We Have a Reader!

Clare reading to sam

Clare has been writing for several months now – beginning with her name, then moving onto other names and then full sentences.  The method she’s learning at school is to teach the kids to become familiar with letters by writing them first and getting the kids familiar with the letter sounds and word structure.  Months of writing and getting familiar with sounds, words and being read to has suddenly clicked into place.  We’ve had a writer for a while, but now we have a reader.

Our reader is reading everything in sight.  She’s sounding out words at the gas station (“Mom, that says ‘Regular,’ ‘Premium,’ and ‘Plus.'”), reading boxes of food at the grocery store (“Mom!  Look!  Candy!), and reading books at home.  She took her favorite book to school and read it to her friends, apparently they all laughed at the Book With No Pictures.  She reads to Sammy and notices when J and I skip words in books.

I didn’t expect that I would enjoy watching Clare read quite so much.  It’s an absolute delight to watch the world of books and words open up to her.  She’s very proud of herself and it’s wonderful to see her sense of accomplishment.

clares drawer labelOf course the phonetic spelling is still going strong.  She labeled her drawers the other day.

clares drawer label1

“Sox”

clares drawer label2

“Jamees”

clares drawer label3

This one got a little messy, but it means “clothes.”

Perhaps my favorite piece of her writing was a note that she left me when I was sick.  “I hope you feel better soon. From Clare, to Mom.”

Note from Clare to Mom

Happy Birthday Freddy!

freddy walking

Happy Birthday to our little Freddy-boy!  Last weekend we had a birthday celebration for our little surprise baby.  Family came from far and wide to celebrate this sunshiney little boy – and celebrate we did.frederic birthdayThere was a big birthday party at JP and Debbie’s house.  Family from five states came in for the birthday weekend and party, complete with Debbie-made banana cake.  Freddy was a particular fan of the cake.

Dion sibs

The Dion family was well-represented at Freddy’s birthday, which was appropriate since Freddy is named after the original Frederic Dion, who is the father of four of the good-looking crew above.  We Dion’s don’t miss a party, as J says, if there’s a party then the Dions come from the four corners.  It’s not just about the party, we also had a girls day on Saturday complete with pedis.

pedis

Clare loves pedicuresEven the little girls got in on the action.  This is Clare’s second pedicure ever and she’s pretty much in love with them.

Girls Pedis

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Freddy.  Thank you for giving us a wonderful year and a fun reason to celebrate and get together with family.