As I mentioned, I plan to keep this project simple and fun for both of us. So, I did the same thing with the letter B as I did for letter A. I cut them all up and then, Nathaniel and I glued them down together to create this simple page:
Like last time, w e talked about each of the words and then differentiated between big B and little B. Then we colored all the B’s.
Here he is gluing:
and coloring
Yey for week 2. Nathaniel loves showing this book off and I love that he loves it!!
A lot of photos this week and they don’t even cover all the craziness of this week. I am guessing it’s more than usual because Monday was a holiday. Each week I fret I am not taking enough photos and then I end up with too many!! Nathaniel’s school is covering colors and shapes this week but he still doesn’t have them down much. I would worry but I am determined to worry less this year. He’s been a joy to have around. He loves wearing his fireman hat and making “bad guys” out of legos and shooting other legos or people. He’s been playing by himself and entertaining himself quite a bit. Still demanding and getting more and more vocal. David’s also doing great. He’s got a really good best friend at school who came over for a playdate this week and it was wonderful seeing how much they like each other. I am so grateful he adjusted to his school wonderfully. Besides reading and writing and chores, he likes to spend time on the lego gallery so he can look at the kinds of things other people built with legos.
Jake’s work is going well, too and I he is maybe finally recovering from being sick for so long. And I’ve had a busy but great week. I had book club (The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) and I got to go to Cirque de Soleil Michael Jackson. Both were awesome. I also had to move the site over which sucked but now it’s so so much better.
This weekend is going to be a quiet one. I just plan to be with the kids and work on my savor project and maybe art journal a bit. I’ve been not so great at keeping up with the art journaling lately so I want to see if I can change things up a bit.
Anyhow, here are some highlights from last week:
Nathaniel glueing our letters down.
David working on his book of good memories.
David got this circuit set for Christmas and loves playing with it.
And I love those blue eyes.
Nathaniel found this old old minibook I made and went through all the pages, naming all the letters.
Big boy building cool things.
little boy watching.
nathaniel coloring his letters.
my funny boy.
who always makes me laugh.
more circuit fun.
nathaniel invented his own game with them too.
And then they played together.
when it was time to put stuff away nathaniel was not happy.
but as he always does, he got over it.
and then we took some shots with the hat.
i just love these.
and couldn’t pick one favorite.
cause i love them all.
here is the bad guy lego shooting me.
playing with daddy.
who loves him so so much.
we now take photos right after Nathaniel wakes up from a nap. so we get some of these.
but we still do tickle time!
here’s david and his friend playing and Nathaniel playing with them. they we very kind to nathaniel.
they all made art. when i took a photo of the two boys, nathaniel wanted a photo with his photo too!
and here we go. Another wonderful week gone. Here’s to a great week next week!
The left side of this spread is a drawing David made (I should have photographed it, too!) and the right side is a little art project we did at the Children’s Discovery Museum.
And the next spread:
The left side has two items in this case. David has some spy teams at school and he wanted a special code they could communicate in so Jake downloaded and laminated this one for him. (I can’t remember what it is but it’s some kind of code.) On the bottom is the sticker from the Exploratorium from when he and Jake went to meet Jake’s friend Geoff and his son. David got to look through a microscope there which he thought was awesome. The right side is our ticket of the Train of Lights we took during Christmastime at Niles, CA. David loves that train and the yummy cookies he eats when we takes it.
There we go. That’s all for this week. More coming soon.
David’s Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here.
This was a crazy week. I had five appointments on top of my crazy work and assignments for CHA. But it all worked out. I dyed my roots, got my teeth cleaned, went to book club, etc. etc. I still managed to get all my CHA work done and did a lot of work at work, too. Jake helped out a lot so I could run around like crazy and get stuff done and I am grateful for that. The kids were doing great, too. David had a full week at school and is loving his afterschool lego class and his swimming class. He seems to be doing great socially too and I am very proud of him for being a kind boy. Nathaniel’s loving being back at school, too. He decided (or David told him) one of the lego man is “bad guy” so we call him that, now. And he’ll occasionally shoot the bad guy and bad guy will be dead. They both like shooting each other and playing dead (especially the falling to the ground part.) He’s also working on going to the bathroom, now. He likes to sit there for a long time but today we actually made progress which was great. All in all, quite a busy but lovely week for us.
Anyhow, here are some highlights from last week:
Nathaniel’s been really enjoying playing with legos lately. Building things and making noises. I love how he smiles when he knows I’m taking a photo.
David watching Harry Potter.
Nathaniel “driving” his creation.
And, of course, wanting to watch the movie with David.
I can never have enough of those eyes.
even when he makes the faces.
little boy posing for me.
and this is what he looks like most of the time.
i told him no blankie in the photo. he smiled.
he’s been loving the binoculars too.
even when he uses them the wrong way.
I love this photo. He loves being able to put his hands in his pockets.
he thinks it’s so super fun.
And I especially love when they conspire and play together.
more of my blue-eyed boy.
Nathaniel still loves getting inside this box.
more playing together. Legos are just the best toys ever.
and some fun family photos. a lot of laughter.
So very very grateful for my family.
and here we go. Another wonderful week gone. Here’s to a great week next week!
As I explained a few weeks ago, the goal of this project is to spend some time with Nathaniel, just the two of us, so he can have projects with mommy, too. I plan to keep this project simple and fun for both of us. So, Friday night, I printed some letter sheets and bunch of things that start with the letter A. I cut them all up and then yesterday, Nathaniel and I glued them down together to create this simple page:
We talked about each of the words and then differentiated between big A and little A. Then he colored all the A’s on the left side and asked me to color the one on the right side. And we were done.
Here he is coloring:
After we were done, he said “Fun, Happy.” So I took that as a good sign that this project is going well. Simple and fun. That’s the plan.
Our first week of the year was relatively hectic. David went back to school and Jake went back to work. I hit the ground running on work, too. Nathaniel was home for one more week. The boys are growing up so fast. Nathaniel is becoming more and more vocal and insistent and difficult. He likes to put a teen after all the numbers. So it’s not four but fourteen (even if it’s 4) and then fiveteen. Even if we correct him, he insists it’s not 4 but fourteen. He also likes to whine and whine until he gets his way. The drama level has doubled or so. David’s growing up too and getting bored more quickly. But I am working with him to try and adjust his attitude. He’s still kind and generous and caring in his heart and I just hope that never goes away. Next week we all go back to routine but I have 4 appointments so it promises to be another hectic and full week.
Anyhow, here are some highlights from the first week of the year:
New Year’s Day, David made some awesome lego creations:
This one says “you are nice” and the lego men are building the letters. Isn’t it awesome?
then, around sunset, we went to a bird pond and watched the ducks, and the birds.
it was a lovely time to take some soft photos.
the boys held hands. I love it when they hold hands.
to the right of the pond was a muddy section with some black little birds and some sandpipers.
Nathaniel insisted on holding both Daddy’s and David’s hands.
It was also right by a small airport so the boys watched the planes take off and land.
the next day was the last day of our vacation so we got out the stamps:
and the markers
and just had fun
the boys loved it and I made an art journal page sitting there with them.
after david went back to school and jake, to work, Nathaniel hung out with me and colored while I worked.
when I stopped for a minute to take his photo, he smirked but wouldn’t look up.
but I kept insisting so finally he gave up.
and laughed and laughed.
he also played with stickers to entertain himself.
I snapped this rare shot of David smiling at me that day when he came home from school.
Nathaniel also grabbed the ipod and watched some movies (with no sound) to entertain himself while I worked.
On Friday we took our family shot. but no matter how hard we tried the boys wouldn’t both look at the camera at the same time.
Then Nathaniel got into this tiny box and asked Daddy to push him around.
which thrilled him to bits.
there was much joy
and jubilation
until it was David’s turn and you can see Nathaniel crying there in the background.
he wouldn’t stop weeping until he was back in the box.
despite his brother’s joy, he got up and let Nathaniel have one more turn. Then, this morning while I exercised, the boys decided to take out all their cars and trains and line them up. It was a long, long line.
when David was in swimming class, Nathaniel and I worked on his book so when David came home, he immediately wanted to share it.
and here we go. Another wonderful week gone. Here’s to a great week next week!
As the new year starts, so do our projects. David and I have already begun working on his Book of Good Memories. The idea behind this project is to create a book full of things that make him happy so that if he’s having a rough day or he just wants to look back and remember things that brought him joy, he can have them all in one place.
It also allows us to craft a little bit together and gives him a chance to practice writing and thinking more deeply about why a particular item/memory makes him happy.
We aim to do about 1-2 spreads a week. Some weeks we do more and others less. But if we end the year with one full book, I will be happy. I know these won’t be interesting to many of the readers here. That’s why I am posting on the weekend since those are quieter. These pages are meaningful to me and I want to preserve them. With that said, here are two more spreads from our book:
The left side of this spread is some tracing David did. He loves to trace and I do, too. The immediate gratification of seeing something recognizable that you created is sweet. The right side is a book he created in Spanish class which talks about butterflies and it was really beautiful so we made a little pocket for it.
And the next spread:
I love this page! It’s a printout of a digital art piece he created at school. I loved it so much that we glued the whole thing down and then created a little flap on the right where we could slip in his journaling because we didn’t want to cover any of the art. We just added one piece of sticker to it and this spread was done. I love love love looking at this one.
There we go. That’s all for this week. More coming soon.
David’s Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here.
jake
This was a quiet week for all of us. Even for Jake. After a leisurely Christmas and day after, he only went to work for about a day and a half this whole week. It was such a joy and pleasure to have him around all week. The kids didn’t want to leave his side and I got to have snuggle time with him every day. He even got to play some video games and enjoy his new computer. We’re all calm and rested as we welcome the new year.
karen
I had a lovely week. I had originally planned to work one or two days this week but at the last minute just decided to take the whole thing off. I wanted to rest and be with my family and really take some considerable down time before the craziness of January set in. My work is about to get extra-hectic so I figured I should get some rest while I can. And I am so glad I did. It was a week of snuggling, doing art, reading, laughing, and simply enjoying out lives together. I am deeply grateful for 2011 and ready to tackle 2012 with open arms.
david
David also had a great week. He got the most toys for Christmas and set to build his lego sets immediately. There were a few sets and it took him two days to finish everything. All, Lego Star Wars, of course. He then read his books and started writing in his notebooks. He also used the watercolor paper and waterbrush this week. He even got to sort a lot of legos using his advent calendar plastic. I don’t know if he’s ready to go back to school yet but he certainly had a lovely time off.
nathaniel
It didn’t take much for Nathaniel to get into the Christmas spirit. When he realized he could finally open the presents that had been sitting under the tree for weeks, he was super-thrilled. He opened each gift with great abandon and spent time playing with the toys as the rest of us took our turns. Each time it was his turn, he was thrilled all over again and overjoyed to get yet another present. I think this was a lovely one for the little boy.
Here are some of my favorite captured moments from the last week of 2011:
opening the first presents of Christmas on the eve:
Christmas morning breakfast:
stocking fun for the little one:
and stocking fun for the big one:
opening presents:
playing with new toys:
building legos. there was a lot of building legos this year:
I got Nathaniel some I Spy books and they immediately became his favorite:
playing choo-choo with Daddy.
I love all the expressions he makes:
David finally finished his awesome lego, He did it all by himself:
another fun Nathaniel expression. David reading wikipedia and Nathaniel getting upset cause David won’t lookup trucks:
finally settling down and leaving David alone:
putting together one of the Star Wars models Daddy got David.
despite his expression this is David working on his Book of Good Memories.
coloring with his new waterbrush and paper.
reading another new Christmas present with Daddy. This year, I went to a local library sale and got a lot of great books for $1-2 each. This wonderful book was $3. They made for some wonderful presents for both kids.
Nathaniel loved his legos, too. He got some lego cars.
giving mommy a smile.
my amazing boy and his stunning eyes.
we used the plastic from the lego advent calendar to store sorted legos. I used Nathaniel’s to store my art supplies.
Friday there was some Wii-playing. Despite what this might look like, Nathaniel’s remote didn’t even have batteries in it.
“big tower, take picture” he told me. So I did. Then as I snapped, he decided it was an airplane and made some airplane noises.
today was family photos. Nathaniel insisted on sitting on daddy so we compromised on his sitting on David.
which David loved (but my depth of field didn’t.)
and here we go. Another week gone. Another year gone.
Thank you for coming here and supporting me. Thank you for being a part of my journey and sharing yours with me. I have so much gratitude for this past year. And I welcome 2012 with open arms. Wishing and hoping for a wonderful year and the mindfulness to savor it fully.
Now that our A Book a Week with David project is over, I’ve been thinking about how to continue reading together for 2012.
Here are all the books we read in 2011:
Winnie the Pooh
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
The Tale of Despereaux
Ralph S. Mouse
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Holes
The Land of Oz
The Cricket in Times Square
The Twenty-One Balloons
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
The Secret of Terror Castle
The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot
The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy
The Mystery of the Green Ghost
The Secret Garden
Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective
Katie Kazoo Anyone But Me
Katie Kazoo Be Nice to Mice
The Emerald Atlas
Junie B. First Grader, Dumb Bunny
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic
Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
Charlotte’s Web
Because of Winn-Dixie
The Magician’s Elephant
Stuart Little
The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
The Secret of Skeleton Island
The City of Ember
The Tilting House
Harriet the Spy
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm
Babe, the Gallant Pig
Much Ado About Aldo
The World According to Humphrey
Owls in the Family
Pee-Wee’s Tale
My Father’s Dragon
Akimbo and the Elephants
Elmer and the Dragon
The Dragons of Blueland
The Mystery of the Fiery Eye
The Mystery of the Silver Spider
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Homer Price
The Westing Game
Frindle
Sideways Stories from the Wayside School
The Little House in the Big Woods
Instead of doing another 52 books this year, I decided we would focus on longer, more involved books. These books might take a month to read and that’s ok. The idea is for him to learn to stay connected to a story over a long period and to get a better feeling for the depth of experience a longer novel can provide.
Or so is my hope.
I picked a bunch of books that I thought were on the longer side and a few classics.
Here’s what I have so far:
The Mysterious Benedict Society (and books 2, 3, 4 if he likes it)
Little Women
Black Beauty
Bridge to Terabithia
Peter Pan
The Wind in the Willows
The enchanted castle and five children and it
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
My goal is to incorporate our thoughts and feelings about each finished novel to David’s Book of Good Memories so we can have a record of our progress and continue to write down his thoughts on each book.
Like last year, I would love some more suggestions. David is almost 7 so any age-appropriate books for a 7-8 year old would be excellent. A huge thank you in advance!
David says:
I gave this story five stars because I liked that it was about a long time ago.
I liked the part where the two sisters each saved half of their cookie so baby Carrie could get some too and she ended up having a full cookie. And the part about Christmas where they got candy and presents. It was not good that she was too greedy and took too many pebbles and tore her pocket. I thought the part where the dad thought a tree stump looked like a bear was funny. So was the part where Laura tasted the snow to see if it was like sugar and it wasn’t. It was sad that they weren’t allowed to play or do anything fun on Sundays. I didn’t like the part where Charley was being naughty and ended up stung by all the yellow jackets.
But my favorite part was when the Daddy didn’t shoot the deer in the woods.
Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
jake
After a lovely day at Legoland, Jake’s week started with having to drive 8+ hours to get us back home safely which he did wonderfully, as he always does. We listened to Steve Jobs’ biography on the way there and back. He had a few meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but I think his week was light overall. That meant more time home which was great. We spent the nights curling up and watching movies together.
karen
I really enjoyed my time at Legoland, too. My favorite part was the 3-d Bob the Builder movie. I remember the first time I ever saw 3-D and how amazing I thought it was. I still feel enchanted by it. I loved watching how happy the kids were and how much joy it gave them to be there. The drive back was long and painful and after another few stressful days at work, this week finally got quiet. The quiet is what I enjoy the most. For many people the holidays are hectic but not here. We relax, we play, we don’t cook or clean or have company. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the quiet magic and gratitude of this time of year.
david
David has the most fun of all of us at Legoland, of course. He made friends, he ate candy, he built legos, he went on rides, and even got to go home with some legos (thanks Mom!) He was wonderful on the long way home and has been great all week. He’s been playing wii, reading, building with his legos and really really looking forward to Christmas Day. Here’s to hoping it will bring him all the magic he wishes for.
nathaniel
Nathaniel really enjoyed Legoland, too. Way more than I thought he would. He built with his brother, looked at all the mini, moving cars, enjoyed the boats. He was perfect in the car ride both ways. He just looked out the window and sang to himself. He had one more day of school on Wednesday and now he’s out until Jan 9. He doesn’t really get Christmas yet but he definitely wants to open the packages under the tree already.
Here are some of my favorite captured moments from this very week. Again there are several repeats between these and my december daily posts of course. A lot of photos this week:
our hotel in Carlsbad was right next to a local airport. Early Sunday morning, Jake held Nathaniel up high so he could see the airplanes taking off.
a photo of the boys right outside the park. you can see david cannot wait to run in.
one of my favorite lego creations
nathaniel loved playing with these.
david with his favorite characters.
i loved that they had a place for the kids to play with legos while we waited in line for each ride.
most of the rides were david and daddy in one car and Nathaniel and me in the other.
towards the end of the day, we went into duploland so the boys could play. they had a lot of fun.
nathaniel went for the cars
and david for the cash register
he also loved the balcony.
at the end of a long, full day, we waited for the shuttle to come pick us up. Nathaniel is going through the bag to find his little truck book he asked for.
i love love love his light in this photo.
he loves any book that’s david’s.
david reading the Little House in the Big Woods, to me.
nathaniel and his lined up cars. He’s telling me to take a photo here.
the boys reading on wikipedia.
our home right now. the tree, the wii, the little boy’s blankie, my feet under the blankets as i rest and take photos. i love the everydayness of this photo.
my pile of books i’ve saved for the holidays. things i don’t read throughout the year but save for this quiet time.
my wonderful husband, relaxing and then falling asleep. which he does almost every time he stops working and relaxes.
little boy watching bob the builder movies on my computer.
and concentrating.
family shots from this morning. we did it before the movies so it was even darker than usual.
but i got my kisses.
and tickle time and that’s all I needed.
and then this morning we went to see Tintin and took some photos on the way out. Here we are at the booth: (I was trying to get Nathaniel to look at the camera and not the tv that shows us.)
And those are some of the moments from our week. Here’s to another lovely week!
Since 2012 will be my third year of doing a project with David, I wanted to take the time to do a project with Nathaniel this year, too. He will turn 3 in April and I think he’s ready for some Mommy and Me project.
I wanted the project to be something fun and useful and not super-hard to do. Crafting with David in 2010 was fun but it was also challenging at times and we didn’t end up following it through all year. So for Nathaniel I decided we’d do a project involving the letters of the alphabet each week.
My plan is to create a spread each week which will have:
– letter of the alphabet in capital and lowercase
– photos of objects, verbs, nouns that start with that letter
– a big letter for him to color
– a simple craft project that starts with the letter
I will look for more. And here’s an initial list of activities I plan to do that correspond to the alphabet letters:
a – apple printing
b – blowing bubbles or making beads, boat, or balls
c – making cookies or cupcakes, clock
d – dancing
e – creating a paper envelope
f – drawing flowers or fingerprints
g – goldfish using glitter (and glue)
h – hand prints or hats
i – ice cream!
j – jumping
k – making a mini kite
l – collecting leaves
m – macaroni art
n – making necklaces
o – making an owl puppet
p – collecting pine cones, potato prints
q – some game with quarters or a queen crown
r – making a rainbow using ribbons
s – sock puppets
t – making a tissue paper tree
u – making an umbrella
v – creating a paper volcano
w – creating a windmill or wind chime
x – making a map with a X marking the spot
y – making a xmas tree using yarn
z – drawing a zebra
I might change my mind, add, alter as we go along. I’ve learned that being consistent but flexible is the biggest key to success in yearly projects. My goal is for Nathaniel and I to have some special “just us” time, to do some art/crafts together and for him to be familiar with the letters of the alphabet.
I will post our pages on alternating weeks with David’s Book of Good Memories pages.
If you have ideas on other crafts, things he might like to do, ways to incorporate the alphabet more, I would be very grateful for them.
