GREAT DAY!... Today was one of those great days you just want to clone. We got so much accomplished and I even managed to get a homeade soup and bread on the table for dinner and a mostly clean house! I just got back in from having a Mom's Time Out (well Sirah was with me) with a dear friend. The kids did really well today and we had a very special moment.

Today Rhiannon READ! It was as if it all just clicked together with her and the light bulb went on. She had been telling me she was bored with our phonics practice - so I said we could try reading a book instead (a phonics primer) and I truthfully was not expecting much - but she did it. She was able to sound out nearly every word in a simple phonics book of three letter words and sight words. She was so excited that she was actually reading it and I was so proud of her. Later that afternoon while dinner was cooking and I was nursing Sirah she asked if she could read another book to Ciaran and I - so we piled onto the couch and she read the second book in the set and only needed help with the sight words and being sure of the b and d's (she actually always knew which one it was but wasn't confident enough so always asked). I know it is just a simple phonics reader - but she is just 4 and she was really doing it and you could tell it made sense to her. The best part of it all was seeing her excitement and enthusiasm!

In addition to this milestone we actually did some other things. Rhiannon practiced putting numbers 1-16 in order , did addition and subtraction with manipulatives, finished several worksheets in her big K skills book (same, different, big, small, sequencing, alphabetical order, nominal order and handwriting practice on g, j, and k, drawing stars, and connect the dots), she "taught" another class on the moon and earth and we discussed death a bit (a very good friend of the family died last fall and it seems to be really hitting her now), she did some art with stampers and helped keep her sister happy throughout the day.

Ciaran also did stamp art, built a city with blocks for his cars, then built a race track for them, he did a shape file folder game, practiced his colors, and had free art time on the easel. He played with his trains and with his Leap Phonics magnets. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom together and pointed at the letters. My favorite moment with him was watching him teach Sirah "Old MacDonald" with a hand puppet of all the animals - it was very sweet.

Sirah is loving sitting on her own and she is starting to babble more and more. She loves to play with her toes and flip pages in books. She has two rattles that she really enjoys holding and a busy cube that she loves hitting and touching all the different textures. She still wants to be held most of the time and protests when she cannot see or feel me. She enjoyed watching Roomba clean the floors as well.

Today was one of those days that made me LOVE being home - which is great because last week I had one of those really tough days where nothing ever seems to go right. But being a part of Rhia's first time reading, listening to Sirah's babbling and watching Ciaran teach his baby sister with puppets were too precious for words and I will treasure this day and the many more to come.

Peace,
Tenn