Homeschool. One Small Step At A Time, Right?

Kyra is wickedly smart.  As is nearly every child I've ever met in my life.

Seriously?  Why are children so damn smart and we, as parents, are clutching together in our little groups, begging for encouragement that YES, WE CAN DO THIS!  RIGHT?

I've been doing this homeschool thing with Krya on and off since this summer.  Together we work on different activities, but mostly with letter names and phonics.

Yesterday I did something I told myself I would never do until she was a teenager.  I bribed her.  She doesn't know I bribed her, but I totally did.

For the last few days I've been really drilling her on U, W and Y using some fun little tricks.  She has a deck of "Go Fish" cards where we match upper case and lower case letters.

Do you have a capital Y for Yak?  

I've changed our rules a bit.  Instead of referencing the animal on the card I've had her for the sound.

Do you have a D for Duh?

When she comes to one of the letters she doesn't know, I use a silly voice to act like I'm the letter, saying things like, "You don't know my sound?!  MY NAME IS DOUBLE YOU!!!!  TELL ME WHAT MY NAME IS!!!"  Kyra thinks this is hysterical.  She shouts, "DOUBLE YOU!!!"  I hollar back, "I SAY WAA!  NOW, WHAT DO I SAY?"  and she shouts back, "WAA!"  We go back and forth with my yelling "WHAT???"  and Kyra's shouting "DOUBLE YOU!!!  WAA!!!"  I'm not sure if she likes my funny voices or the shouting part.  Either way, she's having fun while learning.

Yesterday I decided to reinforce bribe her with jellybeans.  For every sound she got right, she earned a jellybean.  And can you believe it.... She remembered U, W and Y.  Y took two tries, but she got it. 

Today?  We played the same game sans jellybeans.  She missed W and Y.  Couldn't even remember what W's name was.  Tomorrow I'm going to see if a few jellybeans will jog her memory. 

At least now she knows U.  Right?