J is for Joy

CJ and Eliza are the light of my life.  Every moment they bring me joy, even when they cause me so very much frustration.  Today there was frustration due to two days without naps, so they were a lot cranky.  But the joy of them climbing up next to me on the couch to hold my hand and tell me they love me, that is the most amazing feeling in the world.  The joy on their faces because they knew all the letter sounds we have done, precious.  The pride because they have been using the potty all by themselves, priceless beyond words.  They just rock my world.

They did way better than I did coming up with J words today.  For some reason my brain had a lot of difficulty coming up with any good words, until several people assisted me via Facebook.  This is a complete juxtaposition (Thanks Sue!) from most days.  We watched Go Diego Go, and immediately they said that Jaguar begins with J, can you write on the letter poster right now?  We reviewed the letter posters again, and they really enjoy using all the words they have found.  They especially like to rhyme words.  Unfortunately they have also found one I don't like.  I try very hard not to use profanity in front of them, but once in a while I say shiza, which is sh** in German.  The kids are so quick with recognizing rhymes that they immediately knew that shiza rhymes with Eliza.  So they ran around chanting shiza Eliza, shiza Eliza, like maniacs.  I just sort of bowed my head in shame.  And pride that they recognized the rhyme so quickly!  Hope none of the neighbors know German . . .

Anyway, moving on.  We read every nursery rhyme and fairy tale we could find with J in it.  They retold Jack and the Beanstalk to me again.  We acted it out, and pretended to be all the characters.  We pretended to be Jack be Nimble, and we jumped over a candlestick I made out of paper.  We tried jumping jacks, and looked for pumpkins in the garden so we can make Jack-o-lanterns at Halloween.  We ate jelly crepes for breakfast, peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch, and we were supposed to have jambalaya for dinner.  But we had Chinese food instead, as nobody felt like cooking.  Long week, what can I say?  We did have some jell-o for dessert.  I had forgotten to make it, but realized I had some fruit and gelatin cups in the pantry.  Score! 

While it wasn't as J intensive as I would have liked we had a productive day.  CJ correctly counted to 69, which is the highest he has counted so far without assistance.  Eliza successfully waited for directions, and recognized her name on her workbook, for the first time without my help.  I think she reads CJ's name and just takes the other one, but it is absolutely progress.  Eliza has also used the potty every time she needs to poop except over night.  CJ has continued to use the potty and wear big boy underpants, with just one accident today, and that was because he was in his high chair and I was using the potty.  He loves the independence and freedom that comes with this.  Eliza is teething like crazy so finds it hard to concentrate on anything except food or coloring, so she spent a lot of time on the front porch coloring on the easel.  CJ prefers to pull his page down and draw on the ground.  We had a game where I blew bubbles, and every time I blew one that floated away they had to jump.  They loved it and did very well.  They were so tired by the time they went to bed, I think they were asleep when their heads hit the sheets. 


Whenever we go in the car we sing the A says /a/, the A says /a/, every letter makes a sound the A says /a/, all the way through to whatever letter we are on for the day.  We sing it every morning while we get dressed, and at least a few times throughout the day.  I think this is really helping them recognize the letter sounds in words.  We also talk about the other sounds letters make, and the sounds pairs of letters make when they cooperate like CH says /ch/.  They really seem to understand better than I could have expected.  They amaze me every day.  I made the letter flashcards today with an old deck of cards and some computer sticker paper.  26 letters, upper case and lower case makes 52 cards.  Easy.  We matched the upper to lower case letters up through today's letter.  I even drew a line for the bottom of each letter card so as to not confuse b, d, p and q.  I think next week I will find some more sticker paper or sticky labels and make some picture flashcards to match letter sounds, cat for C, dog for D for example.  I might even take some pictures with the digital camera to use on them. 

I am jubilant that it is Friday, as we have a fun weekend planned.  Friends coming over to make and can salsa, and to teach us to make sushi.  Since Rich doesn't like raw fish it will include a BBQ chicken sushi option.  Very jubilant!  It will be a jovial time in the Hansen household.  The kids are quite thrilled about the sushi, as that means they get to use their special animal chopsticks and bento boxes.  My crazy little foodie babies!  Joy is the perfect word for CJ and Eliza, and our homeschooling journey.