Brought To You By the Letters J and C

In Joe's room at school, the kids have to sign in each day on sheets by the door. In this way, all the kids in that room get to practice writing their names every day. Joe graduated from dotted letters to follow to making them on his own, but we noticed that the capital J was often hooked to the right in stead of the left, and the lowercase e was sort of a crumple. (The lowercase o was lookin' good though. It's true, it's a circle, but we hasten to add that there is some proportion work going on, and Our Hero was doing well in that department.) So last week, we had a chat about the capital J and which direction is hooks. We also talked about how the lowercase e a straight line across with a C around it. Now, Joe is rockin' the sign-in sheet.* Tonight at dinner, Joe announced that he had made a good J today and, indeed, he had.**

In other letter-related news, last week, in Clara's room, letters were a focus:

"'Letters' our focus today. We spread out 52 letters [!!!!!] on the carpet. Each child had to come forward and pick out the matching letter that starts with their name.

Clara was very confident when she picked 2 'C' out of the carpet.

I had made a sheet that had mostly 'B' and a few C on the paper. Clara was able to locate all the 'C.'"

Go, Birdie! The next day, they worked on the first letter of each child's last name: "In Clara's case, it was not easy with this activity. . . .Hard to say her last name." Of course, there is also the confusion of the Birdie nickname with which to contend. It's a different name, and not exactly a first name, definitely not a last name, and begins with another letter altogether. But, she is piecing it altogether. The other morning, Julie was pattering (cleaning, probably) downstairs, while Clara was in the kitchen pattering (making a mess, probably), when Julie heard Clara sing--clear as a bell! clear as a bell!--the ABCs up to H. (After that, the letters were less recognizable.) W-O-W.

*Special to Aunt Kate: When you get your birthday card, check out the Joe! He did that all by himself!

**Our stringer photographer has fallen down on the job for several days now. She keeps forgetting to bring her phone in to take a picture of a sheet. We don't know what to do with her. Might be time for a chat.