Early Phonics

Following on from Money Maths, first 'lesson', it was time to do English.

I had prepared the phonics worksheets for Elizabeth and we booted up the computer to show her the phonics songs from Jolly Phonics. We were concentrating on sounds: s, a and t today.

Elizabeth is quite familiar with those sounds and letters already, so we whizzed through the three sheets. I reckon she'd have been pretty much through the whole alphabet if I'd had her one-to-one. But as it was, we stuck with the three, as I needed to work with Francesca.

Elizabeth came up with her own words beginning with each sound. Snake, for s, which is part of the phonic song that she learnt. Arm, for a, which is also in the phonics song for that sound. And toenail, for t, which was entirely of her own choosing.

She'll be doing GCSEs soon.

She moved onto the 'Silly Stories' jigsaws and designed her own character, "Elizabeth the pirate"

I said it was a shame we'd have to rub him out, being in whiteboard pen on the jigsaw itself, so I drew her an outline figure on paper and she recreated the character:

Francesca was meant to be doing homophones, following our discussion on tide/tied yesterday.

"That's a homophone, Francesca. Words which sound the same but are spelt differently."
"I know." Pause. "Like sea and see."
"Exactly."

Anyway, she became completely uncooperative after Maths, saying she did not want to do writing. She hates writing, apparently(!) and she was too tired and she wanted to go to bed.

Grrrr.

I left her alone for a while, hoping she'd come back when she saw Elizabeth working. She did not.

Even when I sat her at the table and got her started, she spent ages writing nothing much very messily and rubbing it out in such a way as to crease the paper.

I suppose it was just a badly pitched task - I have much to learn. I'll be trying again with a new approach soon.

As it was, we gave up and (after a strop, a tantrum and a pretend sleep - all her, by the way) I asked her to read to me, which she did, very well, with great intonation and expression.

She loves reading. How can I encourage her to enjoy writing?

Then it was lunchtime, after which we headed to the park to meet some friends and have a play (PE?)

Now, I'm off to my spreadsheet. I'm noting all the activities we've done, with reference to the National Curriculum objectives, just to see how much we cover and which areas are lacking.