I feel left out... :)

Ben and Alli will both very soon be in educational programs...I'm feeling left out. Maybe I should go back to school...haha not right now anyway.

First I'll explain Alli's. Grammy and Grandpa Smith got Alli the Your Baby Can Read program. I didn't know what it was so I will explain. It is a program made up of DVDs, books, flash cards, pictures, etc. Each DVD teaches some basic words. The baby learns to read by seeing the word on the screen and then learning to associate that word with what it means. Like seeing the word "Mouth" on the tv and then being shown a picture of a baby pointing to her mouth. Yes at first they are just memorizing but supposedly it teaches the baby the patterns of reading. Kids who have been put on this program do really well in school and are usually in very advanced reading levels. The program teaches 160+ words. It will give her a good foundation in her reading skills. You can start them on it as soon as they can focus on objects. So we've started Alli on it and she should theoretically be done with all the DVDs by 1 year old. The first DVD is supposed to be shown for the first month you start the program. Then DVD 2 for 2 months, DVD 3 for 2 months and DVD 4 for 1 month. Then there is a review DVD. Each DVD builds off the one before it. As we go along I would imagine that in a month or so I will be able to show Alli a flash card of one of the words and she should be able to point out that object to me. The video showed the daughter of the Dr who started the program reading the Three Little Pigs at age 3. That's pretty impressive to me.

Anyway...onto Ben. He is going back to get his Associates in Fire Science as many of you know. This college he is going to is totally based for online education. They set it up so that you can go as quick or as slow as you would like. You cannot finish a class any sooner than 3 weeks nor any longer than 10 weeks. You also cannot take more than 3 classes at one time considering the classes go much quicker than a normal semester. Ben only lacks 9 classes for his associates. If he took 3 every 10 weeks, he would be done by the end of July. He will probably be able to get some of the classes done in the 3 week time frame. So he could be done even sooner than that. He will also be able to finish his BS in fire science through this school as well. The best part is the city's reimbursement for his schooling. I wish someone had reimbursed me for my 2 years worth of college work I'm still paying off. haha. So as if Ben wasn't busy enough being breadwinner while I stay at home with Alli....now he is adding education to the mix. He can do it though and I'm so proud of him for being so motivated to do it.