Go Bling!

I wish I had a better reason for not updating the blog yesterday, but I can only attribute it to the Alexa Factor...she absolutely wore me out this weekend.  Damon was in Las Vegas for the holiday weekend, ensuring Alexa and I had plenty of time together.  The blackout curtains in her room only do so much to block out the very early morning sun in Arizona, so she's had a lot of pre-6am wake-ups over the past few weeks.  She goes 100mph all day long...it's pretty amazing how much energy she has.

After finally seeing some results at swimming, I have decided to apply my persistence towards Alexa's academic focus, concentrating on learning her numbers.  She does a great job counting, but she's having trouble recognizing the visual number for each.  This past week, I bought some bingo stampers and dice to recreate one of her favorite lessons from Montessori school, and I've been subtlety pointing out numbers whenever I see them (she is not a fan of blatant lessons).  Perhaps inspired by Damon's Las Vegas trip, I bought Alexa her first card games over the weekend...two sets of Barbie cards with numbers.  The first game, "Gems!" is a simple match game, and we our working our way to playing "Go Bling!" (yes, that's Barbie's version of "Go Fish") once a few more numbers are mastered.  We must have played "Gems!" fifty times over the weekend, but if it helps her to recognize her numbers, I'm in!

When I was recounting the events of the weekend for Damon, I told him about Alexa's rope climbing feat at gymnastics and also let him know that her number recognition wasn't quite there to play "Go Bling!"  Damon simply reminded me that most collegiate athletes have tutors.  Oy...... :)

Hard at work on my knock-off Montessori lesson....
(Thank you for the idea, Ms. LeAnna!)

Playing a rousing game of "Gems!"
I'm looking forward to upping the ante with "Go Bling!"