Kayda's Parent-Teacher Conference

On October 22nd we got to go in for Kayda's Parent-Teacher Conference.  I have a tendency to get very excited about these... last year for her preschool one I was all grins and  butterflies to go and hear about my little girl who I know to be all kinds of wonderful.  I love to hear other people say good things about my children just like every proud parent out there.  So Daddy got some time off work that day so that he could go in with me and hear all the wonderful things also!

Mrs. T told us that Kayda is quite the rule follower and likes to "report" when her table mates are doing something they shouldn't.  She wants people to follow the rules, we have a lot of discussions with her about letting other people make their own choices and that the only person she needs to worry about it herself.

Mrs. T went on to tell us about Kayda's test scores.  We already know this but it's always nice to hear it anyway... Kayda is a very bright little girl.  She has already met the goals for the entire year of kindergarten.  She counts past 100, identifies all her shapes, reads high numbers, is reading close to a first grade level.  We were especially impressed when shown an exercise they had to do.  They were told numbers and they had to write them down.  They were told "one hundred nine" and "one hundred fifteen".  Apparently most kids write 100 9 and 100 15.  She wrote the correctly, 109 and 115.  Mrs. T said that's the first time she's seen that this early in the year.  We were beaming of course.  Kayda is doing so well that Mrs. T had to write up new "end of year" goals for Kayda so that she would progress over the course of the year.

Mrs. T also shared with us that Kayda is an excellent reader.  She thought it was interesting that Kayda struggles with the smaller words and does well with the big words.  She wants to skip the sight words, so of course we've been working on those.

Kayda has been SO interested in reading lately.  She is doing incredibly well.  She is a joy in our lives and makes us happy in so many ways.  We love our sweet little girl!

It's been a while...

Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated so here's a quick summary... Our family has been hit with illness after illness after illness. The kiddos were basically sick from mid-December to mid-February. So we haven't been doing a whole lot. Here's a few things we've done that I have pictures to go with.

Kayda and Dillon love to ride their trikes, this is their newest invention. Dillon figured out how to pedal and then stopped all together, maybe this is why.

Kayda and Dillon love to color. Kayda has discovered that she LOVES glitter, I haven't been brave enough to try that one with Dillon yet. Here are some examples of her masterpieces. I drew out the shapes and then she did most of the cutting, I helped hold the paper while she did it though.

While our little family has been sick we've spent a lot more time than we like indoors. Well a couple of weekends ago it was gorgeous outside and Daddy decided that we should go for a walk. A walk turned into a trip to Lake Meridian with our little family, Hank, Grandma H. and their new dog Jake. Gotta love how nice the weather has been. It definitely doesn't feel like March, and it didn't feel like February and it didn't feel like January. Not so sure we had much of a winter... maybe 2 or 3 weeks worth.

For Christmas Kayda got moon sand and I was finally brave enough to take it out again. Kayda had a blast, Dillon liked to smooth everything I made for him but got bored quickly.

Another big step this month was a trip to the movies...again. We took the kids to see "Planet 51" at the $3 theater. They BOTH did great this time. They sat and watched the whole movie and had a great time of it. Kayda recently went with Grandma and Grandpa G to see "The lightening theif" and did very well.  She didn't get scared at all and wanted to go see it again!

As I've said before Kayda can officially write her name, but now it's without help! Way to go! She even wrote out every letter of the alphabet with me a couple of days ago and the important part...most of them looked the way they are supposed to! She wasn't learning her letters very well because she would get bored so I finally bought the letter factory and it has made a huge difference! She knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She's so excited to know them that she'll read off the letters on posters and such. It's helped some with her speech but we'll still be happy to get her into speech therapy; we're still waiting for the official results of the evaluation. Kayda loves the book "Snug House Bug House" and enjoys reading it to us (she has it memorized). Last but not least, Kayda is officially signed up for little chargers starting next fall. Now we just need to get her to potty train. I wish she was interested. Hopefully the no potty, no school rule will help.

Now for little Dillon. We have discovered that Dillon does not like it when Kayda isn't home. She has started staying the night at Grandma G's a lot and he is miserable without her. He adores his sister and is more than a little lost without her nearby. One good thing about it is that he gets to ride in the Jeep which he adores! He is starting to talk like crazy and many of the words are recognizable. He is the most charismatic little boy I know. When we go anywhere he's waving at everyone, talking to them, saying bye to them and giving them his sweet smiles. He's a charmer, watch out girls here he comes!

Nice and Tidy

Kayda has always been our little cleaner. Ever since she was little she would take a wipe and start wiping everything off. If her clothes get dirty she wants to change, if she spills something she gets upset. She decided to add to her normal "cleaning" behaviors yesterday when we were at Grandma and Grandpa G's house having dinner. Grandma was loading the dishes and left for a minute to deal with something else. When Grandma came back suddenly the dishwasher was fuller than she remembered it being. Kayda had loaded her play dishes into the dishwasher. Here she is unloading them!

More important info! Kayda can officially count to FIVE!!! After five she'll throw around eight and nine. Pretty impressive. She is trying to say more words everyday. Yesterday she and I were reading "Go Dog Go."  We went through it once together then she started telling me the story. She would go through and tell me what color the dogs were, if they were big or small, what they were doing (up/down, in/out, driving cars) without ANY prompting from me. In case you haven't read it recently there are four parts in the book where a dog asks another dog if he likes her hat. Each time they say hello and goodbye. Kayda knew these pages and would say "hello, hat, bye".

Dillon is trying to talk as well, he has sounds that are almost words for: fish, dog, dad, mama, drink, that. He also makes some sound effects. He is trying to jump now, it's really just one foot that "jumps" but he tries.

Daddy and I joined a gym and have been bringing the kids in to the play area. Kayda has a hard time warming up to it at first but once she gets going she's fine. On the otherhand Dillon runs to the door, opens it himself and takes off chasing the other kids. It's funny to see the difference in their personalities.