Schooltime for Ava

Ava loves to learn.  She is at the age where she would rather do an activity where she learns vs. playing with toys.  She knows her shapes (even octagons and hexagons), she knows most of her numbers (when they get above ten visually she has a hard time with say 12 being twelve and not a one and a two/she can verbally count to 20), she knows her ABC's verbally and can identify all of the capital letters and most of the "baby" letters (as she calls them ), she knows all of her colors keeping in mind that colors are subjective (as in deep blue may be purple to her or a dark yellow may be orange).

Anyways I found myself thinking okay now what?!?!  Her desire to learn needs to be encouraged and not ignored and I have no plan to put her in preschool anytime soon (just not our thing).  Well, Wednesday  I met up with a friend of mine to study at the local borders and hello, borders clearance section you have answered my prayers.  Okay, well maybe not that extreme but they did offer loads of education material for a bargain price.  I got four workbooks for $3.99 a piece and from what I can tell they retail between $10 and $12 a piece.

I also found these jigsaw flash cards for $4.99 and they retail for $20. 

On the non-educational side I scored two Curious George travel kit things for our five hour drive to WV next month.  I'm slowly preparing an activity box/bag for her so she has all sorts of new goodies to keep her occupied.  The travel activity kits retail about $10 a piece and I got them for $2.  I think I will go back next month before our trip to see what else I can find. 

Back to schooltime...

I was talking to Nana and she said when we were little that schooltime was one of our favorite times of the day.  I can remember practicing writing and reading way before I was five.  Then practicing my cursive the summer before third grade so I would have a head start on my classmates.  Ava and I started with her first workbook on Wednesday and although it says to do 1-2 a day we average about 4-5.  We will do some early in the day and then typically color or paint afterwards.  Then we have lunch, free play, and then normally another learning activity.  We never do 4-5 in a row because well,  she is two and typically doesn't want to sit still, listen, and follow direction for that long.  Here are some photos of this afternoons session...please ignore the craptastic grain and lighting issues in the photos...the camera was on auto and the lighting sucked.   

Oh, and I got a schooling today from Ava...hahah.  I decided to challenge her with Angelina being a girl and well here you go.

Ava:  You're a girl Mommy

Me: I am a girl and so are you

Ava:  I'm not a girl

Me: Then what are you

Ava: I'm an Angelina Ballerina

Me: Angelina Ballerina is a girl

Ava: No, Angelina Ballerina is a Princess

Me: and a Princess is a girl

Ava:  No a Princess is an Angelina too

Another thing I have learned from Ava is that her Mommy and Daddy are yellow and she is white.  

It seems for everything I teach her she teaches me a thing or two as well.

Thankful Thursday 6-9

This week I am thankful for a great birthday.

 and getting to use my awesome Mother's Day gift

 and for sparkly shoes

 and for an easy to please toddler

 and for ice cold sweet tea

 and side ponytails

 and stripped shorts

 and that picnic baskets come with plastic cups

 and airplanes

 and ever growing little feet

 and for farm fresh fruit

 and yummy sugar cookies

 and giggles galore

 and my fold up waterproof blanket

 and for Nana and her yummy birthday cakes

 and for my birthday dinner...

 ...with my family

 and for not having to blow out 28 candles.

**Update on Ava and her none girl status**

Ava:  My Daddy is a boy

Me: Yup

Ava: My Mommy is a girl

Me: Yup, and my Ava is a girl too.

Ava: No, I not a girl

Me: Your not...well, what are you?

Ava:  I'm an Angelina Ballerina

Guess I could have argued that Angelina Ballerina is a girl but I'd be arguing with a toddler and we all know that toddlers win all arguments. 

Love that Shot-Oh, So Dramatic

My only formal photography training is in Black and White photography.  I took a class on it in high school and continued in college.  I love how dramatic it can be and surprisingly diverse given the limited color spectrum. 

Love that Shot-Summertime Treasures

I don't know if it is the yellow, the hat, or the bright green of the trees but for me this says summer. 

Rewind....catch up....

A little bit of Sunday and Monday before I finish up Tuesday.

Dinner and hanging out at Uncle Doug and Aunt Denise's

 this little bugger turned away from me every time I tried to capture him/her walking towards the camera.

 She covered herself in stickers on the way over

Then yesterday we went to Nan's

 She was bound and determined to get the door open herself.  Little does she know there are only a small number of us who can actually open it.

 "I do it"

 "No Mommy, No Nana"

 "Ugghhhhhhhhhhhhh"

 "I do it, no touch it"

Eventually she dropped the keys which I quickly snatched up and turned the key in the lock and handed them back to her so she could think she did it.

Toddler Tuesday 6/7/11

It's my BIRTHDAY!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!! 

It's also Toddler Tuesday where I like to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of photographing a toddler.  Today we were having a picnic lunch and afterwards we were doing puzzles.  I had my camera and decided to try to get a few pictures of Ava and I together.  Well I didn't get very far because she wanted to do it.  I thought ok let's see how this works.

Step 1:  Press button for timer.

Step 2:  Tell Ava to press the BIG button

Step 3: Tell her to hurry, hurry and lay next to me

Step 4:  Wait for it, wait for it

Step 5:  See what magic my toddler caught

She did really well.  A few times she slide and fell into place or was still moving as the shutter clicked.  A couple of times she also got her arm in the way while the camera focused so it thru the focus off.  Overall though we got some great shots that I processed and now will share. 

This was really fun and Ava seemed to really enjoy it.  She likes to take pictures so I'm sure we'll be doing this again.