Good morning

What's this? I am remembering to blog? I found a note that my Aunt Linda sent to me last summer. She has home schooled her four children from the beginning and I value her advice. She says that at this point the most important thing to focus on is reading. Once they can read, the rest will come so much easier. Of course, have fun with math and science, but don't fret over it just yet. Her other advice is to remember that kids Alex and Emma's age can only be expected to sit and focus for 15-30 minutes at a time. This is something I have learned on my own over the last year and a half. We started out doing good to sit and work for 10 minutes, not we can spend half an hour working before we really need a break.
Yesterday Alex found the Hooked on Phonics workbooks. We haven't worked with them in a while, so that is what we used this morning. We started with hooked on Phonics a year and a half ago, but haven't stuck strictly to the program... just used it as a guide and aid. So this morning we reviewed the pre-reading letter book. The girls did great. We are oh so close to 100% letter recognition for both girls. Our hang ups are b/d, V/Y, l/I. Then we moved on to a few pages of letter sounds. We went through and said each letter, the sound, and a word that starts with it. That kind of repetition seems to be very helpful with Alex and Emma. Then we concentrated on 'm' and 'n'. Not sure why Hooked on Phonics put these right next to each other, so confusing for little ones. Maybe that was the point, to hear the difference. Anyway, there were three pictures of 'm' words with the word written below it. We pointed out the 'm', said the sound, then the word. The next page has six pictures, we say the word and listen if it starts with the 'm' sound. Same thing with 'n'. Alex really did very well with this and I have learned that while Emma is mostly quiet, she is soaking it all in. That is pretty well how she learned her ABC's. So, by this time Alex was tired and getting distracted so we called it good for now. Maybe do a bit more later, may just wait for therapy this afternoon. I'm so proud of the girls for loving to learn. It is never a fight. If anything, the fight comes when they get too tired to concentrate but still want to work. Alex particularly gets frustrated when she wants to keep going but can't.