Man Walking a Wienie Dog

For his friend, Vedant

Details

Lots of details showing up in his pictures, and the content is expanding.  I love watching his writing and drawing develop.

Question of the day

What can you do to take care of your teeth?

Dentist!

I love, love, love his answering these each day at school.

A List

Freddie and Hans have been poring over the stacks of catalogs in our mailbox each day.  I remember being so excited when the Sears Christmas "Wishbook" catalog arrived to our house when I was a child and the time Christian and I'd spend flipping over and over through the pages, so I can relate.

Freddie has a huge case of the wants lately, even before the catalogs arrived, and my standard answer has been ask Santa or we'll have to empty your piggy bank.  I think we're going to have to empty the bank soon, make a purchase and make another trip to the bank to deposit the rest.  These money lessons  need to be more frequent so he gets it.

Anyway, he decided to make a list of some of the things he likes.  He did this all on his own as he sat and discussed everything with Hans.  It was pretty cute to listen to their discussions and hear him repeat words to sound them out.

I'll translate the best I can:

• SDE is a submarine.  See the little picture next to the word?
• FATM YSG is "fast passenger train" and there is a little train to the left of it.
• nSAS is actually skates (or sometimes he says skateboard) and I think he's written it backwards.  And of course a little picture to go with it.
• Then there is the curvy line with the letter L under it.  That's a looped race car track.  He got distracted there and never returned.
• BTnTn is "bowling" and that little triangular picture above it is a bowling game.
• And then his name.  Oops, forgot a D so he squeezed it in.
• Last, but not least...LOeS is "legos" along with some of the lego sets he likes.  The Lego catalogue has gotten the most love this week.

Considering we're not yet in November I am sure there will be more catalogs and further installments to this list.  

Sounding out

Question of the day at school:  What's the weather like today?

Freddie's response:  "ens"

Can you read it?

Flip it around and it is "sne".  Can you read it now?

Sunny of course!

And then there was this one...

I don't remember the question but it was Halloween related.  That would be a T-O-G, and then reverse it and it is G-O-T....ghost!

He's sounding out more and more words.  He always gets the first sound and usually the last, but the middle sounds are tricky, of course.  I love this stage of writing when a whole string of letters can carry such meaning.

He's taken to writing things backwards sometimes.  He doesn't very often, but I've seen him do it to his name.  Sometimes he looks at it afterwards and realizes he's done something not quite right.  He commonly reverses S, Z, 5, and 2 which are pretty typical reversals.  I don't think he'll have the b/d reversal because he does so many Ds with writing his name.  He's pretty into writing some letters in only capitals though.

I really enjoy watching his literacy developing.  So amazing.

Spotted at Preschool

For Aimee

Waves, house on the beach with smokestack and smoke, peregrine falcon in sky, and tree

He's been creating with other people in mind.  It's nice to see him think of others and it's really nice to have some of his artwork leave the house without sneaking it into the recycle after he's asleep.

Trio

Freddie, Hans, Papi with Sun and Tree

I drew my bones, too!

Prolific

House with stairs, Mama, garden, and wind, and name followed by a fish.

Freddie kicking the ball to Hans, and Hans is crying.  Hans has his hands on his eyes.

Train with tracks and steam.  For Mama.

Freddie on the right, in a chair and hands in pocket, and teachers on the left.  (I like their eyelashes!)

Family portrait by the sea in the sunshine

Freddie, Dada holding Hans, and Mama. After drawing the first two figures he exclaimed "I forgot arms!" and went back to add the detail.  I like how he chose to draw Hans' arms to the side after deciding Dada would be holding Hans.

Pillow

I found the pillow labeled.  No explanation available.  Excellent attempt to sound out a word, especially all on his own.  I really think he is on the cusp of reading.

Card for Dada

Dada on the left, Freddie on the right

I said the letters, he spelled.  He asked I write a Y for him to copy.

Freddie Writes

I spelled, he wrote.  No help needed with these letters.

I hear lots of "How do you spell?"  It is a pretty constant question.  Mostly he's just interested in matching letters to letter sounds but now I'm starting to see that interest shift to his desire to actually wanting to know spelling to write. 

He knows how to write most of the letters and the ones he isn't sure of he finds the letter somewhere to copy.  I am trying to teach him a letter formation, but most of the time he's too stubborn to even look in my direction if he's intent on writing something "important."

Make A Plate

Did you love doing these in elementary school?  I know I made one although I'm not sure what ever became of it.  When I found the kits on clearance I stocked up thinking it would be a good "craft" for a rainy day.  Freddie asks to do one every time he sees the boxes in his closet, so I finally pulled one out the other day.

We first made a plan:

• We talked about seasons and he chose a theme:  Winter.
• We made a list of all the things that remind him of winter.
• I read him the list and he decided what he wanted to draw:  a tree with ornaments, stars, and our family.  

Viola.

Red, Orange, and yellow circle-ish shapes are the stars on top the tree.

 He asked me to write Merry Christmas, and he wrote his name.

Here I am.

Mama is orange, Freddie is yellow

After drawing my arms, the horizontal lines, he made two dots for my eyes where you'd think the hands would be.  He paused and said, "You look like a hammerhead shark, Mama."  Yep, sure do.  Eventually he'll get the right placement for all appendages and body parts.

Freddie was excited to see his finished plate when it arrived in the mail.  I love this plate.  I will be waiting for another sale to get a few more kits, and think doing a plate each year as a family tradition (Over Thanksgiving perhaps) is something we'll start.

Some information you might find helpful:

• Inside the kit are circular papers, five of them, and some washable markers.  Draw on the papers with the markers provided and send it in to make your plate.
• Use any washable markers if you'd like more color variety.
• The kit includes a "voucher" for the cost of creating the plate.  You must include $4 for shipping.
• Since there are five papers you can send in all five to be made into plates. The voucher covers the cost of the first plate and each additional plate is about $8 plus $4 shipping. 
• Teacher kits are available.  There are 50 sheets, and each plate is $6, and I imagine a shipping charges on top of that.
• Plates are dishwasher safe.  The are NOT microwave safe. 

An Elephant and his Toys

Let's make a scrapbook!

Freddie:  I've got an idea!  Let's make a scrapbook.  That's a great idea.  I need some squares and glue and some pictures. 

Yep, he lets everyone know when he thinks his ideas are great.  He'll also tell you when you come up with a great idea as well.

I have no idea where he caught the scrapbooking bug.  He has some definite ideas about what scrapbooking entails and it seems to mostly revolve around pictures and squares.

He asked me to write the title and I asked if I should write his name as the author.  I'm not the author, I'm the illustrator.   He wrote his name, attempting to use some lowercase letters.  Those little Es are tricky.  He drew, I cut, he glued.

Viola!

And then there's Freddie on page 1...

Mama and Dada on pages 2 and 3...

And Hans on page 4...

He seems to be getting interested in crafts.  He is starting to want to draw more, but really looks for any reason to use glue, scissors and paint.  And he's prolific.  Thankfully lots of his artwork is on the chalkboard or whiteboard so that just gets erased.  The other stuff gets displayed for a while and then I feel guilty about tossing it.  So I decided I'll start photographing and archiving some of it here.  Lucky you.  {wink} I'm tagging it in "Freddie's Gallery" and think ultimately it will be nice to see the progression of his "craft." I think I'll put this scrapbook in his memory box though.

My Name

Freddie:  How do you spell your name?

Mama:  M...

Freddie:  No!  Your OTHER name. (Writing an E on the board.) E is for Erin.


I am really enjoying watching his writing evolve.  Just some talking about lowercase letters and he's adding them in on his own.