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!