Books

Books, Papa Bear says we have to many. I say - not possible! Books, my escape, my alternate reality, my education. I learn things when I read, things like the names of some characters aren't just weird words like "Regulus" or "Sirius", they are the names of stars. I love books, and I have tried very hard to teach Little Bear to love books. Not just any books, but books with soul. Books with depth. Books that will uplift and teach. That is why today I am filled with happiness. Yes, happiness over books.

Today was the start of the book fair at school, we always go and we always buy something. Today as we prowled around looking at everything I noticed something. Little Bear would only hover for a second at books with pink covers, or ones that had fairy's on the cover. She drifted past all the .50 cent items, and silly trinkets. I found her in the back corner, in front of a shelf of books that had no pink, no fairy's. After several moments of deliberation, she made her choice. When she showed me her choice, I was impressed. Books with soul. Books with heart. Books full of history. Instead of fluffy books (as I call them) a trilogy of books about the Titanic.

Report Card Time

Our school division does not give our quarterly report cards like they did when I was a kid. Now a childs progress is shown in a portfolio of work the teacher collects. Examples of all subjects are shown. The idea I am told, is to minimize comparing children to each other and I guess that is supposed to eliminate competition or something. I am not sure I understand exatcly what they are doing. I would understand letter grades much better. 

Our parent teacher interview was tonight, so we 3 Bears went to the school to look over the portfolio. Baby Bear is doing very well in school. Her teacher says the only real area she needs to improve would be less talking during work time, and being better at counting by 5's. Well the talking thing, if anyone has ever met her you will know what I am talking about. The teacher pointed out, that Baby Bear still completes her work, and does it well. My biggest concern is her talking disrupting other students. We can work on that.

 

We were told over and over how amazed the teachers is by Baby Bear's reading level,

 and her comprehension is equally as good. That I like to brag about a little bit. She is a super reader, and like me (I hope), can read a whole chapter book in an afternoon. Granted the books Baby Bear reads are about 120 - 150 pages, but I still think that is pretty good for a newly 7 year old bear. As a reward for such a great report, we visited the book fair that school was having, and bought 2 new books. I was happy when Baby Bear passed by the begining reader books and the character books to select a slightly harder chapter book. Good Job Baby Bear!

Baby Bear is an excellent reader, she learned very quickly how to read over Christmas break 2007. She was in Kindergarten then, and I was amazed at how fast she picked it up. Now after being about to read for more than a year Baby Bear has moved on from simple stories and prefers longer stories or even chapter books like the Junie B. Jones series. She has also said on occasion, after reading a story: "Nah! That was too easy, we need to give this book away."

One thing that is constantly frustrating to Baby Bear is that words are often not spelled like they sound. Words like: Station she pronounces stat-ee-on because who would think that "tion" sounds like: "shun". City becomes kitty. It is confusing when sometimes a "C" makes a hard sound, but other times it sounds like and "S". Over all Baby Bear does amazingly well and catches on quickly when I offer her assistance.  I love that she wants a challenge too, trying to sound out 4 or 5 syllable words without help. I have always wanted her to love reading, and I am very glad it has come naturally for her, she is often happy to sit and read for an hour or 2.