A bear has a fur coat? Really?

Okay, I know I said I would see you on Tuesday, but Tuesday went by way to fast! We spent the day at a friends house and the kids had a blast playing together. My friend has three boys, one of who has a special need. Emmie and him are stuck like glue! It's funny to see kids and their different personalities and quirks. It's amazing to see who they mesh with and how. They were exhausted when we arrived home and we all just settled in and relaxed the night away.

So, here we are today, Wednesday. This time next week we will be double checking backpacks, ensuring hair ribbons match outfits, and sharping pencils! It is so hard to believe school starts next week. Where in the world did summer go? My oldest two are ready to go back to school and have a break from mom (of course mom volunteers and works at the school so they really don't get a break) but they are sick of me telling them it's time to read!

Speaking of reading, tonight I allowed Emmie to chose a book to read. I have to admit, I was hoping for Fluffy the guinea pig or that crazy Wombat. Of course she make a completely different selection and arrived on the couch with a Little Bear book. Me and that bear have a good relationship, but secretly Fluffy is the main man! She sat next to me and read the title. After opening the first page and reading the first line or two I knew it was going to be a long chapter. I paused her and grabbed a story strip. I am sure these have an actual name, but I call them story stripes. They are used to highlight the line you are reading, while covering up the line before and after. Allow her to focus on what she is reading and it doesn't just look like a jumbled mess! The story strip helped, but not as much as I was hoping. She stumbled on simple words like see, she, and here. A few times she corrected herself immediately after realizing she made a mistake. Which actually impressed me! But sometimes she didn't know she made a mistake like when she read "Hurray! Now I will not be cold." Well that line came out "Hurry, No I will now be cold." When I stopped her and read the sentence that she said out loud, I asked her what it meant. Her response was, "well, it means now he's cold and his mom should hurry and help him." Hmmm.....comprehension, need to work on that more! Don't get me wrong, we work on comprehension a LOT but apparently I need to stress it even more. Anyway, we finished the chapter with no tears. After we read the chapter, I asked her six questions about what happened in the chapter and she was able to provide the correct responses. Basically Little Bear was cold, his mom made a hat, still cold, add in a jacket and then snow pants. Still cold, she took everything back and left him with his fur coat! Which of course kept him warm. So, one of my questions was, "Where did Little Bear find the fur coat?" Emmie let out a big "WHAT?" I looked at her a little confused. She went on.."Did you pay attention? He HAD the fur coat on him." "On him? What does that mean?" She gives me another "WHAT? He's a bear, mom. We should read it again."

No, honey, I was paying attention. Just make sure you were :)