Super Reader

During Colin's year in First Grade, he really proved to be an awesome reader.  Many of you with kids are probably familiar with AR Points.  If not, basically they are points given for reading books and taking comprehension tests.  For example, if Colin were to read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and make a perfect score on the test, he would be awarded 1/2 AR point.  If he read the full unabridged version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and made a perfect score on the test, he would get 6 points.  The kids are then recognized for reaching 25 pts and 50 pts.  Once they reach 100 pts, they get the special recognition of receiving a cool shirt.

Keeping in mind that Colin was in the First Grade (when I remember reading See Spot Run), he was recognized in February for reaching 100 AR Points, which was a tremendous accomplish.  I would estimate that from September-February, 90% of his books were 1/2 point each, meaning he read close to 200 books.

It took Colin 6 months to get to the first 100 points, but he had begun reading much more difficult books.  For example, I bought him the book "How to Train Your Dragon" after seeing the movie and it's a pretty significant book.  He read it in less than 4 days.  It has 240 pages and here's an example of one page:

He has completed the first 6 of those books in the series as well as some other challenging books.  He is working on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe now, with my help (as C.S. Lewis was from Ireland and they were written back in the 50's, the grammar makes for a more difficult read).  Within 3 months, Colin had read enough to reach 200 points and so in May he was awarded a 200 point shirt at a recognition in front of the school assembly. He also got to participate in a 100 Point Club Party at the end of the school year, which was very exciting for him.

It boggles my mind how he excels at reading.  I always have loved reading and we've tried to instill that in our boys as well, but I know I wasn't anywhere near this level at his age.  We just found out last week that he was accepted into the GT (Gifted & Talented) Program for next year.  It's great, as it gives him an opportunity several times a week to be in an advanced class and get additional learning challenges.

He's already set his goal for Second Grade to get a 300 point shirt.  Even though he will start over at 0 points at the beginning of the school year, I don't doubt that he will make that goal based on how he did this past school year.

Big Brothers!! (Update)

UPDATE:  For those who don't know yet (as I had forgotten to update this post), we are having a girl!  The good thing is that both boys have said from the start that they wanted a baby sister.  But what am I going to do with a girl?!?! 

Colin is a big brother today, but Noah is very excited as he will soon be a big brother as well. We are expecting, with the due date mid-October!!!

Both of the boys have stated that they want a baby sister, which we found a bit surprising. Actually, to clarify that a bit - Noah says that it IS a baby sister. Definitely amusing, especially when you consider that Noah stated the following a few days before we even knew we were pregnant (and we hadn't mentioned babies at all to the boys): "Mama, I don't know what you're going to name the new baby."

We will find out in about two weeks whether we're expecting another boy or a girl. Just five months to go until we are back in diapers!!!! Yeah!!

Comments Finally Fixed

Ever since I've been doing this blog, I have had issues with the Comments option.  Today, I finally got it to work.  So on the blog site, at the bottom of each post, there is now a link to add comments to our posts.

For those reading this on Facebook, the link is www.thewesterfamily.blogspot.com
 

Little Thinkers Inquisitive Humor

Here's another addition to my series called Little Thinkers to highlight some humorous comments and thoughts by our kiddos:

For those reading this on Facebook, you can find past issues of this series at our blog site: www.thewesterfamily.blogspot.com

Since we are now expecting a third kid, we thought it would be fun to ask the kids what we should name the new baby. Noah gave us some names of kids in his class. But Colin decided to be a bit more creative and said, "If it's a boy, we should name him Tom. If it's a girl, her name should be Jerry." Someone has been watching too many cartoons....

Noah told me the other day that he's glad he isn't a grown-up. When I asked why, he said, "Because grown-ups don't have piggy banks."

We had a discussion with Colin about grandparents and grandkids. I told him that Grandpa is also my dad. I then asked him what his kids would call me when he grew up and had kids. He thought about it a moment and then said, "Grandpa." I congratulated him on getting that right and then I asked him if he knew what his kid's kids would call me. He gave me a puzzled look, so I told him that I would be their great-grandpa. He kind of laughed at that and said, "No they wouldn't, because you'd probably be dead."

Pictures With Cousins

Two weeks ago, we met my brother and sister and their families and had pictures taken of all of the grandkids. We did this a few years ago with great success, providing some great pics to my parents.

This year we changed it up a bit, with my sister's kids (Taylor and Jaden Reynolds) wearing dark blue shirts, my brother's kids (Robin, Courtney, Brandon and Nathan Wester) wearing white shirts and mine (Colin and Noah Wester) wearing light blue shirts.

Top Row (l-r): Noah, Colin, Taylor, Jaden
Bottom Row (l-r): Courtney, Robin, Nathan, Brandon

Just like last time, we also had an additional picture taken of just the five younger boys, seen here (left-right: Jaden, Colin, Brandon, Noah, Nathan).How time flies, as here are the original five boys, taken about two years ago (Left-Right: Noah, Brandon, Jaden, Nathan, Colin)


Here's a few pictures of Colin and Noah taken at the same sitting.

Football

Much to my surprise and pleasure, Colin has recently taken quite an interest in football. One day, while I was watching a Cowboy game, he came and sat down next to me and started asking questions. And he watched the last half of the game with me.

The next thing I know, he is talking a LOT about football. He talked about the Cowboys, he asked who they were playing next, who were all the other teams in football, etc. Since then, he watched several Cowboy games with, although never the full game (usually a quarter or two before he'd get restless). But even when he wasn't watching, he would run into the room every once in a while to check the score and cheer on the team (or not).

What's funny is that 4 or 5 weeks prior to the season ending, another game was on TV with the Minnesota Vikings. For some reason, he really keyed into that team and kept asking me when the Cowboys would play them. I said they wouldn't play unless they both went into the playoffs. Of course, they did end up playing each other in the playoffs. Well, actually the Vikings played - the Cowboys, not so much...

Here are some pics on the boys and me playing around outside, as Colin wanted me to teach him how to juke, spin and stiff arm his way to a touchdown.

Snow.... in Texas??

Although I've lived here all my life, I don't recall ever getting this much snow at one time. I remember some good snow storms when I was younger, but I don't think it was as much as this time (and my mother and brother agree). We got about 9 inches of snow at our house, but my brother had a few inches more.

It was so exciting to be able to build a snowman, have a snowball fight, make snow angels, eat snow (not any that was yellow colored...), and other fun in the snow with our kids. They had only seen just a little bit of snow and even then it was so dry or icy that you couldn't do much with it anyway.

This snow was perfect for making snowmen and snowballs and it was so much fun to watch the boys run around in it. And they weren't ready to come in, even when we knew we'd better get them in to get them warm.

Click here for a link to see more pictures.

School Recognition

At Colin's school, they hold a student rally each Friday morning called Bulldog Boogie, during which they give different types of recognition from teachers on achievements during the week (Kindergarten-Fourth). Also they give out recognition to students who have been an example in a specific character trait that is the focus during that six weeks. At the end of each six weeks, a certain number of kids are recognized in a big way as Top Dog.

While in Kindergarten, Colin always talked about how he wanted to get one of those achievements, as they give the kids a certificate as well as a "dog tag" with that trait written on it. He was especially excited in trying to win Top Dog, as the teachers line up and form a tunnel that the kids go through to get their recognition. However, he never received any of them, which disappointed him greatly.

Not to be discouraged, Colin told us at the beginning of First Grade that he was going to win some this year. True to his word, in September he was recognized for Responsibility. Here is a picture of him getting the recognition in front of the school assembly and then with his teacher, Ms. Klea. He was so excited about it.

In November, Colin received Top Dog recognition. One of us is always present at the Bulldog Boogie, but on that day Noah was sick, so Tammy went to Bulldog Boogie. We didn't know Colin was getting recognized, so she didn't have a camera, which was disappointing as it's a pretty neat event. Here is his Top Dog Award. This is the award that Colin was most excited about (so far) this year.


In February, Colin was recognized for Trustworthiness. He had no idea he was getting recognized and it was quite amusing watching his reaction when they called his name. Below are pictures of him getting his award and a picture with his classmate, Christina.

Picture This

Colin's first grade pictures came back today and we had to share, of course. He's growing up too fast - where's the little boy in this picture?

New Pictures Posted

I've posted some recent pictures on our Picasa site, so click here to see some more like those below: