I haven’t been very good about taking pictures now that school is back in full swing. On Wednesday, when the formal schoolwork was done, the big girls joined Janie with the Lumi-doh that Aunt Terri got us a long time ago (seriously, that stuff lasts forever!). I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with Janie all morning now that all the rest of the kids are doing formal school. She’s been pretty good about coloring for part of the day and loves to listen when I’m reading aloud, but she’s begging me to learn phonics, too, so that she can read books herself and be a big girl like Susie. Susie finishes her work pretty quickly but likes to linger and listen in on the big kids’ lessons rather than go off and play with her little sister. Meanwhile, the big two are jaded grade schoolers who think that recess is never long enough and wonder why I’m insisting on Latin AND French. So far, I am standing firm, confident that they will thank me in high school for adding a mere 20 minutes to their school day now.
I think a child that is still small enough to wear the monkey pajamas is too young to learn to read. Tell her she can when she outgrows those pajamas just like the big three had to wait until they had outgrown them:)
What about audio books for Janie? Alex and William both like getting the headphones out and laying and listening to a story for a bit. It doesn’t buy me a ton of time–maybe 15-20 minutes–but it’s still helpful and sometimes they’ll listen for that long two or three times (with playing in between). I try to talk it up like it’s something really special that only THEY get to do during school. So far, so good 🙂
Sometimes that works. She’s really into Charlotte’s Web right now, and I can put it on our bluetooth speaker and put it in the basement. But she really feels like she’s left out if everyone else is at the table and she’s not. It was so much easier last year when I could just put on Betsy-Tacy for both little girls and let them play dolls or legos all morning while the big kids got school done…