"SPACE" by Jaxton

Jaxton had a dream one day, he said, about space. He was telling me all about it. He had characters, plot, and drama! It was a great story. So I helped him put it into a book. This was his first book he has ever created, storyline and illustrations, and it is pretty darn amazing for a 3 year old!! On the cover, he drew lots of black stars to represent outer space. On each page, he drew "what happened next" in his story and then he told me what to write.

"The yellow spaceship is for the heros, with lots of windows. The purple spaceship is for the bad guys with only 1 window and it is called A-G-T-U-P-O-J-O." You can see the fire coming out the back end of his yellow spaceship. He got carried away on this page writing letters, so the name of the bad guys' spaceship got extra long.

"This is the world. The brown and green spaceship is for the heros and the bad guys."

Here, he drew the earth. Pretty good, wouldn't you say!!

"This is all the space. The stars are black and green. The spaceships fly in space."

Here is Jaxton's interpretation of outer space. Again, he represents it well. The black and green are stars in a blue sky.

"These are all the bad guys. They have red swords. The king bad guy has lots of arms all the way down to his feet. They put holes in the heros' spaceship, but the heros won and the bad guys floated up."

His story ended with the bad guys. This is actually the illustration he chose to draw first. He was very excited about the bad guys and the heros fighting with swords and the heros winning the battle. He knew that you "float" in space, so he imagined the bad guys floating away once they lost their battle.

The End

Slimy Slime

Cornstarch & Water is an amazing thing! Mix it together to make some weird, slimy stuff! We added food coloring to make it green slime and the kiddos loved it. I almost did it outside to minimize the mess in case they got too excited, but they were so intrigued with the consistency of the stuff that there was not tons of mess. Adrian, the little boy I watch, he was so fascinated with it, but would not touch it with his hands. And the mess cleans up just like flour. It was great fun!!

Swimming Lessons

Jaxton & Cooper were in swimming lessons at the YMCA this summer. They have truly learned so much!! Jaxton was in a class with 3 and 4 year olds, without me, and he was pretty nervous at first. But his best friend Kye was in class with him, so that helped. It is hard for me to take the kids swimming ever because neither can swim, so from knowing nothing about swimming, to the end of the swimming session, Jaxton has done so very well!! The teacher will stand back a yard or two and give them a shove and make them kick/swim to grab the wall. She will take each one out one at a time and work on skills. Jaxton now will dunk his head on his own, which has always been scary for him. And he feels so much more comfortable in the water and less afraid. He has done so well, that I signed both kids up for another swimming session in fall.

Jaxton's Report Card

Cooper also has excelled!! He and I were in a class together, Mom & Me. Cooper is different from Jaxton in that he is fearless and daring. When the teacher had us submerge our child under the water for the first time, most kids, frieked out and cried upon coming up out of the water. Cooper smiled so big and said "Again!" He loved it! I think he figured out on his own that he can't breath under water. So I put him under again and again. When he jumps from the wall he tells me to go to the other side of the pool (which i don't) because he thinks he can jump far and swim to me. So he jumps and under he goes before I catch him. And he loves it. He wants to do it again and again. I can give him a shove to the wall and he will kick his little feet so hard to reach the wall. Both boys are excelling, so I am excited to see what this next session will do for them!!

Jaxton's City

Here is the city that Jaxton built one day during his quiet time. He put water all the way around the city and then a bridge to get across the water. Super detailed and creative. Way to go!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...Will there be enough room?

Here come Jax & Coop up the coconut tree!

Dirt, Mud, and More Dirt

Who needs grass when dirt is so entertaining? Our whole yard is dirt, and boys find so much to do in it! They go rock collecting, bug searching, and dig for pennies in it. They mix it with water to create mud and "go to work" out there. This particular day, our sand box (which is empty- why buy sand when you have acres of dirt?) filled up with water overnight. The boys began using cups to get out water and dump it places. Then they began dumping it on each other and themselves, till they were muddy messes!! But oh so much fun!! They were laughing and playing, that I decided to let them enjoy themselves; they needed a bath anyways.

Here is Jaxton drenched in muddy water

Muddy Boys!