The teacher wants Terra to do one activity from her homework every night. Terra wants to do 3 or 4. I let her. She particularly loves the "Letter Detective" where she's given a letter, and she goes around the house and finds things that start with that letter. The way it's set up, she doesn't have to "turn in" anything to prove that she's done it, but I let her make an actual list, because she gets to practice her letters, and it gives me the opportunity to explain the intricacies of letter combinations, silent e's and such.
She's already done 7 of the activities in the last 2 nights since she got the worksheet. I do believe we'll still be having some "wing it" nights because we're going to run out of things to do.
She came home with a new book from the media center today, Henry and Mudge: The First Book. We've read it 4 times tonight. Cute cute book, which she loves. Word to the wise: if your child has been begging for a dog, do not read Henry and Mudge. It will only be used as ammunition against you in their quest for a pet. Luckily, we already have 3 dogs!
They no longer have nap/rest period in class, so she's coming home exhausted, and in need of a nap. We have yet to work out a really good afternoon schedule. To nap or not to nap... both come with pros and cons. With a nap, she sleeps till she's ready to get up because there's no getting her up till she's ready. Then the whole afternoon is shot, no time for homework, playing, dinner, bath etc... and then she's up till 10:30 or 11 at night, which makes the next day terrible. If she doesn't take a nap, she's happy to do homework, but she's also demanding, over-tired/over-stimulated, grumpy, gets in trouble and then passes out at 7 or 8, often in a random place, fully dressed, sans a bath.We'll adjust and get it all worked out I'm sure, but for now, I'm a little stumped.
Alright, back to today's class.
She got a green smiley, and 2 prizes out of the prize box. One of them was a very nifty little journal. A Strawberry Shortcake journal. Man was she psyched about that one. The other was a sticker, which she stuck in the front of the journal. And that's pretty much all she told me about class. It's odd, she has this perfect memory for class poems and sight words, but when she gets home and I ask her what she did that day, about 50% of the time, she says she can't remember! Haha, I think she just doesn't want to bother with telling me everything. Most days, she fills me in over the afternoon/evening, bit by bit. Today though, we had a busy crazy night and she didn't really have a chance to tell me anything.
But, tomorrow is another day, right? :-)
Showing posts with label Memorization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorization. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Hmmm
Terra's teacher was "missing" again today, and for some reason Terra thinks she's in Boston, seeing some football game? I'm not a sports fan, no idea if there even is/was a game in Boston, but there's got to be some reason Terra thinks that. Regardless, I'm a little concerned, school has been in session for a month, and her teacher has been out at least 3 times. I can't help but believe that it's effecting the class' educational experience, since a substitute teacher doesn't know/follow the regular schedule. At this age, I think having a structured environment is beneficial. If my 6yo is coming home and telling me that, "we didn't do centers" or "we didn't do calendar/story/math/whatever time," then obviously, she's bothered by it, and I'm sure she isn't the only one. I'm all for staying home if you're sick, or going to doctor's appointments. But missing school/work for a ball game?
(a bit of looking, and it seems the Pats played the Ravens at Gillette Stadium, so I suppose Terra may be exactly right...)
Anyway.
Terra got new words: Do, Like, & You. We made some new flash cards and went through all her sight/dolch words, days of the week, practiced writing letters, and numbers, and worked on some addition and subtraction. The crazy part? It was ALL HER IDEA. She did practice work, homework, and asked me to "be her tutor" and worked almost from the time she came home until she went to bed. I am so proud of her. My insatiable little sponge. And yet, I have to admit, I was a little relieved when she fell asleep. We literally did school work for nearly 5 hours after she came home today!
Her new poem kicked in today. But I'm not sure what it is. We looked at the website- it hasn't been updated. We received a print out with all 4 of the October poems, but there's no indication of which is which, and when I went by what seemed to be the next one, Terra said they'd done a different one in class. I'm more than happy to work with her on stuff at home, but it's a little difficult when I can't be sure of what they're doing because things aren't updated (because the teacher is too busy with NFL to worry about keeping the students and parents informed and on schedule).
I also haven't heard back from either of her teachers about when our parent teacher conference will be - I assume that's because her teacher isn't available. I also assume that it isn't tomorrow, which was one of the 3 dates I chose as options. I better not get a call tomorrow that she wants me there at a moment's notice.
Truthfully, I'm not sure what they *did* do in class today. But by gosh, we did a full days worth of work at home - all subjects even! It was another green smiley day, she got off the bus "reading" 'The Topsey-Turvies' which isn't my favorite book, but does seem to be hers, which is more important. It keeps her engaged and interested, so that's what counts.
I also found some new web links that are educational that Terra loved, I'll add them to the link list in the right sidebar. They're mostly pre-K level, like Sesame Street, but they were great for reinforcing number and letter recognition, counting, mentally connecting the capital and lower case letters, etc...
(a bit of looking, and it seems the Pats played the Ravens at Gillette Stadium, so I suppose Terra may be exactly right...)
Anyway.
Terra got new words: Do, Like, & You. We made some new flash cards and went through all her sight/dolch words, days of the week, practiced writing letters, and numbers, and worked on some addition and subtraction. The crazy part? It was ALL HER IDEA. She did practice work, homework, and asked me to "be her tutor" and worked almost from the time she came home until she went to bed. I am so proud of her. My insatiable little sponge. And yet, I have to admit, I was a little relieved when she fell asleep. We literally did school work for nearly 5 hours after she came home today!
Her new poem kicked in today. But I'm not sure what it is. We looked at the website- it hasn't been updated. We received a print out with all 4 of the October poems, but there's no indication of which is which, and when I went by what seemed to be the next one, Terra said they'd done a different one in class. I'm more than happy to work with her on stuff at home, but it's a little difficult when I can't be sure of what they're doing because things aren't updated (because the teacher is too busy with NFL to worry about keeping the students and parents informed and on schedule).
I also haven't heard back from either of her teachers about when our parent teacher conference will be - I assume that's because her teacher isn't available. I also assume that it isn't tomorrow, which was one of the 3 dates I chose as options. I better not get a call tomorrow that she wants me there at a moment's notice.
Truthfully, I'm not sure what they *did* do in class today. But by gosh, we did a full days worth of work at home - all subjects even! It was another green smiley day, she got off the bus "reading" 'The Topsey-Turvies' which isn't my favorite book, but does seem to be hers, which is more important. It keeps her engaged and interested, so that's what counts.
I also found some new web links that are educational that Terra loved, I'll add them to the link list in the right sidebar. They're mostly pre-K level, like Sesame Street, but they were great for reinforcing number and letter recognition, counting, mentally connecting the capital and lower case letters, etc...
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday Monday
New words!
Mom, Dad, & love. No idea why we had 3 words one week, 10 next (which we studied for 2 weeks) then 3 this week... But it's cool, so far, she knows them all :)
New oem!
Well, actually, this weeks poem is the one that they originally had last week, before they switched 'em up. She knows it by heart from last week already lol.
Green Smiley today, and the joy of knowing that one of her classmates just returned from an extended absence due to the Swine Flu. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not overly concerned about H1N1 vs the regular seasonal flu (which we never get innoculated for), and I'm not all in a tizzy and planning on boiling my kid. What I am worried about is that the schools and people in general ARE flipping out thanks to the media hype, and lord only knows what new measures they'll put in place now that there's a confirmedcase.I will not be surprised to find out our childen will have to be sent to school in full bio hazard suits - or, I dunno, ziploc baggies.
Best I can tell, her biggest accomplishment (as far as she's concerned anyway) is that today, she overcame her fear of the monkey bars - and even hung upside down on them, all by herself!
So, this afternoon she came home, played a bit, got ticked off, threw a fit, and got sent to her room, where she fell asleep, and slept till 8pm. She woke up coughing again, coughing till she gags and pukes. It comes and goes, no other symptoms, no fever... we'll see if she'll be going to school in the morning. Between the coughing/gagging, and the fact that she's going to be up till freakin 3 in the morning...
I still haven't heard anything about the volunteering. Guess I'll call in the morning. Or should I just be patient? I dunno, I've never volunteered in the school before...
Mom, Dad, & love. No idea why we had 3 words one week, 10 next (which we studied for 2 weeks) then 3 this week... But it's cool, so far, she knows them all :)
New oem!
Well, actually, this weeks poem is the one that they originally had last week, before they switched 'em up. She knows it by heart from last week already lol.
Green Smiley today, and the joy of knowing that one of her classmates just returned from an extended absence due to the Swine Flu. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not overly concerned about H1N1 vs the regular seasonal flu (which we never get innoculated for), and I'm not all in a tizzy and planning on boiling my kid. What I am worried about is that the schools and people in general ARE flipping out thanks to the media hype, and lord only knows what new measures they'll put in place now that there's a confirmedcase.I will not be surprised to find out our childen will have to be sent to school in full bio hazard suits - or, I dunno, ziploc baggies.
Best I can tell, her biggest accomplishment (as far as she's concerned anyway) is that today, she overcame her fear of the monkey bars - and even hung upside down on them, all by herself!
So, this afternoon she came home, played a bit, got ticked off, threw a fit, and got sent to her room, where she fell asleep, and slept till 8pm. She woke up coughing again, coughing till she gags and pukes. It comes and goes, no other symptoms, no fever... we'll see if she'll be going to school in the morning. Between the coughing/gagging, and the fact that she's going to be up till freakin 3 in the morning...
I still haven't heard anything about the volunteering. Guess I'll call in the morning. Or should I just be patient? I dunno, I've never volunteered in the school before...
Friday, September 25, 2009
Week in Review
I can't believe I didn't blog for the whole week! Sorry, I've been busy, totally stressed, and sick :|
This week her sight words were, again, the color words. She's pretty well mastered them all.
Her poem changed from one apple poem to a different apple poem, which messed her up because she kept intertwining the 2 poems. Her teacher had posted the one poem on the Moodle page, and she had it memorized totally over the weekend, then Monday rolled around and the teacher had changed the poem. Kind of sneaky, and Terra never quite learned the new one 100%.
ORIGINAL POEM:
Apple Tree
Way up high in an apple tree
two red apples winked at me.
So I shook that tree as hard as I could
And down came the apples
Mmm- they were good!
NEW POEM:
Apples
Apples, apples what a treat
Sweet and tart and good to eat
Apples green and apples red
hang from branches overhead
and when they ripen,
down they drop
so we can taste our apple crop!
The even more confusing news is that, barring any more changes, next week's poem is also about apples. We're looking forward to more confusion lol.
This week was an all-green-smilies week, of which we are very proud. I'm not sure what her reward will be this week - Daddy has to work (thank you Universe for the opportunity to work, after 9 months of being unemployed!) so whatever it will have to be on Sunday.
There are new pictures up on the Shutterfly site too. Here are a couple of her, with any other children cropped out.
She brought home her first book from the Media Center: "How About a Hug" which doesn't seem to hold her attention, or be all that helpful in learning any of the things they're working on. We went to the local library too, and checked out some more books, books that incorporate her color words, the days of the week, the seasons, etc...
She has not yet learned to write her full name quite well enough to fi it on the line to get her own library card though.
This week her sight words were, again, the color words. She's pretty well mastered them all.
Her poem changed from one apple poem to a different apple poem, which messed her up because she kept intertwining the 2 poems. Her teacher had posted the one poem on the Moodle page, and she had it memorized totally over the weekend, then Monday rolled around and the teacher had changed the poem. Kind of sneaky, and Terra never quite learned the new one 100%.
ORIGINAL POEM:
Apple Tree
Way up high in an apple tree
two red apples winked at me.
So I shook that tree as hard as I could
And down came the apples
Mmm- they were good!
NEW POEM:
Apples
Apples, apples what a treat
Sweet and tart and good to eat
Apples green and apples red
hang from branches overhead
and when they ripen,
down they drop
so we can taste our apple crop!
The even more confusing news is that, barring any more changes, next week's poem is also about apples. We're looking forward to more confusion lol.
This week was an all-green-smilies week, of which we are very proud. I'm not sure what her reward will be this week - Daddy has to work (thank you Universe for the opportunity to work, after 9 months of being unemployed!) so whatever it will have to be on Sunday.There are new pictures up on the Shutterfly site too. Here are a couple of her, with any other children cropped out.
She has not yet learned to write her full name quite well enough to fi it on the line to get her own library card though.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Rainbow Hair
Well, Terra definitely grasps concepts quickly, and has a great memory, which I knew on a certain level... but it's been reinforced in my mind. The Rainbow Hair poem is committed to her memory, as are the Dolche Words for this week. She's totally able to be told "long line, short curve" etc and make most all of the alphabet correctly now. She already knew and wrote her letters, but typically started at the bottom, or made some backwards (d/b) or upside down (M/W) - but since she took a peek at Handwriting Without Tears, she's suddenly much more likely to make the letters correctly.
She's also learning months of the year and days of the week between home and school, as well as getting a real handle on the basics of time within 5 minutes of us playing with the clock I bought for her Learning Wall.
She's learning so much, so fast, and so dang effortlessly, I'm just so proud!
She's also learning months of the year and days of the week between home and school, as well as getting a real handle on the basics of time within 5 minutes of us playing with the clock I bought for her Learning Wall.
She's learning so much, so fast, and so dang effortlessly, I'm just so proud!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Labor Day Night
Well, the three day weekend was fun, except for Terra asking, "Do I have school tomorrow!?" every day! We went to the park on Saturday to reward her for all the green smilies. Man was it hot! Then we went to IHOP for dinner, where, in case you didn't know it, for the month of September, kids 12 and under eat free!
We worked a bit on her new poem "Rainbow Hair." too. It's a little longer and harder to memorize, and I assume it will require a bit more work to be able to get it down pat.
Rainbow Hair
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green and yellow too
Rainbow orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow colors on my head
Colors, colors, everywhere!
I like rainbows in my hair.
It's so cute when she repeats it with me though! We've created a Learning Wall - totally low-tech, with all of her (color coded) color words, and her number words, her poems, a clock, a calendar, etc... as she does this poem, she points at the color words. She came up with that idea, but it's really helping her with the memorization, as well as sneaking in some familiarity with her color words :)
We worked a bit on her new poem "Rainbow Hair." too. It's a little longer and harder to memorize, and I assume it will require a bit more work to be able to get it down pat.
Rainbow Hair
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green and yellow too
Rainbow orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow colors on my head
Colors, colors, everywhere!
I like rainbows in my hair.
It's so cute when she repeats it with me though! We've created a Learning Wall - totally low-tech, with all of her (color coded) color words, and her number words, her poems, a clock, a calendar, etc... as she does this poem, she points at the color words. She came up with that idea, but it's really helping her with the memorization, as well as sneaking in some familiarity with her color words :)
