Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Doing the paperwork

When I was in kindergarten, I learned the alphabet and letter sounds. And we reviewed colors, shapes and numbers.

It was assumed that Biscuit and has classmates would know their alphabet, letter sounds, numbers, colors, etc. before they even walked in the door that first day. And they've been flying right along ever since then.

Biscuit is reading. He's writing full sentences and has recently started writing paragraphs and sequence sentences (as in, "First, I did ... Next, I did ... Last, I did ...). He can count to 999 and can write his numbers to 100. He can do basic addition and subtraction. He can follow patterns of numbers, like 2 ... 4 ... __ ... 8 ... 10 and can figure out that the missing number is 6.

And I could keep writing things he knows for a while.

He's learning all about Black History Month right now. (More on that later.) He's learning a lot about presidents. He says right now that Teddy Roosevelt is his favorite, and although I can't remember why right now, he can give you a whole speech about him.

I guess it sounds like I'm bragging. And I am. But mainly, I'm just amazed at all that he's learned in just a few months!

I took a picture of Biscuit's February homework assignment sheet. Down the left are "sight words." These are new words they're learning. Then for each weekday, there's an assignment. We don't have to do them in order. Since it's dang-near impossible for us to do an assignment each night, we often double-up on them, doing one easy one and one harder one on the same night. When he finishes an assignment, he has to color in the square.

And this month, there's even a bonus assignment.


I have to say, though, that the homework assignments have really helped improve Biscuit's handwriting. They got their first month of homework for October, and we struggled to get it all done in time. Partly because we just weren't used to doing assignments on a schedule, but partly because it took Biscuit FOREVER to write one word, much less a whole sentence.

One of his assignments this month said, "Write three ways you can take care of your teeth."

Here's what Biscuit said: 

I brush my teeth. I floss my teeth. I go to the dentist.

I drives me a little crazy that I can't help Biscuit with his spelling. His teacher wants him to sound out words. She says that right now, figuring out letter sounds is more important than him spelling words correctly.

Another assignment was "Identify the jobs in your house and who is responsible for each."

Here's what he came up with.

Jobs: I sweep. I practice piano. I do homework. I pick up my toys.
Mom cleans the house. Mom makes dinner.
Dad gives me a bath. Dad does laundry.
Mom and Dad take care of me.

And I've noticed that he has been getting more words spelled correctly, too. Like when he had the word "keep" as a sight word, he realized that the long e sound could be made with two e's in a row. So he spelled "sweep" correctly. And some words, he's just learning. Like "does." 

His teacher suggested we make flash cards of his sight words. I bought a pack of 250 index cards, and I've written words on 130 of them. There are about 4 or 5 that Biscuit gets mixed up. But he knows all the others on sight.

I laughed when my father-in-law watched Biscuit do homework. He just couldn't believe that a kindergartner could do the work Biscuit is doing. Biscuit doesn't put up too much fuss about doing homework. He seems to enjoy learning new things, and I hope it continues that way.

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