Well, we made it. Getting back into the swing of things after a week off was rough. I think that I purposely made sure that each day of lessons was short because I just couldn't get my rear back in gear. At least it gave me some time to pause and reflect on the fact that SweetPea IS only four and that I don't need to push the two of us as hard as I sometimes do. I think that next week will be better because 1. it will be a more organized affair and 2. because I am going to make it a point of focusing more on fun and games and less on what I "think" she should be accomplishing. Maybe it will help the two of us not to feel so burnt out.
Monday, we worked on letter recognition and review. I always say this but taking a week off really seems to help things settle in SweetPea's mind. She goes from struggling by the end of the week at remembering all her letters/sounds to coming back and nailing them! Yes, there are still three that she is stumbling over (I... which she insists is Y, J... which she knows the sound, just not the name and M... again, sound is there but she calls it N). So I threw in some phonics just for fun. Yeah.... remember how I said that I need to focus more on fun and less on "work"... I said this and then think about how she sounded out FOUR words on her own. I think that once a week, we will work on this concept slowly but I am not going to add it in right now. Mainly because I don't "feel" she is ready yet but also because I am afraid my little bookworm isn't going to want mama to read to her if she can do it herself.
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| "hi" |
Tuesday, we worked more on number recognition and shapes than letters. Again, I was totally blown away when SweetPea nailed all her numbers. Even 4 and 6, the two that constantly trip her up, she knew. Key thing that I need to remember is when she is struggling with remembering them, I need to ask her what they look like, not for her to find them. If she takes a minute to think about how you would write the number out, she can then find the number. But if you ask her just to remember, she will keep pointing until she figures out the correct one through trial and error.
Wednesday, we discussed weather and time. And how you can have a good time in bad weather. And how spring means that the trees will wake back up and have leaves again and how the snow will leave (we hope). We spent a good deal of our morning outside, marveling at the texture of wet, heavy snow (vs the soft, fluffy stuff that we have had most of the winter). We observed the different birds that are slowly coming back to our neighborhood (no robins as of yet though) and listened to their songs. I think that it made all of us long for warmer days and more sunshine.
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| Just keep working, just keep working |
Thursday was a "blah" day. No other way to put it. We trudged through our review and then took off for more "fun" as soon as we could. I didn't want to press too much review work since SweetPea had done so well earlier in the week. Sometimes, less is better and the things that are left unsaid are the gifts that we can treasure.
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| typical morning table |
Today, we prepared for Dr Seuss's birthday with our own "All About Me" books. I was really shocked with how much of the writing SweetPea could do on her own. I did fill in the longer blanks since she is just not ready to be sounding out words yet (especially longer ones). Now we just need to finish collecting the pictures for her book. Since this was originally a kinder-aged project, I think that I will put hers up from this year and compare it with the next two years. Should be neat to see her handwriting change and her interests as well.
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| All about Me! |
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