I'll be waiting...
Time After Time.
It's been a neat learning week for my cute girls! Ellie is enjoying our new sessions on units of time. I began by teaching her vocabulary: the days of the week, today, tomorrow, yesterday, morning, afternoon, night, and then added to that a lot of the daily activities. So we just practiced "hearing" the words and selecting them on flashcards. Every day, throughout the day, I'd also tell her "Today is Monday" (or whatever).
I put the days of the week on the wall with a little arrow, and the arrow moves to indicate the day of the week. Every day I say, "Today is ____. Touch ___!" and she touches that word on the wall. Then I say, "Yesterday was ______" - she touches the word; "Tomorrow is _____", etc.
After we'd done two days of vocabulary and wall practice, I started pairing her flash cards.
TODAY | MONDAY
TOMORROW | TUESDAY
YESTERDAY | SUNDAY
Hence, this conversation successfully ensued the other day!
Me: Ellie, what's today?
Ellie: Saturday
Me: What was yesterday?
Ellie: Friday
Me: What is tomorrow?
Ellie: Sunday
She doesn't actually know what ANY of that means. We're still working on pairing concepts, but I was so very, very proud of her for pairing "yesterday" with "Friday", etc! It's a huge start!
Today we started pairing her "Today is MONDAY" vocabulary with the activities of Monday:
I held up flashcards: TODAY | MORNING | MOM CLEANS ROOM
TODAY | MORNING | EAT | BREAKFAST | EGGS
TODAY | MORNING | MOM MAKES JUICE
TODAY | MORNING | ELLIE KISSES MOM
TODAY | MORNING | VOCAB
TODAY | MORNING | SHOWER
TODAY | AFTERNOON | MOM WORKS
TODAY | AFTERNOON | ELLIE PLAYS IN ROOM
TODAY | NIGHT | ELLIE READS BOOK
TODAY | NIGHT | SLEEP
I began teaching Isabelle her ABC's last week. I love this little girl... she is my heart! As tender and affectionate as she is, I didn't actually think she was all that, um, learning-oriented. But she's really, really getting there! And she looooooves learning! Her little eyes sparkle with happiness when she's practicing her letters and words! She's so proud to be learning like her big sister!!!
As of today, Isabelle has learned A, B, C, D, E, L, and T. She's also learned vocabulary words: VOCAB, SHOWER, OUTSIDE, BALL, BANANA and BELL. This reminds me that I've forgotten to be adding her vocabulary as she learns new letters. Oops!
Anyway, she's reading her very first words now! She doesn't *totally* get the concept, but she's really, really hanging in there!!! I think it'll get easier with time.
These two are so different. Ellie seems to grasp ideas as fast as I can toss them at her. She's just sharp and THERE, dying to learn, almost intrinsically understanding what I'm teaching her as quickly as I put it out there. BUT she's impulsive. She selects wrong words because she wants quick rewards - and because on rote exercises she doesn't want to think anymore. She gets bored, she wants to learn, not practice.
Isabelle is slower with grasping ideas, but she's methodical in her approach. I suspect impulsivity will be less of a challenge for her. She's a delightful student - chatty and dramatic while we work.
Here's a pic from the first day she learned words.
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