The Garden School Tattler

Four thousand dollars worth of cookie dough arrived at 1:30 yesterday afternoon, and they wanted to put it in my kitchen. The kitchen is about as big as a large closet. Thank God the dishes were done!

We had an outrageously fun day. Too cold to go out, Miss Kelly invited a lot of kids to play in her classroom. It was Christmas card day, and my little guys wrote Merry Christmas on their own cards! I was absolutely delighted. "I can't." "No can'ts here, please!" And every child's Merry Christmas was readable and dear.

We looked at the color words today. It's the first step in reading. Color words are sight words. When a child knows enough sight words, and can begin to sound out other words, he just figures it out. You can't "teach" a child to read, you can only "show him." Reading is one of those things you just have to say, "Oh, I get it. Boy that's easier than I thought." If you catch a child early enough, reading becomes second nature quickly. When you wait too long, it seems that each word is a hurdle. You can always tell when the child waited too long - in high school, he or she has no vocabulary.

In my class of 4-5s I want to introduce reading as a game. Here it is - do what you can with it and have some fun. Make and say words. Here are some at home things to play with:

Scrabble letters, blocks with letters, newspaper ads with several of the same words to circle.

Give a child a chocolate chip or an M&M for ever word they make and READ. Guessing doesn't count. "What do you think it is - sound it out. What sound does that letter say? Start with at and build.

When we come back in January, I want my kids to start reading the little ten word books we have.

By the end of the year, I'm hoping to have some readers.

In arithmetic class, we did ABABAB patterns and then turned to ABCABC patterns. They didn't get the ABC pattern at all. Huh? When you add that third component, they just stop. They may not have the cognitive skills. We'll try again soon.

Today we will string popcorn and cranberries in an ABABAB pattern. Let's see who gets it.

Kids love to string. I remember at that age, I preferred knitting. I remember finding a long string and two sticks under the school house steps and sitting on the playground quickly knitting the string into some imagined garment - probably for the sticks that I probably made into some creature. The other kids thought I was nuts. Hyperactives are mostly thought to be nuts. Most of us always have to be doing something with our hands.

Tip on getting a hyper kid through a church service: Stroke an arm. Gently let your fingers stroke the back of the forearm during long sit times. Any repetitive motion on a squirrely child helps keep him calm.

I'm really delighted with the singing this year. We've managed to get through about 15 songs. We will start singing at about 2:45 on Thursday.

Tomorrow is the dreaded cookie day.