What Mr. Boy is learning right now

After Mr. Boy was able to learn over 40 states in his United States book, Mama realized that she should take advantage of this apparent gift of memory and retention and try to spend one-on-one time with him to help him learn some basics.

Mama's main focus lately has been colors, letters, big boy things, and a Bible memory verse.

Colors are going OK. Some colors he always gets right, like orange and yellow. He has a clear favorite in blue, however, because when randomly asked what color things are, "blue" is far and away the most popular answer. When he's on a roll, he knows K-State Purple, blue, pink, orange and yellow. But that requires focus and Mr. Boy is smart, but he's got the attention span of a gnat on speed.

For letters we're employing 3 different tools and it is working so well. In his Easter basket, Mr. Boy received the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics toy and he loves to carry around his letters and consistently identifies many of his favorites (J, X, W, U, P, O, T, A, E, M, and N) correctly. Mama also got lucky at a local 'next to new' sale and found a stuffed Leap toy that has a full alphabet keypad on it's tummy. Mr. Boy loves his talking frog that comes with many letter, number, and color games, plus it is personalized with a little computer in back--so the stories and songs feature his own name. Mama also got a box of Sesame Street ABC flashcards for Mr. Boy and he loves to snuggle in her lap and discuss what all his favorite characters are doing in the pictures. Then when the cartoon side of the cards are exhausted, he tolerates going over the bold faced letters on the back very nicely. Between the 3, success is at hand!

In the world of "big boy training," Mr. Boy is getting a soft sell on giving up his bottles and diapers. Mama is very reticent about potty training and Big J doesn't want a boy who won't sleep at night, so no aggressive stances have been taken, but the books "No More Diapers for Ducky" and "No More Bottles for Bunny" are big favorites to read over and over, so hopefully some of that message will sink in? The fabulous Frog toy also has a special Potty computer chip insert thing and so a lot of the songs and stories Frog tells Mr. Boy are big boy activity related. One big boy thing Mr. Boy is doing very well is helping pick up toys, throwing away trash, and bringing Princess Baby a toy now and then. He gets a lot of praise for his big brother and big boy helper accomplishments, and seems to puff up with pride at the compliments.

Our current Bible verse is "Children obey your parents." Mr. Boy is a good little boy but he's very, very curious and busy and has a bad habit of not listening very well. So we're really trying to impart the value of obedience to him. He's learning the ABC's and colors WAY faster than obedience, but that's OK, we still adore our curly-haired Mr. Boy!

Let's Roll!

Welcome to the newly founded Bowling Team Blog.

Since we left so many awesome pals back in VA, and we have so many relatives and friends, we thought we should make a blog to share what the Team is up to, share photos, update everyone on Mr. Boy and Princess Baby.

What we're doing now:

Big J is adjusting to life in the Midwest. He's finding his way around town, appreciating the lack of traffic, loving the new house setting with lots more room to roam, and hunting down the perfect part time job to fit our schedule and needs. He's also gearing up to teach music lessons in the fall once we have all our other important stuff organized.

Mama is getting used to living in KS again after 14 years away. So far it has been worth the stress and wear and tear of the move. Working in the transplanted Home Office, aka Desk in the Corner of the Bedroom picked up as seamlessly as we hoped it would--the work routine came together so well.

Mr. Boy is quickly adapting to his new home. He loves living so close to his grandparents, he runs around in the backyard whacking things with his baseball bats and giggling, and enjoying "Special Mama Time" aka Homeschool Preschool every night. At our new church Mr. Boy has a new friend, Noah, and he has been going to Children's Church eagerly. He loves his "class" as he calls it and even learned his first memory verse: "You are the Christ, son of the Living God."

Princess Baby is rapidly approaching her big 1st birthday on May 13 and she's just a lovely little lady already. She is sleeping all night every night now in her new room. It took about 2 weeks to adjust but she's doing beautifully now. Grandpa taught her to stand on her own and she's just dying to take off and walk. She loves to crawl around and explore, indoors and out. Indoors she comes around corners in the hallway or rooms and pops her head around with a big 4-tooth grin. Outside she tries to eat leaves and laughs at her bat-wielding brother.