I am the first to admit that I had nerd-like tendencies growing up (and probably still do, today). I love reading and writing. I mostly enjoyed school and loved learning. I would always throw myself into a research project, completing it days or weeks before it was due. I don’t expect my children to fully follow in my footsteps, but I do want them to have a love for learning.

This weekend, Taylor was given her first “Research Paper” and I was pretty darn excited. Not surprisingly, so was she! Taylor’s pre-k class is learning all about the rain forest. Every day, she comes home with new facts and she’s so excited to tell us all about what they are learning. Each student in the class was assigned one of the animals that resides in the rain forest, and they had to learn about their specific animal and fill in the prompt about it. They will be sharing their information with the class. Taylor was assigned the cockatoo and after I convinced her that we shouldn’t call it the “cock-bird,” we absorbed as much information about it as possible. She chose which pieces of information she wrote, and she sounded out all of the words herself. She did her own cutting and gluing too. It’s so amazing to see her do things like this, as if they are effortless. She’s really growing up!

Taylor’s teachers are really big on letting the kids sound out their own words and write accordingly. I love this about them. They really give the kids a chance to learn and build confidence through their independent work. I followed suit at home and let her write her words the way she sounded them out. I am so proud of her, although her spelling of the word “insects”(see the pictures below) really gave us a good laugh. It’s so innocently cute, that it’s hilarious. This one might catch her teachers off guard come Monday morning, but at least they will know that my girl did her own work!