I woke up to this sweet face (even sweeter because he was still sleeping) this morning.
Then I turned and there was Maddox, staring at me from the floor, and from the looks of it, he had been up since 5 am (when Andrew gets up). He is my early bird. He immediately wanted to know the plans for the day and then informed me he hated his hair and needed it cut.
He kept talking, all the way to the coffee pot.
But I do love mornings when Jude sleeps late and I can spend time with just Maddox, snuggling on the couch, watching Jake the Pirate, and eating waffles and bacon.
Mr. Sleepyhead finally woke up at 8:00 and then the day kicked off. The Legos got dumped out, my couch turned into a trampoline, he wanted to know where this toy and that toy was, and I apparently didn't put enough cheese on his cheesetoast.
Hello Monday!
School was fun today. Maddox started by reading his sight words.
We're adding "stop" and "and" tomorrow. Then we talked about how it's November now, the date, the weather...we added a new day on the 100 chart and added a straw to the cup. We reviewed shapes, counting, letter sounds, and I read our weekly poem.
Then Mr. Maddox was on his own. Even though he procrastinated, he completed his phonics sheet all by himself. I had to keep saying, "Keep your mind on the paper!" And he did. Kind of. He is easily distracted, especially when it comes to sitting down and doing worksheets.
He has to match the beginning sound of a picture to the correct letter and so far it's all sticking.
As I well know, he is not a fan of handwriting and it was hard just a month ago teaching him to write upper and lowercase correctly in the lines. I don't think many 5-year-old boys love handwriting. Why would they be, when there are trees to climb and couches to flip off of??
And that reminds me, we had a rough patch in our morning when we realized that the yard service people had trimmed so many great climbing branches from the boys' beloved tree.
Jude held up his fist through the window as the lady dragged the branches out the yard. I don't how in the world I have such a fiery child. He shocks me every day (and keeps me laughing). Maybe one day his fiery, determined nature will be used for good and great things. I sure hope so.
Now what interests Maddox in school, besides the science stuff and books, is learning about money. I made Montessori-style index cards with real coins taped on them so he could get the touch aspect to learning. Real money is more exciting anyway than a picture of money on a worksheet.
He saved $15 and finally spent it today on a Jake the Pirate treasure chest, spyglass, compass, and sword. He was so excited that he got his own receipt. His whole "I'm saving all my money for light up shoes" went out the window when Nana told him she would buy him some light up shoes.
So, now he's back at zero.
My house is not always this messy, but if the boys are awake, it might be! Haha.
Maddox really enjoyed matching animals to their habitats, too. We're talking this week about birds and their nests, but also talking about other animals and their homes.
The fun part of the morning was building their very own nests. Lastnight I got a bunch of scraps together (like string, yarn, sticks, feathers, fake grass) and today they used them to build the nests. They topped them off with leftover plastic Easter eggs and some birds. While they perfected their nests, I read them a book about bird facts. We learned that birds are the only animals to have feathers. We also learned about all kinds of birds, what they eat, how they fly, how they make a nest, and migration. Maddox said, "Oh! Birds write letters in the sky too!" (talking about their V shape when they fly)
And Jude was amazed that penguins were birds too.
Here are the nests!
Maddox's, of course, was the "biggest and best." (in his own words)
Will the brotherly competition ever end?
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