Independent Work

When Chelsea first started at her current school, her teacher was really pushing "independent work", and at first, I was very skeptical. After my terrible experiences at previous schools, I thought that this was just a way for them to slack off during their jobs, and Chelsea would never make progress.

But her teachers proved me wrong! They loved Chelsea and encouraged her to be independent, and by doing so, she flourished! Repetition is the key for Chelsea's success, so her teachers made some independent work for her to practice at home, then graciously helped me make some more activities that Chelsea would be motivated by, to help her learn to read!

AND- Chelsea is learning to do these by herself, which is a crucial skill for job success later on down the road. So hi-five to those amazing teachers out there who stick with the psycho parents like me!

There are the typical learning activities: numbers, letters, colors, counting, and spelling her name.

Then I made some for Chelsea that I use as rewards for completing other pages. I put her favorite characters on, and have these at the bottom of the pile of worksheets she needs to do that session.

I also had some animal pages, because she LOVES animals and animal noises.

To go along with her learning to do shopping trips, I have pages of foods that Chelsea loves so she can start recognizing names.

I made a game of matching names to family members so she will recognize those names (she picked up on this one SUPER fast!)

She likes this game so much that I separated the cards into families, and we have these in busy bags to take along with us!

We also have some verbs (run, jump, fly, roll, catch, watch, read, etc)

Since my dad owns a ranch that we go visit once a month, Chelsea's amazing teacher also made pages all about ranches with ranch words on it! (goat, cow, field, hay, tractor, etc)

What I have Chelsea do is complete 5 pages (working up to 6 in a sitting, one for each year she is old) that she does correctly by herself. Her main problem is wanting to get up and show me after every page is done, and I want her to learn to show me after it is ALL done.

I typically give it to her while I am cooking or reading, so that it is easy for me to come check when she is done. She is getting a lot faster as the summer progresses and she works on a few each day! Repetition, repetition, repetition!