She's reading!

We took our first field trip (which doubled as her Baba's birthday trip) to Animal Kingdom in celebration of our Habitats and Homes Unit.  We observed a savanna habitat up close as the giraffes grazed past our rooms' balcony.  There were guides abound to answer questions about her favorite antelope and what the zebra's were eating.

This week, Alexandra has begun to READ!  It's truly magic to watch her sound out the words and see her grin when she registers its meaning.  I have some early reading decodable books that have simple sentences and she "reads" them proudly to her brothers.  She has been reading words off papers laying on the kitchen counter, and everywhere.  The wonder on her face is priceless as the words around her are all becoming available to her as if someone has dropped the curtain.  

I have added a new co-op class to her Friday afternoons called "People in History".   The multi-level class discusses history through the remarkable people who shaped our past.  She is excited to join her friends in that class.

Lately we have been very busy.  Admittedly, we are usually very busy but Alexandra has had unusual trouble controlling her temper.  The most troubling about it is that I know she wouldn't be acting this way in a formal classroom setting where her filters would be heightened.  Thus far, I have responded with the knee-jerk approach of taking away privileges, which seems to be thickening the negativity in the room.  Thursday is a restful day where we don't do school and her brothers are home with us all day.  I am trying to determine a comprehensive reward system to capitalize this free day... Maybe I could ask her to list some activities she wished we could do more often, put them on paper and into a box for her to draw from when she reaches a certain point on some kind of chart.  I want to focus on the harmony between us and promoting our partnership so she will resist less .  I know she values our one on one time so I want to appeal to that.  Hmmmm...