February 20th

In last week's blog journal I noted that I contacted my little's third grade teacher. I asked to see if there was anything I could do to help with her performance in any areas. This was her reply:

"Every week she has spelling sentences to write using the words for the week. Often she has trouble with meanings. You could help her with this. Basic math facts and telling time are a concern too. I will appreciate anything you do."

This week when my little came, I asked her if she had any work to do in her bag. She said a brief "no" and we continued playing. I am not sure if she is being honest about not having any work or if she does not want to do it during the time we spend together. We occasionally read books she brings home, but other than that, she tells me she has no work to do.

One thing her teacher would like to see improvements on is her spelling. To help with this, next time I hope to read a story with her, and as she comes across words she struggles with or cannot define, she can write them on a piece of paper. After we are finished with the story, we could make our own spelling test and use the dictionary to define the words she does not know. We could even translate them into Spanish to help with comprehension.

I also wanted to comment on my little's writing in our journal. Two weeks ago I asked some questions about the both of us, like what some of our favorite things were and some other basic information. She said she did not finish answering all of the questions, and this provided a perfect opportunity for us to answer the questions outloud. We each took turns answering and she wrote down our responses on the paper. On the following pages of the journal, she reflected on a birthday part she went to in beautiful print. In the past we have talked about printing and how it is really easy to make our letters and words sloppy. I could tell she put a lot of effort into this week's entry. Though of the spelling and sentence structure were incorrect, this was yet another great opportunity to talk about how to write a proper sentence (i.e., period at the end of a sentence, capitalizing the first letter of a sentence, etc.). She also wrote another page in cursive, which was very well done! When she focuses and takes time to review her work, she is very successful. I also think it helped to read the journals in a separate room (we went to the library) because it was much more quiet.

For the rest of the time, we wrote cards to each other. I made her and her sister a poster for their door at home, and she made me a very encouraging card. It was extremely encouraging to know she is enjoying when we meet!

Next time I hope to bring some interesting childrens books - ones that I really enjoyed when I was younger - so we can begin working on spelling. If she is up to it, I may even ask her to give me a spelling test, maybe with the words she is learning for the week! I may also bring some math games and some more art materials.