I think I posted about a month ago about how much I was loving doing homework with Karianna. Well, I am happy to report that I still love our time together and it is still so much fun for me to see her progress! All the kids know the homework routine by now. As soon as I pull out Karianna's homework supply bucket, I all of the sudden find myself with 3 over-excited kids, clamboring up onto the chairs of their choice and requesting their homework. Jordan usually beats the other two kids onto a chair; a few days ago, he pulled the yellow bucket over and pulled out a whiteboard and marker. He handed it to me and said, "Nana, Nana." I cracked up-Jordan knows Nana always starts by writing her spelling words on a whiteboard! Just too cute! So the boys now do homework with Karianna, although their attention spans wane before hers does.
A few homework highlights for Karianna that were fairly proud moments for her:
Today, Karianna finally wrote her last name all by herself-no help. Its funny, I always told people Karianna would learn the alphabet from her last name alone! Learning the alphabet has long since come and gone-guess her last name was a way harder task than I anticipated!
On Monday, Karianna wrote her numbers to 100 in order for the first time as well. She struggles remembering the tens, and I was very proud of her when I noticed that she was using the patterns on a 100 chart to help her know how to write the number 80! She never had to ask for help, and I just loved seeing the strategies she was employing to find the answers all on her own.
On the same topic of math, Karianna has finally caught on to the count back method for subtraction-yea! So to date, she has down the +/- 0, 1, 2 families. I think I will start her on +/-3 next week, potentially using the touch method I taught my first graders. We'll see how she picks it up! Funny note: I was telling Karianna to check her answers when she was done with her math fact paper-I told her this was a good habit. She said, "I know Mom, I usually just put a tally mark next to the ones that are already correct, and if it is not correct, I don't put a tally mark, I just fix itk." Hee hee, still makes me giggle!
In the reading realm, Karianna got all of her spelling words correct last week! She always has 6 decodable words and 4 high frequency words on her spelling list-its the high frequency words that catch her up because you can't sound them out for the most part. So that was a major accomplishment for her last week. I think this week will be similar, her hardest word is "could", so we'll see how that goes!
Just from the mommy point of view, I have to admit that despite Karianna's progress, I am not sure I am sold on how quickly things are moving. She's doing well, and still enjoying school a huge amount, but I do have days where I wish things would be a bit more laid back.
I called Karianna's teacher about this a few weeks ago; the conversation made me feel a ton better, especially when I realized that the kids were simultaneously learning concepts and format. Karianna's teacher told me that tons of the kids had never even seen a math problem before, which makes complete sense honestly. I have to keep these things in mind I suppose! I was also pleased to hear a good description of what they are doing in the classroom to simply play. They still do centers each afternoon, and they started the violin program last week, which I knew but was glad to have more details.
Anyhow, it has definitely been an experience with this charter school for the past month-probably will be the toughest part of the year for me as a parent! This would be so much easier if I was less involved in my daughter's life :)
Thankfully, the routines are already getting more familiar and I am learning better each day how to best encourage Karianna. Sometimes less is more with her! She likes doing her math flashcards on her own instead of me monitoring her every move, and she likes doing certain homework pages by herself and just watching me grade them afterwards. She prefers reading to me at nighttime instead of cramming it in after homework time, and that has helped her excitement levels for learning remain high. That's all I want :)
So perhaps I have learned more than Karianna in the past month! Repeating kindergarten sure can be beneficial for the mom!
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