Slowing down for summer

You can tell it's getting to be warm outside because we've been slowing down a bit with the lessons.  We're still reading at the speed of light because Red has been sick the past few days.  We finished The Boxcar Children in a flash and every other book in the library bag!  I think we'll probably read some of the other Boxcar Children stories at some point.  Right now we have The Red Fairy Book on hold at the library so that will probably be our next long term read aloud.

Reading lessons are finally going well.  We're at around Lesson 70 now in the Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading which is reviewing long vowels made by adding a silent E to the end.  There's no review during these lessons.  You're just supposed to focus on whether or not the child is getting that concept.  Thank goodness she seems to be getting it--- yay!  We're going at about two lessons per week in terms of pace and that seems to be working out just about perfect for her.  By the way --- I have firmly decided that My Little Pony puffy stickers can work miracles!  After we complete a lesson, she gets one (or two) and that seems to be a great motivator.

We're doing 1-2 lessons per week from Rightstart Level A.  There are some things she's getting (entering numbers on the abacus) and some things that she's not (combining two sets of tally sticks into one number), but we're definitely making progress.  We're up to Lesson 13 and I'm feeling pretty confident.

Then, there's writing.  I have to just keep telling myself that she is young and her fine motor skills aren't there yet.  Her grip (unless she's reminded to hold her pencil "like a princess") looks like a mangled claw, and counter clockwise circles (which are the building block of a lot of lower case letters) do not come naturally to her at all.  She doesn't like practicing writing either so I only make her do a couple of examples of each thing we're working on, which usually end up not looking very pretty.  I know we'll get there.  She's only turning 5 in a few weeks.  I know I need to take it easy and not worry about it.

And finally---I need to schedule time to do the things we really want to do together, like art, crafts, baking and games.  As we get into the summer months, I foresee us doing a lot outside.  I think one craft we're going to tackle is to make little markers for our herb garden that we're working on.  Last year we kept all our herbs in pots.  This year we're prepping an area to put them all in the ground.  I think it would be a lot of fun to paint either rocks or signs with the names of the herbs. 

Most importantly, I hope she's well tomorrow.  I'm finally well.  I want everyone else to be healthy too.  Crossing my fingers and saying a prayer...