Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Homeschool Freebie Website

There's a new homeschool freebie website! It's found here and they offer a new downloadable freebie each day of the week. Be sure to check daily because the item is only available for free that ONE DAY (except for Friday's freebie - it's available all weekend.)

Today's is a candy math book. Sounds yummy!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Weeks #11 and #12 Review

We've had a nice 2 week break from our school schedule. But the boy's brain certainly doesn't stop working! Yesterday he opened his Bible while he waited for dinner to be served and said, "Look Daddy, this word says in-tro-duc-tion." Of course he was right. Today he told me I was going the wrong way on the highway because he saw one of those signs that says "wrong way." I always remember as a kid thinking those were for my side of the road because they were where I could read them. But not at 3.5!

He was reading in his Little Bear book and at the end of each page he would say "so..." and recap what had just happened on that page in his own words. That was really encouraging because it's hard for us to know if he's comprehending what he's reading when he reads it himself.

So while we'll most likely get back into the swing of things tomorrow, we'll just follow his lead on what he's interested in. He takes in the world in his own way and in his own time and amazes us more each day!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Week #10 Review

We had a busy week. Wednesday we left for the beach so I just let him do as much as he wanted Monday and Tuesday. He finished everything except Math and a few stories! I'm amazed the handwriting books got done, especially when I was intentionally not pushing anything.

We pulled out a new science book "What's Under the Sea?" to try to prepare for our trip to the beach. It was kind of a dry book and he didn't really get into it so we only read a couple of pages and then just talked about it more on his level. It was fun.

In the car on the way to the beach (the one we went to was about 6 hours away) the kids were all watching Blue's Clues and he pulled out his drawing board and wanted to draw all of the clues. I saw a big improvement in his artwork from before we started working on handwriting. I could tell what each picture was. That was encouraging to me.

Today's impromptu science lesson was the internal workings of the toilet as we had to replace one of ours. He was fascinated and wanted to keep flushing it ;-) It's fun to watch them learn "naturally."

This week we'll just be attempting to finish the math and reading from last week and recover from being gone. If he asks for the other books we'll do them, but otherwise we'll just attempt to have a restful week. If today is any indication... we'll need it!!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Week #9 Review

We did things a little differently this week. A lot more play, and we never did something academic if he said he didn't want to. And we still got through it all! I'm noticing that he'd much rather pull out a book and go through several pages and lessons and then take a break, rather than do one page, switch to a new book, do a page, switch... so we're switching our style a little bit to accommodate that. He's having fun, and that's what's important to me.

To help strengthen his hand muscles we played a game where we spilled a bunch of toothpicks on the ground and had to pick them up with tweezers and put them in a bucket. He thought it was so much fun .

Skating was a little better this week, although still hard. He is still having a hard time adjusting to his new, round-bladed skates. But he felt a little better when his buddy Cole tried to switch to hockey skates and had to switch back. It's hard for him being the only one in the class in hockey skates because he feels like he can't do what the other kids can do, but we keep reminding him that he learned with the other skates and he'll learn with these. He's learning perseverance and his teachers are SO patient with him, so that's been a huge blessing.

Tonight when we were reading his Bible before bed we were facing each other. I was reading and he said, "No, 'The king did everything.'" I had no idea what he was talking about so I kept going. When I got to the second page I realized what he was saying. Each page starts with a phrase in all caps to start it off. The second page had THE KING DID EVERYTHING... as the lead-in to the story. We were facing each other - which means he read it upside down! The kid never ceases to amaze me...

This week's verse was "Let all things be done decently and in order" 1 Corinthians 14:40. Guess I should pay a little more attention to my house if I expect him to respect God's Word... yikes.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Week #8 Review

Well this really would be week #8/#9 review... he did two weeks' worth this week. Every book was "more, more!" The only thing we haven't finished for the second week is his handwriting (didn't want to push him there) and his reading to me. Well that and week 9's memory verse. I didn't want him to have to focus on more than one per week no matter how far he gets in everything else. So we'll keep those on a once-a-week pace.

This brought us to week 10 which includes a book we hadn't purchased yet, so I had to make a purchase. But then to get free shipping I had to add a few more books. Oh darn

Earlier this week Matthew was reading from one of his books. Sometimes it's hard to know if he actually follows the story when he's reading it because he's concentrating so hard on what he's saying. Well he was reading something about some chicks jumping into the pig pen and getting muddy. He stopped and said, "That's.... that's.... that's tewwible!" It was SO funny and unexpected and both Stephen and I started laughing. Then of course he had to do it every few sentences to see if he got the same reaction.

Today's favorite activity was identifying what were mammals and what weren't. He determined that Mommy, Daddy, Ashlyn, Jessica, Isaac, Ethan, Matthew, and Linny (from the Wonder Pets ) are mammals. He thought that was the coolest thing. Oh that he might always be so easily entertained!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Week #7 Review

What an insane week! We've been without internet since Wednesday, which is why this update is late. In addition, I've been helping Stephen on a project for work that the EARLIEST we've quit on this week was 1:30 a.m. One morning it was 4:30. Of course, with 3 young kids, you don't compensate by sleeping in the next day! So things have definitely been interesting here this week.

Thankfully, Matthew was very cooperative this week so school went smoothly.

The week was very tough on the kids with them not seeing Daddy AT ALL, so on Friday we made him pictures. First, Matthew made a sunshine with a smiley face (the eyes and nose are kind of hard to see in the picture). I know it doesn't look like much, but I'm AMAZED at how far he's come:


Then we traced a sign language "I love you" (he stands at the door each morning and presses his little hands up against the storm door in an "I love you sign" and keeps it there until he can't see Daddy anymore). So he signed it up against the paper and I traced it. Then I wrote "Daddy" on another page for him to copy, but he wrote these letters COMPLETELY by himself. I bumped the paper while he was writing the "y," but I was so amazed again at his improvement in this area!


Then the girls drew theirs. Jessica:


Ashlyn:


We hung them all on the fridge for Daddy to see when he came home in the wee hours of the morning. I think they brightened his... night.


This week's verse was "Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:13). He was able to recite all 7 verses tonight, though was a little bumpy on the references, but I was impressed!


In planning ahead for a few weeks (I was amazed at how much time I had when I didn't have internet access ), I realized that since we skipped 25 weeks of reading, he only has a few weeks of reading left before he's done with the books we have. So I looked up what books were in the next reading level for Sonlight and then went to my trusty "Paperback swap" account (a GREAT resource if you don't already know that!) and was able to get TWELVE of the books off of the list for FREE! One of them was 16.99 through Sonlight and someone had it listed on Paperback swap! I couldn't believe my luck. Now I just need to get a Sonlight order together to be able to get the schedule for the readers. Hmm... wishlist items?

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Week #6 Review

Matthew had another week where he just wanted to keep going. He finished one of his books by Tuesday! But I always try to just go with it because by Friday he really doesn't want to do much. This Friday was devoted to crafts. We had read "The Clever Mouse" this week so we made a mouse bag puppet. I cut everything out and placed the whiskers because they were a little harder, but he put on the glue and placed the other pieces. He broke into a huge grin when I showed him that it was a puppet. He just didn't see that coming at all


On Wednesday at skating they got to ride on saucers while the teachers shot them across the ice. Needless to say, Matthew had a blast.


He is doing SO MUCH BETTER with his reading to me now that we switched books. He's so much more expressive and today got through an entire page properly pausing at all the periods, continuing on through line breaks if he didn't see a period and really enjoyed looking up and making eye contact at the end of phrases.

He's also doing great with his memory verses. He learns one each week and tonight was able to quote all 6 of them and had only forgotten one reference. His memory never ceases to amaze me. His verses so far have been:

Week 1: Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully. Proverbs 4:20
Week 2: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Week 3: God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7
Week 4: Let the peace of God rule in your hearts... and be thankful. Colossians 3:15
Week 5: Tell your neighbor the truth because we belong to each other. Ephesians 4:25
Week 6: Obey your leaders [because] they keep watch over you. Hebrews 13:17

We also went to the store together and picked out a Kumon workbook. It's the Let's Cut Paper book for the younger kids. They had one for 3, 4 and 5, but he's had NO experience with scissors so I got the one for age 2 and up and added the other to our wishlist. He's done two pages so far and is really doing well. His hand shakes when he tries to line it up but he's able to open the scissors wider than he was a couple of days ago and has cut fairly accurately on the line. I'm restraining myself from getting a few of the other workbooks (a coloring, tracing or maze one to help with his pencil holding), but I'm impressed with Kumon so far! Everyone's recommendations were right on the money!

On a non-Matthew related note, Ashlyn has recently started to sit through longer and longer books. She'll find one and bring it to me and just plop in my lap. Today we got through an entire book of Matthew's (as in, not a short board book) and she never moved. Granted, it was a Blues Clues book and that's something that completely holds her attention, but still, it was motivation to start to save harder for Sonlight's Core P3/4. I was hoping it would be something all of us could do together (I currently have to wait until the girls are occupied or napping to work with Matthew to avoid distraction) and it seems like the girls are getting closer to attentiveness in that regard.

So all-in-all, another good week. It definitely has its difficult moments, but so far our schooling journey has been very positive.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Week #5 Review

As a general note, I got the wish list up earlier this week. So leave me feedback about any of the items you’re familiar with if you’re so inclined It’s in the right margin and I’ve included links to each item.

This has been a good week. It started on Sunday with Matthew asking as soon as we got home from church if he could please do school. It ended today with him saying “Can we do MOOOOORE school please?” when we finished for the day. It’s definitely nicer when the week goes like that!

In science we were learning about summer and therefore focusing on the sun. So for our craft we made a sun out of Matthew's handprints. The girls LOVED it and want to touch it and hold it every time they're in the kitchen where it hangs on the fridge. I guess it's all the yellow



During his skating class this week he got to play hockey again. He had an absolute MELTDOWN when his teacher removed the net from the ice so the public skating session could start. He skated almost the entire length of the ice to get down to it and then right before he got to it she took it off the ice, then told me to go to the door back at the other end of the ice so he'd have to skate all the way back. I felt so bad for him, but he certainly did get extra skating practice.


By Friday, we typically only have a few books to work on because on certain days he’s wanted to go ahead in books or whatever. So today I put the four books we needed to work in on the counter and told him to choose which ones he wanted to do and then we’d do the rest later. He picked all of them except one – the reading book. We’ve both pretty much loathed this book for the past 5 weeks. He doesn’t enjoy reading it, it’s really beneath his ability, plus there are no pictures and the stories make no sense to him because they all try to use smaller words to convey the story. He just doesn’t enjoy it at all. I had been holding out hope that it might get harder as the weeks went on, but so far, it hasn’t.

So today, realizing we still had TWENTY weeks to go in the book, I flipped to the very last lesson and realized it was still stuff he could read now. So I made an executive decision to scrap that book. I picked another book from his pile of readers and he flew through it and asked if we could do more! That was music to my ears. So starting Monday we’ll just move on to the book that’s scheduled for week 25. I’m hoping by the time we get to the end of his readers that he currently has that I’ll have saved up enough money to get Sonlight’s Core P3/4 and then he’ll have plenty more books to fill up the holes in the schedule.

And as you’ll recall, we started Math a week ago today. One would assume we’d be on or around Lesson 6, correct? (last Friday, then 5 days this week). Nope. We’re on Lesson 18. And we’d be farther but today after 7 lessons in a row with him just continually asking for more I had to tell him LAST ONE. Horizons is definitely a colorful curriculum and I think that makes it more fun for him. I know some kids would be distracted by that, but it’s definitely a plus for him. So I had to adjust all of next week's schedule after today because we wouldn't have any math otherwise!

Anyway, I’ll end this insanely long post and try to enjoy my weekend. Hope you do the same!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Week #4 Review

Another good week. This week in Handwriting Without Tears Matthew finally got to the letters. He is still very wobbly with a pen, but THOROUGHLY enjoyed building the letters out of the wood pieces. He did that for probably 2 hours one day, just finding different letters and figuring out how to build them. He thought it was great fun.

We enjoyed going outside several days this week to do our science lessons since we're learning about spring. We just pulled up a pile of pollen and looked around trying to find the things mentioned in the book!

Matthew's ice skating went well this week. He had some special visitors come watch him skate and he enjoyed the "snow fight" they got to have for the last 10 minutes of their lesson. He got to throw snowballs made from ice shavings and who wouldn't love that? (Especially a kid who has hardly ever gotten to experience snow! It's been so warm here in the winters since he's been born!)

Today we decided to try math. I hadn't been using his math book because it really assumes the child can write (a lot of it is writing and tracing numbers, circle this picture, cross out that picture, etc.) Today I realized, I can just write whatever answer he says. He doesn't have to actually do the writing. Then I realized, why write it? I can just have him point and I can make a mental note of what concepts he's having trouble with and we can reinforce those. That way, he still has the math book to use when he CAN write for himself, or if he gets beyond these math concepts, I'll have a program for his sisters. He LOVED it. He did 6 lessons before I had to tell him it was time to take a break! Another incentive for the subjects he doesn't like as much ("if we finish this we can do MATH!")

Since he is reading 4-5 years ahead of his age/level, there's some grammar in the books that are really beyond his comprehension. Right now the grammar is apparently focusing on exclamation marks, because they're everywhere in the stories. He understands what an exclamation mark means, but he doesn't really know yet to "read ahead" and see that there's one at the end of the sentence. So he reads something like, "I can't wait to go to the PARK!" or "I told you not to GO!" He yells the last word of the sentence while reading the rest of it in a fairly monotone voice. It's quite humorous to listen to :-)

So another good week. Starting next week we will be incorporating crafts based on stories we're reading, I just haven't been organized enough to tackle that yet. So more pictures should be coming. I'll also be adding a "wish list" to the side bar where our curriculum is listed, so if you see something on there that you have an opinion about, let me know your opinion! I always like hearing user's opinions of products. Or if you're a family member or friend needing gift ideas for my kids, start there! :-)

Friday, March 28, 2008

Week #3 Review

This week was a tough balance between sick kids, deadlines, Daddy being gone each and every night, and keeping school fun. I think Mommy learned more than Matthew this week.

Most of the week was a struggle to do anything productive. But we made it through. We tried to make play-dough at the beginning of the week and it was a disaster. So we ventured ot and bought some, along with some play-dough toys to go with it. Matthew turned "play dough age" right when the girls were born, so he's never really been able to play much with it. He's LOVED that this week. And the tools it came with will really help the muscle development in his hands - scissors, tools to squish it, etc. It's been a good incentive for him to do some of the things he doesn't like to do. "Read me this page and then we'll play with play dough together." He's had a good time.

He also had a great lesson on Wednesday. They had been splitting the skaters up into two groups - those who could skate and those who couldn't. Wednesday they decided he belonged in the skating group! He's the only kid who has moved from the non-skating group to the skating group so far. About halfway through the lesson the skating group teacher sent him back to the non-skating group while the skating group skated backwards, but then he moved back again. He skated the entire length of the ice and back. We were so proud.

Today was a beautiful 80 degree day. Our science lesson was about the wind. We were able to go outside and learn about the wind while we sat in it! We watched the wind blow the trees and tried to diagnose if it was a breeze, a gale or a tornado. It was fun.

We also played a game where we put several items on a tray and then one of us would close our eyes and take one item away and the other had to figure out what it was. He's got an incredible memory and was much better at that game than I was!

Overall, it was a good week, despite its challenges. It could potentially be a couple more months before Daddy is home on a more consistent basis, so we just have to learn to deal with the challenges!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Week #2 Review

Matthew had another good week this week. He enjoyed working ahead a little bit in his Developing the Early Learner workbook and Get Set for School. We skipped a few pages in Get Set for School because he was getting tired of just coloring. Since crayons don't really interest him all that much, I didn't want him to dread working in that book (since handwriting readiness is where he's the most behind) so I just put some of the coloring on hold. Today he did preparation for learning to write the letter "L" (i.e., practiced writing horizontal and vertical lines - legs on birds, bottoms of bird cages, etc.) He enjoyed the break from coloring, even if he can't draw a straight line

His favorite part of the week was by far his P.E. on Wednesday. At his skating class they broke out the hockey sticks, pucks and net. He had a BLAST and very easily stayed up on his skates. When the lesson was over, they let him stay out there and play as long as he wanted. His teacher even took the girls out on the ice in the stroller! He had the whole rink to himself. It really made me wish there were more stay at home moms that could help me out with the girls so I could have let him stay longer. But the girls are so restless just during his 30-minute lesson and this was time beyond that, so we really didn't get to stay long.

He also enjoyed getting out in nature and helping daddy cut the grass. Daddy didn't like how much longer it took to do it, but DID enjoy the time with his son.

He's doing much better at recognizing the punctuation in sentences when he reads. He's not just "saying the words" anymore, but really telling a story with them. He even puts expression into some of the sentences. For instance, if it said, "Is Matthew happy? Matthew is not happy," he would read the first correctly as a question and then put an emphasis on NOT in the second sentence. He likes to yell when he sees an exclamation point

We didn't get to do a lot of extra activities this week as it's been a very rough week sleep-wise with the girls. But we're going to try to incorporate more crafts and things (if mom can get creative, that is!)

Today we're going to do a little extra focus on Good Friday and Easter and the meaning of it all. If I didn't have such a horrible headache from a lack of sleep, we'd probably try an Easter lapbook of some kind (he loved the one we made for Christmas), but I don't think either one of us has the patience for that today!


Friday, March 14, 2008

Week #1 Review

Well we survived our first week of school! It's been a good week. We're both really enjoying Sonlight's curriculum. Matthew has put his memory verse into practice this week: "Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully" (Proverbs 4:20). Handwriting is going to be a big stumbling block, I can tell. He doesn't resist doing it, he just really struggles with it. In his Developing the Early Learner book, he is excelling at everthing... except the motor skills. He's got a stellar memory, he easily follows the directions, but he can't control a pen to save his life. I know it will get better with time, and it makes me even more thankful to be able to homeschool him so he can work on it at his own pace.

Anyway, he has enjoyed learning about winter and snow in his science book. He loves reading the Mother Goose rhymes. Probably his least favorite are the "fables," (Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book) simply because there's one picture on the entire page of text and he loses interest easily. I use that book to teach him about sitting still and listening

Since he completes his reader work so easily, we used this week to focus hard on whether a sentence ended with a period or question mark. Previously, he had just been reading the words and stopping when a line ended. So now he's working on continuing on until he sees some form of punctuation, and also to make it sound like a question if there's a question mark. It's hit or miss, but he's enjoying the adventure.

And we have to play Go Fish and Steal the Pack daily. He loves matching the numbers and making pairs. It's fun for me to feel like I'm playing somewhat of a "grown up game" - a nice break from Candyland, Hi Ho Cherry-o, etc.

So that's the first week of our journey. Here's to many more!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Unexpected Education

So I'm sure every parent knows that any given moment can turn into a teaching moment. Today was one of those days. Matthew had his ice skating lesson this morning, and then when we got home it was gorgeous outside, so he wanted to play. I told him if he could listen to me read while he went on the slide, he could play while I read to him. After I finished, we would get out the balls and play. Well he got so distracted wanting to see the pictures, he decided he'd rather us both sit on the porch swing and finish the readers.

Then he found a piece of a chopped up tree in the yard. I picked it up and pointed out the rings and told him that if we counted them, we would know how old that tree was. I told him each ring was a year. Then I asked him how many rings he would have if he was a tree. He answered "3" without hesitation. We proceeded to go through the entire family and he was even able to turn it around - when I'd say "Mommy has 28 rings, how old is she?" he was able to comprehend the "reverse" of the equation. He had a lot of fun with that.

Then he found a stick that was shaped like an "L" and one shaped like a "Y." We noticed that if you covered up the bottom of the "Y" stick, it looked like a "V." We used our ears and heard dogs and even a woodpecker. Then we heard a firetruck in the distance. It started to honk its horn and I explained to him what that meant and why they needed to honk their horn. He listened very carefully and then said, "Or it's a parade." Such a funny guy.

When he took off his socks tonight he was folding them in half horizontally and said "hmm... these are not symmetrical." (Daddy was floored!) He was so proud of himself, I thought I'd throw him a loop. I folded them vertically and said, "What about now?" He got a big smile and said "They are symmetrical!!" So much for throwing him a loop! I guess Mathtacular is paying off!

All things handwriting related are frustrating to him... I'm imagining its partially because he's left handed and trying to write left to right so he's constantly covering up what he just wrote with his hand. I also think it's because from the moment he was born, his brain has been developing at twice the rate of his muscles, I'm convinced.

Anyway, I was planning to update this site on Fridays as like a "week in review" sort of thing, but didn't want to forget these priceless stories.

Monday, March 10, 2008

First Day of School

Today was Matthew's first day of school. He had so much fun! When he first woke up, he wanted to play a game. I told him I would set the timer and he could play his game until the timer went off, but when it went off, we would stop the game and start school. I set the timer for 30 minutes. I figured I could do some devotions and tend to the girls while he played his game. About 8 minutes into the game he came in and said, "Did the timer go off yet?" He was ready to start!

We did the entire day's assignments for Sonlight Core B. Mostly this consists of reading stories from lots of different books. He also began memorization of a new Bible verse and we made up little motions to help him remember it. Each time I'd finish a story or something I'd ask him if he wanted a break. He always said no, that he wanted to keep going. I did set the timer for 30 minutes and we took a break any time it went off. He was fairly attentive, though obviously got distracted at times. I think as we go on that his favorite will probably be the Science book - it looks great!

His favorite part today was Developing the Early Learner. His biggest struggle is fine-motor skills, so I was encouraged that this was his favorite. Today's assignments in the book involved drawing lines and coloring pictures. He also did a page in his Handwriting Without Tears book.

For a craft, he made some Easter cards. I gave him two circles, a triangle and a rectangle and showed him how we could make them into a chick. He enjoyed using the glue stick He then drew legs, eye and beak, following my directions on where to put them and how to do them. On the inside of the card, he drew a cross (empty, of course!) and "signed" the card with an M, the letter he most recently learned how to draw (and the only one he knows, other than "O"). He said it was an M because Mommy and Matthew made the cards together. Of course, all I did was give him the shapes and show him how to place them, he did the rest!

For math, we played "Go Fish" and "Steal the Pack" to practice pairs and matching. While we were getting dressed we practiced ordinal numbers ("What did we put on first?" "Which piece of clothing was third?") We also watched Mathtacular together (he LOVES that DVD!) and made our own "Wormholes and Warp Drives" game which we played until he got to 100 and won!

He flew through his reading. I think it will be several lessons before he's challenged by it, but that's okay. He was even able to answer some reading comprehension questions, which I thought was great.

It was a fun, but exhausting day!