On to Caden

I am determined to get caught up and now there is more and more to say. So, as the title says, on to Caden. Caden is a sponge who loves to learn and begs to do school work even when I don't have time. I was looking at Ezekiel's school work in K5 and 1st grade, and much of what Caden is doing now (just turned 4 November 21st) is equal to or better than what Zeke was doing at those ages (I attribute this to HOMESCHOOLING) . About the only difference is that Zeke was reading by about this time in K5. Where is Caden at with school? Well, he is counting to 30 with no help and to 100 with a little help. He says all of his alphabet and consistently recognizes and can write 20 of the letters. There are a few hold outs like "G" that he still has difficulty remembering and writing. He spells his name and writes his name without help. He recognizes the sounds for about half his letters, and is eager to start sounding out more and more words. He can spell and write the words Stop, Mom, Dad, and a couple more. He recognizes all of his colors and all of his basic shapes ( has done this for a while). We are still working on Pentagon and Octagon, but he is really starting to get the idea down that the number of sides determines the name of the shape. Right now he is anxiously trying to learn how to draw all the shapes. This is challenging when it comes to triangles and diamonds. He still hasn't tried to draw a star or a heart yet -- WHEW. He colors really well, and cuts with scissors like a champ(LOVES to cut). He can do the first part of tying his shoes but can't quiet pull the loop through yet. He knows that he lives in City: Shepherdstown, State: West Virginia, Country: United States, Planet: Earth. He can say all of his Days of the week in order and is getting pretty good at coming up with what day tomorrow is if he knows what day today is.

When he is not begging to do school work, he loves LEGOs. The boys play LEGO's all the time. Since Russell left for school, Caden now shares the downstairs room with Zeke and is so happy to have a loft bed. The two of them really play well together especially since they seem to have very similar interests across the board. We have not spent as much time walking and running in the past month because we have been travelling a lot and their has been a lot of bad weather and a bit of sickness in the house. Caden has decided that he does not like riding in the jog stroller on walks anymore ( although he still does when I run), and he has started walking/running along with us when we hike. He has gotten to the point where he can/will hike up to 5 miles with us -- No Problem. We are trying to work up to ten miles for a trip we are planning on taking in the spring (We are planning to hike/camp with the whole family down the C&O Canal from Shepherdstown WV to Alexandria VA). The kids are so excited. He is also looking forward to starting Tae Kwon Do but will not do that until March. When Zeke has to renew his membership for the next year we will add a class in for Caden (he already counts to 10 in Korean just from listening to Zeke's classes).

As I stated earlier, Caden had a birthday a couple weeks ago and is now 4. We were staying in a hotel the night before picking up Russell for Thanksgiving break, and Caden woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I went to check on him, and out of the blue he says "I want my birthday cake to have my name on it in green writing, and cannons." So the included picture was his cake complete with green writing (until it ran out) and LEGO cannons. He got a Game Boy and a watch from Mommy and Daddy and army men and Legos from Russell and Zeke. He had a great birthday.