Forgot to add this in my last post... Jimmy & Caleb have made some new friends. They are neighborhood boys who live down the street. One is going into 3rd grade and the other is going into 1st grade. The 3rd grader is here more often than his younger brother. It's been quite the experience for me. I am learning how to set ground rules & (more importantly) stick to them! I am also learning how to arrange my schedule to allow me to be outside with them, supervising. The first few playtimes really messed up our household schedule. These boys don't have chores or school work, so it took some time for them to understand that Jimmy & Caleb can't always go outside to play on a whim. I'm not sure they understand WHY yet, but at least we're getting somewhere with this.
The challenge will probably be next week. This week, we're at VBS in the morning, so no amount of doorbell ringing will get my boys outside. Next week, however, we'll have school & chores in the morning, so any doorbell ringing will be a major interruption. I am so not looking forward to being the bad guy if/when I have to say "no, you can't play outside yet, you have to finish school/chores/etc." I'm really hoping that this won't affect Jimmy's current love of our school lessons.
I am also hoping to meet these boys' parents sometime soon. I'm a little surprised that they haven't come to meet me, since they're all playing at my house. This is all very new to me!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Summer session - week 2
This week went really well. Still more flexibility, which was pretty nice. We finally got our history timeline on the wall. I put the post-it notes of the key events from last week's & this week's planned lessons on our timeline & we read stories about each of the events. The boys loved it! We still have a few more stories to read before we're completely caught up, but I am very happy with our progress.
Jimmy begged me to read more from the "atom book" (aka Chemistry). He really loves it! We read this week's chapter while the boys took their bath. We didn't do the experiment yet. Again, flexibility. The experiment should be a lot of fun - making "molecules" using marshmellows & toothpicks. =)
We did the catechism lesson (aka the story around a few of the catechism Q&A's) at bedtime Monday night. Beginning around Thursday afternoon, Jimmy has been asking for another catechism story. Guess he likes this, too!
For handwriting, Jimmy is working with his math handwriting sheets (the optional work from Saxon Math K - handwriting practice for numbers plus a short & easy activity like "color two pennies" that has the side benefit of teaching him to read directions). This week, I added copywork - copying some of his easy early readers into his kindergarten-lined notebook. He copied all of the book "I See" and several lines from one of his Berenstein Bear books. He liked both activities a lot, but copying an entire book seemed like a little too much for the hyper little guy to sit through.
We added a German review to the lesson plan, a la BBC's Muzzy. Watching an educational movie is a great way to do school in the summer, isn't it?
This week, the boys & I are at our church's VBS (vacation Bible school). We might catch up on some of the unfinished school stuff from this week, but I think we'll mostly just veg. VBS week is always a little rough on this mama, since I'm also teaching one of the classes.
Jimmy begged me to read more from the "atom book" (aka Chemistry). He really loves it! We read this week's chapter while the boys took their bath. We didn't do the experiment yet. Again, flexibility. The experiment should be a lot of fun - making "molecules" using marshmellows & toothpicks. =)
We did the catechism lesson (aka the story around a few of the catechism Q&A's) at bedtime Monday night. Beginning around Thursday afternoon, Jimmy has been asking for another catechism story. Guess he likes this, too!
For handwriting, Jimmy is working with his math handwriting sheets (the optional work from Saxon Math K - handwriting practice for numbers plus a short & easy activity like "color two pennies" that has the side benefit of teaching him to read directions). This week, I added copywork - copying some of his easy early readers into his kindergarten-lined notebook. He copied all of the book "I See" and several lines from one of his Berenstein Bear books. He liked both activities a lot, but copying an entire book seemed like a little too much for the hyper little guy to sit through.
We added a German review to the lesson plan, a la BBC's Muzzy. Watching an educational movie is a great way to do school in the summer, isn't it?
This week, the boys & I are at our church's VBS (vacation Bible school). We might catch up on some of the unfinished school stuff from this week, but I think we'll mostly just veg. VBS week is always a little rough on this mama, since I'm also teaching one of the classes.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Summer session - week 1
This week did not go quite as planned. But then again, I suppose that is the point. I did say "it's summer," right? LOL! Randy was away on the Dominican Republic mission trip until Friday. On the one hand, it was nice having the added structure to our days to a) keep us busy and b) keep the boys from completely driving me crazy. They were much better behaved on the days we had school.
We started off reading our chemistry lesson on Monday. Jimmy & Caleb loved the pictures & can't wait until we can read the next lesson. I posted our very first vocabulary words on brand new cork board (which I am also using to post our morning schedule - brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, exercise, do chores, have school, have lunch, then naps). Our first vocab words are atoms, molecules, and observations. Way cool, huh? Jimmy even gives definitions in his own words, which somewhat mangle the real definition but show that he is learning. Atoms, for example are "the things that gives things their taste." =)
On Tuesday, we had our chemistry experiment. We had three different objects to observe. (Back to the vocab words!) First, we thought about the objects before looking at them. I kept each object hidden until we were finished with this step. Jimmy described them using words (which Mommy Secretary recorded for him) & drew a picture from memory. Then I brought out the object. He compared his memory descriptions & drawing to the real thing. I recorded any new observations & he drew a new picture while looking at it. Jimmy & Caleb got to use toy magnifying glasses for the observe step, which I think was their favorite part. They used those magnifying glasses throughout the rest of the week, too! Our three objects were 1) a Scotch tape dispenser, 2) Cheerios, and 3) Jimmy's harmonica.
The rest of the week gets rather fuzzy. We reviewed the catechism Q&A on Wednesday, read the catechism story & reviewed the Q&A on Thursday, and spent Friday (the time driving loops around the airport waiting for Randy) reviewing the Q&A. I also spent that airport loop driving going over some of the history lesson I had planned, but I didn't really get past creation. The catechism story discussed a little about evolution vs. creationism, which made a great starting point. So instead of talking about creation, the first sin, & the flood, we really kind of stuck with creation vs. evolution. I explained that some people don't believe the Bible & that therefore there are people who believe that God did not create the world. We had a good opportunity to talk about that with a book about dinosaurs that talked about them being extinct millions of years before humans lived. It was a very good discussion, so I'm ok with being off track with this. We'll make it up next week. Really, the main goal I have for the summer is to plot these events on a timeline, which can be done rather quickly. (And, it should be noted, cannot be done in the car while driving around Newark airport.)
All in all, it was a good week. I'm glad that we have our morning schedule to help us get into a comfortable routine (definitely see better behavior from the boys when we stick to the schedule), but I'm also glad that we're not sticking to it when it doesn't make sense.
We started off reading our chemistry lesson on Monday. Jimmy & Caleb loved the pictures & can't wait until we can read the next lesson. I posted our very first vocabulary words on brand new cork board (which I am also using to post our morning schedule - brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, exercise, do chores, have school, have lunch, then naps). Our first vocab words are atoms, molecules, and observations. Way cool, huh? Jimmy even gives definitions in his own words, which somewhat mangle the real definition but show that he is learning. Atoms, for example are "the things that gives things their taste." =)
On Tuesday, we had our chemistry experiment. We had three different objects to observe. (Back to the vocab words!) First, we thought about the objects before looking at them. I kept each object hidden until we were finished with this step. Jimmy described them using words (which Mommy Secretary recorded for him) & drew a picture from memory. Then I brought out the object. He compared his memory descriptions & drawing to the real thing. I recorded any new observations & he drew a new picture while looking at it. Jimmy & Caleb got to use toy magnifying glasses for the observe step, which I think was their favorite part. They used those magnifying glasses throughout the rest of the week, too! Our three objects were 1) a Scotch tape dispenser, 2) Cheerios, and 3) Jimmy's harmonica.
The rest of the week gets rather fuzzy. We reviewed the catechism Q&A on Wednesday, read the catechism story & reviewed the Q&A on Thursday, and spent Friday (the time driving loops around the airport waiting for Randy) reviewing the Q&A. I also spent that airport loop driving going over some of the history lesson I had planned, but I didn't really get past creation. The catechism story discussed a little about evolution vs. creationism, which made a great starting point. So instead of talking about creation, the first sin, & the flood, we really kind of stuck with creation vs. evolution. I explained that some people don't believe the Bible & that therefore there are people who believe that God did not create the world. We had a good opportunity to talk about that with a book about dinosaurs that talked about them being extinct millions of years before humans lived. It was a very good discussion, so I'm ok with being off track with this. We'll make it up next week. Really, the main goal I have for the summer is to plot these events on a timeline, which can be done rather quickly. (And, it should be noted, cannot be done in the car while driving around Newark airport.)
All in all, it was a good week. I'm glad that we have our morning schedule to help us get into a comfortable routine (definitely see better behavior from the boys when we stick to the schedule), but I'm also glad that we're not sticking to it when it doesn't make sense.
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