New Journey with L

So today L and I have taken our first steps into reading. L is totally ready. He's been sounding out words like crazy. To the point it's been quite annoying, I'm embarrassed to say. Our time at the kitchen table would be punctuated with "Buh, buh, o, o, ssss, ssss, kuh, kuh sounds. He's constantly trying to sound out words and make sounds. It was time to put L out of his misery and begin with reading!

It is so hard to find beginning reader books. I remember this with T. All the so called Level 1 books had so many words! They were not beginning reader books. I do realize that it is not easy to write books that only have words that are easy to pronounce for a beginning reading, but please do not label them as Level 1 when there are paragraphs! It is quite overwhelming for a beginning reader. I did manage to find a few books that would work but even those would be a bit advanced for L. Nonetheless we still trudged ahead.

We started with The Bug in the Jug wants a Hug by Brian Cleary. L didn't quite grasp the concept of reading. Frankly it is very different just sounding out words and actually reading a sentence. After a couple of pages, he seemed to get the hang of it. Much quicker than I expected, I might add. I'll also admit that I was a bit more annoyed with him than I should be. I think I may expect more from him than I should - he is still only 4 after all.

Writing fun

I have been having T write almost daily in his writing journal. I just want to encourage him to write. If he writes only a little bit, I ask him to write more but I don't reinforce spelling and grammar. The goal is to get him to write and hopefully enjoy writing in a creative manner. I do use his misspellings for spelling work but that's another topic.

I found this neat site called Writing Fix through ClickSchooling and it offers writing prompt games. The writing prompt games are a huge help because now I don't have to come up with writing prompts for T. There are numerous prompt games based on nouns, adjectives, verbs, crazy animals, colors, opposites, etc. T gets to choose which writing prompt game he wants and then I offer him three choices of prompts.

Today he chose the opposites game. And the writing prompt he chose to go with was writing about two giraffes - one that is small and one that is huge.

This is what he wrote on today's writing journal page, misspellings and all. Please note that I ask him to date each journal page. Notice the sidenote.

Date: October Thu 28 2010 Note: 3 days befor Halloween!

There was a huge garaff named Cris. He was 20 feet hi! A small garaff named Max. He was 1 foot hi! Why are you so huge Cris? Because I eat a lot. Why are you so small Max? Because I don't eat a lot. Max likes eating bugs. Cris likes eating vechtebles and fruits. Cris Doesint eat candy, cake, brounys and cupcakes and mufins. Max eat candy, cake, brounys and cupcakes and mufins. If Max stands on Cris it will make 21 feet.

Can you tell we have been working on questions lately? In his stories for the past week, he has been including questions and exclamations. I love it!

I don't get it

Today I had to get bloodwork done in the morning so I set up the lesson plans for the day for D to handle while I was gone. He had at most 2 hours alone with the boys to do work before having to pick me up. Half an hour before he even had to come get me, the boys had finished most of their work. I just don't get it. I usually spend all day on their case, harping on them, and we still are doing work until mid afternoon. How is it that the one day that D works with them, they are done so quickly??? I just don't get it.

Motivation...

I'm having a lot of trouble getting the boys to get motivated to get moving in the morning. Today was absolutely ridiculous as we didn't get started until noon!

The thing is once we get started, it's goes wonderfully. We got so much done and quickly at that. I just wish that they would choose to get their work done first and play later. I think if we actually started on our work when I intend to, we could have a great chance of having everything done before noon on most days.

From the beginning, I've offered the daily incentive of playing on the computer if the day goes smoothly. It doesn't work. I've even told them that they could have game time on Fridays if the week goes smoothly. I've even offered a new game. Somehow this is not motivating enough. I don't know what else to do. I am at such a loss. I am tired of getting frustrated and yelling each morning in order for the school day to start. Seriously, it does not take an hour to eat a bowl of cereal or two slices of toast....

Crazy week

We actually accomplished what we set out to despite all the craziness. Z was not feeling well and after a night crying, I had to bring him to the doctor Monday morning. So much for starting the week on the right foot. We ended up not starting our day until after lunch, but still managed to hit area the subject areas. Then the next day, Z wakes up with a cold, so I spend the next two days chasing after him with a tissue every two minutes. This is not exactly conducive to a good school day.

Things are still not flowing that smoothly since T and L do not want to get going in the morning. It is like pulling teeth in order for them to brush up and change for the morning. We generally do not hit the books until after 10am! No matter what I say, I cannot get it through to them that if they started earlier, they could finish earlier. And if they finished earlier, they could play and talk all they wanted. They've even lost their computer time most of the week. Computer time was supposed to be the incentive to get them going but it must not be enough. Even the video game time on Friday was not something worth looking forward to. I am at my wit's end. I just hope what with time, they will get the idea.

So far the Singapore Math and the Spectrum Language Arts books are looking good. T really seems to enjoy working in both books. They are easy to follow and give him lots of practice. Capitalization seems to be a problem for T but I think the more he writes in his journal, the more he will get the hang of it.

L is really enjoying working in his writing journal. He is drawing lots of pictures of sea animals and does not balk at labeling the pictures. I hope to encourage this even more.

With the heat, we never made it to apple picking like I wanted to. I was hoping to be able to celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day tomorrow with apples. I guess now we will have to do it without apples. And now next week calls for rain. So I have no idea when we'll get to go apple picking. I hope we get to go soon. I think the boys will love it. I know I will.

What a relief!

Yesterday was T's first day of Chinese school. I have mentioned that I was really nervous about how he was going to do in third grade. I wasn't even ready for him to be in second, let alone third!

When I went to pick him up, he was still copying something from the board. His teacher made a point of coming over and telling me that T is a very bright boy and will do fine in this class. What a relief to hear that! I felt a weight lifted from my chest when I heard her comments and I was really proud of T. She said he was willing to write the characters and as long as he was willing to do so, he will do okay. And if he forgets the words during the week, so she will simply review them with him at the beginning of the next class. I just tried to make sure T knew the new vocabulary words before we left class. Unfortunately he did already forget. But the teacher saw what I was doing and came over to review the words with us. Thank goodness for her help because despite all the assistance she had provided by also having the English translation, it is not that simple. Conversational Cantonese and written Cantonese is entirely different. And yikes, T has dictation next week already! But I really do like the teacher and she seems really nice. I think it will be a help that there are only 2 other students besides T. There is one actual other third grader and one guy. He is a teenager who has never taken Chinese before. T actually knows more than he does. For now.

Thankfully we had gone to my parents' place and I was able to ask my grandmother for help. Since we were just hanging out (kids were playing and D was napping), I opened up T's reading book to see what the work was like. Oh my, was I in for a shock. I am used his first grade book with a story with about 15 - 20 words. There was at least 3 times the amount of words. It was quite overwhelming. I took a deep breath and slowly tried to read the story. I surprised myself by being able to read much more than I thought I could. There was a handful of words I didn't know or wasn't not able to guess. I was able to fill in the blanks with the help of my grandmother. I jotted down pronunciations and meanings so that I can help T during the week. Thank goodness for grandma!

First Week - Check!

We survived the first week. Yay! Just barely though, I might add.

The last two days have not gone as smoothly but we got our work done. We're still trying to figure out some sort of routine. It may take some time.

Yesterday T started with his writing journal. I found a website through Clickschooling called Writing Fix. It offers fun writing prompts that T has gotten a kick out of. He's been writing funny little stories with the writing prompts. Yesterday it was about a chicken that gives haircuts. Today it was about a blue jay that shrinks things. And somehow L makes it into each story. I'm glad to find a fun way for T to encourage his writing.

We are making great progress with our shark lapbook. The boys are very excited to contribute to it. We're still working on the parts and hope to be able to start putting things together next week. I can't wait!

While we are still reviewing math skills with T and reinforcing time, we've gone ahead into the 2nd grade language arts. Since he's started with his writing journal, it's becoming glaringly obvious that T needs work on capitalization and punctuation. I cannot believe that he still has trouble remembering that a sentence begins with a capital! I know what we'll be focusing on now.

T read Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osbourne yesterday. He read about 4 chapters. Today he read Earthquake on Early in the Morning by Mary Pope Osbourne because he couldn't find Tonight on the Titanic.

We've continued to review his book from Chinese school last year. Today he reviewed the chapters on his own. We're as ready as we can be for the first day of Chinese school tomorrow. I am nervous for him. I would have been nervous anyway had T been going to C2, second grade, as he was supposed to. Now that he's going to third grade instead due to the lack of students in second grade makes me very, very nervous. Crossing my finger that tomorrow goes well!