Posted on 13 August 2014 by: Mama
I got an expected text message last Saturday morning at 7:30am, asking if Mabel would be interested in being a flower girl. To quote my cousin, RJay, “is a 50 lb chicken heavy?” I asked the wedding colors, and I happened to have this fabric (orange and white). There were going to be African dancers, so I threw on the “cheetah shoes” for good measure. This photo is her “trial run,” as I was in the lobby during the real deal (making sure she didn’t freeze up!). She was a hit, of course, and the flowers matched the shades of orange on her dress perfectly. 🙂
Posted on by: Mama
I teared up today when Mabel brought me one of her portraits. She’s been doing this, of course, for nearly 2 1/2 years. She’s always loved to draw, especially people. Recently, she discovered envelopes and scotch tape…easy to see where this is going. She’s been writing names with our help for a long time, and mailing addresses to grandma and grandpa, etc. But, today…TODAY! She wrote a name all by herself, and it was RIGHT. She wrote “momu.” Which, *obviously* is “mama.”
We taught Mabel to learn her sounds phonetically. So, to Mabel, it is m (monster), o (octopus), m (monster), u (umbrella). Phonetically? She wrote mama. I’ve never been so happy. And I’ve officially changed my name. Only in writing terms, of course. Because, really…the spelling of “mama” really doesn’t make any sense. It took a 4 year old to prove that “momu” makes phonetic sense.
Posted on 7 August 2014 by: Mama
The California Street has a mega Whole Foods, with the bottom-level dedicated to parking and a cafe. After Mabel pulled the wagon (a basket with a long handle) and did all our shopping (I have arrived!!), loaded it all onto the conveyor belt, had a lovely chat with the cashier (only fail: I still paid), she wanted a treat at the cafe on the way out. She was happier with her giant chunk of watermelon than any kid with a cookie. In true Mabel-fashion, she serenaded everyone at the cafe with a song about how much she loved her watermelon, while systematically gorging it. Thankfully she’s cute, and everyone kept smiling and walking by telling me awesome she was. It can get ugly at the Whole Foods when you bring you kid along…
Posted on 26 July 2014 by: Mama
Posted on 24 July 2014 by: Mama
In Montessori education, the child learns to write (encode) before they read (decode). It’s kind of funny, because they can write, but can’t read what they have written. As they learn to read, they quickly back-track and learn spelling. It’s really quite magical. Part of the writing is using the “moveable alphabet,” truly one of the awesomest materials. After Mabel learned her phonetic pronunciation of all her sounds (including double letters like “sh” “ee” “ai”, etc), she gets to use the moveable alphabet to express her thoughts. Or find tiny objects and spell them out. This was her very first introduction to the material, and the words she spelled.
