Learning Our Letters

I have had the hardest time getting Izzy to learn her letters. Not sure if I am expecting too much, but we are finally at a point where she has is able to identify 11/26 letters of which she should have been able to identify 4 more since she was taught those. She also is able to identify all four letters and spell her name, but not yet write it without a model. We are getting there though. So we try to have a letter of the day and write the letter and color the letter. We have turned our entry way into our letter wall with hopes that she will know all her letters before she steps into preschool on August 15. I know this sounds absolutely crazy to think that my 4 year old will know all her letters by the time she walks into preschool, but she is going to a private school and they expect her to already know them. By the time her school year ends she will be able to read, write complete sentences, add/subtract, and spell. Can you believe this? That is the end of kindergarten/beginning of 1st grade standards. That is why we are going to be taking stock in beans and wienies and chili and cornbread. But, I really have a strong belief, especially since I am a teacher myself, that people expect more from her because she is a big kid (we do) and that she needs to have the information on her to either be able to give the answer or ask for help. So we are giving her the tools to do this, by giving her one (hopefully) solid year of education before she goes to kindergarten.

Mom of the Year/We Made Play-Doh

Just wanted to toot my own horn. Made play-doh from scratch today. It actually works really well and can be refrigerated for future use. We used the cooking method: 1c flour, 2 tsp of cream of tarter, 1/2c of salt, 1c of water, 2 tbsp of oil. You can add food coloring but we chose not to. Heat on the stove and stir until (here's the key) it looks like mashed potatoes. Then cool it and knead it and you have homemade play-doh.

Using a Schedule with A 4 Year Old

So I have made Izzy her own visual schedule, but with choices. I switch some of the icon/pictures to reflect what we might be doing that day and then she knows what to expect. It actually works incredibly well and she asks for it when I forget to do it the night before.