Well, school is in full swing and the boys are officially students :). Both Kason and Max absolutely love school and are always joyous when I pick them up which makes this momma's heart happy. Honestly, I think the adjustment has been harder on us parents as we get in a groove of waking up sooooo early...I did mention earlier that the boys leave at 7:15 on school mornings...eeek! As usual, we have some awesome days where Kason pops up and is ready to head out, but unfortunately we also have mornings where it is like pulling teeth to get all our gears in full motion (usually about two mornings a week). Another challenge for us parents is trying to figure out and adjust to Kason's teacher's expectations which seem a little high right now for the start of Kindergarten. I knew homework would be a battle with him after spending all day at school, so I whipped up a few extra fun activities to make his homework less painful :). Of course, before we start any homework the kids and I sit around the table sharing about our day while we eat snack. Once we are re-hydrated, Kason wants to go ahead and get his homework over with...thankfully, we only spend 30 minutes tops. He has to "read" two books everyday (easy readers his teacher sends home) and then she wants us to have extension activities to cover areas that are his weaknesses that he needs to improve in. We try to work on the alphabet or sight words a couple times a week which he does struggle with.
The sight words are a little frustrating for Kason because he doesn't have all of his lowercase letter recognition and sounds down completely, so trying to memorize sight words is overwhelming. I try to focus on the sight words that were in his book for the week and we do activities like sand writing or swatting the words with a fly swatter. I set up a "target" practice for him in the halls...
He had a lot of fun shooting down his sight words, but I had to seriously add some assistance here. I would say a sentence but leave out the sight word and he would fill in the blank. That seemed to help him put the word in context since he can't really sound out words like "the".
His teacher also has them working on rhyming words, so I combined practicing his alphabet recognition with sounding out words and rhyming by using a "parking lot".
He really enjoyed this activity and it boosted his confidence for him to finally feel like he was reading and doing something on his own.
He has really been struggling with this alphabet business which I can't stand to see since obviously I want him to be successful. Thankfully he has the same two books to read all week, so by Wednesday he has them memorized and he "thinks" he is reading all on his own :). One day we work on comprehension and go over setting/characters/retelling while another day I will have him extend the story and write an addition to the book.
Since language arts isn't his strong suit, I have been trying to add in days where our activity pertains to something he is interested in like science. Their class has been learning about the sky, clouds, sun/moon rotation so one day we made clouds...
Kason seriously loves science and almost always tells me all about what he's learning and what they are up to at school. It amazes me how he can use all the correct vocabulary already and explains everything in detail...for example one day he got in the car and discussed with me all about weather patterns...his words :). Of course little lady has to join in when she can...
while Max is usually off having a party and playing with his toys. It's funny to see Zoe try to "interact" and help Kason with his homework. Sometimes I feel like little sister will be ready for kindergarten next year because she is learning so much just by joining in and repeating Kason. Another strong suit for Kason is math. He loves to count, find numbers, figure out larger numbers, and add, so we have worked on patterns...
and adding using something all little boys love...bugs!
I love off days like these because you can see his confidence rise and frustration lower as he conquers an area he enjoys and is eager to learn in. Unfortunately, we have had a couple of really rough days at school where Kason didn't have a good report. On these days we make him write his teacher an apology note...
Thankfully, after our talks he has written his two notes (with my assistance of course) and done really well about taking ownership of his poor choices. After homework, Kason has freedom to play, play, play afterward and just be a kid! He of course loves to go outside and play to let a little steam off...
He also likes to watch an episode of Wild Kratts to decompress too...
which this momma isn't complaining about since it gives me a little freedom to start dinner. I'm super excited because not only am I on a PTA committee and already started helping in that way, I'll also be volunteering in his class once a week during computers. Since the boys love, love school I look forward to seeing them in their environment doing their thing!
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