RushingAround

Teaching a child to read is significantly harder than I thought. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but I sure didn’t expect to have to show my child the “and” flashcard for 6 weeks before she would recognize it. I thought Seporah’d pick it right up considering the fact that she sits there listening to us read to her all the time. That’s not the way it happened unfortunately. And I can only imagine how frustrating it was for her to sit down with her mom who pulled out flashcard after flashcard time after time that she couldn’t read. But she is slowly picking up some words to both of our joy. We’re up to a list of about 15 that she can recognize. They’re all sight words like and, go, it, can, look, and it.

You want to know what finally helped her? M&M’s. Yes, you read that right. I just started bribing her finally (we won’t actually discuss how many things my children have learned to do because of M&Ms). I didn’t know how else to get them through to her. We also started showing her this DVD day in and day out called Meet the Sight Words which has helped as well. I wasn’t sure until yesterday when I was writing the word all and I was making the L’s have a little loop at the bottom. Seporah looked at me and told me all has L’s not J’s and told me about the scene in the DVD with the word all. All I could say was Seporah you are very right. She’s also picking up words as we read books, which is very excited about.

And while we’re on the subject of books, I wanted to talk about some AWESOME ones for the iPad. Seriously, these books are awesome. If you happen to have a device that will read them, download them. First one is called The Pedler Lady of Gushing Cross:

The second one is The Little Mermaid along with a couple other stories by Hans Christian Anderson:

Both of these stories are truly amazing to read and will entertain not only children, but the child in you as well.

Number One: Seporah and her cohorts go back to school and the non-mormons bust out the champagne. This mormon might have bust out the sparkling cider, but you know I saved it for number two.

Number Two: My TV shows came back on season. Say yeah! *Explanation for the confused: No we don’t actually have television now, we have the internet* So I watch a total of 3 shows, I don’t think I could follow anymore than that with 2 smallish children and having to work 42 hours a week (yuck, I much preferred 36 hours a week, but that’s another story).

1. Big Bang Theory, which I know I’ve written about before. Essentially a group of super genius nerds with no social skills with a blond thrown in the mix.

2. Modern Family, I think I’ve written about them before. An extended family that puts the “dys” in “functional.” But it’s not like they’re killers or anything like that. Just um, how do I put it… well they’re a little bit like our family 😉

3. And then there’s 19 Kids and Counting, which I’ve only started watching since last season. I specifically remember the first time I had ever heard of the Duggar Family. Steven, Seporah and I were on the Big Island (this was before Felicity, it wasn’t like we left her at a kennel or something). It was 2AM and Seporah would NOT sleep at all. I decided to channel surf (something that I never have the opportunity to do since we lack television). This program comes on called “14 and Pregnant Again.” I’m sitting on the couch with a screaming baby in my arms watching about this mom who home schooled all 14 of her children that can all play the piano and at least one other instrument and who are all polite and smart and LORD I wanted to kill this woman for completely and totally upstaging me. I mean come on, I can’t even handle one!

Just kidding, she seemed cool enough, it was just sleep deprivation and jealousy going through my mind. But I didn’t really get into the show until she had her 19th kid and developed preeclampsia. I was like really? Hoping that her story might call attention to a crappy disease that’s one of the highest maternal and infant killers in the world today and guess what? We don’t even really know what causes it and why it happens. Her story really didn’t, but by the time I figured that one out I was pretty much hooked. They seem like a really cool family that would be fun to have dinner with (ie they wouldn’t notice how noisy and messy mine are).

Jason introduced me to my favorite band. I still find that kinda ironic considering our completely polar opposite tastes in music. I know I have commented about them before, but I really, really love Anberlin. And I am here to spread the Anberlin love. They’re like Muse, but less crazy. A little like Snow Patrol with louder drums and guitars. A lot like Lifehouse but edgier. A whole lot like Breaking Benjamin, but not suicidal. Not that they’re mainstream since probably the only place you’ve ever heard of them is on this blog. Anyways, they have a new CD coming out next month. Eek! So excited!