Welcome to the sixth installment in my ongoing monthly series covering Tee’s first year of preschool. This month was pretty short in terms of classroom time as Tee’s been on March break the last two weeks. I think she’s really enjoyed the time off, but I’m she’s raring to return to school and excited to get back to her “work”.
This month has seen some huge strides in Tee’s academics. She loves showing off that she can count to 100 now (loudly and repeatedly, especially in the car), but I’m most excited to report that she’s reading three and four letter words now! Last week we were doodling with a drawing app on my iPad and I wrote CAT and SAT. Tee sounded out each letter, then she put them together and read the words! I started showing her simple words like DOG, HAT, SIT, CUP, and FROG, and sure enough, she could read them all. I am such a proud mama! Here is the very first sentence she ever read independently.
She’s so proud of her newly acquired skill and has been telling everyone, “I can read now!” This is the most visible evidence that her preschool experience is really paying off. I just registered her for next year, but I’m not sure yet if we should continue half days or sign her up for full days. She loves school right now, but I’m cautious about overwhelming her. Most of the time she’s eager to go, she still has mornings where she argues and whines about having to go to school. I want to keep school a positive experience for her.
Heart and Stroke Foundation Kids Walk for Heart
Earlier this month Tee collected pledges for the Heart & Stroke Foundation and participated in a fundraising walk with her classmates at our local mall. Grandma, Tee, Kay, and I all went. They had clowns with balloons, and a really, really bossy teacher who basically tried to take over the walk from the organizers.
The other parents and I were kind of stunned when she peremptorily demanded that the clowns stop their performance so she could lead her preschool class in singing a song and teaching it to everybody else. And then when we started walking, she pushed ahead of everyone and even tried to take the lead in the walk itself. She insisted that everyone sing her marching song, and she had to be redirected at least twice because she started leading the group the wrong way. You know, because she didn’t feel like she should walk behind the people who knew the route. It was a bizarre experience for sure!
Arts & Crafts
I’ll leave you with a sampling of some of the spring and St. Patrick’s Day crafts that came home this month.
Spring caterpillar craft
St. Patrick’s Day lacing activity
It is neat to see the progress of little ones who have just started school or preschool. My son is in his first year of JK and it is a riot to hear him sounding out every word he sees!. He did not want to attend school at first, but now he loves it!
Love that she can now read! My kids are in a French school board, so they starting JR Kindergarten full days at age 4. That was pretty young. My daughter liked it, but my son was not ready, so he only went haft days.
I love the idea of preschool. My DD started in September when she was 2. I was worried that she was too young, she could barely speak and was very shy. It has been the best thing for her. Her vocab as multiplied, her social skills are amazing and she is becoming smarter and smarter each day! Cheers for preschool
Great progress! I have to say, I just adore pre-school crafts. It’s so difficult to decide what to keep and what to recycle. The caterpillar craft T did is super cute.
My daughter is an adult now, but it was so exciting when she started reading too, and learning her ABC’s and all of her colours.
How fun! I have loved watching my daughter learn to read and progress with new and bigger words!
My daughter has been in full day since the age of three…she has flourished in her environment.
My Little Man started Full Day Kindergarten this year. He was in Junior Kindergarten last year, which at that time was only two days a week! He was begging to go more! This year, he is loving 5 days a week! He didn’t need much help with his transition! My daughter will be the one that needs the help to transition. A lot more than he ever did.