Fierce

(sorry for the larger images, but I wanted to be sure that they were legible to readers)

M has taken a real leap forward in the last couple weeks with her writing. She started a First Grade Journal at home (not something required for school) and was writing about her day the other night. Today, she bought a diary for recording other notes and such.

What I'll miss, though, is the phonetic spelling and creative way she's writing now. When she asks how to spell something I don't want to tell her because I love discovering how it seems to her (not to mention that I usually try to have her sound it out).

This was a picture she did last week with a story/caption on the back.


































I am a tiger. My skin is orange and black. I am fierce with enemies which are a bear.


Fierce with enemies. I love that. (The bird in the tree is labeled A Brd).


This is a thank you to my sister (look away Muffy if you haven't received it yet) for the Halloween treats she sent.
















Thank you for the gifts Aunt Tracy. That headband looks marvelous on me. Love, M.

The pictures are of me (Mom), Me (M), then all her cousins by initial (S, D, D, C, J).


How awesome are these?

Literacy

This year, M learned to read in school.

It's amazing to me, watching M learn to read and helping out at the end of school for a few week, that any child learns to read. English is a bitch of a language. When we're reading together, it's a constant struggle....

Me: No honey, this time the "i" sounds like ice cream, not kitten.

I can see that M gets frustrated and I can't always blame her. What's really funny about it, though, is that all the kids I read with at her school and in helping her, the kids stumble on what is seemingly the easiest, and most common words, like it, is, in, and sail through sometimes and elephant. I think it's because is, it, and in "look" alike (word recognition) and they have to really stop and think about the sounds, while elephant and sometimes don't "look" like other words they're using at this point.

What's also been interesting is that, despite Big Daddy and I being huge readers and having read to M since before her birth, she really doesn't want to read by herself. I think that is due to a) she doesn't like to do things that she doesn't do well (hmm....apple falling from tree?) and b) she gets our (Big Daddy & my) undivided attention when we read together. Truth be told, I love snuggling up with her and reading together.

In the interest of practice, though, we have a deal this summer to read for at least 10 minutes and do some workbook pages in exchange for time on the computer to play with the god-forsaken Webkinz that we caved and bought her. We include her reading to Little Peeps, which, I have to say, is one of the cutest things ever. Peeps is reading and Little Peeps is rolling all over her to get closer. It's hard not to eat them both up in their cuteness.