Rainy Day Learning

Rain rain go away! It seems to be monsoon season here in the Midwest. With all the rain, we have been stuck in doors and I'm finding it harder and harder to come up with distractions for the kids to keep them from driving each other, and me, crazy. When it's not raining, it's crazy hot and humid, and we only last about an hour before we're all drenched in sweat and happy to return indoors to air conditioning.

With this weather we have been getting plenty of time to work on Babycake's learning to read. Babycake has been doing really well. She has already progressed to reading Book 7, Jig and Mag, in our Bob Books. Like I've said multiple times, she is a self driven learner. She gets so excited after reading a whole book and it's so fun to celebrate her accomplishment with her. The downside to this self determination however is that she is easily flustered and frustrated if she can't read a word on the first or second try. I have to remind her that she is learning and that means you don't know everything right away and that means practice which means you have to go over it again and again and that's OK. I let her know that I am not frustrated that she doesn't know everything and that we have to practice. I will admit that there are days when we sit down to read and she goofs off, doesn't read, and I get frustrated. We are not perfect by any means in our learning system.

For more indoor activities, we pulled out her workbooks which I had honestly forgotten about. Babycake flew through about 10 pages in her Letters workbook. It was so fun to see how well she knows her letters, can write them, and spout off the sound each makes.

To keep Buddyboy occupied while I assisted Babycake with her workbook, I got out a scrap paper and some old stickers. Only in the last month has Buddyboy not instantly put everything he touches into his mouth so I figured this would be safe to do now. It was a great way for him to work on some motor skills picking up the stickers, unsticking them from his fingers, and getting them onto the paper. What a hit! He really enjoyed it and was happily occupied for about 20 mins.

Another School Year, Another Learning Curve

Well, another school year has begun. Social media is being flooded with "First Day" pictures. I know next year we'll be doing the same. This year though, Babycake is four, old enough to head to preschool or pre-K, but, I'm not going to pay for my child's "pre-education" when I can sit down for 20 min a day with her and go over English, Maths, Music, and Art.

Last August I found a little calendar set and that was our big learning goal- learn the days of the week and how a calendar works, if we were really lucky we'd master months. Well one year later, Babycake can tell you the days of the week off the top of her head, look at a calendar and tell you what day it is, and what day tomorrow will be. She hasn't quite figured out "yesterday" but hey, she's four. ;-) She can pick out what the weather is today and what it will be tomorrow. She can also count all the numbers up to 31 without messing up and tell you the date. We have not mastered months. By the end of each month she can tell you what month it is, but she does not know what month comes next, or which month was previous. For example, being August, she recently said last month was May. This year I will try to make more of an effort to clarify the months and when they are.

This year our big learning goal is reading! Crazy!!! Babycake has been reading and writing her name for a year now. She has learned how to read and write Buddyboy's name, as well as Mom and Dad. She loves to go everywhere with a pencil and note pad taking "notes" on everything. The pages are filled with letters, and the occasional number. I credit this love of note taking to our reading of The Magic Tree House series. She loves to explore like Jack and Annie. Since she has shown such a love of writing and has initiated reading I figured I might as well go along with it.

When looking up different early reading books and plans, I came across LOTS of different ideas and opinions. I really didn't know what we would do. We have a lot of Dr. Suess books so I thought maybe we would just go through those. One day however, when our family took a little trip to Half Price Books I came across the First Collection Set of Bob Books. I had seen this mentioned many times in my search of beginning reading ideas. Some people Love them, some very much dislike them. I figured getting this set for 1/2 price couldn't be beaten and we might as well give it a try.

So far it's been great! Babycake is doing really well. In one week she has consistently read the first three books. We have tried the fourth book a couple times and it is much trickier for her. Babycake is a self driven learner, but also LOVES rewards. So the stickers she gets after completely reading a book really helps her to settle down and read through a book or two.

I'm so proud of her. She's so smart and driven. Updates with our progress will be shared.