A Little Learning Never Killed Anyone...

I had been dreading this year all summer. Not only is this Kristen's last year, which has been emotional let me just say; but it is Nicholas' first year. He is the kind of boy that can't sit still so I was really anxious about how in the world I was going to teach him anything! Not to mention I haven't really taught first grade stuff yet! Brandon pretty much skipped most of it. He was reading, so beginning phonics were redundant (and skipped ;)) and he had been adding and subtracting for quite some time so his math book (second grade level) was just honing his skills.

Nicholas, however, would need to be taught all this stuff. He practiced his letters and numbers in kindergarten and he thought I was torturing him. The one thing he liked, and always has, is to be read to. He loves books! So we read...lots. It was the very best way to get him to sit still for a minute and maybe learn something!

As you know, I love teaching my kids. One of my favorite parts is learning something about them in the process. I love seeing what they liked and disliked about the year. It tells me a little more about them and helps me choose for the next year. I take mental notes all year long.

One thing that has emerged as a favorite of Nicholas' is phonics! Never in a million years would I have guessed it! I have always heard about kids hating phonics, so I was really, really surprised one day when I had set up his phonics cards, called him over and he exclaimed that he loved that part! It was his favorite!

Here are some pictures of his favorite :)
We're using Learning Language Arts Through Literature and he loves it! I've used it in the past a few times for Kristen and Brandon and neither of them cared for it much, but after searching all summer for a good phonics program, this one just kept jumping out at me, so I bought it. It has been just challenging enough to keep him interested but not so much that he is overwhelmed. There's just enough grammar sprinkled in there that he's getting the basics of capitalization and punctuation, nouns and such, but the emphasis is mostly on learning to read. And he finds the readers hilarious! That cracks me up! Who likes readers?!?