I'm back! A review

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever.  Goose and I have been very busy with school work and with Daddy traveling.

I wanted to drop a few lines about the new reading program we are using.  After a lot of consideration, we went with Starfall and ordered their kindergarten program.  It goes along well with most of the curriculum in our area, so that was important to me.  I want to make sure that she is right on par with others.

So far, the program has been great and Goose is up to quite a few high frequency words.  She has read three sight word books so far and can read simple sentences such as "I see you" or "You see me".  The Starfall program is easy to use and incorporates a lot of subjects in one.  The best part is that Goose LOVES it.  She is learning a ton.

Some cons of the program are as follows: there is no teacher guide.  You have to print it off online each week.  For what we spent on it, I would expect that to come printed.  There are other things that are not sent to you-you must go to their website to print it off.  For some things, the website is not very user friendly and you really need to learn your way around it before starting the program.

Overall, I would recommend this program to anyone trying to teach their child how to read.  In order to start this program, it is much easier if your child already knows her letters and letter sounds (which Goose does).

I am not paid by Starfall for this review-just letting you all know how the program is going so far.  If you are looking for something more structured to do with your little one, check them out!

http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/curriculum.htm

Prewriting

I have been gently reminding DD to use a proper tripod grip when coloring, writing, drawing, using her stylus, etc.  It is very hard though, and I don't think many kids under 3 have the PROPER tripod grip anyway.  It's a very funky position for their little fingers to be in.

I recently bought her a Kumon book from Amazon that focuses on prewriting skills and tracing.  What I like about this book is that it starts with big spaces for the children to trace inside and as you go on the space gets smaller and smaller.  She loves it and it's good when you just want to do a little bit of school work.

I also want to get her this workbook because it looks like a lot of fun!

Using her new Leappad2-seriously the best thing ever!

Her new prewriting workbook-great of kids who aren't writing yet!

Excellent pictures for types of grips from Pinterest

Stages of pencil grasp by ages-found this on Pinterest!!