May 2010

We've had lots of fun during school time these past 2 weeks since we are all finished with our "core" program and have extra time on our hands. We decided to implement "Tea Time" once a week. Miriam and I made a yummy treat one afternoon during naptime for our tea time the following day. Miriam can read and follow recipe directions almost independently! This week we also chose to make lemonade for our fancy drink. During Tea Time we play classical music and read poetry together. My hope is that the kids will learn to love classical music and poetry because they will associate them with good memories of fun times we had together. It definitely worked this week. Several afternoons the girls asked me to turn the classical music back on so that they could dance to it; it turns out the recognized several of the songs from dance class and from watching Little Einsteins. They've also asked me to read more poetry to them while they were eating lunch several days this week. I've caught Miriam and Bek trying to make up their own poems and have found Miriam reading our new book of Children's poetry independently during the week. We've also spent many afternoons playing with all our art supplies. And we've read more than half of Alice In Wonderland together.
Miriam will be finished with Growing with Grammar 1 by the end of next week. She finished Explode the Code book 6 and has also completed lesson 1 in book 7. Her cursive is coming along very nicely. She's working on double digit subtraction in math.
Rebekah has been working diligently this week as well. She has come a long way using Handwriting Without Tears; though I still can't convince her to write her name using lower case letters instead of all uppercase. I've had her do an extra sheet of name practice each day, but still outside of that she reverts to her usual way of writing it. We reviewed words with short "a" sounds and moved on to short "e" sounds in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I'm still not sure if she's ready for this, but she is determined to read to me everyday. We'll just back up again if she hits a wall like she has the last few times she's begun to learn to read. She seems to forget from day to day what she learned; I can't decide if she's rushing through (as she guesses at words quite often), if she's just not ready to concentrate enough to read, or if she is still really struggling to remember the different sounds letters make and how they blend together. In truth I am a bit worried about her; I'm hoping it's only because I'm used to how quickly Miriam learned to read. I'm trying to be patient with Rebekah and allow her to go at her own pace and to correct her gently as she misses the same things every day! I'd really like to just put reading aside for another few months, but she is determined.
Michael has grown tired of workbooks (thank goodness!) and is enjoying playing on his own or with Peyton while the girls and I do school. He does join us for read alouds, art, and tea parties though!