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incremental steps

9/30/2012

I was reading this post this afternoon. Planning Ahead for Success. I enjoyed reading the article.

When I was done reading it though I thought to myself...isn't how she handles her son the way that people should handle their children?

Teach them slowly what is appropriate, help them to make good choices and see what they can handle?

Yes, for some children you need to be more deliberate about it, but at the same token it's what we all need to do with our children is it not? Give them options, help them make deliberate, small choices so that over time they can make other choices.

On a different note....I tested my lad's ability to find numbers this morning. I've done this off and on throughout his education. I asked him to find the hymn numbers for me this morning, and he found them all without assistance. It was very cool. No having to show him bigger/smaller, no hints of back up, or keep looking. He even figured out that flipping through the book can help you find the number quicker than paging through it one by one.

How to teach the active child

9/29/2012

Got this newsletter in my inbox today, How to Teach your son When he Won't sit still.   Could be a generic, how to teach your child when your child won't sit still. :)

Some children can't sit still well. They just can't. It's like they have a wiggle bum permanently attached to them.   I know my lad doesn't do sitting still well unless he's totally into something and even then he wiggles. :)

BUT he is getting better. :) WOOT WOOT.

I thought some of the suggestions in this article spot on.

1. Be Patient - Patience is VERY helpful. take the long view approach and realize...this too will come. :)

2. Work with them slowly - Skill takes time to develop. (see above..be patient)

3. Give your child something to do - We do lots of reading. I make one demand of my lad...sit still when we read God's word. If you want to play the rest of the time, as long as you are listening, it's all good.

4. Adapt your curriculum to your child's needs - self explanatory this.   Don't get locked into a curriculum, use what you have but play around with it I say.

5. Purchase a different curriculum - Not sure about you but I can't afford to do this, but if you can.. see it please as an option.

6. Tips for Reading Books - one at a time, develop the ability to sit quietly.

7. Make it Fun - Develop the desire to learn. Fun isn't the sole name of the game, but when you are learning something you really want to learn...it's fun! it really is.

Fair prep and more

9/27/2012

This weekend in the Ilderton Fall Fair so this afternoon the lad will be putting some things together for the fair. Hopefully he'll win a class or two, but time will tell. :)

Reading

we read the paper over breakfast. We talked about the teacher's not wanting to do extra-curricular work and what that means for the students.

In this book we read "the pipers at the gates of dawn". The lad was all curious....would they get the lost otter pup back to his dad...and what was that thing they followed the music of?

Did you know that in the Fiji island warriors used weapons made to look like pineapples? This made the lad laugh out loud.

The council of the munchkins. This chapter from the wizard of Oz caused the lad to occasionally stop his Armour-building to listen closely and to take a quick peek at pictures. He thought it funny that the house landed right on top of the really bad person (the wicked witch of the east).

We learned about the pica. Did you know this animal is a little hay farmer? He collects and carefully dries hay for use in the winter.

And the Tundra swan. Their young mature at a faster rate than other swans. They are the smallest North American swan.

Sight words

Today we learned: Will. We also went through a stack of words we hadn't looked at much, just to test if he knew them. We added to our words known wall.

Human Body

we didn't do this today. We did so a lot of talking about different ways that the body works, and since he was wearing his suit of armour for much of the day we talked about ways to protect yourself, and how important hand-eye coordination would be if you were a knight.

Miscellaneous Fill In Stuff

Did some work with reading eggs and with K5 learning sites.

Prep for the Fair

Cookies. Build a farm vehicle out of lego. Collect 100 of the same item. Brownies. Colour one half of a picture. Nature item.

While working we listened to The Stories Mother Nature Told her Children and Adventures in Odyssey.

well...that was unexpected. We go out for our nature walk to collect things for the fair and we find a wee mousey. He's now safely ensconced in a five gallon aquarium behind Jim's chair in the living room.

Wednesday after a busy day

9/26/2012

I have learned over the past two years to remember to extend grace to my lad the day after a busy day. We don't plan serious book work. We learn as we do things.

Reading

World history.. we got kinda caught up in this book today so we read two pages,rather than the normal one.   We learned some of the tricks of the trade to desert warfare, and about using elephants!

50 Magical stories: "the lad who went to the north wind". In this story the bad person got punished as a natural consequence.

Classic Animal Stories: "the elephant's child'. the big question of the day was.. why did they keep spanking him just because he asked questions???   and then why did they say he was bad when he spanked them back at the end of the story??? Why mom???

The ultimate guide to wildlife of north america.   Today we learned about the giant hairy desert scorpion. It's venomous but generally people are fine.   And the Eastern Cottontail.   Did you know this rabbit mostly lives east of the Rockies and sometimes uses gopher holes to hide in during the winter?

Today's Detours

the lad was playing with his smoothie today and I mentioned how it was starting to look like the leaning tower of Pisa.   That turned into a discussion about what would happen if it was the leaning CN Tower.    Which of course led us over to this wiki article on the tallest buildings in Canada.

It surprised us how many of the tallest buildings in Canada were bank buildings. "they must have lots of money mom. We should be a bank mom, our house I mean". :)

This of course led to a discussion about land use, and how much land we save by building apartment buildings.    We talked about relative size, and did some greater than/less than work. Superkids did up this page for us. :) hopefully you can see it.

We took the time to look up some of the interesting tall buildings around the whole world as well.    Many of them are quite interesting architecturally, but many are quite boring office type buildings.

second detour was Jelly ears. :) WE started here, and then went here.

the picture below comes from jmagnus

The world

we started our work on our paper mache globe. The picture below was taken by my lad. We got the first layer done. it was quite a discussion deciding what to do. Should we just do the earth (the one highest up), should we do three earths (one for everyone in the family), should we do an earth for mom and son, should we do the moon, earth and sun? and paper mache them all? We decided to do the sun (not paper mached), the earth and the moon. An old agility frame came in handy for hanging them. We hope to do a second layer tomorrow. and then next week we'll do continents, paint, talk about north,south pole, longitude, latitude and all that stuff.

I enjoy doing these long term projects with the lad. it gives LOTS of time to talk about the world, to come up with interesting questions...for instance.. does the moon have layers like the earth does? why does the sun get storms on it and how do scientists know these things because the sun is too hot to travel to?

Sight Words

Today the lad had to do a short quiz on the five sight words we learned last week. He did fairly okay. We need to practice them some more. He surprised me when we did the practice piece just how many words he did know. So it's all rather neat. :)

Math

We took an assessment through K5Learning to see just where he's at for math. I learned watching him what he needs to practice a bit more, and some things we haven't really looked at a whole lot.

His results for reading were
For reading,
Phonemic Awareness - Exempt
Phonics - Inter. K
Sight Words - Early Grade 2
Vocabulary - High Grade 1
Reading Comprehension - Early Grade 3

Pretty much how I was at his age. :) I firmly believe that understanding phonics comes with age, and given that he's doing more words than I thought he knew...it's coming together for him. :)

Just got his math assessment and for most things he's in grade two, with geometry being grade three. He was majorly stressing over the measurement stuff (as we haven't focused much on that) so I helped him do those. (probably shouldn't have but I did). :)

Rock Glen Conservation Area

9/25/2012

Today the KICK group went to Rock Glen Conservation Area where we met with Mr. Paul Marsh.

It was a NICE day to be out in the park, I brought along a friend from the other homeschool group that I am part of and we just had fun together. :)

Our children get along well.

They did find the day long. There was way too much talking and not enough DOING.   And the day went on a bit too long for some of the younger children.

BUT it was so much fun to be out just enjoying nature. We learned a bit, and I hope the children picked up Mr. Marsh's enthusiasm for the great outdoors.

The conservation is a lovely place. I liked the museum. They had a whole bunch of stuffed birds (excellent educational exhibit). They have a very large display of old artifacts and fossils.   The walking trails are nicely laid out and good for walking on. They have some natural trails which are a tad narrow and for a person (me) with a cracked toe that's still healing caused some "ouch" moments.

My friend and I said how nice it would be to go back and just relax there for a day. Explore the falls on our own, have a picnic lunch and a play time.   That it would just make for a good and relaxing day.

I took a whole whack of pics, but shall not post them all here. :)

St. Patrick's Day

9/23/2012

I've been meaning for quite a while now to put in this plug for an item I won.

St. Patrick's Day from the Homeschool Learning Network.

it's a decent unit study and you'll learn a thing or two. :)

Canadian Please

9/23/2012

As we are studying our beloved land this year. :)

Homeschooling video

9/23/2012

Made me smile a bit this morning, not a bad thing that. :)

HOPE and KICK

9/21/2012

This morning the lad and I attended week two of the HOPE days fall session.   I taught storytelling, and helped with two separate classes.   The lad partook of Ancient Rome, phys ed and some other class that I can't recall what it is. He is enjoying both classes. He apparently is doing a good job of talking their ears off though. :)

After connecting with one of the mom's about an issue, we moved quickly home, where the lad and I prepared for KICK to come over. KICK is the London Homeschool group that I am also part of.    They were coming over to learn about rabbits and guinea pigs.

We had a good time.

I had set up a couple different displays... one with different foods good for bunnies, one with different types of cages, and another with livestock items.

I did some mini demonstrations for nail cutting, grooming and what not. Talked about how to handle baby rabbits and how to treat teenage bunnies.

We then played a rousing game of rabbit agility.   I heard LOTS of giggles, had some good questions asked, and the children enjoyed themselves.

A good day all told.

LearningPod Video

9/20/2012

really liked this video Called the Learning brain

<<Previous

incremental steps

How to teach the active child

Fair prep and more

Reading

Sight words

Human Body

Miscellaneous Fill In Stuff

Prep for the Fair

Wednesday after a busy day

Reading

Today's Detours

The world

Sight Words

Math

Rock Glen Conservation Area

St. Patrick's Day

Canadian Please

Homeschooling video

HOPE and KICK

LearningPod Video

Who Am I?

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Human Body

Miscellaneous Fill In Stuff

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Sight Words

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