This week's lessons brought to you by....

This week's lessons brought to you by.... oh, you want to do something different already?

Yep, school time has begun for my active little Curly Boy.  Last week was not disastrous in the "he completely hated it he'll never learn" way, but was really not so hot.

It's an expectation issue.  Curly Boy EXPECTS to do worksheets, because that's what his sister did (Curly Girl LOVED her worksheets).  I EXPECT him to find some way to hold that pencil and draw a straight line (with help, of course).  Curly Boy EXPECTS to have fun.  I EXPECT to struggle with teaching him.

No expectations were met.  Which was good, except for the whole not so fun part.

So we changed it this week.  No worksheets the first two days.  The first day, we painted an Elephant with an E on his tummy (using I Can Teach My Child's Peel Away art idea).

(Curly Boy was immensely proud, so we hung it up as soon as it was dry)

 

 

The second day, we made E's using playdough.  Curly Boy LOVED rolling out the 4 snakes - one long, three short.  And once we put them together I asked "What does this make?"  He INSTANTLY knew that was an E!  We also played Word World's Duck's Alphabet Game - and he had a blast imitating the sound E made and finding words that rhymed with the "e" sound in them.  (Something Curly Girl never loved - she liked to write the letters, to lay them out in order, but she never was big on "what sound does this make").

The third day, we attempted to write the letter E.  Fail.  He prefered to draw his own lines (NOT in an "E" shape) and color in the pictures. 

So I didn't force it.  We "E"levated our arms and learned ""E"very knee shall bow before you" and then played "Imitate the stick figure"

 

I know he's only 3.5 years old, and he's a moving, busy, little boy who wants to get the work over so he can run in circles screaming again.  Our imitation stick figure game is full of lots of goofy poses and giggles and wrestling.  That's good.

 

I'm trying to remember that he IS learning his letters - even if he's not writing them.  And really, recognition and remember the sound is probably more important at this point.  But MAN I hope he can write his name before next fall!