Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Somebody Flipped A Switch

I would attribute it to Spring's arrival, only we are still in our winter coats. It seems like a big shift is taking place at home these days. Kwamai has taken a real interest in reading and math. I "caught" him at Starfall.com this morning practicing reading, and he was very excited yesterday about trying out ClickNRead Phonics and a few math worksheets I downloaded for him. As he was using the two reading sites, I realized his skills have taken another step forward, as he is much more fluent in letter recognition and more sight words. (He will still ask me 10 times in a row what letter R or E is; I think he simply cannot bear the thought of making a mistake and choosing the wrong one!) He greedily grasped a book as he was sent off to bed tonight. Ok, so maybe it was more about prolonging his bedtime, but he has quite an aresnal of ways to do that, and reading is not on the top of the list.

It seems ironic that for kids in school, or kids schooled at home, that their school year is just about winding down. I think it is more natural for Kwamai to take winters "off" and be more actively learning the rest of the year.

And Felicity is going through her changes too. She reminds everyone "My birthday is coming. I'm going to be 2!" And to go with the territory, she is practicing shrieking loudly (yes, our little Miss Placid who rarely said a peep in days gone by) and demanding things to be Just So, Right Now (Please). She has to have her statues of Jesus and Mary in the exact places where she puts them for the day. Presently they are sleeping on the pillow next to her.

Her latest thing is to tell me "Stop doing that, Mama... Read this book to me" (or play this game, or let me see those baby pictures, etc.)

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