School Update

I know I have been totally slacking when it comes to school updates. I'm not really sure why, but its not something that I feel that excited to write about!

Lorelei still absolutely loves school. She loves the social aspect and adores her classmates. I'm not a huge fan that she is now picking up a few bad habits from them as well, but I guess it comes with the territory. :)

She loves learning. She needs to work on her reading, but I also don't like pushing it. I'm not a huge fan of requiring all this reading in K. She has a reader she practices several days a week, but she usually only has the patience to read it once, (on a good day three times) each day she brings it home. She gets very frustrated and thinks she should just be able to read easily. :) She is very good at sounding out words, as well as using the pictures for word clues. I think she will get caught up (although in the "old" days she would be doing perfectly fine for her age!) eventually, but right now its a little slow-going for our taste. :) She is doing a great job trying her hardest. (Although this mom would prefer her stay a little more calm while reading! :) )

I took a couple of videos so you can get an idea of her reading. Sorry they are kinda long and not that exciting! It doesn't help that I let her have a snack while she was reading either! :) The first is the story part of her reader. We read the blue words and she read the black. They also practice this in school. She gets an m&m and sticker for each time she reads. The other part of her reader is the list of words on the back page, which is the second video.

Each month they have a family project. This month, they were supposed to make a unique snowman. Lorelei came up with the idea of a snow turtle, and then added "it would be cool if his head would go inside" so we figured out how to add that feature. :) Love her creativity.

They don't have the typical grading scale at this age, but she has mostly all S+'s, so that is great. Her teacher said she is a joy to have in class.

She was very excited last week, because their teacher brought in tea and crumpets. (I believe following a Social Studies unit on England.) She seems to really like the social studies lessons. She is also very excited she now knows how to count by 10's and the beginning steps of telling time. :)

Monday Lorelei's class celebrates the 100th day of school. She had to bring part of a trail mix they are going to make, so counted out 100 marshmellows. She grouped them by 10s and then counted by 10s to 100. They also had to bring 100 of another item that they are gluing to a poster, so she counted out 100 sequins.

Even super heros have to do their homework.

I suppose Makin is due for an update as much as his sister. :) He and Drue are great with their school work routine. However, because he learned everything so quickly with his sister, he now doesn't really want to push himself. I have given him folder games to work on that are what he should be working on next (ex. Put the numbers in order from 1-20, which he IS capable of doing) and he complains "Mom always expects me to the do the hard stuff." So we are working on his attitude. I feel like I'm slacking a bit because Drue is not on his level so its harder for me to do two totally different lessons at the same time. We are very limited to 1 hour, because we are watching a 2 year old two hours on Drue days as well, limiting our school time. He is getting much better on his name practice, so at least that's progress. :)


These are the letter booklets we do each M/W. These two are not big on writing/coloring, so we do these little song/rhyme booklets. They especially love the ones we can do with actions. :) We just finished "K" and we usually wait until Drue can ID the letter before we move onto the next...and I'm trying not to worry that we are only on K! She seems to be getting them a little faster now. They also do zoo phonics, and hopefully I'll get a video of that when they know all the letters. Makin already knows them all from last year, but its great to keep him practicing and he still enjoys it.

After our letter books we have learning games.This one is an Upper/Lower letter match. This is where Makin gets a little frustrating at times because he thinks they are too hard. Each child has different games, so I'm usually helping each one as needed.

As far as his out-of-home teachers go, he is a favorite with them. At family night I have been told "I wish I had ten of your kid in there!" :) He is also doing much better this round of Y Move Jr, and although he is nervous most Y mornings, he is less distraught going into his class and always tells me it was fun when he is done.

I'll try not to wait 100 days for the next school update. But no promises. ;)