The Calendar

In January, I attended a couple of workshops for kindergarten parents that were held at Elizabeth's school.  Today's kindergarteners learn to read and write - which was a huge shock to Lee and I, as we both remember learning our letters and how to tie our shoes (which, by the way, they do NOT teach!) - and the teachers do a great job of providing parents with the necessary tools to encourage their children and help them move in the right direction.  One of the suggestions was to create a calendar - and it has worked wonders in our house.  The purpose of the calendar really is to facilitate writing, but we are using it for writing and to keep track of Elizabeth's reading successes.  Each week, she fills in relevant information about the upcoming days, sounding out each word.  When she finishes a Level 1 reading book, she gets to put a sticker on the calendar; she also gets to put a sticker on the calender whenever she writes more than two sentences in a sitting.  The calendar is a great motivator for Elizabeth and we are so proud of how much she is learning.

Filling in her schedule for the week.

Updating the calendar to include Chinese New Year.

The completed February calendar (notice the stickers for reading and writing).

Working on March.