Whew! Everyone completed their goals for the day! It was actually a fairly good day, with the exception of Monet's hyper attititude, my messy cabin, and the fact that I got a note from the library telling me that I have a $24.00 fine and several overdue books. I'm kinda frustrated about that because I can't renew my books online anymore, which I used to be able to do. I'll have to see what I can do to get that fixed.
I messed around with the SOS a bit. Very cool! I think this will be quite helpful for our school program. The only challenge I see arising is that we only have one computer. There could be some fights and logistics problems.
Especially since I found so many cool websites today that will be fantastic learning tools as well as buffers in between lessons (and during Mama's potty breaks!) that I'll gladly share with you.
One of the fantastic sites I found was Our First Grade Backpack Very impressive! I found it while looking for simple online stories that Monet can read instead of me running to the library (and paying outrageous fines!!!) for books that he can read. I was especially impressed with the reading page. I found some great stuff like a realplayer reading of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day read by the author. There are a bunch of cute stories that children can follow along with while they are read to (I know the rules...but I don't feel like restructuring that sentence right now!) if you go to the Cbeebies site--stories like Jack and the Beanstalk starring Noddy or The Lion and the Mouse starring Angelmouse. There were so many stories and so many links on Our First Grade Backpack, I haven't even begun to explore them all. I hope to put several good ones in a folder for Monet and Sweetheart to enjoy while I'm doing other things during the day.
One great site that I discovered on Our First Grade Backpack is Learning to Read at Starfall. It's a free online phonics program that uses interactive games, animated stories and short movies to teach children to read. The site also provides free journaling page and worksheet downloads for each lesson. Very useful! Much better than spending hundreds of dollars on a phonics program. I may try it with Sweetheart. We've always used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (hokey title, good book) but only get about half-way through it before the kid catches on and we don't need to continue with the lessons. This may be just the little program we need to get Sweetheart started reading! Bard began reading at 3 years old and is now an incredible reader...voracious, I would say. Edison didn't really start reading until recently. Monet just started to learn to read in October and is now quite adept! He's very excited about joining choir because the two requirements were to learn to read and to be in second grade. He meets both requirements! He's very excited.
Bard babysat for the first time tonight. Read her blog to find out how it went.
Ah! And Edison won his scrimmage! Good for you, Edison!
And while we're talking baseball, yesterday Monet was at baseball practice and got hit right on the tip of the nose by a baseball. I wasn't there, but I was told that he bled like a stuck pig. But he didn't cry! Now I call him my "baseball hero." He's pretty proud of the blood on his glove. ;-)
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