Katie at Computer Class

I know some of you are going to say "oh, my gosh! What next?" Tehe! Several months ago, I started teaching Katie how to use my laptop computer simply because I got tired of doing the computer games for her to just watch. At first, I had a hard time getting her to remember how to move the cursor and click on the mouse. It's really been hard with her being so young and not being able to read. Saying this, I have to say the more and more she uses the computer, the more she remembers even if she doesn't know what the word "next" means. She knows that she has to click on the button "next" to go to the next screen or "play" in order to start the game. Her favorite website is Barbie. She can play the "Mariposa Dress-Up", "Princess Dress-Up", "12 Dancing Princesses Ballet Dancing Game" and Peek-a-Boo Memory Game without assistance. Yeah, if she accidentally clicks on something she wasn't suppose to, she'll ask me to fix it. It doesn't happen a lot, so I think she is doing really good. Below are a few pictures of Katie playing her Barbie game. I hate it that you can't see the actual game on the computer screen. Yes, she is in her jammies because she wanted to play as soon as she got up yesterday morning.

Katie moving the cursor around with her finger

Katie clicking the mouse button to select an object on her game

Katie is still loving her Kumon workbooks. She's just about finished her Letter Tracing workbook, so I'll have to go out and get another one soon. Right now, she is content to re-trace the letters that she's already done. The dot-to-dot is a little more challenging because we've done all the dot-to-dots that go up to 15 count. The further you go through the book the higher the numbers go. Yikes! Katie gets a little distracted and impatient with me because I making her count past 15. Yeah, she still has a short attention span. By the way, me aggravating her about how to spell her name is finally paying off. YES! Now, when you ask her how to spell her name she will say "K-A-T-I-E". I'm so proud of her. I may have a hand full of gray hair from being frustrated, but I can't stop smiling when we finally accomplish something big. As she is tracing her letters, I'll add that "A" is for Alabama, "B" is for ball, etc. She remembered when I told her that "M" is for mommy. She recognized the letter "M" and said, "hey, that's for mommy" as she was pointing to the letter "M". Yay! I was so proud. So, if you are trying to teach your small children at home, I want you to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope after you feel like you are such a failure. Yes, your kids actually do listen to you. They just like to ignore you until it's necessary. LOL! I know I sound like a crazy mom, but I can't help but be so happy.

I spoke to my friend, Rachel yesterday during ballet. She was encouraging me to send Katie to K4 at Christ Covenant next year, so her and Zoe will be able to be together. I've been noticing the relationships Katie has made with the little girls in her class. They are all smiles when they see each other every Tuesday and have to tell each other "goodbye" before we leave. If one little girl isn't waiting to go to ballet class, Katie gets worried. Yesterday, Ella was running a little late and Katie wanted to know where she was. "Mom is Ella okay? Where is she?" she asked me. When Ella did show up, Katie asked her if she was okay. Ella chimed in and told us that she wasn't feeling good. Katie acting like a big sister, told Ella that she hoped she would feel better. She went as far as telling her, "awww, I'm sorry your sick." This is exactly what I had hoped to gain for Katie by going to ballet, relationships and some listening skills. She's developed the relationships, now we have to work on the listening skills.

Anywho, I mentioned to Doug what Rachel said about Christ Covenant and it ends up that I know the K4 teacher, Katie Burney. She is a member of our church and we both help out in our Children's Ministry together. She is always bubbly and she's so good with the 2 year olds. Rachel went on and on about how good she is with Zoe and how everyone (moms) love her. Last year, I called around to all the preschools here in town and we just didn't feel like we could afford to send Katie to a private school, with me not working. Now, I'm still not working and we have another bundle of joy coming. However, Doug wants me to call around again and get some estimates on area preschools. I really wished our city school system would offer a K4 program to the city that's not for lower income families. I had already heard that they are more than likely going to offer the program just for lower income families again this year, but Doug wants me to call and make sure. You would think since we pay the taxes for these programs that they would offer it to the city, no matter the income.

Tomorrow is baby doctor appointment. Whoo Hoo! They'll probably test me for Strep B and do the usual check up. I'll let you know how it goes.