We have a reader!

Today was a really good day, even with it being Jon's first day back at work after break.  James woke up not feeling so great, but we snuggled in bed for about an hour before Carolyn woke up at 8:30.  It was amazing to sit and listen to him jabber away given that Carolyn usually doesn't let him get a word in edge wise.  Seeing him respond to the noises of the buses and garbage trucks outside was awesome.  I will forever treasure our early morning snuggles.

The morning wasn't too eventful, having breakfast and watching the kids color in the seven to put on the wall.  James is having a hard time understanding why Carolyn's gets put up, but we can actually see the number when she's done.  Then we all got dressed and went to gymnastics.  James actually stayed put today and did a great job following directions from his teacher.  Days like today I think he'll be ready for class on his own next fall/this summer.  I wonder what I'll do for 45 minutes with both kids in class.  We came home, had lunch and the kids went down for a nap.  Of course, Carolyn chose not to nap much, having slept in.  So I let her play reading eggs on the tablet while I got in a bit of work.

After James was up we fit in a snack and some reading work.  Carolyn did some worksheets as she loves them.  I think she really likes the attention she gets while doing them as well.  After a few she got fidgety and James was clearly done humoring me as I tried to quiz him on colors.  He's got most of them sorted out now but yellow and orange.  So we headed outside to enjoy the warmer winter weather.  It being 40 in January, we pulled out some toys and the kids rode around while I got in a quick workout.  I am so sore today that I knew I needed to do something to help alleviate the soreness.  The kids enjoyed the fresh air though and I'm really looking forward to spring in this house.

The reading didn't occur until dinner was in the oven.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our new kitchen?  As I finished up, Carolyn started to ask to do more "work".  I directed Jon to her papers (stowed so James can't make a mess of them) and we spread her things out on the counter.  She filled in the blanks and then read back to us 4 sentences.  I helped her with 1 word in there, and otherwise just pointed to each word for encouragement.  I truly believe that if Carolyn had a touch more patience to sound out new words, she could read an actual book.  I'm considering finding a book with familiar words for her to read to me in the morning so she can take it with to the library in the morning as her first independently read book.  They have a special program for it.  I think it's awesome that she's reading before her 5th birthday!  I would say preschool at home has been a success so far.