Happy Reading

Pumpkin coffee.  Pumpkin candles.  Long-sleeved shirts with shorts.  Cooler temperatures and a breeze?  I am diggin' it.
School is coming right along for both my littles and sometimes I'm even getting a little time for myself.  Today I got a massage and that is just a glorious thing.    I was totally in need of it since we're a little wired around the Reinig residence these days.  We're scheduled to close on our house before the end of the month, and if you've ever bought a house before then you know that can be a tad stressful.  I've already started packing and now we're to the place where it's an are-we-going-to-need-this-in-the-next-two-weeks kind of mentality.  I'm excited that we get to move when it's not the dead of summer and I'm looking very forward to being settled in our new place.

While all that's happening, we're trying to maintain as much of a normal routine as possible.  It's hit or miss.
Oh, and did I mention that I'll be going on a kid-free vacation in about a month?  Bingo.  I'm ready.  Until then, here's  a peek at what's been all the rage.

We have been reading like crazy around here.  I mean, I'm always reading something...but now it's spilling over with the kids too.  Part of Christian's homework each night is to read, and since Audrey loves to be read to she is more than happy to sit and listen to the stories too.

The night of Audrey's pre-school open house we were a few minutes early and the library just happened to be open and close by.  We stopped in and picked up a few books to bring home with us.

They were both so excited to be able to pick out some books on their own!

We checked out five books that day, but two of them easily took the lead as their favorites.

We've since returned those books and have been working more with the ones we have at home, but we are all pumped to go back and choose some new stories.

Christian is up to knowing about 20 or 30 sight words.  I am amazed that he knows that many after only a few weeks of school!  Once or twice a week the teacher sends home an index card with five new words on it.  l take that and make individual cards, one with each word. 

With each day, Christian becomes more familiar with the words.  One night last week, I laid out several words together.  He read the words to me as he had been, but after he said, "I like red" his whole face lit up!  He had that great big belly laugh going!  He knew he had just done something awesome!  I asked him when he started reading sentences, and with his happy little face that can light up a room he said, "right now!"  It was such a fun learning moment!

He was very nearly beside himself at being able to read some of the words in The Chick and the Duckling!    

I love it that this is something we really enjoy doing together!

Reading is such a foundational part of learning.  Everything else builds on that knowledge that he is gaining right now.  Even though I'm not in the classroom, I'm feeding that need to teach through my own kids.  Who woulda thought?