headache sleeping boy
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School days – flashcards and VIP

This week’s been an uneventful week at school as far as I can tell.  N ended off the week on Friday with a headache that came on at lunch time and lasted until Sunday morning, so he was very quiet on coming home.  That meant very little chit chat about what he got up to at school, and an excuse that evening about not being able to read his book.

headache sleeping boy

VIP

Finally for the first time since way before Easter N was made VIP earlier in the week.  He tells me it was because he was the only one who did all the tidying, but given both he and his best friend seem a little vague every time they explain why they were made VIP, really I’ve no idea if that’s right.

I was very proud of him though because they’ve got a big year group to be competing with for it (I’d love him to get another learner of the week but I don’t think he shows what he can do enough – obviously takes after me and my school days, or star of the week – no chance if he can’t be bothered to be friends with other children who’re the ones who vote for the star award) compared with other classes.  He’s always pleased with VIP because he gets to eat lunch first and sit on the VIP table.

Phonics Flashcards

N’s school like so many others, do the Read Write Inc / Oxford Reading Tree phonics system (along with some other earlier books which were phonics bugs I think.  Early on I bought some of the Read Write Inc flashcards – both stage one and the ‘more’ flashcards boxes and we’ve looked at them a bit during this year’s reading journey.  But this week N had a list of all the phonics they’ve already learnt and all those they’ll be learning by the end of the year which will complete the set.  So he decided he wanted to get the second box out and test himself.

N was spot on.  There were a couple he needed to think about, but there’s a lot to be said for learning by a mix of rote and verse/phrases.  I’m going to have to read up on the split digraphs (at least I know what they are) and how to explain those because we’re finding he’s now getting a lot of words coming up in his reading books that aren’t in his word envelope for this year, and include the phonic sounds that they’ve not yet done.

Reading Books

N’s reading really is coming on. This week he only had to sound out 2 words in one book, and the book at the end of the week I read to him first because of his headache. But then his first reading of it was pretty smooth despite all the words he’s not learned.  Yes he guesses a lot, but understanding story flow, using the visuals and his memory, and understanding how pages and sentences fit into the wider context of the story and repetition, means he’s much more able to work out the words he needs to read rather than always having to sound and blend.  Maybe he’s going to be a bit of a reader after all.  Fingers crossed.

Friendships

I’ve often said about my concern that N only really seems to play with one friend at school (although one more has been mentioned recently).  He doesn’t seem to have the same issue out of school as there’s several friends he’s close to and talks about.

One of those is a boy who used to be at his school in the year above but recently moved school.  They’re still at after school club together, and they’ve continued the vague friendship they had at nursery before the other boy went up to school.  They just seem to get on really well, even though they only see each other once or twice a week for a couple of hours.  We really need to get them sorted with a playdate out of school, as we’re close enough to cycle across to the village or vice versa.

When I mentioned about the possibility of a playdate to N he got so excited as he does with all playdates.  ‘Mummy, that would be good because H and me love each other’.  Aw, not sure he’ll be saying that next year when he’s in Year 1, but sweet how innocent he is now and how he’ll say exactly what he’s thinking.

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16 Comments

  1. Aww bless him. Sounds like he’s doing really well. Setting up play dates is a really good idea x

  2. Bless him, it sounds like he is doing ok. Its nice that he has one close friend, even though they doesn’t see each other that often. Sometimes thats the best, rather than having split attentions with multiple friends.

  3. Sounds like he is getting on well. Isaac is similar, he only plays with a couple of people st school although he does get on with most of the class

  4. Oh bless him, such a caring boy. My nephew only had one friend when he first started going to school and since going into year 1 he now has three and he is quite proud of that x

  5. Oh the joys of mummy hood. I hate it when the kids are ill, as there is nothing you can do until it passes. My little man is getting on well with his reading. Makes you proud! Must be doing something right !

  6. They have to learn so much at school talking from an early years perspective many children find they need down time at home and think school is for learning

  7. Oh bless him, loving his friend. Well done at getting VIP. I’m sure he will make more friends as he gets older x

  8. Aww bless him! I loved seeing my daughter learn and grow when she started school, especially the reading!!

  9. Oh no I hope that N feels better soon. As for being friends with people in the class we are all inclined towards different groups of people and he might not have found his group yet? Still it is great that he won VIP again x

  10. Awww bless I hope N is feeling better now, I like that he gets to be VIP in he’s class and give it time friendships will come with time.

  11. I love reading about what N did in school. Z only ever plays with one friend too although he’s now got a few more which is so great and I hope it carries on that way. We get spelling tests each week so we only find out a bunch of words a week in advance. We did get a huge list of what z should be able to do by end of year though, so we’re slowly working through it. He’s enjoying writing sentences now …finally!! He used to absolutely hate writing at one time, which was worrying. I think it’s why he got to bring home the class bear this weekend. Cue us running to Boots to print pics!

    1. I can’t get N to write at home. He says it’s only for school, although he did go through a phase of being keen to write. We get to go in for an open morning and see their books on Friday so I’ll see what he’s up to there.

      Spelling tests would be scary. I dread to think how N would cope with those. I think he’d have no idea with them at the moment. Trying to get him to work out the letters from words rather than reading words in front of him is a nightmare. Maybe that’s something we need to work on. How do you do it?

  12. It sounds like his reading is coming on very well! It sounds like a good idea to get that playdate sorted. My eldest was in year 3 before he had any good friends – and then it was the end of year 8 before he’d really made any good friends at secondary. You would never guess it now as he has lots of friends 🙂

    1. They all come into their own don’t they. In a way, waiting for proper friendships probably means they’ll be ones that last longer. It’s just finding time for the playdates is the problem.

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