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| He is a little bit in love with all things LEGO |
This is a summary for Brayden from 8.75-9 years old. You know, when it comes to Brayden, I always feel like a first time mom trying to figure out what to do. Well, that’s because I am. I might feel confident with Brinley, but everything is new and questionable with Brayden.
EATING
Eating continues on as usual. He basically eats as much as a full grown adult. That isn’t as impressive as a growing adult–but it is way more than I would have imagined a child to eat, especially back when he was a toddler.
SLEEPING
Sleeping is good. You may have read in other posts that he is no longer sharing a room with Kaitlyn and moved into his own room (Kaitlyn and McKenna are sharing). He is loving being in his own room. He says it is so nice and quiet :). And remember how I talked about last time how he will come out of his room ever night for a few days, the doesn’t for a few months, then does? A nice thing is that his room is now next to Brinley’s, so him being concerned about waking Brinley up as he is getting in and out and in and out of bed is helping encourage him to stay in bed.
EXTRA ACTIVITIES
During the last three months, Brayden has continued in his piano and swimming lessons. He also does scouting and has moved on to the next level of scouts. He played soccer and is just starting baseball.
SPIRITUAL GIANT
I really hope that all children start to come up with great ideas of ways to be really helpful or improve themselves at this age. It is so heartwarming to see. At our house, we don’t watch TV on Sunday in order to keep the Sabbath holy. We also don’t shop, go to restaurants, or do anything that would require someone to work. There are also many recreational activities we avoid on Sundays. We have always allowed the children to read whatever books they want to on Sundays, but a couple of weeks ago, Brayden told me he wants to only read church materials on Sunday to help keep the Sabbath Day holy. I thought that was so sweet! It was one of those rewarding moments as a parent.
BODY ODOR
Last time, I talked about how body odor had not become an issue yet. Well, it came! It hasn’t been bad enough for me to be able to smell him, but he could smell himself and asked me to check him out and yes, there it was. See Deodorant and Children for more.
HELPING IN SCHOOL
Brayden still enjoys me helping in school at this age. I am interested to see if in the next year or two if he will start to not really want me in the classroom. I really enjoy going and getting to know different kids.
SCHOOL TEST SCORES/GIFTEDNESS
School has ended and Brayden’s test scores have come in. He is reading above a 12th grade reading level. Isn’t that crazy? It is both exciting and daunting for me at the same time. I am so glad that he reads well. It has been a huge passion of mine as a parent as you may know from reading this blog. Brayden is in the Gifted and Talented program at school, and now I really need to look into parenting practices for parenting gifted children. I know there are a lot of books on it, so I will be doing some research. I haven’t really ever known just how smart Brayden is. I think he is really smart and amazing, as I do all of my kids. But I kind of always figured that is just me being the typical parent who thinks her child is the most amazing thing to grace the earth. I think that of all of my children. They say you can’t really recognize giftedness until 3rd grade, so he is at the age we can start taking it more seriously.
To see what we have done with reading, see reading.
BOOKS
Here are some books he loves (you can see more and keep up on books he reads and loves on my Chapter Books for Boys board. I also have one for girls):
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Spirit Animals Book 1: Wild Born by Brandon Mull
- White Fang by Jack London
- Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) by Rick Roidon. He is currently reading this series. He is on the fourth book.
- Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle) by Christopher Paolini. He is currently reading this. He is on the second book.
- Brandon Mull’s Beyonders Trilogy
- Janitors by Tyler Whitesides
- Fablehaven: The Complete Series by Brandon Mull–he read this entire series two times during the summer
- The Candy Shop War
SCHEDULE
Brayden’s Schedule:
7:00 AM–wake up. Eat breakfast. Get ready. Pack lunch. Practice piano. Do morning chores. Read scriptures. Do daily chore.
Then go to school.
Come home from school. Do homework if he has it.
5:30 PM–Dinner. Then time with family.
7:00 PM Start getting ready for bed.
8:30 PM–in bed
