DTC! DTC! Our Dossier has been sent to China so we are officially DTC (Dossier to China). Our I-797 made it to our agency Friday morning and is now, officially, the most expensive document on the planet. Between USCIS application fees, fingerprinting fees (because I’m sure our fingerprints changed a lot over the last 3 years), FedEx fees, consulate fees and courier fees – the darn thing should be gold plated!! So, we made our October 1st deadline, which just made my weekend. We’ll now wait for our LID (log in date) and then the long wait begins. The agency is estimated 60 – 90 days until we receive our official referral. The wait from now to travel is a rough, rough estimate of 6 – 9 months. Based on the trends I’ve seen thus far, I think travel end of February/beginning of March is possible. So, while the wait is far from over, we at least have some breathing room. Of course, I’d rather have Nathan home, but not too much I can do about that!
Moving on… Sight Words!!
Your life in Kindergarten and First Grade is forever consumed with sight words (at least ours has been!). Even as early as preschool, now that I think about it! In Kindergarten, Andrew brought home boxes of them. He had to memorize one box at a time and when he knew them all, we sent them back and he was tested. If he passed he moved on to the next box, otherwise it was back to the drawing board. The first box was easy with out 30 words. The last box, however, was a bear with 140 words. 140 words!!!!
We’ve had to become creative over time in order to get through some of the tougher ones. We’ve come pretty far as we’ve gone from a basic 4 words a night in Kindergarten to doing 30 words in one night (tonight, actually!!). Here are some tips, tricks and games that might help you maintain your sanity while trying to get your child to remember the difference between “these” and “those”.
The Basics - Start small. 3 words at a time are more than enough. We like to lay the 3 words out and I point to each and say it. Andrew points to each, repeats and then starts at the bottom word and does it backwards. We then mix the words around and he says the words a few times. Flip them over and he does one at a time. Once those are mastered, set them to the side and do 3 more words. When the next 3 are mastered, do all 6.
Sounds simple, right?? Hehehehe… I mean, yes. Simple. :-) There is one thing I would preach about until the cows come home: “Don’t push”. If you get frustrated and your child gets frustrated, it’s a lose-lose. There is always a “good time” to do sight words so, if after word 2, you can tell it is a losing battle, don’t push! So, onto the games…
Musical Sight Words – Andrew’s favorite game. Take about 6 sight words that you’ve gone over, but haven’t mastered. Put them around the room and then turn music on. Andrew loves to dance, sing and run so he does all of that as he goes around the room. When the music stops, whatever sight word he is near is the one he picks up and says. If he gets it right, I take it otherwise, it stays where it is. Round and round we go!
Fishing – Put a paperclip on each of the sight word cards. Use something stick-like, a ribbon and a magnet to make a fishing pole. (We used a kitchen spatula, a ribbon and a bendy magnet). Place sight words face down in a bowl, bucket or on the floor and “fish” for words. Get the word right – keep the fish!
Hide and Seek – Pretty self explanatory, huh? Hide the sight words around the room and once found, guess the word. An outside twist? Put the sight words in Easter eggs and hide them outside. Exercise the body and the brain!
Create your own “books” – Andrew gets stuck on some words and just can’t seem to get them. For whatever reason, they are usually words like where, there, them, when, what, etc… Maybe because they look so much alike? When he gets stuck on these, I create a quick story on the computer for him to read. When it’s in “context” he seems to get it.
Go Fish – Create 2 of each word and play a basic game of Go Fish. You need a lot of words for this, but is a good way to pull a bunch of words together.
Shopping – Learn to count money and learn sight words all at the same time! Andrew has a cash register and so we set sight words up around the “store”. We take turns being the cashier and the shopper and we “sell” each of them for a certain amount. If you can’t guess the word, you can’t buy it!
Bingo – Create a quick Bingo card on the computer and fill the squares in with sight words. (Be sure to print a copy for yourself too so you know what letter and word to call! Yeah, that’s called cheating, but it’s also part of maintaining sanity!) This game is great to play while making dinner because you can multi-task! Call out a letter and a word and fill in as many squares as you can until you child gets Bingo.
The “Lightening Round” – Not a game, but what we do at the end of each new set of sight words. In order to bring it all together and continue to remember the words Andrew already knows, we do a lightening round which consists of everything we’ve gone over thus far. I make a big deal out of announcing the event. Something like “Now entering the ring is Andrew Vasily, also know as Super AVM! Tonight, he will be attempting to conquer 30 sight words! Can he do it ladies and gentlemen?!?!” and on and on…. He gets so excited about this and usually grabs my fake microphone to speak to the crowd. Last time he told the “crowd” to be sure to silence their cellphones. :-)
So, there ya go. That’s what works for us and we’re using the same games no for math facts. It’s been really fun and takes the stress out of it. (Well, at least some of it!)
Hope everyone has a great week!
Becky
