Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Four


Yesterday, I walked past the easel that so nicely {annoyingly} sits in the middle of our kitchen dining area and I found this sentence written very nicely on it. It says "I am 4". Arielle has been writing letters since before she started Pre-K but over the past year she has really improved tremendously. Her teacher, Miss Sarah, does a really good job of teaching her to write the letters correctly on lined-paper as well as knowing when to use upper and lower case letters. There are a couple of letters and some numbers {J and obviously 4} that Arielle still writes backwords but I know that if she sits down and practices writing it over and over again she'll get it right the next time. It's just getting her to take the time to practice that is the hard part.

The thing that impresses me the most is that Arielle has recently learned to READ! It all started a few weeks after Averi was born when we were out to dinner and Arielle blurted out the word "Stromboli". Zak and I asked her why she said that and she pointed to the sign behind us. We both just looked at each other with our jaws on the floor because she had read that word all by herself. I think she must have tried sounding it out in her head for at least fifteen minutes because that is how long we had been there before she said it out loud. Anyway, we kept asking her to read words from then on and she hasn't stopped. We have been told by an elementary school teacher that she is reading at at least a second-grade level. The most amazing part about it is that her words flow well and you can tell that she actually understands the concept of the book. She doesn't have to ask for help with very many words either. We are very impressed with her newly acquired skill. It couldn't have been timed any better because she is now reading books to Averi which is so cute to see!

In spite of all of her knowledge of reading and writing, I have to remind myself that she is still so young. That is why I am happy that she wrote this sentence on the easel for me to see.

~Momma to Bug~

2 comments:

~Mommy+Me~ said...

That's so awesome Des! It makes me so happy to see kids that love to read too! :) What a great big sis too! It sounds like they are doing a great job at her school! Don't worry at all about the backwards letters/numbers, believe it or not some kids do that up until about 2nd grade.

Unknown said...

yay arielle! what a smart girl! i feel like whole new worlds open up when you learn to read. it's fun watching our little ones have these great achievements.

hope you guys are well. i need to meet little miss averi...

thanks for all your sweet comments, des. i have been really bad about keeping in touch. we always say this, but let's make a plan. and stick to it. sound good?