School has been back in session for almost two weeks. School supplies, homework, worksheets, etc. We spend at least an hour on this stuff every school day.
Oh wait, you probably think I’m talking about Book Boy, don’t you? Well, yes, third grade started on September 8, and he does have homework almost every single night (sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes more, once in a while less). But I’m really referring to Little Sister!
She’s not in preschool this year – we just can’t afford it right now, with me unemployed and a baby on the way. But she and I are working on letters, numbers, and the like every day and she has really taken to it! She is eager to do school (not play school, as she often corrects me) every morning when BB is away. We color, count, sort, do workbook pages and mazes (she loves mazes), practice writing (though she doesn’t have much patience for or interest in this right now), and other learning activities. We even have recess! LS really gets into it, even calling me “Miss Mom” throughout the day, and sometimes insisting that I call her “Student” rather than her name.
I’m really trying to capitalize on her interest before it starts to wane (as I’m sure it eventually will). She asks for more workbooks? She’s got it! Mazes? I’ll find some on the internet (they’re great pre-writing activities). She wants a stack of printer paper so she can draw “Christmas presents” for us? No problem! She and Tim also work on letters during bathtime, with foam letters that stick to the tub – I’m convinced that doing this helped BB become such a good reader, and I think it will help with her, too.
In addition to all these learning activities, I’m pretty pleased that we’ve mostly managed to keep the TV off during the day (the kids get 1/2 hour of cartoons before school, none after school). I don’t think she’s even asked to play on the computer lately, though I don’t object to 30 minutes of SesameStreet.com and the like every now and then.
Let’s just hope we can have her up to speed before she starts kindergarten next year. I have no doubt that she’d be more than ready if she were in day care/preschool this year … I just don’t know if we can do it on our own. (I’m not expecting her to be reading or doing math problems by then, just want her to be ready to learn how to do them.)
Don’t stress! It sounds like she’ll do just fine. Student’s got the motivation!
yup
shes got the motivation and 3 wonderful role models!!! LS will be right on track!!!
That stinks that you have to pay for preschool. We have Universal PreK (UPK) in our district and it’s free. They also have headstart still. Do you guys have anything like that?
vlnvla and btwinny – I’m sure you two are right, I just worry about it. Hopefully she’ll stay interested.
Jolene – nope, no free preschool or pre-K here. We do have Head Start but we are far from qualifying. (And honestly, after our experience with BB in kindergarten, I’m not sure I’d want to send her to Head Start in our school district anyway. Let’s just say I’m very glad that siblings automatically get into the charter school where BB goes, rather than having to go through the lottery process!) She could go to our old preschool/day care for $31/full day or $21/half day (minimum two full or three half per week) but I’m just not comfortable committing to $63 per week right now. That’s really the only place I’d consider sending her, to be honest, because we’ve loved it so much in the 5 years that we’ve had kids there.
“Miss Mom” and “Student” — too cute! I’m less worried about her staying interested than I am in you being able to keep it up once the new baby comes.
Gal, I worry about that too, but I think if we can at least squeeze in 20-30 minutes while baby is napping, all will be well. (It’s not like we do this for hours a day anyway – it’s usually for less than an hour.)