Week Three and the end of our first block

The good news is that three weeks went by very quickly.  The better news, we accomplished all that we set out to get done in that time.  Our first blocks are now complete, the books full of their work are bound together and have a new home on one of our shelves.  I think we are all proud of our accomplishments, and we celebrated by going out for ice cream.

Miss Joyful worked with the book The Greedy Triangle this week.  She shocked me by writing out all of her "T is for Triangle" worksheets ALL BY HERSELF this week. She asked me to not help, to not look, and to allow her to surprise me with her work when she was finished.  She did a great job on them, which is wonderful.  But the most amazing part is the complete change of attitude along with that ability.  The fact that she sat quietly, worked hard, tried to actually do the work in front of her, rather then just scribbling all of the sheet or staring blankly at the wall/ceiling...  She is showing so much growth!!  I am so incredibly proud of her.

My treasure worked hard overcoming her frustration and mastering many new forms and shapes this week.  She LOVES to draw, and has been approaching everyday optimistic that she will be able to complete her new forms quickly.  Often they require more time, effort, and patience then she originally expects to give.   I now see her taking more time and effort in her personal art, and feel strongly that this is the results of the form drawing unit.  I am really glad that we finally have worked on this, and that we are seeing such positive results from it.  However, I think that she is very happy to be moving on to something that is not form drawing.  She has requested that we do our first math block next.

Week Two in Review

Can't believe how fast the time is flying by!  Another week already done, and I couldn't be prouder of my girls.

Joyful is doing AMAZING!! I am so glad that I listened to her needs and held off on pushing academics on her.  She is ready now, and she is showing me just how much she can do.  She now has all of her shapes flash cards hanging on the wall, showing the she is able to tell me what each of them are when presented with the card and asked.  She even read her first word this week.  Yep, that's right, she read a word!!!!  Oval, in case you were wondering.

This week she worked on the story Mouse Shapes.  A cute little story about 3 mice hiding from a cat in a pile of shapes. They create tons of different things out of the shapes, including 3 large scary mice.  Again we backed this up with free resources that I found on line, as well as some work sheets from a large Kindergarten workbook that I have.  We have also continued with daily matching of the shapes words to the shapes, an activities from the Robot theme pack we used last week.

My treasure is mighty proud of herself, and so am I.  She now has all of her grade three sight words up on the wall along with her grade two sight words.  She has mastered another book from our set.  As her form drawings become more intricate and require more concentration, she becomes more resistant to doing them.  But she sure is proud when she finally accomplishes them.  It's interesting, because at first I wasn't able to see the true value of the form drawing, but as the drawing themselves ask more from her, I can see the many benefits to the block, and am now looking forward to the grade two block.

Week One in Review

Well, our first week back to school went FAST!  And we got a lot done too.  We took a break on Tuesday to head out to Hamilton to meet up with some friends at a splash pad/park.  Summer library program has started up again, and we joined in on Friday.  It was great to see so many people this week that we haven't seen for a few months/weeks.


My treasure has been very resistant to starting grade two, so I am easing her into the school rhythm this year.  Her first block is getting caught up on the grade one form drawing that we didn't do last year (opps!).  I'm certain that I'm not teaching form drawing right, at all.  But we are trying to get through and learn what we can so we will be ready for the grade two form drawing block later this year.  It is certainly challenging her, making her slow down, concentrate, pay attention...  So, maybe we're doing more right then I think ;)

She is also working on her sight words daily.  She was pretty overwhelmed on day one when she saw the new stack of them in her envelop, but she whipped through them like a superstar.  ALL of her grade two sight words up on the wall before the first week was even over.  She has now chosen to start working through the grade three sight words that I have for her.  Some of them are a little more challenging, but she already has half of them up on the wall.  The awesome thing about her sight words this year, is that she is actually looking at ALL of the words.  REALLY trying to read the ones that she doesn't know.  Listening to me say them, and sound them out.  Sounding them out on her own.  AND, she adding her own sentences to each of them (even when she's unsure of what they mean, which can be quiet comical).

Reading is the last part of her daily "MUST DO" work.  She reads a phonics reader and an emergent reader.  I have a LARGE selection of them.  We put out a few at a time for her to pick from.  Once she is confident and proficient with them, she reads them to Daddy before bed, and then they go away to make room for her new ones.


Silly Joyful is starting our her final Kindergarten year with a block on Shapes.  This week we read Robot Zombie Frankenstein.  What a fun book that was!!  We also focused a one specific shape for 2 days each.  This week we did circle, square, and triangle.  We did tons of work to support our Robot story, and ended the week with some Cherry Pie :)