Life of Mae's Mommy

My best friend, Shelley, is a third grade teacher so I use her often as a educational resource. While we were visiting for Christmas I talked with her about the best way to teach Mae the alphabet and how to get her heading in the right direction to learn to read. She told me about starfall.com and we've been logging on ever since. It's usually what Mae and I do together while Nate's taking his short late afternoon (4:00) nap because it's a quiet "together" activity that's in the room furthest away from the nursery where Nate's napping. We haven't been on the website for a couple of weeks so Mae was a little rusty reciting the alphabet song, but we always listen to it after we completed a few letters. She picks out the letters randomly and she's very curious about the "lonely letters" like V,W,X,Y,Z. She probably would've sounded better on the video if she would've taken her fingers OUT of her mouth. It's a new habit I'm trying to ignore so maybe it'll go away faster. It's better than her fingers up her nose like last week's habit. Anyway, she's learned the alphabet at preschool, along with counting to 20, all of her colors and shapes (even heart, diamond, rectangle, oval and star). I don't think they focus on phonics. Shelley told me to introduce Mae to phonetic alphabet at the same time she learns the letters, and associate the letter and sound with a word and/or picture of a word or object that begins with that letter. Mae is very aware of letters and sounds. We'll be walking into Walmart and she'll say, "Mommy, it's a 'W'!" while pointing up to the big, blue Wal-mart sign on the front of the building. She loves books and "reads" to Nate often. I'll have to get that on video next time she sits down with him to read. When we go to get him out of his crib after his nap she always climbs up in his rocking chair and asks to hold him. That's usually when she wants to read to him. We still haven't decided if we're going to homeschool or send Mae and Nate to a private school or Montessori school. We're keeping our options open and realize that no matter how they receive their "formal education" that home will always be a place to learn.

(Be sure to turn of the playlist at the bottom of the page before viewing the video)