Second Child Syndrome

My poor little boy. He's the second child. His baby book is half the size of my daughter's. I promise myself I will catch up before he's old enough to realize it. I did move one step closer a few months ago when I ordered all the pictures I'll be using from Shutterfly in preparation.

He was two years old when my daughter started kindergarten and I must confess I have been more engrossed in her education than I have in his. I half joked that he will naturally have a head start by virtue of being a boy. Sadly I followed through on that joke and I feel guilty that I didn't as much time preparing him for the Vanguard test as I did my daughter.

Now I find myself at a precarious point in their lives. She starts third grade next year; she's half way through elementary school! She's also been blessed with an amazing intelligence that has her making straight As in a gifted and talented program. But I don't want to take that intelligence for granted next year. I still need to pay as much attention to her.

He's starting Kindergarten and I feel that this year is crucial because it will very well indicate how well he will do for the rest of his elementary school education. I am going to have to be so balanced next fall with my time. I'm going to have to divide my time equally between the two of them and Rey will also have to be very involved. We will have to divide ourselves up according to our strengths like we did when his daughter lived with us a few years ago when she was in middle school. Rey would tackle subjects like math and science and I helped with English and History.

One thing I've resolved to do is to stop whatever I am doing whenever my sons asks me to read to him. (within reason of course) I think that if he's asking for me to read to him I should take full advantage of that desire before it dies away like a flame on a cold night.

I did that today and then we talked about the sounds of the letters. I typed some short words on my laptop and then family names and he sounded out the first letter and guessed the word or name. So then I decided to test something on him. I got the "Dick and Jane" reader and read the first few pages with him. I was pleasantly surprised that he was able to sound out the first couple of letters and then he would guess the word. A teacher friend told me once that that's the beginning of reading so I welcome anything he can give. He just turned five and he isn't starting kinder until August. I have a good two months to work with him on his letters, phonics, and reading.

Now if I could only get that baby book finished too!