arts and letters

wow, i'm very behind on our activities.. it's been a busy month!  i'll start with something simple:  a reading/writing/drawing update...

c has come so close to reading lately that i keep expecting it all to click all of the sudden.  she can pick out most of the consonants that she hears in words, though she has a harder time with vowels.  she can make all the sounds to read words when prompted, but she still has a hard time stringing together 'duh-ah-guh' by herself.  she does do a pretty good job of spelling out words though, so it can only be a matter of time -



she also loves to write.  this might have been her first unassisted note:

the final product read 'I LOVE LUCY FROM CHLOE'

we've also worked a bit on reading music.  she can label notes on the staff by working out their relative position to notes that she knows, then play it back on the piano or violin (in a limited range of course).  i find it interesting that she prefers to actually 'read' the music (the letters anyways), i.e. following along note by note, as opposed to memorizing.

one of the most fun things though, has been the evolution of her drawing skills.  she's always loved to color, but in the past six months or so, she's started drawing on her own.  her favorite subjects are generally people, and they're quite charming =)  here's one from last august:

one from december that she put in her present to Jesus box:

we moved from egg to insect around february:

with a stop in surfer-land:

i think this is my all-time favorite to date.  the artist describes it as 'mommy and daddy when they got married, and that's lucy watching in the corner':

a rare non-portrait of 'a building with lots of different bunk beds and a window.'  reminds me of madeline =)

and finally, we have the 'family on a path by the river', marker on packing paper ;-)