Literacy at Home

From his drawing class.

School Work

Students are continuing to review numbers 1-20 and the letter /b/

Thanksgiving Art

It appears that the students have had fun making various projects with the theme of Thanksgiving.

3-year trophy

3-year trophy

I am including this element of his life because I am so proud that he has earned his 3-year trophy at KIPS Gymnastics.  That’s 3 years of attending gymnastics weekly.  Good job Jedadiah.  What dedication and endurance he is learning from his classes and coaches.

Now the two coaches for the boys academy classes 4-7 year olds and the 7-14 year olds are fighting to have him in their class. He will make the move to the Boys Academy class which is supposed to be for 7-year olds, but Coach Bob wants him there.  Coach Bob said he was blown away by his ability and really would love to work with him.  Coach Eunice asked if Jedadiah could do private lessons with her because she wanted him to fine-tune his skills.

Khin and I were so happy that two coaches would want to work with our son!

Lista 3

Lista 3

All week he has been telling me that he is going to have his spelling test on lista 3. We started practicing the words on Monday evening in preparation.  Throughout the week, he was confusing ella and aquì  and forgetting buscò had a /u/ in it, està had an /s/ and that dònde had an /n/. 

I had him do rainbow trace with these 5 words and write the words in isolation several times.  I tested him probably more than 10 times during the week. 

By Thursday evening, he was in tears.  He told his dad he couldn’t remember the words.  So, dad cheered him up, dried his tears and said that he would take the test with Jedadiah.  Those words put a smile on Jedadiah’s face and the test was retaken.  Khin scored a 100% the first round and Jedadiah scored an 80%.  We retook the test two more times, where Jedadiah had the spelling correct but was missing an accent mark over two of the words.  I tried to point out that 4 of these frequency words had accent marks.  We prayed that God would help him the next day with his test.  The next morning, we prayed again and dad sent a test message telling him to pray before the test. 

He took the test in the library when his class was there for story time.  Unfortunately he still confused ella and aquì (he had both spelled correctly)and spelled dònde with a /b/ writing bonde.

For me the lesson is two-fold….don’t push him too much and begin preparing for a test a week ahead of the actual test.  He doesn’t work well under pressure.  Also for Jedadiah I think even this failure was a learning experience.  For the first time he realized that learning can be hard work. We both assured him that we loved him and that he would score a 100%  the following week when he can retest. He is still way ahead of the class and is the only boy to be to the spelling part of the listas.

Sweater incident

Sweater incident

It’s has been cold this week, so Jedadiah is wearing a navy-blue zippered sweater to school.  We purchased it a few months ago at H&M, and he looks handsome wearing it.  Well, when I picked him up from school on Wednesday afternoon, he threw the sweater up in the air.  When we got to the car I asked what’s up with the sweater.  He said all the kids had teased him that he was wearing a girl’s sweater.  He doesn’t want to wear that clothing item anymore.  I am shocked.  The kids are 5 years old.  What do they know about fashion or what is considered male/female clothing?   His spirit is crushed. 

The famous sweater that made him cry.

Week 15, Students without Sra. Oliver

Students without Sra. Oliver

On Tuesday morning, Jedadiah was off to school with a picture he had drawn and decorated for his teacher, Sra. Oliver.  When we got to school, he asked if she was going to be at school that day.  I told him no she is at home taking care of her new baby daughter.  He said, well, she already had the baby last week.  It’s out of her tummy now. 

I am assuming in his mind that since the baby is out, it’s time for Sra. Oliver to come back to school.  He said the class is different without Sra. Oliver. 

Classmate-Bresaida

One of his classmates drew a picture of our family and gave it to Khin on Tuesday since I wasn't there that day.
I was so touched by her kindness. I wondered what prompted her to draw our family. 

School Work

Spelling Tests

Spelling Tests

            He came home on Monday with two papers in his hand.  Apparently he had two spelling tests (Lista 1 & Lista 2) where he earned a 100% on each test.  Awesome job, Jedadiah!

Reading Theme-Somos Amigos/Friends Together

Reading Theme-Somos Amigos/Friends Together

The kindergarten students are beginning a new theme of friends. The following books have been recommended:

            The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

            Bein’ With You This Way by W. Nikola-Lisa Lee & Low

            Two Girls Can by Keiko Narahashi   

A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

            Friend Frog by Alma Flor Ada          

May I Bring a Friend by Beatrice Schenk deRegniers

Oral Presentation

Oral Presentation

Monday when I picked him up, Sra. Mendoza wanted to talk to me.  I am always nervous when his teachers want to have a private conversation with me.  She said that he had done his oral presentation in English.  I asked him what happened.  You have your presentation memorized in Spanish.  What happened to the cards that we had made with your presentation written down?  The 4 cards were in his back pack.  He said he was the only student to poop out.  I said you didn’t poop out; you just got nervous which is normal.  We practiced a few times on Monday evening, but I didn’t make a big deal about it.  On Tuesday morning before I left for UCI, I prayed with him and told him that I knew he was going to do a great job!

Tuesday afternoon Khin reported that he had done outstanding and didn’t make any mistakes.

The only weakness was that he made eye contact only with Sra. Cervantes and not with his audience.  We will need to work on public speaking.  Good job!

This is what he said:

Hola, en mi familia son cuatro personas. Mi papa es Khin, Mi mama es Melissa. Mi hermana es Samara. Mi perro es Momo.  Mi familia le gusta caminar el perro ye comer la comida.  Nosotros compramos a Costco en sabado.  Gracias.

Week 14 November 7-10

Week 14 November 7-10

Baby Watch

Apparently Sra. Oliver was at school on Monday.  Jedadiah said she was in the room doing nothing, which means she wasn’t teaching.  She was probably doing paper work and getting every thing ready for her maternity leave.

On Tuesday afternoon he came home and said Sra. Oliver had had her baby that day.  Finally on Wednesday morning, I asked Jackie in the office who confirmed that the baby was born on Monday evening. On Thursday, we happened to run into Sra. Cervantes who filled in all of the details: 

On Monday afternoon, Sra. Oliver was having contractions and went to the hospital where she was told to go home.  Monday evening she returned to Kaiser but there were no Labor rooms available.  She was put into a regular room where the nurse checked her and said she was only at a 5 and that it wasn’t time yet.  Sra. Oliver said she felt like she needed to push but the nurse said not yet and that her water had not even broken yet!  A few minutes later the nurse was pushing her through the Hallway when the baby was born.  By the time Sra. Oliver was put into a labor room, her daughter was waiting between her legs.  What an amazing lady.  She worked that same day her daughter was born.  According to Sra. Cervantes, Sra. Oliver will be off till the end of January. 

Congratulations to the Oliver family on the birth of their daughter Aleah!

School Work