HOME SCHOOL (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S really is enjoying "homeschooling." At least that what S and momma call what they do once or twice a week. She says it's one of her favorite things to do. Momma spends a couple of minutes sounding out a letter and then the rest of the time is spent doing some workbooks or puzzle books or coloring. S has finished several Kumon "My First Book of ..." this way: The Easy Maze, Tracing, Upper Case Letters, and Cutting.

Sometimes, she has her own crazy project, like the time she wanted to make a sequin card for Talia. Or, needlepoint a teddy bear. The great thing about homeschooling is that momma and S get to spend some quality time with each other as well as give some time for momma to get stuff done when S is occupied with her cutting, pasting or coloring.

Today, S pushed through by herself and finished up the "My First Book of Lowercase Letters," with no prompting from momma. Afterwards, Momma tore out the certificate in back, put her name on it, signed it and hung it on her closet door. S was really proud of herself.

DISTRACTIONS (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S is often distracted easily from one thing to another, especially when momma is speaking to her. Momma has often heard this refered to as "selective listening."

Recently, S was playing with momma's Iphone in the backseat. She made it to level 2 (The Fabric Box) of "Cut the Rope" and was busy occupying herself. Momma pulled into the driveway and said, "we're home! Time to get out!" S just sat there. Momma asked S, if she could grab her dance bag. S just sat there playing with the Iphone.

Momma grabbed the stuff from the car and said she was getting out. S continued to sit there and play. Momma left the car door unlocked and went into the garage, thinking this would prompt S to follow, but no, there was nothing. Momma went into the house, thinking -- could S really be that occupied that she doesn't know she's home?!

Momma put away her purse, hung up the coat, and went out the front door to the car to see what was going on. Momma opened up S door and looked and there she was playing "Cut the Rope." Momma said, "Hey S! It's time to go in." She closed the door and walked inside. After some five minutes, S walked in upset that momma had left her in the car by herself.

Momma said, she tried to get S's attention. S blamed momma for not taking the Iphone away so that she would come in. "Really now?!" thinks Momma. Maybe, it will take a couple more instances like this to make sure S pays attention better.

BURPING (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S is her own musical instrument. She recently realized that she can belt out "Happy Birthday" in burps. At the dentist office on Wednesday, she serenaded the dentist and his assistant with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "ABC," and "Mary had a Little Lamb" all in burps. Unfortunately, her audience, including her dad, finds this funny, which encourages her to work on her new found talent more.

HANG MAN (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

Tonight momma thought it might be fun to play a couple games of hangman. S was very amused by the fact her hang man got eyes, noses, a belly button and fingers when she was guessing the letters, but finally she would get the words: cat, duck, pull and skunk. Daddy called it the worst game of hangman ever. But, momma thinks it's a great beginning and a great way to encourage her to read.

Momma remembers the game with her sisters and she remembered how her hangman got fingers and toes, too. Not everyone can be a genius like daddy.

CHECKERS (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

Last night, S played her first "real" game of checkers. Of course, there were many times where momma made it easy for S, by asking questions, like "What's gonna happen if you do that?." But it was the first time where she played and got the concept of jumping, blocking your opponents, and capturing your opponents. In fact, she won the game!

Several months ago, at the end of summer, momma tried teaching S the game, upon her insistent, but she was too impatient to learn and got too frustrated. But, momma thought to try again since she saw that Sarah was mastering Tic-Tac-Toe sufficiently. Momma notice that S was applying some strategy to her games of T-T-T. S would purposely block her opponent on T-T-T or have a plan in mind of where she wanted to go. She was also learning that sometimes you don't always win and play and play again.

SMALL FUNNY THINGS ON THE TRIP (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

Ella at the beginning of the trip asked if she could also call momma, "momma." Momma responded with, "you can call me Auntie." Ella responded with "Ok, momma" and share momma with S for the entire trip, even calling daddy, "daddy."

Ella was explaining to S that kisses were called "X" and hugs were called "O." So for the entire trip, when either girls wanted a kiss or hug, they would ask for either "X" or "O."

Ella was disappointed that there wasn't a bunk bed, like her friend Hannah's trip. (Momma had purposedly picked a pulled out sofa bed, just in case she would have to end up laying with both girls.) But, quickly Ella got over that disappointment when momma showed her how the bed was pulled out "magically" out of the sofa. The girls spent most of the time entertaining themselves, jumping on the sofa bed or hanging on the half wall.

Ella had a nightmare and called out "mama, mama" and momma came over and she asked for a hug. Then she said, "I'm going to sleep now. Go away" and she turned over and went to sleep. Wow! If only S responded similarly.

S was very enthralled with Ella and for the most part wanted to do whatever Ella did, including wearing her wolf cub ears and taking her wand everywhere. By the end of the trip, she called Ella, her best friend forever. The two girls took that on as their slogan; they would cross wands and say "best friends forever."

Every night, S would remind everyone that Ella didn't take her puffer yet. S was very worried about Ella being sick with asthma. Momma tried to explain what asthma was beforehand so S wouldn't be surprised about the puffer. But, in reality, S was like a small mother hen to Ella about her medicines.

When S finally got home and was helping to unpack, S told momma, "Maybe, when I grow up I will marry Ella." "Sure," said momma. S follows up with "Ella's nice, funny, and a good friend to me." Well, those are the qualities that momma listed for S to look for in marrying someone. Hmmmm....

MAGI QUEST (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

At Great Wolf Lodge, one of the games that the children can play is a magical scavenger hunt, called "Magi Quest." There are several quests, probably over ten, and several adventures, like killing the dragon, through out the hotel. (BTW, Magi Quest is a game franchise, found all over the United States www.magiquest.com.)

Ella was adament to get a magical wand, that she saw other children wave around. Actually, momma could understand how it was so fascinating. When other kids wave their wands, they got inanimate objects, like paintings and books to talk or treasure chest to open, and torches to light up. Sarah also caught Ella's enthusiasm, so momma and daddy gave in and bought each one a wand and bought into the scavenger hunt.

Each quest required that Ella and Sarah had to find certain objects on any of the seven floors of the hotel in a certain order. The good things about the games were that the kids were fascinated about all the different magical objects, some hidden and some in just plain sight. But, for parents, the quests were difficult.

Getting Ella and Sarah to find objects in a particular order was hard. It was also hard for them to stay focus. The talking tree (ie. the main computer) often was slow to respond, beyond the wait time of a four or five year old. Probably, the most tiring part was that the magi could not take the wands on the elevator, which was one of the rules of the game. It was clear to momma that was to make sure that the hotel guests were clear of kids going up and down on it. But, climbing up and down seven floors (approximatley 14 flights of stairs) was tiring. It did a good job of wearing out both kids and parents.

In the end, both Ella and Sarah got to fight the dragon. Both Ella and Sarah will also say that their favorite things about the holiday were their wands, the scavenger hunt, and the water slides (not necessarily in that order). They wore their wolf cub ears everywhere in and out of the hotel and often had their wands in tow too. So all in all, it was a good investment.

GREAT WOLF LODGE (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S, her friend Ella, daddy and momma are having a GREAT time at Great Wolf. Both daddy and momma find that Ella and S are a good personality and physical pairing. Neither one have had any disputes with each other and often refer to each other as best friends.

It really helps that Ella is laid back when S isn't and vice versa. Both are good swimmer, unafraid to swim with their heads in the water and can swim sufficiently independent that they can go without a life jacket; luckily most if the water is less than 4 ft deep.

The best part is that they both "love" the water slides. All the slides, except for 2, accommodate kids 42 inches and over. Ella and S giggle and laugh down them while momma whoops and screams. Often, they ask to do it again and again.

One thing to note is that the large water slides are 7 flights of stairs up. (Daddy counted 102 steps). S and Ella go up them easily but daddy and momma definitely get a work out.

Everyone is definitely going to be sad when the vacation is over.

MORE CONVERSATION SHORTS (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S asks, "what is smart?" Momma playing dumb, says,"I'm not sure. What do you think it is?" "I think it's thinking big," says S. She follows with "thinking if something is good or thinking something is bad." "Hmmm,I think that's right" says momma. Good to know that S define the word "smart" as making good or bad choices.

S at bedtime asks, "Is Talia older than Alvie?" "Yes," says momma. "Is that because Talia was born first and Alvie was born second?" "Yes," says momma again.

Again at bedtime, S says to momma "I'll pay you a dime if you are nice to me in the morning." S repeats herself, "If you are nice to me, I'll give you a dime." What? thinks momma. Momma responds with, "I'm nice to you most of the time." S seems to disagree. "You're grumpy now. "Well, that's because I'm tired and want to go to sleep."

SOY SAUCE (4 2/3 YRS)

At Thai Fresh, while eating veggie egg rolls, S says "I love that sauce! I could eat it everyday..." Daddy looks at the bottle and it was labeled soy sauce. Momma only shakes her head and thinks of Auntie Phu who must have eaten it everyday as a child.

P.S. S also said, "look I'm eating something green (referring to the cabbage in her eggrolls)."

BOARD GAMES (4 2/3 YRS OLD)

S enjoys playing board games. She's learning to be a good sport. When she started playing board games around 3 yrs old, she really wanted to be the first at the finish line. Momma tried to emphasize who's going to be second or third. Now, momma tries to emphasize sportmanship saying, "Sometimes, you're first and sometimes your last. Maybe, you'll be first next time." Hopefully, with enough playing time, she'll learn to win and lose gracefully.

FYI, this Christmas she got the games Operations, Cherrio, and The Hungry Catepillar. She also has Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Memory, and Zingo. Her favorites are Candy Land, mostly because it's about candy! She also plays Zingo with alot of frequency with daddy and plays Memory with Mimi, Poppy and Miranda.

P.S. Chutes and Ladder is not a fun game. S spends of the time asking why the kids were punished.

MORNINGS (4 1/2 YRS OLD)

Tonight momma said at bedtime, "first one to sleep gets to wake up the other person in the morning. S responded with, " I have to drag you out of bed every morning." Momma laughed and said that's true. And usually momma added, "I ask for five more minutes," which caused both S and momma to giggle.

GOD (4 1/2 YRS OLD)

One of momma and S's most frequently discussed topic is God, Heaven and the soul. Today, the converstation innocently started with, "Does everyone celebrate Christmas?" Momma responded with "No, not everyone celebrate Christmas." S asked "why?" "Well, some people don't celebrate the birthday of Jesus," responded Momma. Again, "why?" asked S. "People have different religion and for some people, that means celebrating something else, instead of Jesus's birthday," momma responded, hoping that would be sufficient for S.

S followed up with asking if momma believed in God. (Momma thinks it's because momma tried to explain once that Jesus was God's son). Momma said "yes" and asked if S believed in God. S said, "yes." She followed it up with, "Does everyone believe in God?" "No" said Momma, "not everyone believe in God." "Does Aunt Fiona believe in God?" "No" said Momma. "Does Talia believe in God?" "I don't think so since Aunt Fiona doesn't believe in God," says momma.

S logically asks, "Why don't they believe in God?" "Well," momma says, "Remember the time you said God was invisible. I think because God is invisible it is hard for some people to believe in God." Momma added that "Aunt Fiona use to go to church as a child and maybe believed in God then, but grew up and decided to not believe in God."

S was a bit confused and responded with "I believe in God and when I grow up I will be believe in God too." Momma responded with, "I hope you believe in God when you grow up, but if you don't, that will be up to you. I know that my belief has helped me and I hope it will help you, too."

Momma wonders if other parents go through the same things with their kids.

MOMMA CAR (4 1/2 yrs)

Momma sold her car last week. It was 13 years old and was getting expensive to fix some of the mechanical problems. But ever since momma sold her car, S says she misses it and ask occasionally why momma sold it. Momma says so that daddy can get a new car.