Mason

This boy makes me laugh and smile everyday!  He can be the sweetest thing.  Sometimes if I am sad or upset, he will come and just give me a hug and a kiss.  And of course, that really does make me suddenly feel better!

He has the best imagination.  He could seriously tell me a made-up story for hours!  He always has great characters in the story and very exciting things happening.  Some stories he tells have violence in them, and whenever I hear those parts, apparently a look comes across my face, and as soon as he sees my look, he will say, "BUT, they were just kidding," or something that makes the characters all better.  It's very cute.

Mason's favorite thing right now is probably playing pretend.  He loves playing with either his cousins, friends or sister in a world of pretend.  He likes to ride his bike, his scooter, and chase or be chased.

We have a calendar that we do every day, and at the beginning of the week I will put a little picture of what we will be doing each day.  Sea World is usually on Friday, playgroup is on Thursday, Minitown is on Wednesday, cousins day at Nana's is on Tuesday, and Monday we either go to the library or I try to make it a laundry/cleanup/play-at-home day.  (Not sure why I went backwards, but Sea World came to mind first!)  Mason loves turning over the date every day and I think knowing what we will be doing everyday helps him be excited and learn about days and weeks.

Along with the calendar, I do school with him everyday after Kota goes down for a nap.  Being consistent with school has helped him love doing it and has helped him learn so much!  He read his first book all by himself last Friday, and I was sooo proud of him!  He has been doing workbooks and things that I have picked up from stores here and there.  Just recently, I decided that since he was doing such a good job at looking at the pictures in his workbooks, sounding out the word and being able to write down the word, that he was ready to learn to read.

I admit I have a degree in elementary education, but while working with Mace, I had NO idea where to start or how to teach him.  That's why we just did workbooks and stuff.  So I searched online for the best ways to teach a child to read.  After reading way too much material and feeling not much closer to knowing how to teach him, I just printed off a preschool book online, glued it, colored it, and started with that!

I actually spent quite a long time coloring all the details in the book, because I felt like it would be so plain and boring for Mason to be reading a colorless book.  He loved it and at the end of the week he could read it by himself!

I've been wondering and worrying lately about after I have this baby, and hoping that his school time won't slip between the cracks and be forgotten.  He has one more year until he starts Kindergarten, and I really want to make it a priority to keep working with him.

Anyway, here are some pics of my favorite boy!

Easter egg hunt!

Love these cuties!

And a video of Mason doing one of his workbooks a couple weeks ago. And surprise! He's in his underwear..  :o)