New Developments

Nana took this picture of Luke playing with his cars, which is one of his favorite two pastimes these days. We have a parking garage at home, and he can entertain himself by organizing his Matchbox cars into the parking spaces. His other favorite activity is playing bug bingo, which B&L got for Christmas from Nama and Gran'pop. Luke is amazing playing this game; he draws cards from a Ziploc bag, and knows the names of all of the bugs, ranging from tarantula to cicada. He understands the concept of putting a chip on a bug on his playing card that matches the bug that has been called, and he's learning that he wins when he gets five chips in a row. We play Bug Bingo every day.
Bryn these days is showing signs of early reading. She read "home" and "tennis" on the covers of two magazines, and read "fan" and "light" -- labels on a switchplate at Nana's house. At the kids' school, the kids change classrooms in mid-June, and we were given the option of moving Bryn to a pre-kindergarten room, which she had been slated to attend, or the kindergarten building. (Because of her late fall birthday, Bryn won't start kindergarten at the public elementary school until next fall -- Fall 2010.) I was really impressed by the kindergarten room. For starters, the classroom seems to foster independence. The children in this room no longer sit down and have snack at the same time. Instead, a snack is set up at table when the children rotate through different centers, and the kids can choose to help themselves to a snack during this time if they're hungry. Interestingly, I visited the classroom when the children were busy at the different centers, and none stopped at the snack table. Second, a literacy specialist divides her time between the two kindergarten classrooms, and I witnessed children writing in journals. It's hard to believe that Bryn might be writing simple sentences this time next year, but I think she has a fair shot at doing so by attending this kindergarten class. Finally, the children in the kindergarten room don't nap -- just an hour or so of quiet time instead, which is what we usually do on the days that Bryn's home. Luke, meanwhile, will move up to the building that Bryn's in currently, so they'll finally play on the same playground and therefore see each other more frequently on the days that they're both at school.