fore!

learning to read

We're in no rush to teach Tim to read, but he's interested and willing.  The promise of a new toy with the mastery of each book is a big incentive.  Like potty training, we're trying to let him guide us on the skills we tackle.  This worked when he wrote his name at two, much to our surprise and pleasure.  I'm happy to help him learn to read because studies that I've read indicate that children who learn to read early have greater success at learning other things in school, and Tim has always liked books. 

I first learned of the Bob Books last summer from a woman I met at the library.   She was with her son who looked about the same age as Tim.  Tim had picked some books to take home, and we sat down next to the mother and son to look through them.  The boy told Tim that he liked one of them and then offered to read the book to Tim, which he did.  I thought maybe he'd memorized the book, but he actually read it.  I asked his mom how old he was and when she said 4, I asked how he'd learned to read.  She showed me The Bob Books, and I checked one out.  We tried a couple of times but without any interest or success.  I checked them out again when we traveled to South Africa, thinking we could try them on the long flights or layovers.  Again, no interest or success.

Last week, we tried again with great interest and success, so I bought the first set.  It's a phonetic system for learning to read and very popular right now.  There are 12 books of about 6 pages in the set. Each book focuses on two or three new sounds.  Tim has loved the ABC song from a very young age, but it doesn't do much to help with the phonetic alphabet.  It would be a real accomplishment if someone could write a song as catchy as the ABC song using phonetics.

real skis

Last summer we were 'picked up' at a bar by a couple with two young kids.  They use their son to meet what they hope are interesting people.  We were eating dinner at our local on the patio.  Tim was playing in the grass next to us and a little boy about his age joined him.  When we discovered who the parents were we chatted while the boys played.  When we left, we exchanged phone numbers.  They've become good friends in part because they boys are nearly the same age, Jonathan is about six months older than Tim.  They live nearby, which is handy.  They lived in Germany for two years, so when we all get together we reminisce about life abroad.  The reason they are mentioned here is because they let us borrow Jonathan's skis and boots and Tim had his first go on a real ski slope: Four O'Clock run at Breckenridge.


It was awesome.  I speed up, then slow down.

Instructors substitute 'french fries' for slalom and 'pizza' for snow plow, and we were quick to use their wisdom.  I won't say that Tim mastered it.  But he enjoyed the exercise and will do it again.  We hope to put him in ski school next winter.

gymnastics

Tim's been going to a gymnastics class for five weeks now.  He doesn't get very excited when we talk to him about it and he doesn't seem to look forward to it, but he enjoys it when he's there.  I hope that he'll  grow to like it.  His skills improve each week.  

There are about 20 kids in each class, ages 3-5.  They start with a group warm up: running in a large circle, stretching, and learning terms like tuck, pike and straddle.  Then they are split into three smaller groups based on ability, I think.  Each small group then goes to a section of the gym and they work on skills at each section for about 10 minutes.  It's well organized.  

Tim can do a forward roll or somersault pretty well on is own if  he's on a sloped mat.    He needs help with his backward roll, but he knows what to do with his chin and hands.  With both, he needs to work on controlling the tuck a little more, but that will come with time and practice.

Tim loves to jump off of furniture, stairs, rocks or anything else that presents a ledge and landing area.  He started to climb before he could crawl.  It has long been our hope that a class in gymnastics would give him some control of these activities so that he can minimize injuries.  Fingers crossed.

The problem may be that instead of teaching him control, he just learns new daredevil stunts. Hanging from bars is new to him, but he's already transferred this to hanging from anything he can reach.  Any day now, I'll catch him hanging like this from the bar counter.  At least it's carpeted.

Each month, the directors choose a theme.  Last month was dinosaurs and this month is insects.  In this video, Tim is supposed to cross the balance beam like a caterpillar (on his hands and feet).  On the other beams, he was a fly flapping his wings and walking tip-toe, and a bee, flapping his wings and walking backwards.

tim's harem

There are almost an equal number of boys and girls in the classes.  This is the only time he's been in a group without any other boys.  It doesn't seem to make a difference to him.  The girls fight to stand next to him in line.  And so it begins...

four years old

the birthday boy

supervising mom 

pre-party boredom

fillmore

lightning and friends

guido

luigi

finn

pre-party clean

a hint of the adult tim?

the only thing he asked me for was a blue cake

stance for 'happy birthday' song.  he refused to blow out the candles

finn has yet to be eaten but the ice cream was devoured several times over

jt and addie race cars while luke watches

addie, karsten, tim and jt playing together before the presents are opened

he wanted some help on the first couple of gifts

jt is as excited to have his gift opened as tim is to open it

i think this is when the cap gun was opened

say cheese

captain timmy

shooting cars

shooting more cars

reach for the sky

 I think Tim had a great birthday party, his first party with invited guests instead of just family.  Paul, Luke and I also had a great time.  The guests didn't know one another but became instant play mates thanks to their natures and the bonding nature of toys.  Tim shared his toys happily and the other children indulged the birthday boy just a bit.  The weather was our friend as well and they got to play outside without coats for most of the party.  On Tuesday, his actual birthday, we will open gifts from the family.