Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Goggles and shopping

Edward will sit an endless amount of time and listen to stories. But now he is at an age where he really needs to be reading more independently. The kids came home with recommended authors from the schools for summer reading. We picked up some books from the library by one of the authors for Edward(the Max and Ruby author). The book that he enjoyed the most was Max's Dragon Shirt and we focused on him reading it. He understands each of the sounds for all of the letters but gets overwhelmed by the larger words--which I know is normal for most kids(went through it with the others) but Edward's frustration sometimes gets really bad with a temper added on. I tried and tried to think of something to motivate him(I know, I should say bribe) and came up with goggles. We just got some for Danny because he is swimming higher distances and it makes sense for him to wear them as he swims laps but wanted the younger ones to work on keeping their eyes open under water. When I brought up buying goggles if he read the whole book to me...what a change. He ended up reading the book 5 times before we even got the goggles. I did offer goggles for the others too;) when we were shopping. As many of you know from previous posts, I am a horrible shopper and my kids really should have more bathing suits than they do for the amount of time that they are in the water;) Well, I finally brought JiaLi shopping(the same day we got the goggles). I bought her two bathing suits and right away when she saw this in the store she had to get it because Jenise had it. Jenise was such a good sport with her. I had to laugh to at the diving post on Annslee's blog. JiaLi is actually up to 5 times jumping with her sister:) JiaLi is not diving or anything fancy yet but we are proud that she has gone from bobbing in the water to diving to the bottom to get toys:) Step-by-step:) The next day, it was the cutest thing. We were driving Jenise to her camp and JiaLi said to Jenise "wasn't that fun yesterday wearing the same bathing suit."

12 comments:

mommy24treasures said...

wow on the reading! He is SUPER cute in his goggles. And wow on JiaLi going down to get toys. HUGE step!
sweet pics:)

LaLa said...

It was great chatting with you today on the phone..I miss you guys!!!!

LOVE that swimsuit...I wish we could get the three of them together for a pic : )

Goggles are great..Annslee refuses to go in the water without them LOL

I am thrilled he is reading but stay away from M&R...they drive us nuts ; )

Sweet, sweet baby sister...of course it was FUN!!!

Michelle R Photography said...

What cute matching suits. That's pretty impressive they are jumping together! Love the goggles, too.

The Byrd's Nest said...

She looks so proud to have a bathing suit just like her big sister!
Love the pic with the goggles....he is so precious!

missy said...

Ok, your kids are just the cutest!!! I love the picture of Edward. I teach first grade, so most of my time is teaching to read. It's a slow process, but one that is SO worth the persistence. Bribery goes FAR : )

You know I love the sister pictures. Jenise is so sweet to oblige her little mei mei...priceless!

Ashton said...

The pix are adorable!

Stacie said...

awesome reading. The swimsuit comment is great also.

redmaryjanes said...

I just love that little sis wants to be just like big sis. And good for Jenise that she understands that and encourages her sister.

mommy24treasures said...

missing you, hope all is well and you are just busy with those beautiful children:)

The Byrd's Nest said...

HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!! I miss you Michelle!

mommy24treasures said...

still thinking of you... I do hope all is ok.
Love
Connie

Mother of 2 Angels said...

GORGEOUS shots gang!!! Loves those swim suits.