On Sunday night I had Kalissa’s boys and had them again on Monday. Here are some happenings from then.
I am catching Gannon all the time like this. He has a tool and is pulling on his pants. One time he even ended up with his diaper off. Good Grief! I finally figured out that he was trying to put a tool in his pants like Carver always does. Oh my. I ended up putting the tool in his waistband and he was all happy. It looks like we are going to have two tool loving boys.
Craig came home Sunday night all HAPPY!! He is done combining. The crop is out!! YAHOO!! He still has some long days ahead but the stress of having the crop out is OVER. I’m so happy.
You can see that Craig is sporting quite the facial hair. He said he refused to shave until the corn was out.
I am super happy to say we have a beginning reader at my house…see??
On Monday Kalissa and I were talking saying that we thought Carver might be ready to start reading. He knows all of the letter sounds and the other day he asked me, “Does ‘car’ have a ‘c’ or a ‘k’?” He meant for the first letter of the word.
Carver is a smart cookie, at only 4 years of age, and the other day I decided that he was likely ready to start doing some reading. I went to Making Learning Fun. That’s a website I created years ago filled with early childhood activities that are free and many printable. HERE is the link if you’re interested.
Well, I went looking for an activity that would help Carver learn some sight words. I printed the activity out and laminated the pieces. HERE is a link to the specific activity I picked.
It has houses and flames. The flames have words on them. We put the flames on the houses and I told Carver that we had to read the words and if he got the word right he could get the flames off the house and save the house so it didn’t burn down. He loved it.
I ended up programming some of the words differently so he could later go on and read the Dick and Jane book that I bought at the thrift store.
Carver did awesomely. He can read enough words to read the first two stories in the book. He is so proud of himself.
Karl came home from lunch and Carver showed Karl how he could read all of the words. It was so cute.
Then about 1:00 pm as I was putting the boys down for a nap, the electricity in my house went out. I called in to report it.
So what was I to do..the boys were sleeping and I had no electricity? I couldn’t write blog posts as I usually do. I couldn’t do laundry…there were so many things I’d think of but couldn’t do. I had trouble cross-stitching as I couldn’t use my overhead light. I ended up cleaning several drawers in the kitchen, took out the garbage, and then realized I could take some blog pictures.
About two hours went by, still no electricity. Then the boys woke up and they both were bothered as it was slowly starting to get dark. I don’t have a lot of windows in my house so it was getting darker and darker.
We ended up going outside. There was daylight there but it was chilly….and the sun started to set so our outside time was short-lived.
Then I heard from someone that we might be out for 6 hours more. Oh my. That would take us to 10 pm. I started digging for lights and candles. I ended up pulling out this light. It’s a book light that I’ve used for cross-stitching too. The light was awesome. My hands were free and I could do whatever I needed to with the light coming with me. You can find the link for the light HERE.
Honestly, I liked the light better than a flashlight.
Kalissa ended up stopping but for a half-hour before work. Carver showed off his awesome reading skills to her by lantern light.
Kalissa and Carver were both so excited. What a great day minus no electricity.
Karl brought pizza home from work and we ate by lantern light. By this time Gannon refused to do anything except sit on my lap. He hated having no electricity!!
Craig came and had pizza too and then took the boys home. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the rest of the night. I ended up stitching on my wool applique piece for a bit and then just going to bed. I can’t tell you the last time I went to bed at 8:30 pm!! I was likely a child.
The crazy thing is…I slept until 7 am. Oh my. I can’t tell you the last time I did that either. All I can say is I must have needed it. We did get electricity at about 10 pm that night just as predicted. I’m so thankful.
But that was our news…Craig is done in the field. Carver is starting to read and we lived through a day with no electricity!!
Wow what an interesting couple of days. Carver reading is such a great big deal. Good for you and him. The tool thing with Gannon is so funny. You have your hands full with those two.
When you have Georgia too then the fun is 12 x more. So glad you can enjoy your Grands.
It is so nice to see young ones excited about learning to read. What a world that opens up to them!
I remember losing power when we had hurricanes in 2004 – no power for a week. Seriously. But the family time was precious and I remember the kids had a lot of fun playing outside and then coming in for games and such in the evening!
Love and prayers
Another exciting step for Carver – reading! Jo, you are so creative and helpful for the little ones. I am sure your day care families really miss you! So good that corn is all harvested. It is still being done around here and I feel for these farmers as the temps have really dropped.
What a fun post to read about the boys! So proud of Carver and his reading! Good news that Craig has the crops in. You must have needed the rest to sleep like that.
Another tool by and an early reader? Sounds like a good day. With or without power!!
A terrific week for you all! I am excited about Carver reading. I started reading at age 4. In 1st grade I got to go read to the kindergarten class once/week. I loved it!
Yea for fun times without electricity. My first thought is that you would treadle sew (my brain says you have a treadle on the main floor?).
Happy Weekend Jo!
I am eighty years old but I still remember the excitement when my dad brought home to me the first Dick and Jane book. Happy memory!
Sounds like those boys need tool belts! They are so cute.
Jo, I’m with Sue. Make them simple tool belts. That fasten with Velcro, or double D rings.
Julie Anne in Kansas
What an exciting day all around. As a retired kindergarten teacher, I loved it when “the light when on” and the kids were reading. It was hard to know who was more excited…the child or the teacher. There’s no holding him back now! I used to love to use your website when I was teaching. Your blog post today reminded me to share it with a friend who has a 3 yr old granddaughter. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
How wonderful that all the crops are in and now the end is in sight and he can button up the equipment for another winter. Wow, Carver is Smart – Awesome kid (it says so on his shirt). That Gannon needs a way to carry his tools around so he can join his big brother with fixing things.
Glad your power is back on
Congratulations,Carver!! How exciting. reading can let you be a big brother reading to Gannon. What a way to share adventures you read about. I think Grandma Jo needs an extra big hug and thank you for introducing this wonderful thing to you..
Curious to know if you were ever informed why you were without power for so very long ??? That is usually my biggest issue when the utilities are interrupted WHAT HAPPENED.
Sounds like another Kramer family co-op with entertaining adventures and Uncle Karl bringing home some pizza.
Brenda, we found out later that the farmer took out a transformer and that caused the outage.