May. 23, 2008 - Family Goals 2008-2009

It's that time of year again.  I have been looking back at what our learning looked like and how well we accomplished our goals. 

I'll start from the bottom up. 

Rachel:

1 year old

She learned to sit up, crawl, pull up to standing, then cruising, and now takes a few steps unassisted!  She loves to be read to, in a slightly unbabylike way.  She can sit still longer than the others, except Austin as a baby.  She is very curious and an explorer at heart.  Baby, Daddy, Mommy, Bye, Bye, and Bubba are her newest words.  I am still her prime source of nutrition, as she still thinks food is optional.  :) She has got to be the pickiest baby I know.  She tolerates food, she just chooses not to eat what she doesn't like.  And what she likes changes every other day! 

Anyway, my goals for her are to encourage her in her quest to walk, teach her alternatives to biting and pinching, sorry to all her Sunday school friends ,  and to introduce her to all sorts of new foods until we find what she does like. 

Lily:

almost 3 years old

I have seen Lily transform from a pesky, troublesome toddler into a precocious, helpful preschooler.  There is light at the end of the tunnel!  There have been days when I thought about selling her to the gypsies!  She got into more trouble than I remember the boys ever getting into.   

About the time she was fully potty trained, at about 2 and 9 months, she really blossomed.  She is a pleasure to be around now.  She is more aware of what is going on around her and not stuck in that toddler oblivion.  Her language skills perked up at about 2 and a half too.  She is so cute when I hear her fuss at Austin about leaving his shoes out.  Of course with this new change comes the independence struggle and I hear "I can DO IT!" more than I care to.  She thinks she can do everything all by herself.  There are many days when her entire outfit is on backwards and her shoes are on the wrong feet and the busy good mom that I am I let her stay that way. 

She is my best helper now too.  She can't wait until I call her to help me do some chore.  If only that attitude would span the ages to come. 

I will follow her lead this year and see what interests her.  Right now she wants to do whatever Katie is doing. 

Katie:

Katie is such a treasure.  She is 5 and half and is all girl.  She has learned so much this past year.  We read lots of great books, visited the library for mom and Katie dates, and went on some field trips.  I hate to admit this but somehow she learned without me sitting down and teaching her.  Maybe Sam did it, but all I know is that she knows all of her ABCs, she can read small words, she can count to 15 or so, she can write the numbers to 10 and understands the counting concept.  I find it amazing that she knows what most Kindergarteners know by the end of their school year.  I tend to lean more towards unschooling with the kids, with a few workbooks thrown in for good measure.  It is refreshing to see it working!  We really do live to learn!  It isn't a separate part of our lives.

I do hope to nuture her love of reading and help her learn more phonics rules and keep her excited about learning. I plan on having her cut and paste, paint lots of paintings, play dress up and pretend for hours on end, and lots of field trips to "real" places. 

Ok, I will end it here and come back to blog on the boys' accomplishments and future goals.