Well, we were in DisneyWorld when parent-teacher meetings should have been taking place. I hope that does not reflect poorly on us. We are fairly pleased with Mason’s progress—though the things they note are often some of the same issues we struggle with at home.
Continue reading ‘School Progress — Fall 2004’Archive for the 'Mason' Category
With his 2nd birthday just a little over a week away, Mason Keim managed to count to 12 yesterday. The event met with little fanfare—taking place as it did while Mason’s parents were fixing supper.
The young enumerator was sitting in his high chair quietly composing a new pen and paper sketch for his kitchen art show when he commenced his counting. It is not clear whether the counting began at one or two—as the number one is often simply understood in the counting procss.
The counting proceded quickly and confidently up through the number 8. Then a break in confidence caused a brief stumble. Repeating 8, the young scholar tentatively tried out the number 9.
In a quick save, Mason surprised one on-looker by choosing not to stop at ten but but instead deciding to put a little distance between himself and the troublesome 9. He powered through 10 and 11 for a strong finish at 12.
It was a commanding performance for the youngster who has already shown an aptitude for letters and shapes.
There are some new drawings done by Mason up in the art gallery. You can get to the gallery by visiting the Photos section. I keep meaning to rename it to “galleries” but then forget. I’ll try to do that soon.
We’ve been having a good time with Mason and learning to draw. I read a really interesting chapter about drawing in a book on how babies develop mentally. It provided some good suggestions for prompting children to draw things they are familiar with. We tried it and these new pictures are the result.
It’s very hard not to push Mason toward drawing things a certain way. I have an idea about how things should look and I sometimes try to get him to draw that way. However, once we got him talking about his drawings, it became obvious that he really is already making his own representations of certain objects. It’s very fun and we’re learning a lot about how he sees things.
Stop in and check out these new drawings. My favorite is his portrait of Mommy. Daddy with Banana is fun but the portrait of Mommy was where he used the most detail.
These days, Mason is constantly playing with language—sometimes even teaching his dad a thing or two. This morning I got him up and was taking him down to have breakfast. Before going down stairs we stopped to say “good morning” to Mom who was curling her hair. I asked Christi if I had left my coffee next to her on the counter. She handed it to me, Mason and I started toward the stairs and Mason called out, “Thank you, Coffee, Mommy”—pointing out that I hadn’t said “thank you.”
His big thing right now is to tease us. Today Christi pointed to a cat they saw in our neighborhood and asked him what it was. He looked at it and said, “Dog.” Christi said, “No, that’s not a cat. What is it?” He looked up in the sky and said, “Bird?” Then, just when Christi was giving up, he said, “CAT!” and threw his head back and laughed.
He has done the same thing to me when I have been putting him down for a nap. He will have just had a snack, but as I’m getting him ready for his nap, he’ll say, “Eat? Cookie? Sauce?” And then he’ll just laugh. Sauce, by the way, is short for applesauce.
I don’t know anything about the developmental stage he’s in right now, but teasing is the big thing.
At breakfast this morning the top to his milk was not on tight and it spilled into his tray. I had my back turned getting his toast ready but he immediately let me know by saying, “Mess! Mess! Mess!” As I was cleaning up the milk with paper towels he kept pointing to places I had already cleaned and saying, “MESS.” Then he would look at me and just grin.