Friday, August 15, 2008

All in a Day's Work

Walker was a SPONGE as a baby/toddler. He soaked up knowledge like CRAZY! Until he got mobile, he would sit & let us read book after book. Literally we would read like fifteen to twenty books in one setting and he LOVED it. I think he had Moo Baa LaLaLa memorized by age one and a half. He would also sit in the bath tub forever and let me teach him his letters ~ at such a young age. He's still a sponge, but you just never know when he's soaking it up OR when he's choosing NOT to soak it up!

Along comes Precious Baby #2...and well, you know how that goes. With a three year old, Mommy just didn't have the time to 'teach' baby girl like she did THE SPONGE! Of course Hadlee is naturally brilliant in her own special ways (I had to throw that in!), but it really didn't hit me until recently while we were watching home videos how much more Walker knew at her age. Some things in particular that struck me as I watched Walker at age 22 months: he pulled out every crayon in the box & said its color; when asked where he lived ~ he said "Texas"; and the kicker...when asked how to say hello in French ~ he said "Bonjour". Just to name a few! So, it was then and there that I knew I needed to get on the ball with
Little Miss Prissy Pie!

And who better to help me than THE SPONGE himself....

Now for any of you boy moms out there, you will first notice (well, after you get over the light shining through the room), that there are eight RAMONES lined up from the Disney Cars movie. You will also notice three plastic containers stacked behind the Ramones containing most, but not ALL, of the rest of Walker's CARS collection. That, in of itself, is post worthy ~ but for another day.

So, you ask "What up with the Ramones?"...simple enough, this was Walker's way of teaching Hadlee her colors ~ yes, Ramone goes through several paint changes during the movie...purple, red, yellow, green, orange, and blue.

It doesn't stop there with the Ramones...check out Hadlee's pointer finger in the above photo. Yep, she is counting all eight of the Ramones and, QUITE well, if you don't mind me saying so.

Check out the teacher in action...

Was this a plea of help from Hadlee for class to be over?!?

Might be...but after her lessons with THE SPONGE,
Miss Prissy Pie is now
Miss Prissy Pie Smartie Pants!

5 comments:

Hannah said...

So sweet! What a good big brother to teach his sister like that. Love the stacks of cars. We had bins of cars and playmobil toys. I actually miss them now.

Hannah

Graham said...

Thank you for your thoughts! It was tough!!! I will write about it later. Your kids are such cuties! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Amanda said...

My nephew learned all his colors through Thomas the Train. Miss Hadlee is well on her way with such a smart brother! We talk about colors and counting a lot too. Have a good weekend!

Blessings from the Reeds said...

What smart kiddos you have! I am laughing because this is exactly how Landry learned his colors too. Thank you Pixar:) You know, the other day I was over and Haddie was in Bubba's room watching a movie. I thought oh what sweet little girl movie is Haddie cakes watching? Nope, that would be CARS! She was loving it. Funny!Smart Girl:)

We can't WAIT for Walker to come over this week. Woo-hoo!

Jennifer said...

Miss Prissy Pants is just perfect! She's so darn cute!!!

My son was the same as Walker. By age 2 he knew all of his colors, shapes, numbers, and he could count to ten in English, German, and Spanish. His Pediatrician used to call him "The Little Professor". Then along came K and, like you, I just didn't have as much time to devote to teaching her. She eventually caught up and now SHE is the school lover and F - not so much! Funny how that happens! M, being the 3rd, seems to be a happy medium!

I used to teach PreSchool and one thing I did to encourage color identification was I got some of those plastic boxes, like you have Walker's cars in, and I would tape a piece of colored construction paper to the outside of the box. Then put a bunch of random objects of the same color in the box. Have a red box, a green box, a blue box, and a yellow box. This will encourage Hadlee to group the objects by color. Keep reinforcing the color by repeating it "Hadlee, this is the red box. See all of the red things in the box? Can you find 2 more red things to put in? Now take 3 red things out of the red box." etc. Once she seems to know the colors, you can write the name of the color on the box and she will start to identify the word as well.

Hope that helps! :O)