Ryan: 4 Years, 5 Months

This seems like a valid picture to describe how Ryan feels about having to stay indoors for so long! With frigid temps and not even much snow to play in, we've passed the time playing inside with marbles, Hotwheels, legos, traintracks, building blocks, puzzles, balloons, books, forts, flashlights and coloring.

A new thing we started this month was the Financial Peach Junior Kit. We picked a few chores that he could get paid for to help him learn the connection between work and money. Here's his current list:

• Dust (helps with 1-2 rooms): $0.25
• Fold his own laundry (he can fold most of his own clothes with guidance): $0.25
• Set the table: $0.05 each time
• Put away the silverware from the dishwasher: $0.10
• Put away dirty clothes (in hamper in his closet downstairs instead of leaving them upstairs or in the bathroom): $0.05 a day
• Pick up all the toys at night, including helping with Cohen's: $0.05

He still has several things he's expected to do without getting "paid":

• Get dressed in clothes/pajamas/shoes/outerwear by himself
• Clear his place at the table, wash up
• Brush teeth 
• Pick up after bath time and clean up his room
• Help pick up/move things to vacuum
• Bring things out to the recyling bin

Following the age guidelines, we give him his coin right after he earns it and he puts it into a jar that counts the value as you put it in. At the end of the week, we trade it all in for dimes and then divide it into his Give, Spend, and Save envelope. We do one dime in Give, then split the rest evenly. He's only earned $0.80-$1.10/week so far and doesn't actually understand the value of money/how much things cost, but we're just getting started learning a few basic concepts. He LOVES his "Junior" books and can tell you all about why you should save, give, and not own anyone anything. He will also remind me that we can't get things like chocolate milk or fruit snacks or Oreos unless they are on sale.

Favorites Lately:
Food: broccoli with shredded cheese, green beans (he has been known to finish his meal, have dessert, and then ask for more green beans), pb&j, fudge pops, tacos, chili, and chicken & bean soup
TV Show: Curious George, Jake and Sheriff Callie's Wild West (on Disney Jr.)
Books: Marley, the dog books from the library and the "Junior" books from his Financial Peace for Kid's set. He loves reading new books from the library or from preschool book orders and loves the Hi Five Highlights magazine that comes every month.
Clothes: hooded sweatshirts and "comfy pants". He can do zippers on coats/hoodies and buttons on shirts but struggles with buttons on jeans. He's also in an awkward size where 4T is getting too short but I keep buying size 5 jeans that are way too long. We need shorts weather!
CD: Jesus Storybook Bible CD2 (He can act out The Young Hero and the Horrible Giant" including Goliath's threat "I'll rip your heads off and eat you on toast!", Farmyard Tales, Go Fish

We had his preschool conferences and although they don't do a formal eval, they just mark if the child is "Good" on a concept (like draws recognizable objects, understands sorting and patterns, can spot similarities and differences, predicts storylines, rhymes, etc.) or is "Working on it". They marked him "G" on everything and said he's a pretty sharp kid! (He's also probably the oldest in the class, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.)  I wondered if there was a letter "T" for "Too much" like the section on "asks questions for further understanding."

They love his questions and all the "stories" and "information he provides." If they talk about an animal, for example, he will tell them where the animal lives, what it eats, and who its predators are. He was SO bummed to miss the county conservationist who comes each month because he was home with Croup last week, and they said they missed him too because he always has great questions and is so excited to see whatever animals she brings.  His teachers said his class gets along really well and plays nicely together, including others and sharing well. So...I'll be anxious to start seeing that behavior at home one of these days too!! :)  We have some work to do on listening, obeying the first time, talking back, and keeping emotions under control, especially during transitions (leaving church, turning off cartoons, stopping playtime to eat or get ready for bed, etc.)  But, we have a lot to be thankful for and it seems he is growing up faster and faster (too fast!)