My 5 year old is an avid reader. I used the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons two years ago to help her learn to read. It was amazing to teach her to read and to witness her as she got better and better. After we (almost) finished the book, my daughters reading ability just took off. She now reads anything and everything she can.
Since she can read so well, and I don't have to focus on learning to read so much with our Kindergarten homeschool, I thought it would be important to focus on reading comprehension. I know she can easily get through a book in an afternoon, but does she really understand what is going on in the story? That was my question, and now as her teacher I am excited to do a little experiment with her to see how well her reading comprehension is.
So I purchased about 20 new books from The Good and the Beautiful Library. I have not let her read any of them yet. Each week I will let her choose one book to read. She will read it on her own, and out loud to me. When we are finished reading it, it is her job to bring the book to life in some way. I have assigned her the task to take something from the book, and make a real life experience from it. I am interested to see what comes of it.
The first week she chose the book May's Cake. It is a delightful little story of a helpful girl who wants to make a birthday cake for her mom. Despite it not being the perfect cake, she learns that she can show love to her mom in many ways. I enjoyed this book.
This book also provided for such a simple and straightforward project for us, make our own cake. Since we eat a plant based diet, I turned to one of my favorite plant based food bloggers for a recipe, and she came through with a simple Strawberry Cake recipe.
We had plans to have dinner with my parents on Saturday night, so I asked Kennedy if she would want to share her cake, and she said yes!
Saturday morning found us baking the cake and whipping the coconut cream for the top. We headed over to my parents to eat dinner that evening. After dinner we brought out the cake and cut a slice for everyone. Kennedy asked each person if they wanted coconut cream and strawberries on the top and then artfully decorated each one. We then served a piece to everyone and enjoyed.
The cake was delicious, everyone went back for seconds. Even better though was watching my daughter create something. I loved watching her mix and stir and lick the spoon after. I love watching her decorate each piece of cake and then sharing it with others. It was such a simple and fun experience I will treasure.
I hope this project instilled in her the knowledge that she can be successful even when trying something new. I hope she experienced a sense of creativity. I hope she learned that sharing what we create makes our lives so much more rich. I hope it was enjoyable.
And that's really what I hope for all the future books we read and projects we do. I am excited to see what we do next!
Mallory
No comments:
Post a Comment