Last night I saw the most awesome thing!. Grace, who is eight now, made chocolate chip cookies (dad's recipe) all by herself. They taste terrific. Then after the younger three kids were in bed, she asked if she could stay up to read. I looked over at her relaxing on the loveseat and there she was actually reading, silently to herself (I could see her lips moving), a chapter book. This may not seem like a big deal since she's been reading for quite some time now, but she's never actually read a chapter book silently to herself. She usually picks up short board books or Little Critter books to read to herself. It was such an amazing site. Although she put in all the hard work of learning phonics, sight words and more phonics, the feeling of accomplishment, on my part, was almost overwhelming. Without a single day of real American school, together Grace and I conquered her biggest step in learning so far, the ability to read. I could almost cry, I'm so happy for her.
Today we listened to an addition rock song audio tape. It was fun, simply because it got the kids moving inbetween their math lesson and journal writing. Grace liked it because she could pretend to be a rock star (her life's ambition). Lee thought the rock beat was good, but definitely did not like the math facts being yelled out.
