"Mommy School"

Instead of going to preschool, Melia is going to "Mommy School."  It's just like preschool, except I, along with 5 other moms, are teaching it.  We alternate weeks and only have to teach one week every six weeks.  It's awesome and is working out so great!  There are seven kids in the preschool (one of the moms has two kids).  I think it's the perfect number of kids.  It's enough to feel like a real class, but not too many to handle.  The kids are adorable too. 

Here's a picture of all the kids except Brinley.  She was sick the week I taught.  :(

Maddie, Tyler, Melia, Ella, Graham, and Ava

 Melia is absolutely LOVING preschool and comes home singing the songs EVERY DAY.  She has the entire Pledge of Allegiance memorized and loves to recite it over and over.  The other day she was singing it (only about three weeks into preschool) and I thought one of the other moms must've taught it to them in song form so they could remember it better.  But alas, I was mistaken.  Melia completely made up the song on her own.  She is so funny, I love that girl.  She LOOOOOVES to sing.  She sings the welcome song to her dolls, to me, to Evera, etc.  She likes to pretend we're all her students and she is the teacher.  Her favorite thing to do is to play "preschool."  The other day in the car she was singing the welcome song, "Angela is here today.  Angela is here today.  Let's all clap our hands and say, 'Angela is here today.'"  None of her classmates or friends are named Angela and the only Angela I could think of is my brother's wife who Melia met once back in August at the family reunion.  I thought I must've mis-heard her.  Then she continued on, "Caroline is here today.  Caroline is here today.  Let's all clap our hands and say, 'Caroline is here today.'"  Caroline is Angela's daughter--Melia's cousins.  Sure enough she was singing about Aunt Angela and Cousin Caroline.  :)
 
Here's Melia holding Preschool Pete and Preschool Pam, our preschool puppets.

 

 Melia has learned letters up to the letter "G" in school thus far but pretty much knows all her letters.  She LOOOOVES to sing the alphabet over and over and over all day long!  :)  We just got back from our trip to California (pictures to come soon) and she sang in the car whenever she was awake! 

Evera likes to sing too.  He will "aah" along with you when you sing.  It's pretty stinkin' cute.  My sister Kim and her daughters Hannah and Becca were babysitting Melia and Evera the other day and they were trying to sing to Ev because he was tired.  Hannah remembered that I sing "I Love To See the Temple" to my kids so she started singing it to him.  Evera went completely silent and just started starring at Hannah.  He knew the song and was surprised to hear her singing it.  Then he "aah-ed" along with her for the rest of the song.  (Sigh) he is so dang cute, I love that kid.

It's so fun to have kids who love to sing. 

Melia is also learning a lot of new things at preschool and comes home and loves to tell me all about it and show me whatever she made, etc.  She loves to read books and loves to try to read me books too.  She's getting a lot better and steadying her pencil and trying to draw and write more precisely instead of just scribbling.  (I mean, I am sure to anyone else it probably would still look like scribbles, but I've noticed a lot of progress.  Hehe!)  She is such a smart girl and is so fun to watch growing up.  She is learning and picking up new things every day.  She is like a sponge with information, and just like her daddy, she LOVES to learn!