Hey everyone,
I've really got to get back to writing my updates. I'm sure y'all have been surviving without them, but I want them for myself! :-)
My excuse for not being around much recently is that I've been so busy and so tired! I'm dealing with MS fatigue big time these days, and it is really annoying me. I'm pretty much wiped out by the time the boys go to bed, so I haven't been on the computer much after that, and hence no emails.
I've been busy with the boys, the house, and photography, so it's all a good kind of busy. I just don't seem to have any free time. Welcome to the adult world I guess.
We've started a new "system" here to teach the boys responsibility and also to get them to help clean up their own messes. It's working pretty good too. Before, we were paying them quarters for doing their chores, but it wasn't really working because I never had enough quarters on hand, so I'd be trying to keep track in my head and that didn't work really at all. So I made a nice sticker chart, and they can earn star stickers for a variety of tasks. Getting themselves dressed in the morning and pj's on at night. Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Putting meal dishes in the sink. Cleaning up papers and toys. Each sticker is worth 5 cents, and they can earn up to 3 stickers per day for cleaning up. Then at the end of the week we count up the stickers and if they have enough they can go to the dollar store. Oh yeah, they have to pay tithing too.
So this has been working just great for my boys. The deal is that they don't have to do any of that stuff. But if they want to earn stars, those are the tasks they can do. I also have a category for extra jobs, so if they can think of an extra job they want to do for extra stars, they can do that. I actually have them arguing a bit over who gets to do a job! That's different!
We've also been trying to work with the boys on reading, especially Brigham. Brigham is an extremely visual, hands-on learner. They have "sight words" they have to learn each week (just one or two), which are words they are supposed to recognize by sight and not have to sound out. Joseph can memorize them really fast, but Brigham just struggled with it. I was using flash cards, and he just couldn't do it! So instead I made some cubes out of cardstock, and wrote one word on each side of the cubes (they have 11 words so far), and they get to "toss" a cube, and if they get the word on the first try, they get one piece of candy (gummy bears or skittles). Brigham actually *asks* to play this game and he's getting much, much better.
Joseph is just motoring along with his reading. I have a set of flashcards I made for the alphabet (mama, the ones you sent back to me), on one side is the letter and then a picture of something starting with that letter-- Apple for A, Zebra for Z, etc. On the back of the card, I have written down whatever the picture is on the other side. So yesterday Joseph went through all 26 alphabet cards, and 8 number cards, and sounded out every single word. Even sort of hard words like hippopotomus, ice cream cone, three thumbs, seven swords, etc. I was very proud of him, and he got 10 skittles for that! :-)
Mosey kind of gets into these games, too, and he knows two of the sight words already-- "I" and "me." I'm working with him on his letters and then he'll get to have pieces of candy for letters he can identify and make the sounds for.
Ben let the boys play on his computer for a while yesterday while we were listening to General Conference, and they were playing a "Diego" game (from the Nick Jr. tv show "Diego," I guess). It was so cute to see all 3 boys leaning over the computer together and each telling Brigham (he was maneuvering the mouse) where to click and what to do. And of course those shows are all interactive, so they have to say certain things at the same time, and they were all participating together too. So cute.
Yesterday Joseph went to a Build-A-Bear birthday party and he had a great time! It was cute going with him to pick out a birthday present, because the party was for a little girl in his class. He told me he thought it would be hard to pick out a present for her because "she's a girl." We ended up getting a CareBear umbrella and raincoat, which was perfect because Joseph loves CareBears too. When we got home, Joseph said to me, "What if you had another baby and it was a girl?" I said back to him, "I don't know, what if I did?" And he said, "How would you know what to do with a girl, you only have practice with boys!" Ha ha ha! Very true...
Tonight after dinner we drove out to the everglades for a short walk before bed, and we saw 2 alligators. Alligators are nothing unusual, but they were right up next to the boat ramp, which I guess is a little unusual-- for them to be so close to humans. Pretty cool, though. Made Brigham a little nervous, and Joseph not quite nervous enough. He thought it was funny to tease his daddy by running out in front of him, and a litle too close to the water for comfort.
Ok, well I'm off to bed now. I have tons of stuff from the past couple of weeks I should probably catch you up on, but I'll probably just let that be water under the bridge and continue on more regularly from here.
I'll attach a couple of pictures from recent photo shoots, if you're interested. I have a newborn photoshoot this week that I'm so excited for!
I've really got to get back to writing my updates. I'm sure y'all have been surviving without them, but I want them for myself! :-)
My excuse for not being around much recently is that I've been so busy and so tired! I'm dealing with MS fatigue big time these days, and it is really annoying me. I'm pretty much wiped out by the time the boys go to bed, so I haven't been on the computer much after that, and hence no emails.
I've been busy with the boys, the house, and photography, so it's all a good kind of busy. I just don't seem to have any free time. Welcome to the adult world I guess.
We've started a new "system" here to teach the boys responsibility and also to get them to help clean up their own messes. It's working pretty good too. Before, we were paying them quarters for doing their chores, but it wasn't really working because I never had enough quarters on hand, so I'd be trying to keep track in my head and that didn't work really at all. So I made a nice sticker chart, and they can earn star stickers for a variety of tasks. Getting themselves dressed in the morning and pj's on at night. Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Putting meal dishes in the sink. Cleaning up papers and toys. Each sticker is worth 5 cents, and they can earn up to 3 stickers per day for cleaning up. Then at the end of the week we count up the stickers and if they have enough they can go to the dollar store. Oh yeah, they have to pay tithing too.
So this has been working just great for my boys. The deal is that they don't have to do any of that stuff. But if they want to earn stars, those are the tasks they can do. I also have a category for extra jobs, so if they can think of an extra job they want to do for extra stars, they can do that. I actually have them arguing a bit over who gets to do a job! That's different!
We've also been trying to work with the boys on reading, especially Brigham. Brigham is an extremely visual, hands-on learner. They have "sight words" they have to learn each week (just one or two), which are words they are supposed to recognize by sight and not have to sound out. Joseph can memorize them really fast, but Brigham just struggled with it. I was using flash cards, and he just couldn't do it! So instead I made some cubes out of cardstock, and wrote one word on each side of the cubes (they have 11 words so far), and they get to "toss" a cube, and if they get the word on the first try, they get one piece of candy (gummy bears or skittles). Brigham actually *asks* to play this game and he's getting much, much better.
Joseph is just motoring along with his reading. I have a set of flashcards I made for the alphabet (mama, the ones you sent back to me), on one side is the letter and then a picture of something starting with that letter-- Apple for A, Zebra for Z, etc. On the back of the card, I have written down whatever the picture is on the other side. So yesterday Joseph went through all 26 alphabet cards, and 8 number cards, and sounded out every single word. Even sort of hard words like hippopotomus, ice cream cone, three thumbs, seven swords, etc. I was very proud of him, and he got 10 skittles for that! :-)
Mosey kind of gets into these games, too, and he knows two of the sight words already-- "I" and "me." I'm working with him on his letters and then he'll get to have pieces of candy for letters he can identify and make the sounds for.
Ben let the boys play on his computer for a while yesterday while we were listening to General Conference, and they were playing a "Diego" game (from the Nick Jr. tv show "Diego," I guess). It was so cute to see all 3 boys leaning over the computer together and each telling Brigham (he was maneuvering the mouse) where to click and what to do. And of course those shows are all interactive, so they have to say certain things at the same time, and they were all participating together too. So cute.
Yesterday Joseph went to a Build-A-Bear birthday party and he had a great time! It was cute going with him to pick out a birthday present, because the party was for a little girl in his class. He told me he thought it would be hard to pick out a present for her because "she's a girl." We ended up getting a CareBear umbrella and raincoat, which was perfect because Joseph loves CareBears too. When we got home, Joseph said to me, "What if you had another baby and it was a girl?" I said back to him, "I don't know, what if I did?" And he said, "How would you know what to do with a girl, you only have practice with boys!" Ha ha ha! Very true...
Tonight after dinner we drove out to the everglades for a short walk before bed, and we saw 2 alligators. Alligators are nothing unusual, but they were right up next to the boat ramp, which I guess is a little unusual-- for them to be so close to humans. Pretty cool, though. Made Brigham a little nervous, and Joseph not quite nervous enough. He thought it was funny to tease his daddy by running out in front of him, and a litle too close to the water for comfort.
Ok, well I'm off to bed now. I have tons of stuff from the past couple of weeks I should probably catch you up on, but I'll probably just let that be water under the bridge and continue on more regularly from here.
I'll attach a couple of pictures from recent photo shoots, if you're interested. I have a newborn photoshoot this week that I'm so excited for!
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