Welcome to November’s update in my ongoing monthly series about Tee’s first year of preschool. I’m so glad she’s starting to really enjoy school now! Yay! She was home sick all this week but kept asking to go anyway. She tried to convince me she wasn’t that sick.
This month’s themes were Remembrance Day and dinosaurs. Tee brought a lot of poppy pictures home earlier this month, though I’m not sure how much she actually understands about the day and what it commemorates. I think there’s plenty of time for that later. For now it’s enough to tell her that we remember the people who help keep us safe.
We had parent-teacher conferences this week – my first! According to her teacher, Tee has mastered working with the number rods and spindle boxes and is doing particularly well in her numeracy skills. She’s also mastered the pink tower and broad stairs and is starting to work on the red rods. Tee knows all her letters and sounds, and she’s working on spelling three letter words at school. When she’s with me, she’s curious about the words she sees around her and wants to know what they say. She’s starting to understand that letters make words, and she can read STOP, CAT, BAT, MAT, and the other -AT permutations.
Tee says her favourite work is the sound cylinders. These are two boxes of matched wooden cylinders that make a different pitch and volume of sound when shaken. The idea is for the kids to hone their ability to distinguish between and match the different pitches, though I’m told the kids cheat by checking the stickers on the bottom.
Arts and Crafts
Tee still loves doing art, painting, and crafts. With the volume of pictures and art stuff coming in this house, I’m going to need to figure out some sort of a system for what I keep!
Tee’s class is preparing for their holiday concert. Now I fully realize that objectively speaking, preschoolers are not the most talented or tuneful creatures, and I promise not to inflict recordings of the concert on my family and friends, but I’m really looking forward to attending. Tee’s teacher told me she won’t sing a note at school, even though she’s been singing “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman” at the top of her lungs at home. I really hope she gets comfortable enough to actually sing at her concert, or it’s going to be a lot of video footage of Tee staring at her feet.
Gaining Confidence
Last month Tee set the goal of walking down the stairs on her own. I’m so proud to tell you that she’s now walking into her classroom on her own every day! She’s developed a little routine that helps her separate. She gives me and Kay a kiss and a hug, walks s-l-o-w-l-y down the stairs, then waves to me from the bottom before greeting her teacher.
And the best news this month? I’m happy to report Tee has made friends with a couple of girls at school! They play together and eat snack together. When we’re walking in, I can hear them calling, “Tee’s here! Tee’s here!” and that really warms this mommy’s heart.
I’d love to hear about any recent school successes you want to share about your kids. Does your child’s school put on a holiday concert?
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