Two emerging readers and The Polar Express

I really need to get back to doing a weekly update, but my blog keeps getting pushed to the side when other things come up. I do have some big news to share…… Tank started to read CVC words!!!! I am so proud of her. She was memorizing the BOB Books and although it appeared that she could read, she couldn’t sound out any new words or recognize words from the book on their own. However, the past two weeks have blown me away. I put AAR Pre-1 aside because I didn’t think she was getting it and wanted to slow down and start doing a full week per letter beginning in January. I now plan to start AAR Pre-1 in January and work on it daily. When she finishes that, we will move straight in to AAR 1. I am such an excited parent!!!

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year and we dived right in this past week with The Polar Express. We had a hot chocolate party while watching the movie, played with snow (Yuck samples), and made a Santa Claus face

Math: Monster is working through Singapore KB and has almost finished the second unit on Number Bonds. Next up is Addition. These are easy problems for Monster to do with the aid of c-rods, but I really want him to work through everything to be prepared for 1A. Tank is working through Singapore KA and still plows through it. However, the writing is slowing her down and I’ve decided to hold off on it until I can get her some number stamps to make it easier. We still have math time with the c-rods, but she doesn’t think of it as “school” work.

Reading: Monster is almost done with AAR 1!! We should finish it up this month! We will take a little break to work on fluency with the stories he can already read and then move right along to AAR 2. He is building confidence everyday even though the words are becoming much more challenging for him.

Spelling: We dropped AAS 1 for a bit, but Monster has been asking to start it back up. We worked through Step 10 last week, but probably won’t start Step 11 until the new year.

Handwriting: Monster needs to work on his letter formation a bit more so I am looking for something to give him a short refresher. The Tank will also move forward with handwriting when I find something I like. She breezed through the Handwriting Without Tears Preschool I already had on the shelf in 2 days but I despise the look of the letters and numbers. I love A Reason for Handwriting, but I would prefer a secular handwriting program.