Loving big bro

Our little girl is pretty darn lucky to have a big brother who loves her so much already.

Isn't she lovely?

Only eight more weeks to go! We are getting so excited to meet this little lady!

 

Golf

Aaron has been golfing quite a bit this summer. Granny Tami bought A a set of plastic clubs and he's been trying to play too. Last weekend, Aaron took him out to the course and Aiden enjoyed putting, cheering Aaron on, and riding around in the golf cart.

Great form, guys!

 



I met up with the guys a little later and really enjoyed the time spent with them

 

This sunset was a great way to end the evening

 

After a sewing night last week, I came home and Aaron excitedly told me about how they worked on their putting while I was away and Aiden made his first hole in one! The next day we went to Scheels and bough Aiden his first real putter. Aiden seems really excited to play. I think GG will be proud to hear that Aiden is taking an interest in one of her favorite past times!

A nice visit

"Friends are connected heart to heart. Distance and time cannot break them apart."

 

Words cannot express how much I enjoyed a recent visit from one of my best friends, Bri. We hadn't seen each other in two years but picked up right where we left off. 

 

 

And Aiden got some good big brother practice in with Bri's little guy, Logan.

Snow?!

It's not even fall yet and we got our first snow fall on Thursday. I'm not ready for this! Summer went by way too fast.

Preschool

Now that Aiden is four, we will be doing daily structured preschool here at home. I've had a lot of people ask me why he's not enrolled in a traditional preschool. This past February we toured a private Catholic school and really liked it. During the car ride home, however, Aaron and I had an overwhelming sense that it's just not the right time to enroll A in preschool. He has a late summer birthday so he would have been one of the youngest in his class. Although I know that he would do just fine, I have talked to several educators who have stressed the importance of waiting a year and allowing the child (especially if it's a boy) to be the oldest in their class rather than the youngest. Not only that, it seems as if kids are growing up so quickly these days. I don't want to rush through these precious, innocent years of Aiden's life. I want him to be able to spend most of his day here at home playing, because as many parents are forgetting, play (PLAY) is such a vital part of a young child's life. In addition, with a new baby on the way, I know there are some definite adjustments our family will be making and again, sending Aiden to school this year just isn't the right choice. So the plan is to do some preschool here at home this year, perhaps a Pre-K program at St. Elizabeth Seton next fall, then kindergarten when he's six.

At the beginning of the month we started our "home preschool" and it's been going really well so far. I feel so fulfilled providing this education for my sweet boy. We start our day talking about the weather. Thanks to a catchy little tune, he now knows the days of the week, and we discuss today, tomorrow and yesterday. We play games and sing songs to assist him in spelling his name. He told me last week that he dreamed about his name song, and now can spell it easily. We play a number recognition game. Utilizing flash cards and colorful block manipulatives, we do more work with numbers. I found some great workbooks at Hobby Lobby and we use those for various exercises. Starting this week we will be working on identifying letters, their sounds and handwriting. We will be placing a letter on our coconut tree (a theme based on the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) and discussing and working on that letter for the entire week. We end by talking about the Presidents. Sometime soon I'll begin to incorporate character development, but that's something that we worked on quite a bit last year. As we have for his entire life, we continue to read on a daily basis. Aiden has been expressing a strong interest in learning Spanish so I've requested through inter-library loan some of his favorite books, written in Spanish, just to expose him to something familiar but in an unfamiliar language. I hope to find some Spanish flash cards that we can post on objects around the house.

I'm finding my biggest challenge is organization and the development of a daily plan. It also seems like we have a lot of appointments in town these days, so it's been hard to devote a specific time of the day for preschool. I know that after the baby is born, it will probably be even more challenging but I keep reminding myself that at his age, it's more about making things fun, playing, reading, and allowing the focus to be on what he's interested in.

In addition to our "home preschool", we are meeting once a week with a preschool co-op group. The group consists of eight other boys, Aiden's age. Us Momma's have developed monthly themes and will teach weekly lessons based on those themes. We also have field trips and holiday parties planned.

If the last few weeks are any indication of how our year will go, I think that it will be very successful! I'm so happy to be directly involved in what Aiden is learning.     

 First day and a glimpse of our classroom

 

Handprint coconut tree, we later added sticker letters to the tree

 

 A sticks out his tongue a lot when coloring and cutting

Awesome back pack that Grandma and Poppy gave A for his birthday. We take it to co-op each week.

 

The co-op boys

Loving big brother

Someone sure loves talking to his baby sister and feeling her when she moves! We have recently discovered that she moves around a lot when I'm reading Aiden his naptime or bedtime stories.

Soccer time!

Aiden is playing soccer again this year. We've been so pleased with how he's been doing at practice each week. He definitely has more confidence than he did last year and is kicking much harder, too!

 

Soccer star

 

Look at that high powered kick!

 

Trapping the ball

 

Aiden's Grandma and Aunt Jess were in town a few weeks ago and we asked Aunt Jess to practice with him. He had such a fun time with her! I think she had a good time, too. Pretty sure the stretches were her favorite part followed by the practice game they played. I do however think she needs to continue practicing with the First Step's team because she kept kicking the ball toward the wrong goal.

Stretching

 

Another high powered kick

 



Aiden and his BFF

Sweet sweet boy

When I find a moment to sit down on the couch and relax, it is becoming much more difficult for me to get back up. Recently my sweet boy saw me taking a moment on the couch and offered to let me cuddle with his most precious stuffed animals: Rocket, Char and Ty, as well as his favorite blanket in the whole world, lankey.