DS 2yr 9mo had his follow-up speech assessment today. He was a late-talker and we went through a program this past spring to encourage language development. It really was a bunch of hooey, in my opinion, but it coincided with his language explosion so they are taking the credit, LOL. Anyway... he totally kicked butt! I was so proud of how well he paid attention and interacted. The SLP just kept going and going and at the end was flipping through the assessment a few pages at a time until she gave up somewhere around 4 yrs of age for comprehension. His language was pretty close behind. He will still need to be followed for a few phonetical sounds, but otherwise he has made great progress.

At the end, I could see him hitting the wall. Finally he looked at her and said in his lispy little voice "Litbit" (her name was Elizabeth) "I all done. I need apple juice and a bear paw now." I told him that he did a great job and he smiled and said, "Yes, now I done like dinner." I could just squeeze the stuffing out of him sometimes.

Great stories, people. kathleen'smum, your son is adorable.

DS nearly-6 adapted well to his grade skip to 1st. He decided on his own initiative to make a thank-you present for his K teacher at the end of the year. It's ankylosaurus-based, but then he went a little nuts with spikes on top of spikes:
http://photos.smugmug.com/i-jsBhdHs/0/XL/20110622-2-XL.jpg
http://photos.smugmug.com/i-9zxxT7r/0/XL/20110622-4-XL.jpg
http://photos.smugmug.com/i-xtvgdwP/0/XL/20110622-7-XL.jpg
http://photos.smugmug.com/i-Dn2X9PC/0/XL/20110622-13-XL.jpg

In a lot of ways he is starting to show increasing speed, to the extent that he often thinks his way to a problem solution faster than me. It can be a little daunting, although I usually feel better when I remind myself that I can easily beat him at arm-wrestling. A small example: tonight he just did this problem in about a minute, less time than it took me to read and understand it enough to start on the solution (after a long day and sundry other rationalizations, lol):

"Who is lying and who is telling the truth?

There are exactly three truth tellers among five people.
Person A says that Person C is telling the truth.
Person B says that Person A is lying.
Person C says that Person B is lying.
Person D says Person B is telling the truth.
Person E says Person D is telling the truth."

We have been having a terrible time with DD3 lately (horrible tantrums, fighting, outright defiance etc.), so this is huge in our house right now.

Starting Sat. afternoon, the girls found DH's old matchbox cars and some track. They made more ramps and raced cars around the house all afternoon, all day Sunday AND all morning today! Not once was there a fight, squabble, or even a raised voice -other than in excitement. They added all sorts of other stuff to their ramps and made jumps and bumps and silly tunnels for the cars to go through. They started asking if they could get more track so they could make bigger and better stuff. DH was ready to say no when I came up with the idea that if they did a bunch of chores this week maybe they would be able to earn enough money to buy some. So far we have had them helping make lunch, setting the table, cleaning off the back porch, cleaning up their rooms (including throwing away junk and donating books)! They have both done all that has been asked without moaning or groaning and have asked for more to do!

On the way home from Violin class two weeks ago, Aiden (4.5 yrs) asks me what's 1 million plus 1 million. I say "2 million". after a short silence he says "so you add the numbers up and then put the word on the end - hundred, thousand, million" I was quite impressed that he made that association. Then he asked me to give him an example to work out. So i say "what is 2 plus 2" he answers 4. I say "what is 200 plus 200?".

He says um... and before he can answer - in that breath of a second it took to get his answer out, Nathan (2.5) says from behind his dummy (pacifier) "400". poor aiden was unimpressed that his brother stole his moment.

I was just giggling and trying to hide my obvious delight and amusement.

The last two days have been banner days for us!

DD3 has learned to steer and peddle her tricycle as well as swim without floaties! She can now swim with her head in the water in the cutest version of the crawl I've ever seen!

DD8 has learned the ride her bike without training wheels, how to use her pogo stick without the large starter base on it and has just about mastered her multiplication tables (they have been too boring to bother to learn up until the bribe of being able to decide where we go out to eat for supper and dessert on the night she knows them all.)! She also made it to the 50% mark for her summer reading goal at the library program (her goal: 4500 minutes of reading )

wow Kerry sounds like you are having a great start to the new week!

congrats those are all worthy achievements indeed

My kids have been challenging each other with their math skills. DD7 (going into 2nd grade with math acceleration to 3rd) and ds5 (starting kinder math acceleration to 1st). She has been giving him adding with carrying and subtraction with borrowing (no clue when or where he learned this) and multiplication. He has been giving her 2 and 3 digit multiplication and asks "is this hard enough).

I think its too cute

I love when they "play/learn" together. It's awesome to watch

DS 5 learned to tie his shoes two days ago and yesterday he figured out how to ride his scooter!

DD7 struggles with worry and anxiety and we struggle to understand why. Last night she refused to tell me what she feared in the dark because it was a secret. Today I gave her the book, "What to Do When You Worry", and she read it tonight and told me it made her feel nice. On one page, where it instructs you to write the names of people you know who worry, she filled the entire space with "me, me, ME, ME!"

Just before bed, she handed me a little piece of paper. It was from Puppy, the two-inch stuffed dog she takes everywhere, who "wrote" on it the following haiku:

[snip - sorry I wanted to submit this for publication and they require it not be published online; I will add it back if the magazine rejects. I'm sure you parents understand. ]
It took all my strength to hold back the tears. It was so beautiful in itself, but even more so in its context. She is finally starting to come to the surface.