Reading and Piano

Jaida is doing amazingly well on both these fronts. With time being the limiting factor in us being able to practice these things with Jaida it seemed she was getting easily frustrated. And so were we. We were trying to practice two or three days a week for 20-30 minutes each time and that was simply too big a chunk of time in our already packed summer schedule. So we implemented our new practice everyday for just 5-10 minutes policy and it is so much easier on all of us. Jaida is thriving and is no longer frustrated and we feel that she is getting all the practice time in she needs at her age.

When we first get home from daycare I sit down with both kids with books. Jax has a book that talks to him when he pushes the buttons so he can *read* it by himself while I work with Jaida. Jaida can handle about three or four short stories at a time before she starts getting squirmy and losing her ability to concentrate. Because I want Jaida to do the reading I have started to steer away from the Dr. Seuss books and other longer beginning reader books. They are too long and we have a hard time making it all the way through. For this reason Jaida has been really flying through these books lately. They are perfect for her to read by herself with just the occasional assistance from me. The books are around 5-6 pages long. The words are short and rhyme. Also each set focuses on a set of letters or sounds so the concept is really reinforced. The thing I most love about them is all the words can be sounded out so it has really reinforced to Jaida that if she doesn't recognize a word immediately all she needs to do is sound it out. My only complaint is the stories are a bit boring (compared to Dr. Seuss or similar) and the drawings are pretty simple which is both good and bad. The good is it keeps Jaida focused on the words rather than the pictures but the bad is they don't really hold her attention for very long. The books that have really been great for many reasons are these ones. The books have a nice progression from simple short-vowel sounds simple consonant sounds, and beginning sight words and mostly three letter words to long-vowel sounds, blended consonant sounds, reinforce sight words and four and five letter words. Best of all the stories are funny and the pictures are colorful and very interesting. Many times while Jaida is reading she will look at the picture and say "I wonder what that is" and then she will say "let me keep reading and find out". I think the pictures are a great motivation tool. Another great motivation tool is the fact that the set comes with 10 short stories, a parents guide that talks about the sight words and suggestions on how to reinforce the concepts and a sheet of stickers that correspond to each of the ten books in the set (40 stickers). So each time Jaida completes a book on her own she gets to put the appropriate sticker inside the cover of the book. She totally loves this aspect of the books and I love that it means she will read each of these books 4 times on her own so that she can put all the stickers on the cover.
Jaida also loves the Dick and Jane books. For some reason this makes me so happy. I learned to read with Dick and Jane books. The stories are simple, pictures are cute and the repetition is great. This compilation of stories is really great because the first stories are very short - "See Spot Run" sort of sentences. As you make your way through the stories the sentences become longer, more complex words are added, punctuation is added and we start seeing things in quotes which has allowed me to talk to Jaida about following the story and telling me who is doing the speaking. After Jaida finishes a story I usually have her sit there and tell me what happened in the story in her own words just to reinforce that she not only needs to figure out the words while she is reading she needs to pay attention to what is actually happening in the story. Jaida is doing so well on the reading front.

After reading time which really only lasts about 15 minutes or so Jaida gets to play for a bit and then when Joe gets home she practices piano for 10 minutes or so. This has also worked out really well. Joe has really been working with Jaida on keeping good posture, hand placement and being able to hear the rhythm or beat. They also just really focus on mastering one page of her music book. She learns it and then plays it over and over again until she has it down. Then they start refining it with making sure she has the rhythm down and can do it from memory. I think it is helped Jaida to have a sense of accomplishment to be able to walk away knowing she just learned something from beginning to end and can do it well. She also is really really good at reading the music and following along in her music book. I am most amazed that while she is playing she has learned to look ahead to see what is coming next without losing her place. She is really doing well! She has a five week break from formal lessons due to vacations for everyone. I think Miss Denise is going to be pleasantly surprised when she sees how much progress Jaida has made. :)