A week of works

 Ellie's map of South America.

 Parts of a flower and leaf necklace.

My kids bring home massive amounts of "works" every week from Montessori school. I am always impressed by the creative projects they get to do, and the ridiculously cerebral topics they learn about (names of countries and continents, parts of a flower, the solar system, the life cycle of a pumpkin, the human body, weather patterns... are you kidding me?) They always come home with some sort of hat/crown, many beaded necklaces, paintings, rubbings, tracings, weavings, mobiles, and lots and lots of practice with letters and reading. Elena has now graduated to the third set of Bob books, and is bringing home "sentence works" and even some math problems. Jesse is *this close* to writing his name and I swear, he "gets" the reading concept, and once he learns all his letters, he'll be on the reading train as well. (Obviously, he also needs to learn how to speak clearly before he is able to sound out words.) The cool thing about Montessori is that I know that everything the kids bring home, they chose to do! Elena really loves letters and reading, and Jesse loves gluing and cutting, and they both love making necklaces and crowns. Each week, I see creativity, improvement, challenge, hard work, practice, and PRIDE in their accomplishments. Is it developmentally appropriate to subject my kids to so much... work? Not once have I heard either of my kids ever complain that they are working too hard, or are bored, or wish they could play more. As far as they know, their play is their work, and their work is their play. They come home tired and hungry, full of stories about the day, new songs to sing... and crazy trivia (today it was echolocation in bats... huh?)

Apple butter!

The great thing about apple butter is that you don't need to peel or core the apples. The unfortunate thing about apple butter, is that after you cook it down forever, you have to push it all through a sieve to get out the leftover cores and skins. All totally worth it-- this batch, enhanced with brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger (thanks, Fannie Farmer) really turned out amazingly well.

The language of "Ellie-Town"

E: Bagla-munie.
Me: What does that mean?
E: It means, "Is this all we're having for dinner?"
Me: Voodi loodie ma.
E: What does that mean?
Me: It means, "Yes, this is all we are having for dinner, you ungrateful daughter."

Me: How do you say, "I love you, Mommy"?
E: Kazai coupon!
Me: Kazai daughter!
E: No, "I love you, daughter" is "Braga lova meeno loovinog."

Fall

My son

Sadly, Jesse is not quite as verbally gifted as his big sister. While Teacher Pasha's only (non)problem with Ellie was that she talks too loud, she highly recommended that I get Jesse's hearing checked, and have him assessed by a speech therapist. Apparently, she does not speak "Jesse." Fortunately, Rachel is training to be a speech and hearing scientist/therapist person, so I called her up to get her opinion. She says that a complete stranger should understand 60-75% of a just-3-year-old's speech. So, here is my challenge to you, dear readers, how much of this story can you understand? Be honest-- I'm not actually worried at all about his hearing or language development.

I'll be the first to admit that I only got about 50%...

My daughter

Elena is a fabulous child. She definitely has a way with words.

1. She loves new words. She rarely lets me get through a book without quizzing me on all the words the doesn't know. Today, she learned "patchwork, lace, joist, dining, faded, and chintz." I guarantee she will find some way to use one of those words tomorrow (Thank you, "Princess Bess Gets Dressed.")

2. She loves Word Girl. She worships Word Girl. She emulates Word Girl. She not only actually learns words from Word Girl (e.g. catch phrase, villain, crime-fighter, side-kick, and today's word: bobble), but she also mimics Word Girl's mannerisms-- namely, the classic Word Girl giggle.

3. She does that thing that kid on "In the Middle" does-- whispering a new, or interesting word under her breath-- all the time. Like today, she was asking what I was putting in my hair? I said that they were Bobby Pins. "Oh," she says, then lowering her head, whispers, "Bobby pins..." Then she asks, "What is the difference between a Bobby Pin and a barrette? Is it that barrettes are plumper than bobby pins?" Yes, that is exactly it.

4. She talks VERY LOUDLY. She talks so loudly that people in the grocery store turn and stare, and librarians turn and scowl. She talks so loudly-- especially when excited-- that I have have to talk to her in a whisper to remind her keep her voice at a normal range. She talks so loudly that Teacher Pasha actually mentioned it at Teacher-Parent conferences this morning as her "one concern." (Remember, she is the teacher who has ridiculous non-concerns. In the same breath, she recommended that Jesse get checked for hearing since his speaking is still pretty intelligible. I suggested that he was partially deafened by his big sister YELLING IN HIS EAR.)

5. She makes up words a lot. She claims to know Spanish (ha) and decides to name things in a kooky Spanish accent that actually sounds pretty Spanish. Too bad her brain is already past the point of learning any second language fluently, but she'll sure be good at faking it.

6. Even after having Phoebe for 5 months now, she (and only she) still refers to her as "Phoebe Cupid." She also refers to Obie as "Oberon."

7. My personal favorite: When really making an important point, she often refers to herself as "Your Daughter." As in, "Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY, your DAUGHTER, your DAUGHTER got buckled into her car seat so amazingly fast!" Or, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, your son did not drink his milk, but your DAUGHTER drank up all her milk AND took her glass to the counter!" Or, "Mommy, your daughter really would love some more of that exquisite butternut squash pie!" (Then whispered under breath "exquisite butternut squash pie")

8. Oh-- I almost forgot. When particularly excited, she gestures A LOT when talking. Loudly.