School Activities

Over the past couple of months, Emily has enjoyed many of the same school activities that Abbie has enjoyed. This year, in preparation for Western Day, Emily decided that she needed a new western outfit, so we got her a cute little skirt and matching vest. As perhaps you can tell, she was in no mood to have her picture taken that morning, and was turning away from me. Ironically, however, I think that it resulted in kind of a cute little photo.

Emily also prepared 40+ valentines for her classmates and teachers. Per the teachers' suggestion, we used it as an opportunity for her to practice her writing. It was incredibly slow going, but I actually sat with her as she carefully wrote her name on each valentine, and then wrote the recipient's name on each valentine. It took us hours and was something that we completed slowly over the course of a few days. Ultimately, though, she completed all of them!

 (with her friend Ari before school on the 14th)

Emily had some extra excitement recently when she and the other kindergartners were invited to spend some time in the Lower Elementary. The 3rd grade students host this event every year and it gives the kindergartners the chance to check out the building that they will move up to in the Fall.

In preparation for this transition, Emily's teachers have been more proactive in making sure that she will be ready. Below is the note that we received from them a few weeks ago:

            "With the start of the New Year, we felt it was important to bring you up to date with regard to Emily’s academic progress.  She continues to enjoy school, has made many friends and is well liked.  We have made it a requirement that she work in both Math and Language on a daily basis to help prepare her for the Lower Elementary environment.  She has a difficult time staying on task when her work is chosen for her.  If she chooses work independently, typically art, she is able concentrate for long periods of time.

             With regard to Language, Emily continues to make progress and is ready to begin the last of five language shelves. She has mastered 21 of 26 sounds and is able to blend sounds together for phonetic word building.

             With regard to Math, Emily does not show a strong interest in this area of the classroom.  She has mastered numerals 0 – 9 for recognition and formation.  She has a good understanding of 1-1 correspondence, odd and even numbers and the concept of addition.  She has been introduced to the Montessori beads through the bead stair and the introduction to the decimal system.  She is currently working on the formation and recognition of teen numbers.

             Emily’s main focus continues to be in practical life area of the class.  She has a natural love of art and would be content to spend her days creating detailed, creative drawings not only for herself, but as gifts for her friends.  She has developed close friendships with Aribela, Emma, and Evangeline. 

             We would be more than happy to sit down and discuss her progress further."

 

Of course, I think that this note sums up Emily perfectly. We know about her love of art, and her drawings have actually started to demonstrate more depth. That is, she is now interested in the fact that a person may look as big as a house if the person is close up and the house is far away, so she has been incorporating that into her work.

Since this note, Emily has actually progressed to the "reading shelf" in Language and is really doing great with sounding out the words that she sees all around her. Of course, English is such an annoying language to learn and it seems that there are exceptions in almost every word that she tackles. Slowly but surely, though, she is making progress. :)