Day 2

So day 2 of school was another success. The first day when I asked him if he wanted to play games, he said no. This child says no to anything unless it's something exciting that he definitely wants. Yesterday (which was day 2) when I asked him if he wanted to play games, he got super excited and said YEAHH! That was so rewarding for me in and of itself. I'm so glad that he's enjoying the games I've made and it will be even more rewarding when he starts showing progress in what I'm trying to teach him.

Anyway, for day 2, we played all the same games again as day one and I added a couple more activities. First, we made the snowman craft I had mentioned. I made one first so he could have an example of what it should look like, and I precut all of the pieces for his picture. He "helped" me put the glue on the paper, and then he placed the pieces on the paper. He then drew on the face and buttons just like I had on mine. Pretzel sticks finished it off to make the arms. Here's a picture of both of them. Can you guess who's is who's? :)
After they dried, we hung them on the fridge. He wanted to hang them both, but he also placed all the magnets where he wanted them. Is he dropping a hint...?

Next we did a shape sorting game. I have a picture of him playing, and I'm sure you can guess how the game is played.

There was no school today because I worked during the day. However, we did make brownies, so I could argue that we practiced math today. :)

Time to go enjoy the brownies - YUM!

Wehrman Schoolhouse

So it's been on my mind a lot lately that Hunter is old enough now that learning can/should occur more than just naturally throughout the day. He is old enough now that we can sit down for a period of time each day and play educational games (cuz I'm sneaky like that.) Though it's been on my mind a lot, it did take me a while to finally do something about it. But, with my educational background (the little bit that I do have,) help from my sister, and help from google, we had our first "school" session yesterday. And we both had so much fun!

Eventually I want to do preschool curriculum with a theme each week and everything, but for now we started with simple, non themed games.

I made a puzzle of a hat, and he loved it. We did it a few times, and each time he got better and better. The first time he completed it and saw the finished product, he got really excited and ran and got his hat that nana made him. He knows the letter A and pointed it out as soon as he saw it, and we're working on H so he can learn his whole name, so I thought doing 'HAT' was appropriate.

Next, I made color cards. I've started with 4 colors and will add more as he learns them. I made 2 sets of each color, and layed one set out in front of him. Then I picked up one of my cards, and asked him to place it ON TOP of his match. (We're working on concepts too.) He liked that game, and then since his monster trucks were sitting next to us on the table, we played another matching game. I picked up a truck and he had to place it on the correct card. He L - O - V - E - D that game because it incorporated his trucks. Here's a picture (but please ignore the ghetto coffee table)...

Our final game was a number game.

Each card has circles on one side and the corresponding number on the other. We either do all numbers, or all circles, and again, he has to match them. Each time we play the game, he gets faster and faster. And he can count to 3 by himself some of the time. He also recognizes numbers 1-3. Pretty soon I'm going to have to add 6-10! Then as he gets older, he will have to match the 3 with the 3 circles.

So those were our games of the day. We played them for 45 minutes straight yesterday, and the only reason we stopped was because daddy got home and Monster Jam came on. (This child LOVES Monster Jam!)

We're going to play them again today, and I also have a snowman craft for us. (Hey, just because AZ doesn't provide the opportunity to build snowmen doesn't mean he shouldn't know about the existence of them!)

My plan is to continue blogging about our school sessions. I hope you enjoy taking the journey with us. :)

Greg's Half Marathon

Ok, so those of you that have been following my blog know that I ran the Chicago Rock n Roll Half Marathon in August. There are "Rock n Roll" events all over the country throughout the year. After I finished mine and got the desire to run more halves, we discovered that there is a Rock n Roll event here in Phoenix. Once I found that out and knew we were moving here, I wanted to run this one too. And after I crossed the finish line, Greg decided that he also wanted to run a half marathon. So, we decided to do it together. But then after we got here we decided to try for a baby so I didn't train for it, but he still wanted to run it.

SO - this past Sunday, Greg ventured out on the 13.1 mile path with Hunter and me at the sidelines. I took some pictures of the exciting event.

Here he is waiting outside his corral warming up. Doesn't he look so happy to be there?! ;)

Here he is waiting in the corral with other runners.

John McCain was there! I was within 50 feet of him so OF COURSE I had to get a picture!

Throughout the race you have the option (that costs money, of course) to receive text updates of how he's doing. Here's his stats I got during the race:

He crossed the 5K mark in 26:55.

He crossed the 10K mark in 54:52.

We were supposed to get a 10 mile text update. I was waiting at the finish line for that text, and then once I received it I was going to try to get a spot at the sidelines so I could get pictures of him finishing. I'm not sure why, but I never got that text. So no pics, but I got lucky that while I was waiting there I happened to look up and see him run by so I called his name out and he waved. So I guess that's better than nothing.

He finished the 13.1 miles with a time of 2:03:19. I am so proud of him. He really did a wonderful job.


Here he is with his proud smile and finisher's medal. :)

So we are both half marathoners. One day, we plan to run one together. Hopefully next year sometime. :)

Like Father, Like Son

Whenever I'm in the bathroom doing my makeup, Hunter wants to do the same thing. So for Christmas, we thought it necessary to buy a shaving kit. Here's a video of his first time using it.



Now whenever I'm doing my makeup, Hunter runs and grabs his stepstool and shaves. I guess it did the trick!

...

Ok so I've tried on 3 different occasions to upload the video and even left if to upload for 8 hours one day. But for whatever reason it's not working, so here's a link to the video on facebook...

Hunter Shaving

Fun Day at the Park

Yesterday, my pumpkin and I went to the park. It's still crazy to me that we can go to the park on January and not freeze to death! I actually had a sweatshirt on and was too warm! Anyway, there's a nearby that's only 5 minutes away. We hopped in the double wagon (thanks grammy and poppy Joiner!) and went to the park. (Pretty soon once Hunter gets the idea of peddling on his red ryder trike from nana and papa Wehrman, we can try taking that to the park!)
We hadn't gone in a while, but it was a lot of fun! It's fun to see the physical growth that occurs when we go to the park. He can to bigger and better things each time. And for whatever reason this child hates having his hands dirty. When he was younger, and fell in the grass, he did everything he could to try to get up without touching the grass doing so. Anyway, the park had a sand covered ground, and he did surprisingly well with it. There was a ledge with some sand on it, and he was wiping it off. (This is a big step!) So we had fun wiping the sand, because I'll take any opportunity to let him get his hands messy and be ok with it! After he was finished he, of course, IMMEDIATELY wiped his hands off, but it's a start. :) Here's some pictures of my silly boy playing.