writing sentences

Now that Emma is reading well, and realizing she can read, she can not stop reading. Before bed you can hear her reading out loud in her room and in the car she always has a book! Now I want her to realize she can write as well. A little harder since we really have not started spelling yet. So this past week, I gave her a composition book that allows her to write as well as draw a picture. I asked her to do at least 2-3 sentences per page, 3 times a week to see how it goes. I told her to just write. I want her to concentrate but not panic about spelling. I do not plan on correcting at this point but we have sat down and talked about certain words. I am planning on only bringing to her attention words that if she had focused or reread that she might have caught herself.

The first entry:



















"Today we painted pottery. I painted a teaset."


The second entry:

















"The dog chased the cat. The cat did not like it. The cat told the dog."



She did tell me that she had to ask daddy how to spell chased because she could not figure out the "ch" sound.

On this one I asked her to look at sentence two and three and tell me if something was missing. She quickly caught that "the" should be capitalized. We also talked about "ded" and "lice." I reminded her when she reads her work, she needs to read it as it is printed and not how she intended to write it. When she did that, she realized "ded" should be "did" and that "lice" should be "like."

The third entry:

















"I went to the park. I played on the slide."

planning for 1st grade....

Been doing a lot of looking and ordering the past few weeks and am slowing getting things that we need for the "new" school year.

So far we are looking at:

Math: Sticking with Singapore. She should finish up 1B by Sept (being conservative since we only have 2 units left and the money one she should fly through). So once she finishes 1B we will start 2A. Also purchased FlashMaster for her. We were just not getting the flash cards done enough and this is "fun." I like it because it keeps track of what she misses and we can set it up to just test the missed problems. It will cover math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division so we will get many good years out of it!

History: Starting with Story of the World: Volume 1: Ancient Times. We have the text and the activity guide. I am still debating about buying the audio book as well even though we have the text. I am realizing how much Emma is loving audio books and ever since I asked her which Ramona book she had on audio, she replied "Ramona Age 8, by Beverly Clearly, read by Stocker Channing." I realized she picks things up very well from audio.

Science: We have not decided. We will be doing Animals, Human Body and Plants. I am just not sure which program we will use. I have a couple bookmarked and will look over them with Dave. There is a chance we will buy both and mix and match.

Music: Continue with violin. Experiment with her guitar, lap harp, recorder and ukulele. Possible composer study.

Art: Artistic Pursuits Book 1 for K-3. She will also continue with the art classes at the local art studio as long as she wants.

PE: Nothing specific right now. Skating and hockey are not possibilities since the rink closed down :( People are fighting to get it opened again but I am not holding my breath. She is enjoying tennis, disc golf and bike riding. Possibly swimming lessons. Lots of hiking once it cools off.

Language Arts: Left this for last because just thinking about it makes my head hurt! I feel like there is so much but most of it is 15 min lessons per part and not everyday.

1. Right Track Reading - Sticking with the phonics as needed.
2. Explode the Code - This might get dropped if it is not needed.
3. All About Spelling
4. Writing with Ease
5. First Language Lessons
6. Handwriting without Tears - Finish up the first grade printing book, continue with second grade and possibly add in cursive (her choice).
7. Typing - various programs
8. Lost of reading outloud, both her to us and us to her
9. Memorization - at least a poem a month.
10. Misc- writing emails, working on a "journal" (couple sentences/picture per page, not worrying about spelling, just getting her write)

Other: As if the above is not enough, we will continue with community service this year. I really would like to get her involved in the local "backpack" program, picking up trash and visiting senior citizens.

Sorry it has been almost a month and a half since the last post. We have been busy and as usual, things are changing so we are having to change how we do things.

About two months ago I applied for an on-call position with the Migrant Head Start program here in the valley. Dave had seen the position listed with our workforce center and the pay was good, so we thought it would be a good thing for me to apply for. He has not had luck finding work here since so many others are also looking. My field does not seem to be as thick with the unemployed. So I went in and applied. Then I pretty much wrote it off after not hearing from them (and none of my contacts had heard from them) after 3 weeks. About a week later, they called for an interview. That went well and then another 3ish weeks passed and I figured "oh well." A couple days later I was called in to fill out paperwork. While I was there, the director mentioned that they were really in need of opening up a classroom for about 6-8 weeks... only until school started. She wanted to know if I would be interested.

After talking with Dave, we felt it would be the perfect situation so I went from be on-call to being a full time teacher real quick! I started just over a week ago and the first 4 days was just setting up the classroom. The room they put us in was the storage area so we had a lot of stuff to move out before we could start arranging the room and getting it into shape.

The kids started Wednesday and we have only 4. They are 2.5ish and it has been a lot of fun. I really like this program because no matter how few kids, there always has to be 2 adults with them. With my last program in Denver, the second I hit 5 kids (1 year olds) they pulled my aide.

Since I am full time for the time being, Dave has been home with Emma and I think it has been good for everyone. It has been an adjustment since I know her schedule of classes and appointments but we are making it work.

Since I started working, Emma has been getting violin in every day and is really doing well. I think we needed a change of pace with that and Dave provided that.