The power of books

Most days, week days, before Quiet Time (God-willing there is some), I try to read the kids a story. Sometimes, it's a short five-minute fairy tale, sometimes one of the books from Peter's Beatrix Potter book collection, and sometimes if Sofia is willing, she will grace us by reading one of her beginner reading books.

And then, sometimes this might happen.

Ready for Preschool

Since starting to homeschool Sofia, people have been asking me if I'm schoolin Marcelo too or they might just assume I'm trying to turn him into a super genious.  But actually, I decided not to do any organized schoolin with him until he was four. I figured I would start preschool activities with him then and wait until he was five to start reading instruction.  Unfortunately, my plans have been foiled.  He has recently demonstrated quite a bit of interest in preschool activities (well mostly just wanting to use the scissors) and since I gave him a schultute with a big "P" for preschool when Sofia graduated Kindergarten and moved on to first grade, I guess I had to make good on it.

One of the ways Marcelo has proved his readiness for preschool is suddenly becoming interested and capable of completing puzzles.  Just a few months ago, it was hard to get him interested in the large cardboard puzzles with a few pieces, now he's doing these little 25-piece puzzles and some giant floor puzzles as well as the wooden puzzle sets I got him for Christmas.  Recently, he even helped Sofia with the 100-piece Noah's Ark puzzle.

He's been crazy about cutting with scissors, so naturally I had to give him his own pair of scissors as part of his schultute goodies. Better that than to find him trying to cut with the giant and very pointy kitchen scissors.  He's actually pretty good with them.  (I think his fine motor skills might be a bit more refined than Sofia's).

I had been letting him doodle in Sofia's old preschool activities book, then I told him he could get his own if he was able to follow instructions about what to do on the pages and not scribble. He wasn't too keen on the whole doing what someone tells you thing for the first three times.  After getting the scribbling out of his system, I got him his very own preschool activities book which has it's very own place in our Staples Office Apprentice (mammoth paper holder that Ray got me for my birthday).  He's very proud of this.

And just to reaffirm that I'm not the only one with rules on this planet, I enrolled him at Little Scholar's Preschool a couple of blocks away from our house, twice a week.  They're not as militant as Challenger but I think he'll do fine there and I'm not as focused on their academics since I plan to cover that at home later.  I do wish they'd make their book bags a little smaller though.  What's up with that.  I do have a small problem with a school that doesn't understand proportions. Oh well.

Itty Bitty Basketball

It's so exciting to be three. Finally you're old enough for all kinds of new things: going to the bathroom by yourself, deciding you want to wear pajamas or your Adidas pants every day, fighting with your older sister, Itty Bitty Basketball, and maybe even preschool!

Here are some not-so-good pictures I took the first day (mostly sitting on the bleachers).

They were put into teams. (Andrea, you will be happy to know he is in the Miami Heat). They rotated through six stations practicing dribbling, passing, shooting, running, etc.

The second day, they actually practiced playing a game with another team. He made a basket while the whole other team guarded. It was so cute.

Christmas '10

Marcelo was very excited about Christmas and Santa Claus this year. When the day finally came, he didn't look like he was quite ready to wake up yet, but you know Sofia, she had to wake him up not a second later than the allowed agreed upon time in the morning.

After, he found the Skittles in his stocking, he was all good. Santa could have just stopped there.

Letter From Santa

Marcelo is such an advanced reader, he can read Santa's reply letter from the back side.

Santa

So, Marcelo started making some Santa sightings around Halloween time; once at Walmart in the fabric department and then around Thanksgiving time in the Smith's Marketplace parking lot. All of which, of course, I had to dissuade him from. The third sighting was at the Discovery Gateway (Children's Museum) lobby as we got out of the elevators on the main floor. I couldn't quite see down there but I started on my usual, "no, I don't really think that's him, honey"-speech. But alas, I was wrong. It was Santa Claus and by the time we got ourselves down the stairs with a stroller and bag, Santa had exited the building! We rushed outside just in time to see him get in his horse drawn carriage surrounded by, no not elves, Santa security. The kids yelled goodbye and waved as he drove off.

We did however, go back to Discovery Gateway a few weeks later, it was very not busy and the kids immediately assumed Santa would be in his rightful place in the lobby. Again, (I'm such a downer, I guess) I was like, "no, no, I'm sure he's not here again. It's late, bla, bla, bla ..." Well, there he was again. I don't really know what he was doing there, just sitting on a couch by a Christmas tree talking to a guy.  They werent' taking pictures, there was nobody else there.  So, we told the kids they could go talk to him (I was hoping for free. You never know). And they had a little chat. Unprepared as they were, however, Sofia asked for a dragon for the THIRD year in a row and Marcelo asked for the letter O.

And here is our latest Santa sighting at the Christmas Dance Recital where we finally got a picture.

Christmas Dance Recital

Marcelo's first major ... anything.

He's been going to dance class for only a couple of months. He's the only boy. He really likes it.

I was anxious to see how he would do. Would he remember his steps (OK, there really weren't any steps. It's mostly line dancing of the upper half of the body). Would he freeze up. Would he freak out and dive off the stage or pee his pants. Would he prove himself to be significantly genetically different from Sofia on the stage. (That's mostly what I was looking for. She picked her nose and looked up at the ceiling for most of her last preschool performance).

Success! He remembered his moves (mostly). He had fun. And then he thought he was a freaking rock star when we got home and wouldn't stop acting like a weirdo and bouncing off the walls.