Kamy — July

The kids’ lemonade stand is going great!  They often get repeat customers on Saturday morning and have even picked up a couple of camp counselors who come by each week.  Kamy is starting to lose a little interest in the stand — I think she’s pretty content with her current money situation so it’s less of a priority.  She bought Guess Who? this month.  At one point she had more than $60 in her box!  We suggested she start putting some money aside for our DisneyLand trip in December, so both kids have a jar for money specifically for our trip.  The rule is you can put in however much you want, but once it’s in you have to leave it in until we go.  Kamy has about $25 set aside right now.

Kamy is loving gymnastics!  She is so competitive, it really challenges her in a way that dance last year didn’t.  She likes getting better, learning new skills, and getting positive feedback from her coach.  At the end of July she completed level testing and successfully qualified for level 2!  She was so excited, especially since she just started gymnastics in June.  She will finish out the beginners class through the summer session and she is registered for intermediate level 2 starting this fall.

Kamy has figured out how to blow up balloons.  We had a set of both water balloons and standard air balloons at the 4th of July, so she’s been practicing.  She finally figured out the technique and can blow both kinds up with her mouth.  Now I’m constantly tying knots in the balloons and hearing “pop!”

Another tooth dropped out this month, so Kamy has quite a few gaps to work with!  Apples and bagels are particularly challenging when you’re missing teeth.  =)

Kamy is doing so well with reading!  She is getting more confident, and while she doesn’t like to read out loud to me (because she doesn’t want to be corrected), she’ll often sit on the couch and read to Caden.  When I’m busy in the kitchen, Caden will bring her a book and ask her to read it.  Kamy is a sight reader, rather than phonics reader, which is great when she is reading words she has been exposed to but she gets a little lost when it is new to her.  I’d say she is a solid first grade level reader and getting stronger all the time.  She is also getting better at mentally sounding out words and figuring out how to read a word that she hasn’t seen before.  Sometimes she can use context clues to find the answer, but she read, “Cinnamon Yoshi” one day while playing on the Wii.  I love that both kids enjoy reading and I see them sitting on the couch looking at books at least twice a day.

Speaking of Yoshi, she has been playing it a lot lately.  It’s been the game-of-choice for screen time after school, so both kids are plowing through the content one level at a time.  They are getting pretty good at it too — I am not any better than they are, though I tend to die less frequently because I’m more strategic.  =P  The kids have figured out that if they both choose the same thing for screen time, they can do it together and double their play time to 40 minutes.  That’s not quite our intention, but it’s a great incentive for Kamy to include her brother and for her to be nice to him since he’ll play by himself if she nags him too much.  Kamy always asks to go first for screen time and fun thing, but fortunately Caden usually is fine going second.

School is chugging right along.  We’ve been learning about Europe this month and reading a lot of picture books as supplements.  The kids have particularly enjoyed learning about some of the great European artists like Monet.  Kamy started a new math curriculum this month too, called Math Mammoth.  We’re beginning with 2nd grade, which will largely be review.  Kamy prefers a mastery type program where she has less repetition and review and more focused topics.  So far MM is a good fit.  It’s not as colorful or interesting as some of the random content I was generating for her, but I haven’t heard much complaining.  For now, we’ll just keep working through the topics and see where she ends up!  Math has always come pretty naturally to Kamy, so I’m happy to keep pushing on.  I really like that we can slow down and emphasize a new concept as necessary and still skip ahead when it is solid.