Saturday, March 17, 2018

Grandkids finish reading program...

"The more you read, the more things you know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with my Eyes Shut

I started teaching my grandkids, Tate and Sawyer, to read this past summer using the book,  Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  (Note: Luke, their dad did about 35% of the lessons as well)


I highly recommend this book.  The lessons take about 15-20 minutes each day.  Not only do they focus on reading, but writing and reading comprehension as well.  There are pictures with each story that my grandkids could not wait to see. (The pictures are to remain covered until after they read the story).  I wanted to get the lessons done before they started kindergarten, but that did not happen due to several issues.  The boys are not on the same reading level.  Tate finished with lesson 100 on March 13, while Sawyer has a few more lessons before he is done.  We had our reading party for both anyway.  Both of them could hardly wait to celebrate.  I decorated the table in Dr. Seuss fashion.




 I made a cake shaped like a book with a bookmarked similar to the one we used in our real book.


 I let them each pick out a gift for completing their lessons, and I wrote and illustrated a book about them that they could read themselves.  Each book had 20 pages...they loved their books.



Before they got to open any gifts, they had to read a lesson...the last one (100) for Tate, and Sawyer lesson 80.
Lesson 100

Lesson 100

Some fun, and gifts...


This is what Tate picked for his gift

It was a fun celebration for all.  We are a reading family.  We want our grandkids to enjoy reading as much as we do...after all, my philosophy is that "if you can read, you can do anything."  I am so proud of these boys.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Cat's day...

Today is my Maggie's (my cat) 6th birthday.  According to a cat-age calculator, she is 40 in human years.  Age 2 is equivalent to 24 in human years, then for each year after you add 4 years.  An indoor cat ages slower than an outdoor cat.  Maggie is an indoor cat because there are lots of predators that would like to have her for their lunch.  

Since I have been taking an online calligraphy class, I decided to practice my writing by making her a birthday card.  


Here's how we celebrated her birthday... I took photos of her.  She was not impressed...


Wow...look at that wicked claw...
This cupcake sings Happy Birthday when you squeeze it. Then the candle goes out...and you can hear someone trying to blow out the candle.  Maggie is not sure what to make of this item.





Finally, she got bored with it all, and just ignored the cupcake.  I guess photo time is pretty much over. 


Wow...this picture makes her look very fat... well she is fat, but this makes her look ji-gundo fat.  She is just fat.  What can I say, she's an indoor cat...and we love her anyway.  Happy birthday.  But no cake for you.  You're too fat!


 
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