Thursday, May 7, 2009

Study time for Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe and I have formed a routine of sorts now. 7:30 - 8:00 pm is STUDY TIME !!
She drops everything she is doing when I announce it is study time and obediently sits in the room after the gathering the books I ask her to.
We both say our prayer and invariably begin with an art. I ask her to draw something, usually something she has learnt in school that week, like a butterfly, spider, lady bug, house fly , bee etc etc.
Once she is done with the drawing, I ask her to tell me things that she knows / has learnt about the insect. She says 2-3 sentences sometimes... other times weaves an entire story around the bug in spotlight. I think this sets the right spirit for her to get going with her maths / phonics. We try to do different activities during this time ranging from a short dictation to addition to subtraction to patterns to crosswords to Kannada reading / writing. Some days go more smoothly than others and she really shows a lot of interest in doing her activities. Other days she needs some nudging, then some encouraging, then some more encouraging in the borderline of threatening and occasionally yelling :( Yelling is rarity ... but it has happened. I am working on it. But no matter what we sit together for atleast 30 minutes and spend quality time learning something. I think its important for her ... she is going to be 5 and will start Kindergarten this september. I am told that homework for kindergartners is close to 30 mins. Knowing Cantaloupe, getting her to sit in one place and concentrate on one activity at a time a big challenge and hence I am just trying to gear her up better for kindergarten.
I am glad we have a start .....

5 comments:

Pixie said...

Aww... how cute is that?! :)

you have a way with words.. I could picture the 2 of you, heads bent down seriously over an art book! :)

Mama-mia said...

:)

wow! it sounds like such a great routine!

cheers!

abha

Tharini said...

And what a great start that is! I am sure it will help her to focus when she has to tackle homework everyday from fall. Good going!

Sangeetha said...

First time i am visiting ur blog...

I must say 30 mins is quite impressive! Glad to c u r both enjoying these sessions...

Sangeetha.

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

@Pixie: :)

@Abha: Its a great routine ... but its hard and tricky.

@T: There are days when she gets homework in her school even now ... but it takes less than 10 mins to get done. I hope she is all set for kindergarten.

@Sangeetha: Welcome ! I have always enjoyed teaching ... growing up, I taught my sister, cousins and neighbors. The only problem with me is these days I get impatient sometimes.

 

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