Year in Review

Ains had her last day of preschool today. I can't believe how fast this year has flown (that sounds cliche doesn't it?). Ains will be going to the same preschool next year though, so she only had to say good-bye to her teacher and friends for a few months. I decided to post a few of the things Ains has learned this school year so that we will remember what she was like at age 4.

• Ains can identify all of her numbers and upper case letters


• She can count to about 70 or 80, kind of...once she hits 20 her counting goes something like this, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31


• Ains learned that she won't die if water touches her eyes in the tub (we are hoping this lesson carries over to the pool this summer!)


• Ains can now pump herself on the swings all by herself


• She learned to write her name


• Ainsley currently draws lovely stick figures with hair, toes, etc., her drawing has advanced a lot this year.


• Ains has also learned 1st, 2nd, and 5th position ('agician' )in dance, and sashays and shaney's. (I have no idea what this means, unfortunately for Ains she inherited absolutely no dance skill from her mother...although her father is quite talented in ballet!)


• Ains also started reading chapter books with her dad. She is quite the fan of Junie B. Jones.


• Ains also has shown interest in sign language and has learned some signs from videos lately. For those of you who don't know, our ward services the deaf group for the entire valley and so we are surrounded by sign. A while ago Ainsley started noticing that someone was always signing next to the speakers in sacrament meeting. She now has a girl in her class that is deaf and so there is a translator there too. So, Ains has picked up some sign at church, and John has gotten her a few videos from the library. Here is a video of her showing some of the signs that she has learned. She has done really well and probably knows about 30 words now, can sign her name, and knows a couple of primary songs. I think it's such a great opportunity for her and hopefully she (and I) will be able to learn a lot more while we are surrounded by it in this ward.