The "Talk"

The day has finally come. The day that every parent dreads- the day, that inevitably scars a person forever. The icky-sticky-yucky-mucky talk that will have a profound impact on one's life. Andy and I have been waiting for this day for a long time. We have been anticipating when the opportunity would arise, in giving Nate the dreaded "talk of shame".

It all happened when Nate recived a magazine promo in the mail about animals. He loves that kind of thing, and so he was excited to read about the Sabre Tooth Tiger and the Killer Shark attacking its prey. He is reading along, and as he is discovering more and more things he didn't know about the wild animal kingdom, he is excitedly telling Andy and I what he has learned. "Mom, did you know that alligators eat the heads off of deer?" I looked, and sure enough the vicious alligator has its jaws locked around the neck and head of a deer (or what was left of it) in its gigantic jaws. He is going on and on, and eventually he and Andy end up in the other room talking about all the cool animals featured in this mini magazine. A few minutes later, Andy walks in, with his face contorted, eyes watering, obvious signs that he is holding in loud laughter. I'm looking at him confused. "What did you do?"

He sits next to me and whispers "I did it! I finally gave him the talk!" Immediately my face turns bright red. I can't believe I am blushing. But the thought of my sweet and innocent little boy dicovering a little more about the "wild animal kingdom" was certainly more than he bargained for, and I just couldn't help with identifying with him in that moment. He likes girls. As friends. But when it is teased into something more, he goes crazy with anger. So just imagining him learning about the s-word was more than I could take.

It was a little awkward at first. Nate went to his room for a little bit, undoubtedly to process the information on his own. But when he came back out of his room, all was well. He quietly opened his magazine and continued to read. And it was then that I realized how sweet, unproblematic, and uncompliated children really are.

Stubbs Ave.

My friend Pamela sent me this picture after she took a trip to Provo. We know the street well! We used to live in Orem and Andy worked for Turf Plus (a lawn spraying company). He would travel throughout the area and one day he ended up on Stubbs Avenue! He thought "hmm how funny is that?" After spraying the lawn he was assigned to, he had to get the homeowner's signature. He noticed after looking at the paperwork that it was a Stubbs. So he told the guy that he was also a Stubbs and the man said "who's your father?" He doesn't know him. Then the man asks "who is your grandfather?" Andy tells him and the guys says, "hey, that's my brother!" What a small world!

Hooked on Phonics

I have been out of touch with the blogging world for a couple of weeks. But it is thanks to the blogging world that Drew can now read. A BIG thank you goes out to Jenny Bobo for recommending the Leap Frog Letter Factory video on her blog! I would be amiss if I did not pass on along the same information. This video teaches letters and sounds. I bought it specifically for Drew (who turned four just last month). I ordered it sometime in February and had him watch it EVERYDAY. It was his "school time" at home. And throughout the movie, it was his job to participate in saying the sounds and singing the songs as it went along. Within a week, he knew 20 out of the 26 letters by sight and sound. Before he started watching the movie, he could only identify about ten letters by sight and he didn't know many of the sounds. So this was a HUGE improvement, all within a week! It became a daily ritual; before nap time he would get out his special chair and watch this movie. This went on for about two months.

Once he knew all of his letters and sounds well, I started him on the Hooked on Phonics program. Hooked on Phonics was one of the best investments we have ever made! We bought it on ebay about five years ago and I have used it to teach Nate and Jace how to read. (They are both advanced readers in their respective classes.) The last three weeks Drew has been doing the program, as well as a neighbor boy, Jace's best friend Jayson. Drew is almost done with level 1 and on to level 2. It is amazing to see how well kids do on this progam. So I have to HIGHLY recommend these two products, they are worth every penny!