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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

# 0013: The Number 8



This past summer, me and the girl played "school" nearly every morning for about 30 minutes. We were practicing for preschool. We said the pledge, the ABCs, we counted, we recited the months of the year, seasons, days of the week and the continents and oceans. Then she practiced writing letters and numbers. We might do a puzzle, a maze or a dot-to-dot. I bought a workbook thing at the dollar store that we would work in sometimes. I feel the home school parents judging me right now... I didn't know what else to do!!!! -just kidding- Anyway, she really enjoyed it. I also, really enjoyed it. I enjoy teaching my kids things. It turns out; I really, really, super enjoy watching them learn things! 
Someone told me once that a home school parent had told them about how exciting it was watching their kid learn to read. They were there- right there- when it finally clicked with him and he got it and they did it together! 
Well, me and the girl didn't get that far with our reading skills and I didn't plan to either, but I sort of got that experience with the number eight. Tracing numbers one through five were easy-peasy. Then, we moved on to six through ten and things got a little trickier. The 6 has to go the right way and so does the 9. While you're at it, remember to write the 1 first then, the zero immediately after for ten. She dreaded the 8. I held her hand and traced it a few times with her. It was slow going. Sometimes she would skip over it and do it last. Sometimes she would do it first to get it out of the way. I kept telling her how fun the 8 is to draw. It's one single motion without lifting your pen up at all and then all of the sudden you've made an 8 (I seriously do like to draw 8s)! Then, one day, without warning, she got it! With no help or anything she drew the number 8! She was so happy and admitted immediately that, yes, drawing 8s IS fun! She was so please and proud of herself she was ready to write several more.
I don't imagine I'll be there for every light bulb that goes off in her head, but I will always remember this one. 

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