Just starting my first grader and have a few questions about methods

Oh 3littlegirls- I have a suspicion both my dds are going thorugh that same perfectionist issue. What a grind that can be. But I’ve dealt with it myself, so hopefully I have a good perspective. It is really hard to be right all the time! haha.

So, easybrizy- I think you’ve gotten the jist from these other more experienced moms, but here’s my recent success story: with my oldest, 7 1/2 dd, we did a neat narration the other day. I had her read two books about girls of relatively the same age as she is (from 6 to 10ish), but from totally different lives/timeperiods (one was a princess on her coronation day, the other was learning to ride horses in the big city somewhere). When dd was done – just reading them to herself – I asked her to tell me a completely new, imaginary story about what would happen if these two girls met… the details were extraordinary! I wish I had taped her! She first discussed why they wouldn’t have met in the big city, and why the princess would have led the other girl to the royal stables… it was just a delight! She covered why they would have to meet in one book and not the other (“it just wouldn’t make any sense…”). And she described exactly how they would meet and what other character would have to play a part based on his interests. I have no idea if that is CM-friendly, but the results I got were so worth it. This was all just on the spur of the moment – I didn’t ask her to think about it while she was reading, y’know? I didn’t want to pressure her at all. Also, I specifically told her it was “her” story, so it couldn’t be “wrong”, and then I listened really hard for all the things that she got right (names, locations, dates, logic & reasoning, description of characters’ appearances or traits, etc) without mentioning much of what she had wrong, which really wasn’t that much by comparison.

Maybe my standards are lower than most, but I was just so happy with this stubborn kid!