CamPort - 2009-July

CamPort > 2009 > 2009-July

Cam rides his bike
2009-07-30 (Thursday) 20:23 CDT

Cameron almost learned to ride on April 18th of this year, but as he came to a stop at the end of that practice session, he tipped over, landed on the handlebars, and was bruised. For a few months, he was too scared to try again, but this week he conquered his fear and learned to ride!

Independence Day
2009-07-16 (Thursday) 8:25 CDT

We all enjoyed a very nice fireworks display at a local park the evening of July 3rd. Our Independence Day was very mellow. We loaded Cam, Porter, and a picnic lunch into my Burley and took a bike ride through Turkey Creek trail. That evening we joined some friends at their house to set off a few tame fireworks for the kids to enjoy. From a distance, we could see some pretty big ones across county line where private fireworks are legal.

Pooltime
2009-07-15 (Wednesday) 20:13 CDT

On an overcast day, I snapped some poolside pictures of the boys.

Cameron has become quite the swimmer this summer.
Porter loves the waterslide.

Aunt Emily joined us for some pooltime.

Cameron loves when his friend, Mason, can splash around with us.

Cameron is 5!!!!!
2009-07-03 (Friday) 11:53 CDT

Cameron turned half a decade on June 19th. He has been so anxious to turn 5 this year. Most of his classmates have already had their birthdays. Cameron completed Pre-K and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. Cameron learned his address, phone number, and recognition of mom and dad's proper names. Towards the end of school, Cameron began having an interest in spelling words. When Cameron takes his time he can sound out letters in order to make words that he wants to spell. Cam can also recognize some site words. We have been working with Bob books and site word books from scholastics. On the math side, Cameron has an interest in adding numbers together. We are having him focus on adding with his fingers in order to visually see how addition and subtraction works. Just recently he started counting up to 50 without help. As you can tell we are very proud of Cam's academics and are confident he will perform very well in Kindergarten. Cam will miss his preschool teachers, but looks forward to visiting them when we pick up Porter from preschool.
Cameron has participated in gymnastics weekly from September-May. He has become very strong in his upper body and is able to do cartwheels, roundoffs, and no-handed somersaults. Cam also enjoys the balance beam and bars. He can do a flip in the air jumping off the trampoline into the foam pit. We decided to take a break from gymnastics this summer and start a new class in the fall. I may have him try a gymnastics/dance combo class, if he is intersted.
Matt has been worked with Cameron this spring on learning to ride a bike with no training wheels. At first, Cameron was very excited to ride the Redline given to him by his cousin, Seth. This bike is a 20" with racing tires. A very light bike that will be very fast once he gets the hang of it. Unfortunetly, after a couple of falls that resulted in tears, he is a little intimidated right now. When the summer temps come down again, we will give it more effort, so hopefully in the fall he will be an independent cyclist. Below are a couple of pictures of him riding his bike and walking the balance beam.

This summer, Cameron has completed swimming lessons, and can now swim underwater, jump into 4 ft. and make his way to the side unassisted. Cameron can float on his back and can perform the front stroke. Cam continues to work on his strokes and breathing properly, which is the hardest part. But I can say that I am comfortable having him in the water with little supervision. At our local pool, he enjoys jumping from the side a lot and diving for diving rockets. We have yet to convince him to go down the big water slides or jump off the diving boards.
Cameron completed summer camp at his preschool during the month of June. The class focused on learning about the moon, the circus and Dr. Suess. Cameron really enjoyed it. He has been very interested in drawing. He focuses on details in his pictures, but usually does not change his color palate very often. Cameron and Porter will attend a music camp together this coming week. I am looking forward to them participating in an activity together without my supervision. It will be a learning experience for the the two of them, and prepare Porter for being in preschool this fall.
Cameron celebrated his birthday at Deanna Rose Farmstead a couple of weeks prior to his birthday. Many of his friends were able to attend, so it was nice for him to connect with all his playmates. His theme was pirates. Cameron loves hunting for treasures and collecting things. The kids knocked down a treasure chest pinata and then went out into the farmstead to do some mining. I really like the mining activity at Deanna Rose, because you get to keep all the pretty rocks you collect in the process. So each kid got to go home with their own treasure bag and pretty rocks they collected during the mining.
On June 19th, I let Cam decide how he wanted to spend his day. Cam chose to go to Pump It Up, an indoor inflatables playplace. Cam had McDonalds for lunch and then invited a friend to come over to play in the afternoon. After Dad came home from work, we made turkey sandwiches, watermelon, yogurt, and brownie sundaes for desert. It is so enlightening for us to watch Cam develop into a smart young boy heading off to gradeschool. I can't believe how fast the years have flown.
Here are a few pics from Cam's birthday party:

Last modified: 2010-01-03 (Sunday) 22:40 CST