The Kumon Way

The Kumon Method enables each child to progress successfully by practicing material until concepts are mastered and advancing in small, manageable increments.

I've gotta say, I'm a big fan of these books.  The incremental pace of difficulty is perfect... not to mention Maddie loves the certificates at the end of each book, this is her 2nd one (other one was for the Kumon 1st book of coloring).  We actually started with a book on mazes/tracing, but I wasn't following the Kumon way -- I skipped all around the book with her, I later learned there's a reason why pages are numbered!  Some of the mazes were a bit difficult too, so about 2/3 way through the book I changed course and started another book on uppercase letters... we'll come back to the mazes after she knocks down a couple more books with tracing activities.

Activity time thus far has been great, we've been doing 10-15 minute sessions each night (2-4 pages) and each time she picks up more.  Not only has she been able to trace the letters well, but more importantly, Maddie takes the time to focus and keep trying.  Now I can't say her attention span is 100% the whole time, but once she knows what lies ahead, she keeps cranking through... that by itself is way more important than tracing a letter. 

Tonight we completed upper case letters, tomorrow - we'll crack open the workbook on numbers (1-30).   

Update from East Am Branch

Enjoying an outdoor lunch on a nice spring day.

First baseball practice.

No More!

The weaning process has begun.  Effective today, Dylan only has to wear his helmet when he's sleeping... and by next week Friday -- no more!  The helmet worked very well, and in a short time period (3 months).  A more common time period is in the 6 month range, so we're pretty happy with the results. 

Someone at work asked me what I thought of the whole thing.  I told them I wasn't sure if it was worth the investment... this was purely an analytical response of course.  We did see a drastic change, but was it really the helmet that did it?

Obviously any investment in your child is worth it, but I still can't help but think that he started rolling on his side and belly shortly after we decided to go with the helmet.  Would his head shape have changed anyway?  The whole reason he had the flat spot on his head was due to a stiff neck and sleeping in the same position every night.  Given that infants' heads are very soft (and moldable), perhaps the new sleeping position would have been enough. 

Regardless, we're very happy with our decision to go with it.  I'm just glad that we had an option available to us at the time of concern... plus he was only 5 months old and the helmet is very effective in the 5-7 month window -- actually any time before 7 months from what I hear.  Based on those data points, there was no questioning our decision.  Why take a chance and regret it later -- odds were on Dylan's side.

That being said, I cannot wait to get this this piece of biomedical-plastic off his head in a week! 

Spring Temps

As is the case every year, the temps span all over the place in the early weeks of spring.  Just in the past week it's gone from 40 to 80 and back to 40. So anytime the weather is outdoor permitting, we take full advantage.  You can't lose when you go to the park -- we get to take an outdoor stroll, Dylan is always happy cruising in the stroller, and Maddie... well, she's a 2Y10M old, find me a kid that age that doesn't like the park!

The Simple Things

Here's Maddie and Dylan playing in the living room... the simple things that make this little guy laugh.  Maddie was rolling a tub of cream on the floor and Dylan was loving it.

Easter Weekend 2010

A rare family photo at Salvatore's on Easter Sunday.

Chelsea and Dylan hanging out on the couch. Chelsea loves to hold her little cousin.

We had a bbq on Saturday with the old gang.  Before the festivities started, Madison and Chelsea played in the kiddie pool.  Temperature outside was 80!  Hard to believe that was just a week ago, this morning when I went outside it was in the 30s. 

Avery, Chelsea and Madison cruised around the yard for a good portion of the day.

This was Easter egg hunt 2 of 3 for the weekend... obviously 3 of 3 was actually on Easter Sunday!  Ryan put this together for the kids and they all had a great time.  Here's Maddie carefully picking her treats. 

Visiting Friends in WNY

After our long road trip back to WNY we dropped by the Cinquino's... where we all had a good time.  Maddie and Cailee seemed to enjoy each others company, and Madison really enjoyed playing with a new set of toys -- she loves this car!

All smiles from AJ.

Maddie and Cailee went on an Easter egg hunt for quite some time.  After they would come back with their eggs, Rob would pull them out, refill them, and hide the eggs in the yard again.  This do-loop went on for a while, and then I hear Michele laughing... apparently she had opened one of the eggs and it was filled with peanuts!  I guess Rob ran out of goodies and some peanuts made the cut.  I spent about a half hour googling for a picture of an egg filled with peanuts, no such luck... chalk up another one for Rob. 

Settling down for the night. 

Road Trips

Long forgotten are the days of the uneventful (simple) road trip.  I can pretty much guarantee that there will be a dual crying episode combined with an unexpected diaper change.  I correlate long road trips with two kids with popping a bag of microwave popcorn.  When I pop a bag of popcorn, I always stand in front of the microwave contemplating if I should stop the pop -- or wait a few more seconds and get the maximum amount of food. However if you wait too long, sure you get more popcorn... but at what price, burnt popcorn doesn't really please the taste buds. 

Back to my road trip comparison.  A couple of hours into a long car ride -- the kids are usually happy and hopefully sound asleep --  and eventually one of us asks the question:  should we stop at the next rest area and stretch out (should we take the popcorn out now, or keep popping)?  Now it makes perfect sense to do so, but why stop if things are going so well?  We travel well equipped with the necessary food, dvds, diapers etc... why not handle the situation if when it arrives.  We can always stop at the next rest stop when the inevitable happens, examples:  aroma emanating from a 2-3 hour old diaper, or just a random crying episode due to sheer boredom or discomfort.  The vast majority of the time, we do let the kids initiate the rest stop.  Any why not, maybe we can get 3-4 hours into the trip before getting out of the car for the first time.  Like the burnt popcorn, if you wait too long to stop with two kids, you are also playing the game which involves quick diminishing returns.  You see, two kids sitting in car seats can quickly become unhappy -- and when they do, the dual crying does not stop.  You simply have to be patient, mentally go to a happy place, and quickly scramble to the closest rest stop to remedy the situation.  I feel like Cathy and I are pros, we have a method that works very well... and more importantly, keeps the kids happy 93% of the time. 

Our last trip into Buffalo was a doozy, we made great time to Niagara Falls -- only to wait at the border for two solid hours!  The kids actually did very well, the pic below was snapped during the wait.