When I was 3...

Something this little darling is doing that I don't want to forget. She still can't express past, present and future very well. Anything more in the past than yesterday (which she can use correctly) is "When I was 3 years old _______." or if it was a really really long time ago it is "When I was 3 months old ______." SO cute!

Starting to read...

This week in home school, the curriculum started teaching her to blend consonants and vowels together. I literally saw the moment she made the connection with the sounds these letters make and then putting it all together in a word. It is like she is off to the races and I can't stop her. The curriculum wanted her to only read two letter syllables the first day but she was making up words and begging me to spell them out for her. If we were learning the blend "sa" she would start saying, "sa, sa, sad! Mommy spell sad, let's read it!" Or if we were reading "la" she goes, "la, la, laugh! Mommy make laugh!" (of course she would pick a hard word like that one!) It was crazy to watch. For months I have been pointing to words as I read them, trying to get her to sound out short simple words, but she just didn't seem to really get it. This week, I think she got it!

Tonight as we were reading a story she kept stopping me and asking me to let her read. Or I would read a sentence until I got to a word I knew she could sound out and let her read THAT word, she was LOVING it! by the end of the book, she was reading the word kitchen, sat, cake, go, and more that I can't remember. After reading a page she would go back and search for the words she could recognize. Then a few pages over she would ask to go back to the previous page and find the word again! She's got great learning skills, she WANTS to do these things herself. It is so fun to watch her doing this. I don't think it is going to be long before she just takes off reading all by herself.

Teaching your child is soooooooooo addictive! I can't get enough of how fun it is to watch her learning and growing. This is Sunday and she BEGGED to do home school this afternoon, so we did home school on a Sunday! AWESOME!

Growing and Learning!

Our baby girl is getting soooooooooooooooo big! I am just amazed everyday at the thing she can do. What fun to watch her growing and learning at this stage in life.

Tonight she washed her own hair in the bath! She needed direction from me and I'm sure it'll be a while before I can just let her do it without watching and at least telling her where to scrub but I was amazed. At this rate she'll be able to take a bath all by herself by the time she's six. (OH man, did I just say SIX, I can not believe she is going to be six on her next birthday.)

I wish I could always remember all the hilarious things that she says. She makes us laugh everyday and then I sit down to write about it and I can't remember anything she said. But she is sooooooooo fun.

Home schooling is going so well. She really loves it and she is learning so much! She has THREE memory verses that she can easily recite now and we start a new one tomorrow. She has the days of the week and the months of the year totally memorized. This has REALLY helped her with understanding time like today, tomorrow, next week, next month. She is very excited about January coming because it is Kai's birthday AND she can start chewing gum again (she got gum in her hair once and then spit it directly at me once all within a couple days, and is now grounded from gum until January). So she often talks about how this is November and next month is December and then comes January!

Learning to write has been our biggest challenge. She is ready for it and wants to do it but sometimes gets very frustrated with it. I am trying to figure out if she is a perfectionist or just lazy. When she can't write one correctly, she quickly gets very upset. Sometimes she gets upset before even TRYING to write it. Before we left for Hokkaido she knew how to write 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10. She LOVED writing these numbers. As we fill in her calendar each day she would proudly write these without wanting any help from me. After we got back from Hokkaido, the first day back in home school she had to write a 3 and she just dug her heels in the ground and refused to even try. For at least 20 minutes she would NOT try it. She wanted me to write it first and let her trace it. So I would do that and then tell her she had to write on herself and she would get livid. It was a major stand off. I knew she could do it and was determined to make her. She insisted she could not. Then she began to cry and wail about how she had forgotten it. I am still trying to figure out if she was embarrassed because she HAD forgotten or if that was an excuse or what. But after an hour of letting her trace it after I wrote it. Guiding her hand while she wrote it. Making her draw one in the air for me (which she could do with no problem). Making her trace it with her finger. She still insisted she could not do it without help and WOULD not write a three all by herself. I think the entire stand off lasted almost 2 hours. For the last hour she would draw the top of the three and then just let her pencil drag down the paper in a line or make the lower part of the three the opposite way (making a backwards s). It was crazy because I knew she knew HOW to do it, she just WOULDN'T. We had to quit because it was dinner time by then, but I told her the very first thing she would have to do the next day is write a 3. The next day it was about a 30 minute stand off but she finally wrote one. Then after that for about 3 days every time writing a number came up, she would fall apart again. But I kept talking to her about how we don't just give up because something is hard and we don't quit. She was doing this happily and without any problems just a few weeks before. It was really throwing me for a loop, WHY was she doing this all of the sudden.

And now, just a week later, she is happily bringing me papers all day long proudly showing me how she can write the number 3. The first day that she did this so proudly all on her own during play time, she came to me so excited and showed me and then said, "Mommy, I'm sorry." I asked her why she was sorry and she said she was sorry that she cried about writing the number 3.

I don't know if I will ever understand what that was all about. And I am still wondering if I handled it the right way or not since I don't know exactly where those actions were coming from. I am sure every teacher out there reading this is shaking their head at me. I bet that most instruction on teaching would totally tear my actions to shreds and have all kinds of research to show me that it was wrong to MAKE her do something. But I feel like she was testing me, to see if I would let her off the hook and not make her do something she just didn't WANT to do. Up until this point in home schooling I have babied her a little. I learned early on that to push her too much resulted in a fit that would promptly end our day of school. SHE learned that too. The only thing is I knew she COULD do what I was asking her to do this time. And I also knew that if I set up a standard for backing down when she doesn't want to do something, she will use that to her advantage in the future. She'll use that little tactic when something is a little challenging, when she just doesn't FEEL like doing something, or when she just wants to see who is in control. I think she was already using that little tactic some of the time. I am still learning what she does and doesn't know and what she can and can not do, so I was letting her get away with it so far. But I decided it was time to draw the line on being lazy and not trying! So far, we are doing MUCH better in the writing department. I think that the fact she is doing well now means I did the right thing.

What is awesome though is that through all that, she still WANTED to do home school everyday and she still loves it. Writing all that out like that makes it seems like it was a big HUGE deal, but it was only one day that the huge stand off occurred. and all other areas of home school were greeted with lots of enthusiasm and fun. It really is amazing.

So here you can see Hana's writing! (Kai's name I wrote first and she traced it, and same with "Rocky" and "Marla" too) but the rest she wrote all by herself! And the drawing is of Kai!


You know, I don't know how school teachers do it. I am working with her one on one. I can take two hours to make her write a 3 if I need to. What do school teachers do when they have 20 or 30 other students to attend to? I REALLY don't know how they do it. I have so much respect for teachers now!

and now here are some pictures for you to enjoy INCLUDING a paper she was writing yesterday (just for fun) while I was cleaning up after dinner! I am so happy she chooses to practice her letters for fun at non-school times! So neat to see her love learning!

Kissing baby's hand (I love this picture because I did this exact same thing with her and Kai when they were tiny babies!)


Some picture from playing at the park!






A picture of the future...







Before boarding a train in Hokkaido (she loves these things where you stick your head through the hole)


A horse back ride at a Thoroughbred farm in Hokkaido (much more expensive then riding at Bam's house) for $10!!!

I want to see my bones!

This is one line that Hana keeps throwing at us. She wants to see what her bones look like. I wonder how much they would charge us if we just walked in and asked for an x-ray cause Hana-baby wants to her bones... lol

Making rivers on a train...

So we were at church all day Friday. Finally got home, packed to leave on Saturday and crashed because Hana's preschool had sports day the next morning. Sports day was scheduled to end around 12:00 and we had to catch a train at 12:55. Our travel would take about 6 hours to get to Kouchi for a Friday evening concert and Sunday morning concert, after which we would turn around and come back home (yes, we sign up for this kind of craziness). Sports day went very smoothly and finished early. We actually got to sit down in a restaurant to have lunch. I was beginning to think this crazy trip might not be so bad.

We boarded a train to the main station in town, and then hopped on a bullet train. Kai slept a good part of the way, all was going well. UNTIL we were pulling in to our stop to get off the bullet train. Hana just casually says, "I think I'll go to the bathroom after we get off the train." and I say, "Okay, sure we can do that." I'm holding Kai (still asleep) and Rocky disappears to throw some trash away when I notice a panicked look on Hana's face. And she says, "Mooooommmmy, I am peeing in my pants." I'm like, "Oh my gosh Hana, STOP, wait!" But I look down and her shoes are filling with pee, beginning to overflow and a huge puddle is forming on the floor beneath her. Have I mentioned that this child has been totally potty trained for more than 3 years and never had an accident after about the first month or two after potty training was done?

You must keep in mind, a bullet train stops at a station for like a minute, and we were slowing down for our stop. If we miss this stop we will have to ride another long ways to the next stop get off and come back (we are on the Nozomi super express which doesn't stop very often) and that will make us late for our concert engagement. I'm holding sleeping Kai and can do nothing like pull a diaper or something out of my bag to start soaking up teetee and there is no train staff person in sight.

At this point I'm standing still in a panic having no idea what to do. I must have looked like a flamingo, motionless and doing nothing, only I had both legs on the ground. Rocky appears again and I tell him to do something but he can't find anything to clean it up and we are like seconds from stopping. I look back and a long line of pee is slowly making it's way down the aisle of the train and people are starting to look back to see what is this liquid running down the aisle beside them.

Finally I see a train staff person coming towards me and tell her what happened. She grabs some paper towels and starts to clean it up and all I can do is apologize and bow profusely, stating that we must get off the train at this stop. All the while row by row, train passengers are looking back and I can see the realization come across their face as to what is this mysterious river running down the aisle. The foreigner stands there apologizing and bobbing her head like a duck fishing in the pond as a little girl stands beside her with her legs spread apart in an uncomfortable stance and little wet footprints are following her.

At this point the train staffer begins to ignore my constant apology as I can see this look of total resentment begins to spread across her face. I know she's thinking, "Why did I have to be the one who came walking through this car at this moment? This is not a part of my job description, cleaning up pee!"

By this time the train is stopping and my last glimpse of the car we were riding in, was the passengers in aisle 2,3,4,5 and 6 staring back at us with disdain, several passengers scrambling to get their bags up off the floor, a line of papers towels following the river of pee and the crumpled nose of the train staffer as she is frantically dropping paper towels and whipping up pee.

Bugs!

Hana has an odd fascination/fear of animals and bugs. She loves to see animals and ask questions about them and recently began to get brave about touching them. Still the only BUG she will touch is a rolly polly.

Today Daddy found a praying mantis and was carrying it around. She was talking about it in the car on the way home. She kept saying, "What that praying mountains eat?" LOL, praying "mountains"!!! Love it!

But it is interesting that she asks great questions about animals. She always asks immediately what an animal eats. She asks other great questions like where it lives, how old it is, if it is a boy or girl, etc. She compares it to other similar animals or bugs. I think she is going to be good at biology!

Little sweetheart...

I have got the SWEETEST little girl in the whole wide world. Lately she has just been sooooooooooooooooooo loving and caring and helpful. It is amazing to see.

Every time I think about what I saw her do today it just makes me smile. We are having new kitchen flooring installed. The men who are doing the work are a couple of gruff ol' blue collar workers. They speak DOWN HOME local dialect. They are so cute, but sooooo... gruff! For some reason, right from the start this morning Hana just connected with them. She sat in the doorway peeking under the plastic taped across the door to keep the dust out of the adjoining room, and chatted with them. They were so sweet to answer he questions and generally be talkative with her. Then this afternoon they were taking a little break and the oldest, gruffest guy was perched on the ledge leading out to our garage with his back to the inside of the house. Hana walked across the room, wrapped her arms around his neck and climbed onto his back! You could tell he was totally overwhelmed and unsure about what to with the whole deal, but at the same time he was sort of flattered. Can you just picture it!? She's not usually that instantly open and expressive with strangers. I think she probably just made that mans day, for Japanese people rarely receive such interaction and affection from each other. It was very cute and so sweet of her.

Lately she has been so expressive about her love for our family. She tells all of us constantly that she loves us. It's funny too because I always tell her and KaiKai that I'm always gonna keep them and never never let them go! And Hana will tell Kai sometimes, "KaiKai, I never never gonna keep you!" LOL. She's got the whole saying mixed up, but it is so cute.

She is really getting good with Kai. Being very thoughtful and gentle, and protective. This afternoon I took them to the park and where most kids would think the little baby who can't do anything is cramping their style and in the way, Hana loves to include Kai in her play. She wants him on the spring horse with her. She wants to take him down the slide. She wants him to have one of the toys out of her sandbox set. She wants him close by all the time. And when we needed to go back home because Kai was sleepy, she made no argument about leaving the park for his needs. Also, she wanted him with us for home school today and when he reached to get one of her recent birthday gifts that is very special to her, I expected her to react with a "no no Kai!" But instead she asked me if it was safe for Kai to have it and gave it to him, knowing he would chew on it and wrinkle it. I just think that is amazing!

She has become soooooooooo helpful too. She washed the dishes for me the other night and did a very good job of it. She washed and I rinsed, and I didn't have to go back over any of what she had washed!

Having conversations with her lately is so fun too. She just inquisitive and smart and so funny! I wish I could record many of the little talks we get to have.

I had my Mom send us a book that I was reminded of from my childhood the other day. Somewhere in my elementary days I read the book, The Boxcar Children and LOVED it. I have never forgotten the story. I just wanted to share that with Hana although I thought it would be way too soon for her to enjoy this book, I wanted to have them on hand. My Mom sent a boxed set of four books! I didn't know there were sequels! I can't wait to read them! but anyways, back to Hana. She immediately wanted me to read her these books. These are chapter books with only silhouette drawings every 3 or 4 pages. the online review says it for 7 year olds and up. I agreed to read to her thinking she would quickly lose interest in listening and we could put them away for later. I was WRONG! She LOVES it. Now it is what we read before bed time. One chapter a night. And she is comprehending and retaining the story line. It is so fun to have her love it as much as I did. Sometimes she even gets squirmy before I finish the chapter and I think she isn't listening but then she'll stop me and ask a question or make a comment that demonstrates she is listening to exactly what is going on. The cutest part is, each day at one point during the story she wants to stop and name the characters on the cover of the story (four siblings who have run away) and she wants to count them for me. The first night we read the story she was working so hard to memorize them that I could hardly read to her, for every 2 or three sentences she wanted to pause to look at the cover again and review the characters names. I'm not a trained school teacher but I think this demonstrates a lost for her age! It is so fun to share these special times with her.

And we both love the fact that sometimes, from his crib, KaiKai will lift up the bumper pad and peek out to smile at us while we are reading! What a cutie!

Her prayer request every night and at the beginning and ending of home school is to thank Jesus for KaiKai! I just love this baby girl, and I am so thankful for HER!