School started and life has been going full speed ahead. Adrian has started the 7th grade and is at the middle school now. I can't believe it! He was really excited for the first day of school, but not picture excited. I suppose there will be those days here on out. So far he has been doing well...when he wants to. There are some rough patches he's been working through the last couple of days, but my hope is that he will figure out quickly that doing 2 weeks worth of homework in 2 days to make it all up is way less fun than doing a little bit everyday. They learn that eventually right?! Even if the answer is no, please say yes;)
I knew that this year I would need to be more proactive with Jonathan and "school" since he seems desperate to learn new things and sad that he doesn't get to go to school. I thought it would be fun if he had a place to go. Enter my mom! She is such an amazing person and I can't believe how lucky we are that we get to live so close to her. She used to teach preschool and still has all of her stuff for it. She offered to take the kids for a couple of hours every week and do school with them. Our friend Lucy is joining in the fun and it seems to help the kids accept that it is school time and not just going to Grandma's house to play. The morning of their first day they were so excited and kept telling me they were ready even though it wasn't time to leave yet. They packed their lunches, got out their backpacks, and talked about how much fun they were going to have. And they had a lot of fun!
In addition to "preschool" I am taking them to the reading time at the library once a week and doing stuff with them on my own at least once a week (worksheets and activities). I want to try and do one "field trip" every month too, but I'll have to see how that works out! These kids are so smart and it is fun to watch them make connections to new things. Jonathan recognizes all the capital letters and most of the lower case ones. He counts from 1-14, but skips to 21 at that point. Goal: 1-20 this year;) He can write a few letters, but doesn't have a lot of confidence so I am hoping he will get some more practice and feel better about it. He knows most of the basic letter sounds as well and has figured out how to spell a few simple words like "dad" and "mom" by sounding them out. He told me the other day that he really wants to be able to read the words in the books and not just look at the pictures all the time. I'm not trying to push him, but I figure if he's interested right now that I need to capitalize on it. I have had enough struggles with Adrian's school experience to last this mom a lifetime so I am hoping to get a good foundation going to avoid some of the same heartache repeating.
Reagan loves going to school and does the activities with Jonathan and Lucy--although she is stubborn and modifies them whenever she feels like it. My mom said that it is really cute to watch her trying to do all of the same things. Reagan knows all of her colors and is really into finding things that match right now. Her favorite colors are pink and purple (such a girl!) and her counting consists of saying "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2" I've been trying to get her to throw a "3" in there, but that hasn't been too successful yet. She will say a lot of the letters in the alphabet, but not in order. She points at letters and calls them letter names, but not usually the correct name. Occasionally she'll get one right, but I am convinced it is more luck than actual knowledge. I'm trying to keep them interested in learning. I have my own goal to have them reading on their own before they start "real" school, but for no other reason than I want to. I believe that if you can read you can do anything and I want that for my children. (I am the girl who's 5th grade teacher told her mom that I needed to watch more tv and read less...really?!)
So, let's have some fun this school year and learn something at the same time!
I knew that this year I would need to be more proactive with Jonathan and "school" since he seems desperate to learn new things and sad that he doesn't get to go to school. I thought it would be fun if he had a place to go. Enter my mom! She is such an amazing person and I can't believe how lucky we are that we get to live so close to her. She used to teach preschool and still has all of her stuff for it. She offered to take the kids for a couple of hours every week and do school with them. Our friend Lucy is joining in the fun and it seems to help the kids accept that it is school time and not just going to Grandma's house to play. The morning of their first day they were so excited and kept telling me they were ready even though it wasn't time to leave yet. They packed their lunches, got out their backpacks, and talked about how much fun they were going to have. And they had a lot of fun!
In addition to "preschool" I am taking them to the reading time at the library once a week and doing stuff with them on my own at least once a week (worksheets and activities). I want to try and do one "field trip" every month too, but I'll have to see how that works out! These kids are so smart and it is fun to watch them make connections to new things. Jonathan recognizes all the capital letters and most of the lower case ones. He counts from 1-14, but skips to 21 at that point. Goal: 1-20 this year;) He can write a few letters, but doesn't have a lot of confidence so I am hoping he will get some more practice and feel better about it. He knows most of the basic letter sounds as well and has figured out how to spell a few simple words like "dad" and "mom" by sounding them out. He told me the other day that he really wants to be able to read the words in the books and not just look at the pictures all the time. I'm not trying to push him, but I figure if he's interested right now that I need to capitalize on it. I have had enough struggles with Adrian's school experience to last this mom a lifetime so I am hoping to get a good foundation going to avoid some of the same heartache repeating.
Reagan loves going to school and does the activities with Jonathan and Lucy--although she is stubborn and modifies them whenever she feels like it. My mom said that it is really cute to watch her trying to do all of the same things. Reagan knows all of her colors and is really into finding things that match right now. Her favorite colors are pink and purple (such a girl!) and her counting consists of saying "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2" I've been trying to get her to throw a "3" in there, but that hasn't been too successful yet. She will say a lot of the letters in the alphabet, but not in order. She points at letters and calls them letter names, but not usually the correct name. Occasionally she'll get one right, but I am convinced it is more luck than actual knowledge. I'm trying to keep them interested in learning. I have my own goal to have them reading on their own before they start "real" school, but for no other reason than I want to. I believe that if you can read you can do anything and I want that for my children. (I am the girl who's 5th grade teacher told her mom that I needed to watch more tv and read less...really?!)
So, let's have some fun this school year and learn something at the same time!
1 comments:
I'm TOTALLY the same way about reading. It enables you to do anything in life, and I think it gives kids a lot of confidence in school. And you're right, too--when they're interested, run with it!!
How awesome is it to have preschool at Grandma's house? That is SO NEAT! What a great thing to do. They will love it, I'm sure!
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