6 Years Old

The girls have turned 6 years old.  Their skills have changed much since they were five.  Their attention spans have grown considerably and they soak in information more readily at the age they are now.  Both girls are full of questions of whys and ask how things work and work the way they do.

Their capacity for independence overwhelms me every day from simple practical life chores to complicated tasks that involve several steps to accomplish.  They are problem solving and helping each other, where one fails the other picks up right after where they never miss a beat.

It has been a joy to watch them learn to read, write and communicate in all the forms that the English language has to offer.  Their math skills have greatly improved as well as practical life skills from general self care to things such as creating their own snacks.  Music and Art are subjects they give special attention to where Lily has a gift of perfect pitch she applies this to playing the piano as well. 

Maggie has a natural gift of playing the piano with wonderful tempos and music she spontaneously begins to play that sounds similar to a Bach melody.

They both love art.  Painting in particular where they work with all sorts of types of paints and are learning to mix colors to create the shades that they have learned about via the color tablets (Montessori tools).  We will be focusing more on using the color tablets to achieve certain colors in the future more now that they understand the basic shades and mixing of colors.

Science is something we encounter nearly every day where I find myself constantly answering questions about the nature of certain animals or plant life with the girls.  They ask me questions like, “What is rain?” and “Where does water come from?”.  My answers are simple but never quick.

Geography is a topic I want to work on more with the girls during the next following months as we have worked on the globe and mapping out where we are but need to understand individually more about each continent.  Cultural folders are something I’d like to work on soon.

Language, Spelling and particularly writing are subjects I will be weighing heavy on these next few months.  I’d also like to see more use of programs such as Rosetta Stone to mesh what we’ve learned into software that holds their attention in a different way.  I like the interactive part where the microphone is used to determine articulation.  It allows the girls to self correct themselves without me being the bad guy by saying it isn’t being pronounced correctly.  Then I can chime in with a visual of how to say the sound.

I’d like to see more art projects this year too and work with occupational therapy equipment to incorporate large body movement motor planning and timing objects.  I’d like to work more on fine motor skills and practical life activities that involve pouring and skills that help fine tune the hands for grasping a pencil.   Maggie has perfect pencil grip.  Lily’s fingers still lack the strength to hold that pencil at the proper angle and squeeze it hard enough, though she tries hard and corrects her own grip when it fails.

Looking forward to seeing how much the girls will grow this year.