Just Afton

(silly side)

(super afton)

(first ballet/tap class...and she is hooked!)

(word she spelled by herself this week)

Here is an excerpt from Afton's journal update today:

Smart, quick witted, thoughtful, always excited, maturing, outgoing…all of these words describe Afton. She always has a comeback, sometimes silly, sometimes feisty. When she learns someone is sick or sad Afton always suggests drawing a picture or making a card for him or her. Afton wakes up excited to be awake and asks what the daily plans are as soon as her eyes pop open. At the park, on a play date or visiting anywhere that other kids are, Afton spots someone one close to her age and offers her friendship, “Do you want to be my friend?” It’s so sweet! When Patrick is play teasing her or when either of us speak sternly to her, Afton cannot help but offer her comment back to us (so much like Mom and Dad). And Afton is growing up so quickly! Things are “boring” now, she is aware of things in the world like cigarettes (they KILL people), stranger danger and keeping bodies healthy (Mom is you eat too much candy you’ll get a fat tummy).

Her favorites are:

BOOK: any new library book that she picks out (not the ones Mom chooses)
FOOD: French toast
TREAT: Gum (the girl will do just about anything for a piece of gum)
ACTIVITY: Playing games, Leap Pad, Movie time, Play dates, anything with Dad

NEW THINGS
Afton started preschool at home with Mom two weeks ago. She really wanted to attend a co-op preschool with some buddies, but the kids were younger and at a different learning level than Afton so I made an executive decision to do a on-on-one preschool with her this year. Every week we have a theme and each day we spend 90 minutes reading, drawing, writing, and science/art/math/geography. Afton gets the calendar out each morning to get us started and mostly enjoys the program.

My goals for her are:
1. Continue learning all upper and lower case letters.
2. Master basic reading skills (sight words, vowel rules, partner letters rules)
3. Be able to spell simple words
4. Improve sight drawing (draw a picture of this…)
5. Learn simple geography of the world, and the US.
6. Learn about other cultures and traditions.
7. Have personal time with Mom each day.
8. Feel proud at her accomplishments, great and small.