The Education of Boys.

My boys both ran in the fastest boy in town competitions yesterday afternoon. Irvine participated in the Second Sunday activity where they close off streets so people can come out and walk/bike/skate or whatever. In conjunction with that, they had jump rope contest, hula hoop contests, and short races for young kids.

Cooper and I went down at 2:00 while Laurie and the little kids took naps. While there we found out about the races and called Laurie to have the little one's compete. Cooper ran his race. Ainsley didn't get there in time for her age group. And I ran with Elan to the starting line so that he could participate. The race was a down and back course. I went to the turning point, and yelled for Elan to run to me, which he did. Then I hugged him and ran back to finish. Again, I yelled for him to run to me, which he did. Cooper and Elan both won their races.

Below are two notes I wrote on Facebook. One entitled Elan cracks me up! and deals with Elan's ever expanding vocabulary and other points of his development. The other is Titled Cooper's Education. It too deals with an expanding vocabulary. Both were originally written in August 2009, but i just got around to posting them here.


Elan Cracks Me Up!
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 4:06pm

Elan's vocabulary and language skills are accelerating rapidly. And he ends up saying the cutest things.

He often uses the word us. As in... Us waked up. Us play Legos. Its really cute.
His favorite thing to say seems to be "Me do it." He is very independent.

Not too long ago as the family (minus me) was gathered at the table for a meal, Elan leaned over to lay his head on his mother. He was very obviously sleepy. As he laid his head down he looked up at Laurie and said, "Mama, I've had a hard day."

If Ainsley is setting in my lap, Elan will fuss. Invariably, his request... "Me sit in your other lap." He reckons there is a leg for each of them.

Elan is also a champion eater. The other kids are very selective, very slow eaters, but E will eat anything and is always ready for a snack or a treat.

Also, he is doing really well with his potty training. He wears big boy underwear nearly all the time. He'll usually let us know when he needs to go potty; one or two. Occasionally, he'll even make it through the night dry. And he is not at all apprehensive about peeing in the yard; any yard, anywhere, any time.



Cooper's Education
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 3:54pm

Every now and again we see the fruit of our labors.

In late spring I initiated a word of the week for Cooper. I would search the dictionary for a word that I wanted Cooper to be familiar with but that he had not yet had any reason for knowing. I ask him to look up the word, to write the word five times and to define it. Afterward, he is to use it correctly in a sentence. This is all on one page. Often he will also illustrate his sentence.

Cooper has been reading a lot lately. He recently finished "Where the Red Fern Grows" and more recently has completed one book from the Little House Series by Laura Wilder. A couple of days ago, as he was reading, he came across a sentence where Ma was darning a pair of socks. He got a big kick out of that. Darn had been one of his words of the week and he understood what she was doing because of it.

I was pleased.