FortKnox's Journal: Officially a Monster

On 4/28, I was 'officially' married for 3 years. On 5/5, my wife was 'officially' 26. And today, 5/10, Joey is 'officially' in his terrible twos. I say 'officially' because he has already acted like he was two since like 4 months ago.

We spent this weekend at my parents house to celebrate Joey's birthday (yes, the trip was a bear for me, see previous JE for details on why). He made out with lots of loot, of course. My parents got him a climbing set. They wanted to get him a giant swingset, but we'll wait for next year, and get a strong wood set that my father & I can build. My brother & sister-in-law got him a toy grill since he always wants to 'play' with daddy's grill while daddy is cooking.

We got him a lot of little things. "The Letter Factory" (as per StB) so that he'll be reading hemmingway next year, a 'wiggles' shirt that he say and fell in love with at the store, and a sturdy radio-flyer tricycle (we were going to get him a big-wheel, but his feet didn't reach the petals). We gave him the tric this morning when he woke up (I put it together last night). Never heard him say "Wow, look at that!" before, but I'll take it as a good response ;-)

I have pictures of everything. He had a 'wiggles' ice cream cake, and we'll be going to chuck-e-cheese tonight for his birthday. When everything is done, I'll d/l all the pictures to the server and share'm out with all yens.

Leapfrog Letters

[dmorin]

I'll have to check out that video. Know what we have from LeapFrog that I always thought was a great toy is a set of magnetic letters for the refrigerator and a special player that when you stick a letter onto it, it tells you what the letter is and sings a song about it. Annoying as heck for parents, but my daughter digs it.

Now if I could just get my daughter to systematically play with it we'd be all set :). She can do the alphabet song pretty well, but if I point at random letters she will, in turn,

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Re:Let me know

[FortKnox]

We already have a toy that plays the same songs, so its a bit of a rehash, but he watches the video intently.

What made my wife practically crap herself was when he opened it he said "Letter Factory!" with a smile.
No, he didn't read it... the place we drop him off for the two days when my wife works has the video and he's seen it a couple times already. So its going good so far :-)

Re:Let me know

[bethanie]

It came for Kiddo this weekend. :-) (Didn't know I was listening, didjya?!)

OK, so first off, I'm *really* picky when it comes to video material for my kid. And I *know* I pick stuff that's mostly over her head... for know.

So, that said, I think that the cartoon bit is pretty cheesy -- the plot really sucks, and the animation is straight out of one of those Korean sweatshop animation studios that would turn me off immediately when I was a kid (and that Kiddo watches *none* of). And I'm a *little* concern

Re:Let me know

[ellem]

Flash Cards. Flash Cards. Flash Cards. Danny [mac.com] is scary wicked smart and he's gone through Leap Frogs/Pads like there's a pot of gold at the end. He's on 3rd grade stuff and he turned 5 last Sunday. Flash Cards were the key. Phonics cards, small word cards, large word cards, cards with pictures you need to put together, constant, vowel, German, Spanish, American Sign Language cards. Flash, flash, flash cards.

Re:Let me know

[bethanie]

Yeah -- that's how she learned her alphabet -- in like two months or less. Just playing around with me & Hubby with flash cards. And believe me, I have a *ton*.

We've pretty much gone through the entire "What your Kindergartner Needs to Know" and I just got my copy of "What Your First Grader Needs to Know" from Amazon yesterday. (I'm pretty hot on the idea of the "Core Knowledge" type of curriculum, plus a bunch of math & skills stuff.) So I know what you mean about that advanced stuff... I'm tryin

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