On Fire

Ms. P is on fire with a blossoming love of learning.

Her evenings are taken up with learning ひらがな with her dad, piano practice and finishing up with a healthy dose of English right before she goes to bed.

Living in a foreign country where the majority language is ever encroaching on my English-speaking territory, I was less than thrilled that Ms. P was showing an interest in her second mother-tongue. Jealous, perhaps? I should rest easy though: Ms. P thirsts for ever more increasing knowledge about languages every day and English is still #1 in her book.

We've been working on phonics, the fundamental building blocks for reading and recognizing sight words to enable Ms. P to read faster. We've gotten into lots of fun books, as she is now of an age where we can read actual stories, and not have to rely completely on board books.

She is starting to build up her vocabulary (thanks to Fancy Nancy and Amelia Bedelia) and it was such an emotional thing to watch her sound out a word and discover that she knew what it was. Goosebumps, I'm tellin' ya!

What we're using this week:

vtech for learning how to read and write letters and shapes. I use this in conjunction with books and exercises to reinforce the basics of the alphabet and give Ms. P some practice with writing.

Phonics Made Easy: Easy-to-read cards with hints on the back for remembering certain combination sounds

Sight Word Readers: 50 of the most common words are reinforced in this book set

Brain Quest: Fast-paced, Q&A game that builds essential learning skills. It contains alphabet puzzles, number and "What's Wrong With This Picture" quizzes, out of sequence stories, shapes, patterns, animals.