You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 5th, 2007.
So I’ve been really struggling with trying to figure out how to motivate Isabela to practice writing letters, numbers and just doing more literacy activities. She wrote her first letters 8 months ago, but has been really resistant to want to practice often. Next month she turns four. I know she still has many years to develop these skills so I backed off for a while.
But then the other day I realized that she is always highly motivated to write when she’s writing for a purpose. Like making a card for a family member or friend. So actually, I’m putting this post up as a reminder to myself to teach literacy with a purpose. Send lots of cards in the mail to family members. Let her help write out the shopping list. Real life stuff.
Here is a present that Isabela helped me choose and then wrap (she did most of the wrapping, I just held the wrapping paper together) and then she made a card for our friend’s new baby.
First she drew a picture of the baby on the front.
Then she asked me how to write “BABY” so I wrote in a seperate paper and then she copied it onto the card.
There are some days when the creative juices get rolling and everyone plays so well together. We had just that kind of morning with our “Pretend” birthday party. No pushing or shoving or tears or screams. It was almost magical.
First we made party hats with big white paper that we decorated, rolled to fit the shape of the head, taped together and then taped yarn on the top.
Then we had muffins with icing on top.
Of course we sang “Happy Birthday” many times, in many different languages. And then we put some candles in our muffins to blow out.
Diego and Olee (around a year and a half) were so excited about practicing blowing out the candles, that we repeated this step several times.
After that we went to Isa’s room to “wrap” presents (her little dolls wrapped in blankets and tied with string) which we distributed to everyone to open. And then repeated several times.
The magic of a pretend birthday party. Just as fun as a real one.
Hooray for grandparents being here. On their second day here, despite the jetlag (coming all the way from Malaysia) my mom was already busy at work fixing up our garden.
Of course everyone wants to help…
(doing a little weeding)
