyed that excerpt and I plan to get the book to read more about what he has to say. I completely believe that children will learn at their own pace and in their own way. We, as parents, don't need to worry about chasing down our young children to make sure they memorize a bunch of useless information or learn how to read by some random age that someone else decided was appropriate. Nicholas is only three years old and right now he is learning about things that he enjoys - making friends, exploring the outdoors and the world around him, planes, dinosaurs, space ships, and a myriad of other boy related things. We are also making sure that he is learning about boundaries, respect for others as well as respect property, sharing, and consequences. This is really all he needs to know at age three. All that other information will come later in his education. I spoke to a mom this weekend who also has a three year old. She is worried that he doesn't know how to read better than he does so she is going to start working with him on phonics every day. I understand her ambition for her child as I feel it too at times. But this age is so precious and they are only this young once. Let their spirit and wonder fly free so that they can explore and discover all the joys awaiting them in the world around them.

This Week at MES

Nicholas reviewed his studies on the continents this week. He also practiced zipping and lacing - both of which he is quite good at. He also loves to button and will button and unbutton his shirt twenty times in a row just because he can. He is working on tying his shoes and gets the first part right but gets a little tangled up when it comes to the two loops.

The class read the story, The Mitten, and did creative dramatics to go along with it.

Nicholas also worked on numberal tracing and letter printing.

Math: Nicholas learned about the 10 boards work and made some numerals 11-99. He also learned to count by 10's to 100.

Good Shepherd: The class discussed Baby Jesus.

Mrs. Carrico said that Nicholas had a rough day at school yesterday. She said he was unusually distracted and just not himself. I've been seeing the same type of problems at home all week. As I thought about it some, I considered that he does have some congestion and maybe he just hasn't been sleeping well at night. But also I wondered if perhaps it was the Xoprenex/Albuterol medication for wheezing that I've had to start giving him this week in his breathing treatments. I called the pediatrician's office and discussed it with one of their fabulous nurses. She said that the Xoprenex wouldn't cause hyperactivity but she mentioned that the Pulmicort in his breathing treatments has a tiny amount of steroid in it. Nicholas has taken a steroid medication (Omnipred?) in the past that made him so hyper he was climbing the walls. However, she said that Pulmicort has a minuscule amount of steroid compared to that previous medication. She didn't think that would cause any problems. We reviewed his other medications and determined that Aldex is probably the culprit. I started giving it to Nicholas this week for his cough. He takes it twice a day and it works really well. But the nurse explained that Aldex works so well because in addition to the cough suppressant it also has an anti-histamine and decongestant. These medicines can cause drowsiness. Now for most adults, we would want to go to sleep with medicine like this. But a three year old, at least MY three year old, is more likely to be so tired that he ends up getting the crazies, aka totally hyper. We determined that I could give him the Aldex at bedtime but in the morning I will give him a different med just for the cough. I tried Delsym this morning instead of Aldex. Mrs. Carrico and I talked after school today. She said that he was calmer and more focused today and seems to be back to his usual sweet self today. I can tell a difference too. Mystery solved!

Singing en Espanol

For the last few days, Nicholas has been singing a Spanish song he learned at school! Unfortunately, he can only remember the English translation of the first three lines and my limited Spanish is of no use!



Buenos tardes, Buenos tardes. (English: Good day)
Como esta? Como esta? (English: How are you?)
Muy bien. Gracias. Muy bien. Gracias. (English: Very well. Thank you.)
???? ????? (What the heck is he saying? I can't figure this one out! Any suggestions?)

Note: Please excuse me if I've misspelled the Spanish version of the song. I'm just winging it.

This Week at MES

Nicholas had a great week at school. He practiced cutting with scissors by cutting strips of paper and also making snowflakes. He also did some push pin work and even worked with a Light Brite type project. These are great for building the muscles in the hand to improve fine motor control and strength for writing.

Language: The class worked on story sequence. They made a snowman story by placing the story pages in the correct order. Nicholas and I do this type of project at home and he always enjoys it.

Math: Nicholas worked with the Montessori Teens Board. He also practiced counting, sorting, and bead stair.

The class also learned about 5-10 sided shapes.

Wednesday was Mrs. Carrico's birthday so Tuesday night Nicholas and I worked in the kitchen making her a special gift. We made Madeleines for her. Although Nicholas works in the kitchen with me all the time, we had never beat egg whites before so that was an exciting new experience for him. He watched as the gloppy egg whites slowly whipped into white froth and then stiff peaks. What a neat thing to watch! He also helped me grind the almonds, measure and add all of the ingredients into the mixture, then fill the cups of the madeleine baking pans. We made two batches of them so we had enough to keep for ourselves. They were great for breakfast the next morning!

Here are some suggestions for applying Montessori principles in the home as written by author Joan Beck of the Chicago Tribune, 1965:

~ Whenever you can, arrange your home so that the child can manage for himself. Make his table and chair low enough, his toy shelves easily accessible, his clothing equipped with fasteners he can operate, his clothes rods the right height, etc. Then don't do anything for him that he can do for himself. "Any unnecessary aid is a hinderance to learning", said Maria Montessori.

~ Teach your child with real things. Take the time to show him how to handle materials and equipment carefully, and he will be capable of far more than you realize.

~ See that your youngster has as much choice as possible in his activities. He can't live up to his potential unless he has the opportunity for independent work.

~ Don't insist that your child try a new activity if he isn't interested. Don't make him stick at a learning task when he doesn't want to.

~ Make creative use of silence. Encourage your youngster to be still for a moment so he can hear more acutely. This not only stimulates his sense of hearing, but gives him a feeling of self-mastery.

"When a child pleads to "help me do it myself", he means to help him develop his capactities to the fullest, whatever those capacities may be, to become what he was meant to be, a unique, remarkable human being."

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that what each one of us needs most of all is someone to confidently expect us to do what we are capable of doing.

This Week at MES

Montessori: This week in class, Nicholas was introduced to the Montessori geometric cabinet. The class rolled dough in butter and cinnamon sugar and baked them. They called them "Dirty Snowballs". Nicholas said they were yummy.

Language: Nicholas is working on learning the months of the year. He is also working on initial consonants.

Math: Nicholas learned about the binomal and trinomal cubes.

Good Shepherd Lesson: Flight into Egypt

The children took turns telling and acting out the story of Epiphany. Creative dramatics increase listening skills, thinking skills, and delayed gratification.

They also got to practice their speaking and listening skills through Show and Tell. Nicholas brought his kaleidoscope to show the class.

Nicholas continued to practice his fine motor skills by tracing his name.

Christmas at MES and Fellowship Church

Nicholas brought home a Christmas present from school to give to Stuart and me. He said he made the wrapping paper himself with paint and Christmas-themed foam stamps.



Of course, I was very careful not to tear my custom-made wrapping paper which is now being displayed on the refrigerator. But I was even more proud of the wonderful gift inside the wrapping paper. It was a Christmas plate that Nicholas had decorated himself!


Nicholas told me about the picture. It is a picture of Santa Claus in his red suit. The red line on the left is a house and the green triangle is a Christmas tree. The green and brown things in the upper right are two presents that Santa brought. At the bottom of the picture, Nicholas signed his name. I'm just so proud! I don't think I can box it back up with all of the other Christmas stuff to just sit in the attic until next year. I just might have to keep this one out all year long. What a great gift.

Stuart and I attended the MES Christmas chapel this week. We went a little early so that I could help the children get dressed in their shepherds costumes while Stuart found us a good seat for video taping the performance. Nicholas was just too cute in his little costume!


Once everyone was dressed, the class lined up to walk to chapel but they got in one more rehearsal before they left. They are singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" complete with sign language.



I got butterflies in my stomach when it was time for Nicholas' class to go on stage. I'm just such a proud mama! Here's my little boy as the cutest shepherd in his class.



Here's Nicholas and his proud Daddy after the performance.





Stuart and I both helped out at church this week for their Christmas performances. Stuart was there Wednesday night for the main rehearsal. He ended up not needing to rehearse on camera so he just sat in the audience watching the worship team practice on stage. He brought Nicholas in to watch as well. Nicholas had a blast! He got to go back stage as well as sit in the audience. The other people on the media team loved having him hang out with them. They played peek-a-boo over the seats and answered all of Nicholas' endless questions. Tracy Ball, a local photographer, was there and captured some great pictures of Nicholas with his new friends.