J-school Week in review

We had a successful week at J-school this week. We did our very first literature study as a test run prior to us starting BFIAR ( Before Five In a Row). The book of the week was Brown Bear, Brown Bear and J loved it. Our week pretty much followed my intro to J-school blog but as of next week there will be a few changes.


1. We will be adding Math-U-See Primer to the lineup. J watched the introductory video with me today and immediately asked, "Mommy, who's that?" I told her it was Mr Demme. She nodded and said "Oh" as if she knew who he was.

2. Because we are adding BFIAR ( I really wanted to do more classic preschool books so that she can still enjoy being a toddler and it's a good foundation for the Trivium) we will be doing 1 lesson for 2 days of Foundations A. At this rate she should be starting Foundations B at the end of June.

3. We are adding BFIAR. I will be placing all her completed work in a binder so that we can look back at it when we are finished 'rowing'

4. We will be doing more painting and play doh activities because J has been requesting it.

5. Also planning on getting a CD player in order to further expose her to music ( something she seems to have a passion for- she was very upset this week when she asked for a tuba and I said we do not have one)

Well  that's all  for now.

Primed and ready to go.

Our Math curriculum has arrived and it was Christmas in April for everyone. Well, me to be honest and hubby seemed to do a little smile. After much research and one sleepless night courtesy of worrying if I made the right decision, I purchased Math-U-See Primer to add to J-school.

I wanted to give her a better feel for Math. Sure we count everything we come across, but I am the type of person who likes to know that at the end of the day I have not missed anything. My hubby and friends call me a perfectionist, as for me I call it not wanting to leave anything to chance.

The plan is to simply get her used to the new manipulatives ( not sure what she will think seeing that she LOVES her Counting Bears) and slowly add a worksheet per day. She can already count but Primer does more than counting.

I will be doing a review on how it's going in a few weeks. Did I mention that I am soo excited?

J-School...because we are awesome like that!

Today we had another successful session of what I will now call J-school. We stacked blocks as she read the words written on the whiteboard, we worked on our fine motor skills by using her childproof scissors and we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear - our book of the week.

I chose to redo Lessons 21-25 with Jay just to ensure that she actually was understanding what was required of her and to do more of the games from Foundations A.

Here is a quick recap of what J-school looked like today.

- We pray prior to starting and our prayer is as follows, " Dear Lord bless this tot school and help Jay  to learn. Please also give Mommy the patience while Jay learns. "
- Next, we sing our national anthem. I will admit that sometimes I forget and J has to remind me by saying, "Mommy, O Canada?"

 - Language Arts was the first subject. I wrote a word on the white board and if she read it correctly, she would get a block to stack. She ended up with 8 blocks ( 8 words correct out of 9. The ninth one was a challenge word 'quit' and she almost got it as she simply read it as qu-it but there is no such thing as a half of a block)

- We then moved on to Math. We did our counting bear mats and she kept asking for more so we did 2 mats instead of one today.

- Next came fine motor skills using Let's Cut Paper by Kumon.

- Then we did a pattern block mat of a dog

- Lastly she did animal matching with 9 pairs of cards. The animals were the ones mentioned in the book of the week.

All in all a successful session of J-school and we finished a few minutes prior to Baby C waking up. 

"Snap your fingers, do a step, you can do it all by yourself.."

Happy Dance

Today we created our Happy Dance. It was silly little tune with the lyrics saying touch the floor, clap your hands, jump up, touch your nose and shake your head. Why were we so happy you may ask? Today my 2 year old (27 months old) understood ending sounds. Woo hoo! (evidently i am still a little excited) The joy of seeing my child understand what is required of her is almost immeasurable.

This week has just been fantastic. She is understanding how words are formed and she has read a few words since this week as well. Kindly note that when I say read, I am not referring to sight words but applying phonics and deciphering the letters given to her.

My little one has been working her way through the Logic of English Foundations A since the end of February with a break due to a visit from the Flu for two weeks. This program targets 4 to 7 year olds and provides a fun and solid foundation while teaching your child to read and spell. We initially did one lesson every day for five days (Tues- Sat) but lately we have started doing one lesson every day including weekends. We do not do the writing portions because my 2 year old is only 27 months and her fine motor skills are not advanced enough and the scenario could be likened to giving a 5 year old the keys to a shiny new car and telling him to take it for a spin. The result: disaster. Hence instead of writing we use letter tiles.

I can clearly remember the dread of wondering if my child would understand blending or segmenting or even worse be able to do them herself. I asked myself if I was crazy because I am TRYING to keep up with her little mind. She thirsts for more, she craves information. Let me give an example of today's lesson.

Today we did Lesson 24, which has a 5 new words as well as an exercise to practice identifying ending sounds. Once we were finished with our words, she kept asking for more. "Write 'box, Mommy. Mommy, write 'bag'. Needless to say, Mommy willingly obliged. When she had enough, she simply said, no more tot school Mommy.

She also showed her grandparents and dad that she has a few words to the spelling compartment of her knowledge bank. I had left the words on her white board and she read them for her dad when he entered her room. Her dad was so excited that he wrote the words on a piece of paper and asked her to read it for her grandparents.

Once again, thank you so much Denise Eide and your fantastic program that is opening my little ones eyes to the world around her. You have created the manual that allows me to further facilitate her love of books and learning and for that I will forever be grateful.