School Stuff

So a weird thing happened.  We borrowed from a library a book called Human Body Theater for the younger readers in the house.  It is a graphic non-fiction book about human anatomy and physiology.  Sarah and Daniel, and to some degree, Rose, adored it to the point that I bought them their own copy.  Because seriously, folks, they were fighting over the library copy for days on end.  They read it over and over again.

Given their enthusiasm for that book, I figured they might like other books about anatomy so I ordered more. And sure enough, the excitement continues.

They are reading away and learning and talking about the human body.  Education at its finest, with the kids excited!

I have learned quite a bit as well, to be honest.  I never learned much about anatomy.

Rose is officially reading a teeny tiny bit. I know from experience that it is a major feat when a child can take the sounds of a simple word and blend them together.  It's a significant hurdle to overcome and she has!  She is bribed/encouraged by getting a fruity tic-tac for every word she reads. She loves them so much that she reminds me every day that we need to do reading together.

Going off in left field, I've come across a couple of articles lately about how many schools still aren't teaching phonics to children. They are using "whole word" approach or worse yet, a bizarre technique where they encourage a child to look at the first letter of an unknown word, then look at the pictures on the page, and GUESS the word.  The idea that this would somehow produce good readers was suggested decades ago by some ivory tower dude, thoroughly debunked by science a few years later, but is still embraced and taught to teachers in some colleges.

I am quite cross about that.  Some kids will figure out how to read using whole word and this nasty "guess by looking at the picture" approach, but phonics is by far more reliable. Many kids will be totally screwed up by the "guessing" approach.  People, don't do that to our kids!  Literacy is so important!

Off my soap box now.

 Rose can now put train tracks together by herself.

I have spawned a multitude of very talented artists.  Amazing. These are couple things that Miriam sketched.

And Sarah is making paper birds and dragons.  Also super creative and beautiful.  Like really, girls, where did you come from?

Ok, here's a little addendum about reading:

https://hechingerreport.org/kids-struggle-to-read-when-schools-leave-phonics-out/

Read this if you are interested. This is important if you are teaching kids to read.