Once again, Natalie just amazes me.  I can’t say it enough, I wish I had T4L when Emily was just learning to read, 8 years ago.  Anyway, Natalie is reading on her own now.  This week she went through about 10 small lessons mostly in the Language Arts curriculum for 1st grade and then a few others in the Language Arts Extention for 1st grade.  In these lessons there are sections where the story is read to her, then it asks her to identify different words and finally it makes her read the story back as each word is highlighted with a click of the mouse.  She did great and really enjoyed reading the stories.  As hard as it is at night (because I’m usually very sleepy) I let her read to me or we share the story.  She also reads to her dad when he’s working in the garage.

I am proud of her progress and her dedication to keep learning and to even go on T4L after being in school all day.  She doesn’t go on everyday, usually on Wednesday because she has a half day and Friday’s because she goes to bed a little later than usual.  The other days are optional.  She also goes one if she is reviewing something in particular that she may be struggling with. We just find one of the lessons to help her through that and so far we’ve been able to find something on T4L to match what they have been doing in class.

We are over our colds, still holding on to a little sinus or allergy issues but otherwise everyone is feeling pretty good and looking forward to our family vacation over the holidays.

Everyone, have safe and healthy week.

Terie

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to class.  It sure has been a season of colds and stomach bugs, sleepless nights and exhausting days, visits with the doctors—WOW!  I really feel like “super mom.”

Anyway, that’s all done now and we are ready to catch up and get back in gear.  Natalie is looking forward to doing her work online starting today.  She actually told me that she missed not going on her “homework page on t4l”–I guess she can’t get enough.

The one thing I have to say to everyone here is that it is amazing to me how quickly Natalie is learning to read.  I am just amazed and proud to see how well she progressing through letter sounds and words and her ability to read her books to me instead, although I have to admit that she wants to read to me at night and that usually means I fall asleep before she does.

I know that the time she spends on time4learning has been a tremendous help in her learning.  I now I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, I’m so glad I found this program.

Terie

For Natalie, learning how to read a calendar has proved more challenging then we expected. Obviously learning to read would have to come first in order for her to identify the words which describe the days and months so we are skipping this section to work on more language arts. Another challenge she’s working on is yesterday, today and tomorrow. It’s sort of funny I guess and in a way I see the little girl I’m having a hard time letting go of but she’ll soon get that too and move on. We have abandoned math for a little while because for the most part, the Kindergarten math is too easy for her and she wants to move to the 1st grade level, however, until she can master the calendar and the money we’re going to hang out here a little longer. The money is a little difficult as well so we got her a coin collection book which encourages her to find different types of coins, the state quarters, buffalo nickels and coins from different years, like her birthdate. Hopefully, having them physically in her hands will help her to remember the names and characteristics of the coins.

This whole learning process at home is really new to me. In the past my kids came home and told me what they learned in school, we did homework and reading, etc. but never to this level of detail and actually realizing when they finally got it. Mostly I’m really glad that I have the opportunity to relive these early learning years with both a boy and a girl. It is exciting when they finally “get it.”

Natalie was home sick on Friday, however she managed to go online and master 2 of her Math lessons and this week she’ll move ahead with language arts while we’re on vacation. To me it’s quiet time for her is nothing but pure fun on the computer. I hope everyone begins to get better soon. Stay hydrated and keep those germies out of the house!

Terie

This is science week for us. I chose this week mainly because fall has finally arrived and Natalie has been asking many questions about the leaves falling, the animals, the plants that die and the ones that live during this time of year. I remembered a while back that there is a section in the Science curriculum that focused on the world around us and recognizing the changes that occur as we enter each season, etc.

We just started this section and Natalie loves it. It also happens to be the same thing they are doing in class so that’s a huge plus. She only got as far as Spring yesterday with huge plans to finish that section today. However, it’s late and she might be a little tired tonight. She usually logs in after breakfast and before he bus comes in the morning.

The plan is to incorporate the lessons with real life activities outside. We live in Virginia, the souther part, and the weather is still somewhat mild around here. Side note here —>It’s really strange, however, that sometimes we play in the fall leaves and it’s 75 degrees outside, other days you have to wear gloves and a hat. Anyway, we went for a walk in our yard to find the flowers that grew in the spring and to talk about the changing colors now that fall is here.

I’m learning and enjoying this particular lesson as much as she is. Autumn and spring are my favorite seasons of the year, but I do look forward to snow and the crisp winter air– what better way to enjoy a hot cup of cocoa with marshmallows–yum!

I hope everyone is enjoying this colorful time of year as much as we are!

Terie

This week is focused on Math for Natalie. Since she did so well over the last few weeks on her Language Arts, we decided to take a brief brake to focus on numbers. Natalie is making some progress on recognizing coins and their value; time and the value of each number on an analog clock as well as counting by fives and tens – both of which are important when learning to tell time.

Today Natalie came home from school with “two good news.” “#1 there’s no school tomorrow; #2 I counted by fives all the way to 100.” OK now that’s good news. I told her that this means she should be able to read the clock on the kitchen wall. Now she makes it a point of going to that clock to read the time. She looks at the clock and once she figures out where the “little chubby hand” is then she counts by fives until she reaches the “long skinny hand” to figure out the minutes. Pretty smart huh? OK so I’m biased. Anyway, I’m very proud of her accomplishments with numbers.

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend was her showing off her lessons to my dad. My dad does not speak English nor does he even understand computers. But he sat next to her and watched her work and then figured out what she was doing and even joined her in some of the sorting and counting lessons. It was very sweet. You have to understand, we don’t see Abuelo often enough and we all miss him very much. My kids don’t speak spanish and that’s my fault, sort of. English has become more second nature to me because I don’t really have a community of spanish speaking friends to speak with on a regular basis so I got a bit lazy and failed at teaching a second language. I am working on that because I do want them to talk to my dad next time we see him. It would be cool if we had a program like T4L to help them learn while having fun. Any recommendations?

Well, that’s all for now. Hope everyone is getting over the cold, flu, and any other issues going around.

Good Night.

Terie