I've set up one side of the closet in Meredith and Melissa's room to be a "school". It already had a desk top set up in there, and someone gave her their old computer when we moved. So I set up the computer and a few school posters in there. Meredith will practice the alphabet chart (similar to the one she has at school), usually with Claire. She holds a pointer and points to each letter/picture - "A a apple. B b ball. C c cat..." Almost everytime she'll pause at some point and say something like, "Boys and gurls... you must say each letter and sound clearly." So you know her teacher has said something like that. (If you've heard Meredith talk, you know why I used a 'u' in girls. She has quite the southern drawl... making many a one syllable word into two.)
A few days ago, while Meredith was at school, Amanda, Claire and Melissa took turns playing music teacher (they have a little music class at school on Thursdays). They lined up a few barbies and a handful of stuffed animals, and took turns teaching them new songs. That lasted about 5 minutes until it turned into, "It's my turn next. No, it's MY turn!" I'm sure you know how that goes...
Over the summer the girls had a fabulous swim teacher - the four girls got a private swim lesson for an hour, every day for a week. The lady who taught them is a high school math teacher. I was told she was tough, and she was! But she was good. On Monday the girls screamed for one hour while they floated in the pool - each wearing a pair of floaties. That's it. Nothing more. By Friday, the little girls were jumping in the pool (with no floaties) and swimming about 6 feet out to Mrs. Debbie. And Meredith was jumping in the deep end on her own and swimming the length of the pool. She was tough, but very effective. And for months the girls talked about Mrs. Debbie. When can we go back? I want to swim with Mrs. Debbie again. Then they started pretending to be a swim teacher. They would hold the babies and float them in the air on their tummies. They'd have them 'jump' off the sofa and swim. One day, in late August, Amanda took a cabbage patch doll wearing a swim suit, and hurled her all the way across the family room yelling after the doll, "Arms long, hiney up!" Yup, that's what Mrs. Debbie did. Well, not the hurling part - though she did nudge them of the side of the pool a little on the first couple days - but I lost count of how many times I heard that phrase. Arms long, hiney up! The girls can't wait to see Mrs. Debbie again next summer.
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