This week was pretty relaxed, but we still accomplished quite a bit. Our FIAR book from last week was Who Owns the Sun? We're spending this week expanding on the slavery theme introduced there. I found 3 more age-approapriate books on slavery. We won't row them (rowing a book means reading it every day for 5 days & doing a different activity each day to re-enforce a specific topic). For 3 of the days this week, Jimmy gets to choose one of the books to read together. His first choice was Aunt Harriet's underground railroad in the sky by Faith Ringgold. Today, he chose Fredrick Douglass: the last day of slavery by William Miller. Tomorrow, we'll read our last book, Nettie's trip south by Ann Warren Turner. Along with the books describing a little of what slavery was like, we got a music CD from the library of songs from the Civil War era. Some of them are war songs, but there are several slave songs, such as Follow the Drinking Gourd. We listened to the CD a little today as background music, and I think we'll listen to it again tomorrow.
Our letter this week is R. Jimmy memorized the Bible verse pretty well, and even read it a little early in the week before he had it memorized. Pretty impressive, since the verse is "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8" - those are some pretty big words. He's been doing a great job writing, too. I demonstrated writing R and r on Tuesday, and he's done it all on his own since then. I tried something new today. I gave him a word to write ("car") without telling him how it was spelled. We sounded it out together to figure out what letters are in the word. I think he enjoyed the exercise. Might be a good idea to help him learn to read, too.
On the math front, Jimmy was very excited to find out that we're using the geoboard again. We started out the week with a test on ordinal positions. Jimmy passed with flying colors. We are all caught up with tests now, too - he passed all of the tests where he previously had difficulty. We'll have our next test first thing next week. Yesterday's lesson was on relative length - which is longest, which is shortest, put these in height order, etc. Jimmy was disappointed that our lessons are so short. I'm going to have to review next year's curriculum. If it's not long enough, I might want to consider combining lessons. Anyway, back to this week's work. As I said before, we're using the geoboards again. Today's lesson was copying patterns from a paper drawing of goebands on a geoboard. There were 4 different sets to copy, each a little more complicated than the one before. Jimmy did very well, but he had a little trouble with the last pattern. I am learning to not treat each lesson as a test, but to gently show Jimmy where he is making mistakes & how to avoid them. Tomorrow will be more geoboard work. I think it's the same "copy the pattern" stuff, which Jimmy will undoubtedly love.
On Saturday, Jimmy will attend his 4th German Language School class. They are having Fasching, which is a Carnival type thing (you know, Faschnaucht, Mardi Gras, etc). Should be interesting! Which reminds me, time to find a costume for Jimmy. I think I'm supposed to wear one, too. Harumph!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Who Owns the Sun?
We're reading Who Owns the Sun? by Stacy Chbosky this week. It's about a little boy who asks his father who owns different things, like the sun, stars, or wind. The father responds that each thing is too wonderful, precious, and powerful to be owned by anyone. But then the boy finds out that his father is owned, and he is crushed. It's a very beautiful way to describe the horrors of slavery to young children. Jimmy immediately understood a little of what slavery means and how terrible a thing it is.
This week, we've discussed what "slavery" is, talked about how the son feels about his father, and counted how many questions the boy asked his dad. We'll finish up the week with taking a closer look at the illustrations, creating our own artwork, and listening to/discussing slave songs.
We had fun in math this week. We've really backed off on the calendar work, since Jimmy has a very good grasp now. We're still quizzing Jimmy occasionally (like "what day of the week is it today, Jimmy?") and doing occasional formal calendar work. During our lessons, we've worked on numbers 0-20 using number cards. Today, we did some math experiments with colored water, which Jimmy & Caleb LOVED doing. We'll finish up the week with some pattern blocks work and paying for pretend items with dimes.
Our letter this week is Q. Jimmy picked up this week's verse very quickly. It's a short verse, but the reference isn't very easy... First Thessalonians! We'll continue working on writing Q and q & reciting the verse, but we won't be writing any words with Q yet, since we haven't done the letter U yet. Jimmy has already asked for what Q words he wants to write once we get to U.
It's been a crazy time lately, so I might be posting weekly for a while.
This week, we've discussed what "slavery" is, talked about how the son feels about his father, and counted how many questions the boy asked his dad. We'll finish up the week with taking a closer look at the illustrations, creating our own artwork, and listening to/discussing slave songs.
We had fun in math this week. We've really backed off on the calendar work, since Jimmy has a very good grasp now. We're still quizzing Jimmy occasionally (like "what day of the week is it today, Jimmy?") and doing occasional formal calendar work. During our lessons, we've worked on numbers 0-20 using number cards. Today, we did some math experiments with colored water, which Jimmy & Caleb LOVED doing. We'll finish up the week with some pattern blocks work and paying for pretend items with dimes.
Our letter this week is Q. Jimmy picked up this week's verse very quickly. It's a short verse, but the reference isn't very easy... First Thessalonians! We'll continue working on writing Q and q & reciting the verse, but we won't be writing any words with Q yet, since we haven't done the letter U yet. Jimmy has already asked for what Q words he wants to write once we get to U.
It's been a crazy time lately, so I might be posting weekly for a while.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Test day
We're continuing to read poetry this week. Jimmy found a favorite poem:
The Pessimist
Nothing to do but work,
Nothing to eat by food;
Nothing to wear by clothes
To keep one from going nude.
Nothing to breathe but air,
Quick as a flash 'tis gone;
Nowhere to fall but off,
Nowhere to stand but on.
Nothing to comb but hair,
Nowhere to sleep but in bed;
Nothing to weep but tears,
Nothing to bury but dead.
Nothing to sing but songs;
Ah, well, alas! alack!
Nowhere to go but out,
Nowhere to come but back.
Nothing to see but sights,
Nothing to quench but thirst;
Nothing to have but what we've got;
Thus thro' life we are cursed.
Nothing to strike but a gait;
Everything moves that goes.
Nothing at all but common sense
Can ever withstand these woes.
-Ben King (as published in The Best Loved Poems of the American People, selected by Hazel Felleman, 1936)
Jimmy had a math test today. I made 2 linking cube towers - 1 with an AB pattern and 1 with an ABB pattern. For each tower, he had to copy it, extend it, and then make the same pattern with different colors. He passed very easily. We also went back to some of the tests he didn't do so easily. From those, he easily passed all but one. We'll go back to that one again during the next test. It's an easy test, but he has trouble following the directions. He tries to make it more complicated than it needs to be, which is frustrating his teacher!
Jimmy practiced writing his letter P & p. Then he wrote several words that start with P and gave the letter a some extra practice. We finished our letter work by reviewing this week's Bible verse.
The Pessimist
Nothing to do but work,
Nothing to eat by food;
Nothing to wear by clothes
To keep one from going nude.
Nothing to breathe but air,
Quick as a flash 'tis gone;
Nowhere to fall but off,
Nowhere to stand but on.
Nothing to comb but hair,
Nowhere to sleep but in bed;
Nothing to weep but tears,
Nothing to bury but dead.
Nothing to sing but songs;
Ah, well, alas! alack!
Nowhere to go but out,
Nowhere to come but back.
Nothing to see but sights,
Nothing to quench but thirst;
Nothing to have but what we've got;
Thus thro' life we are cursed.
Nothing to strike but a gait;
Everything moves that goes.
Nothing at all but common sense
Can ever withstand these woes.
-Ben King (as published in The Best Loved Poems of the American People, selected by Hazel Felleman, 1936)
Jimmy had a math test today. I made 2 linking cube towers - 1 with an AB pattern and 1 with an ABB pattern. For each tower, he had to copy it, extend it, and then make the same pattern with different colors. He passed very easily. We also went back to some of the tests he didn't do so easily. From those, he easily passed all but one. We'll go back to that one again during the next test. It's an easy test, but he has trouble following the directions. He tries to make it more complicated than it needs to be, which is frustrating his teacher!
Jimmy practiced writing his letter P & p. Then he wrote several words that start with P and gave the letter a some extra practice. We finished our letter work by reviewing this week's Bible verse.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Poetry week
We did very light school last week (read a few poems), so this week is all about getting us back into our routine. We didn't get the next book from the library yet (should be in very soon), so we're focusing on poetry again to follow the theme after Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Today, we read more poems from my favorite poetry book. We re-read some of Jimmy's favorites from last week as well as some new ones. The boys liked the different rhythms & rhyming of the different poetry structures.
After the poetry, which I read while the boys ate their lunch, we re-read the Bible verse story for the letter P. We read it early last week, but I didn't reinforce it over the week. I decided to start anew with our work on the letter P. We re-read the story, which Jimmy seemed to understand much better this time (even though he understood quite a lot last week; it seemed to sink even deeper this week). We reviewed the actual memory verse 3 times, but I haven't yet tested Jimmy to see if he has any of it memorized yet. No handwriting, either - both of those things will start tomorrow.
Next, we did math. We updated our workbook calendar. We hadn't done calendar work in a few weeks, but Jimmy remembered everything very well. For the formal lesson, we worked with dimes. Jimmy told me the name of the coin and how much it was worth. Then we counted by tens to one hundred (which Jimmy reminded me could also be one dollar if we were counting money). I gave him 5 dimes & he counted them - 10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents, 40 cents, and 50 cents. I asked him to show me 10 cents (1 dime), 20 cents (2 dimes), 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents, and 60 cents (trick question, since he didn't have 6 dimes... but he figured it out right away).
As a bonus today, Jimmy & Randy practiced tying shoes. Randy sat on the ottoman with Jimmy in his lap. Jimmy sat on Randy's lap with Elmo in his lap. It was really cute... Randy showed Jimmy how to tie Elmo's shoe & Jimmy practiced (with a LOT of help). Jimmy got Elmo's shoe tied once, but he is having some trouble realizing that he needs a lot more practice. LOL!
Today, we read more poems from my favorite poetry book. We re-read some of Jimmy's favorites from last week as well as some new ones. The boys liked the different rhythms & rhyming of the different poetry structures.
After the poetry, which I read while the boys ate their lunch, we re-read the Bible verse story for the letter P. We read it early last week, but I didn't reinforce it over the week. I decided to start anew with our work on the letter P. We re-read the story, which Jimmy seemed to understand much better this time (even though he understood quite a lot last week; it seemed to sink even deeper this week). We reviewed the actual memory verse 3 times, but I haven't yet tested Jimmy to see if he has any of it memorized yet. No handwriting, either - both of those things will start tomorrow.
Next, we did math. We updated our workbook calendar. We hadn't done calendar work in a few weeks, but Jimmy remembered everything very well. For the formal lesson, we worked with dimes. Jimmy told me the name of the coin and how much it was worth. Then we counted by tens to one hundred (which Jimmy reminded me could also be one dollar if we were counting money). I gave him 5 dimes & he counted them - 10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents, 40 cents, and 50 cents. I asked him to show me 10 cents (1 dime), 20 cents (2 dimes), 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents, and 60 cents (trick question, since he didn't have 6 dimes... but he figured it out right away).
As a bonus today, Jimmy & Randy practiced tying shoes. Randy sat on the ottoman with Jimmy in his lap. Jimmy sat on Randy's lap with Elmo in his lap. It was really cute... Randy showed Jimmy how to tie Elmo's shoe & Jimmy practiced (with a LOT of help). Jimmy got Elmo's shoe tied once, but he is having some trouble realizing that he needs a lot more practice. LOL!
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