Transforming into Big Kids

It's been a while since I've written about the twins.   The reason for that isn't for a lack of things going on with them -- it's that there is so happening with them.

For starters, they've turned into completely legitimate swimmers.  Somehow we've moved from them kicking while hanging onto the wall in the pool to being able to do the front crawl. (OK, there was a bit of a gradual progression, but it seems like it happened overnight.)

On top of that, these kids are learning how to ski.  Yes, I realize that many kids start even younger, but in just a few weeks of lessons, the twins have apparently learned enough to take their first chairlift and not the wanna-be-rope-tow-that-burned-your-hands "magic carpet".

But the thing that is the most impressive to me is that these two kids have turned into readers over the past few months.  Although they've always loved books, we never drilled them about letters or sounds before they entered kindergarten.  We felt -- and still do -- that kids should be kids and learn at their own pace as much as possible.  

That said, we also have them enrolled in public school, which has very specific standards.  The expectations for kindergarteners must have changed, because I have fond memories of paste when I was school that year -- not deconstructing stories and being to identify sentence structures (no, I'm not kidding.)

Anyhow, the bottom line is that the twins have not only learned their alphabet and sounds, they have begun to read.  And write.  And do some pretty serious math.  I'm proud of them in every conceivable way.  But most of all, I'm happy that they are such good kids (most of the time ...) who can still be kids and enjoy an afternoon in the Seattle version of the sun blowing bubbles.