I think K- just started 1st grade and not Kindergarten.

First, I'll start by stating that I'm glad that K-'s teacher is so on the ball. I'm glad that she has the kids cruising along at what seemingly equals out to be warp speed. As parents, we're slightly overwhelmed by the homework update that we received today.

The October News from Mrs. H- has a section stating what their focus' are in the month and the homework that she would like us to work on. What we have is:

Language Arts Focus:
Letters A, C, D and N
Sight words: I, like, go, we
Word Families: -am, -at, -ap
Writing: Simple sentences

Math Focus:
Sorting
AB and ABB Patterns
Shapes
Position Words
Ordinal Numbers
Numerals 0-10

What to do at Home:
Please continue to read for at least fifteen minutes each night. Include 100 Book Challenge Books, homework books, sight words and word families in your nightly practice. Refer to your H- Handbook for weekly 100 Book Challenge goals.

Now again, I'm not complaining. I have to say that when we sat down to do homework, we worked for 45 minutes anyhow. Hubs was there and he bounced back and forth with me as I was preparing for the next lesson. Since the paper mentions that a few students are falling behind in their reading logs, I'm guessing that the parents aren't going to be keeping up with the list this month, either.

I just need to figure out a rhythm. We've had a pattern of how we worked each night, but the list just tacked on about 25 minutes more work. Again, that's okay and I'm so glad that my mother-in-law has given K- a bath the last two nights. By the time that K- and Hubs arrive home, we have enough time to do homework (setting aside 45 minutes - 1 hour now vs. 15 minutes - 1/2 hour), play a game and go to bed.

I know that when we went to Kindergarten registration, each Kindergarten teacher made a presentation on part of what the children would be learning throughout the year. I'll never forget one teacher holding up a journal entry that a student did during the first month of school. A journal entry that the student had just done (Sept vs. April comparison) was all tidy, in the lines and a 7 sentence paragraph. To that I said, "Wow!" Now that I see the steps toward that goal in action, I still say, "Wow!" Only now I admit that it is more like "W!O!W!!"

So our evenings are well occupied by Kindergarten. Who knew it would be so much? My parents stopped by tonight and I was showing my mother the list. All she could say was, "This is Kindergarten?" Yes. Yes it is. I told her that I feel like K- just started 1st grade though.

We'll pick up a new way of doing her work. She still wants the goal of getting her to her 100th book step by Friday when she goes to school. She wants to see her name get on the reading board. Wish me luck. That will be 2 hours and 15 minutes worth of reading tomorrow. That's okay. I don't work. We'll get home early and she can play as I read. I guarantee that Uncle Wiggily and his adventures will be finished tomorrow!

To 100 book steps and BEYOND!

Smiles in my day:
- My parents brought me two grocery sacks full of pears. That, my friends, means fresh pear sauce to can. They are still a little hard, but soon enough they'll be ripe enough to work with.
- Ripe tomatoes mean more tomato something-or-another for me to make tomorrow. I have to pull the tomatoes I have because we are due for a frost tomorrow.
- It's been about 48 degrees in the AM and K- wore long sleeves and tights with her little jumper today. She's been rolling with short sleeves and socks. It's getting to be fall! In fact, we turned the heat on yesterday!
- My sister and Leland are coming to visit tomorrow while my brother has court for his unfortunate uninsured auto accident. Perhaps my brother will visit and finally talk with me?
- At the writing and near publishing of this post (10:42 PM on Wednesday night), there have been 196 visitors to the blog, 142 to the Crock-Pot Fest. Though we haven't had many recipes submitted, the handful we have all sound delicious! Thank you to everyone who participated! By the way, that is the largest number that I have ever had for any post! :)