Our bedtime ritual

Lately, instead of reading the boys books together before bed, daddy has been reading to Ben and I've been reading to Will. Will and I are trying to tackle some big kid literature instead of just sticking to picture books. We read Charlotte's Web which he loved, and are now working our way through The Wizard of Oz. He also reads his sight words and word family lists to me during this time. He is getting to be such a good reader!

The change in him is amazing between the beginning of the school year to now. It used to be like pulling teeth just to get him to read through one phonics word list, and now he will sit there with the whole box of them and read them to himself! I am actually having to stop him from reading more at bedtime so that we have time for our chapter book.

He is very motivated to get a "Grand Slam" in school. He brings home lists of sight words to memorize. There are about 20 words in each list, he learns them, tests on them at school, and then gets a ring pop and another list. There are 10 lists in all and he is currently on list 8. If he learns all 10, then tests on all 200 words together, he earns the "Grand Slam" award and TWO ring pops. Amazing what a kid will do just to get a piece of candy;).

I am also enjoying our special time together at night. With three of them, it's hard to get time alone with each and Will is so independant that he doesn't really ask for much time from me during the day, so this is good for both of us, I think. He really feels special getting to hear big boy books that his brothers are not ready for yet.

Last week in school, Will was the Star of the Week. We made him a special poster board with all of his pictures and family pictures on it and he got to be the special helper, line leader, and share different things each day. He also got to take home the class Mascot, Curious George. He was so excited about that! He slept with George all week and took him everywhere with us. Here is a picture of him with George:





Here is another picture of him taken that same week, dressed as a Leprechaun. They made these in Kindergarten and when the teacher walked the kids out of the class, they were all wearing these- too cute!