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"A baby needs not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to the world."
- G. K. Chesterton
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What We Did, June 2008
Bible: Genesis 1-24 (Creation through Isaac). So far we've kept on track with my Bible reading schedule and it's been working well.
Hymn: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
Memory: Nothing, except reciting the Lord's Prayer every day at breakfast.
Poetry: Nothing consistent, but some from different books.
Stories: The Three Billy Goats Gruff, by Tim Arnold. Ad infinitum.
Tool Box, by Gail Gibbons. Just a nice little book about tools and what they do.
On the Go, by Ann Morris. Lots of pictures about how different people travel in different places.
Can You Find It Inside? from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I must lodge my usual protest against the compulsion to write children's books in tacky couplets. But I love the paintings chosen for this book. Some of them are downright funny, like the father horrified at the price tag for his daughter's new bonnet.
Olly and Me, by Shirley Hughes. Of course we love anything with these two. Surprisingly, it's a collection of free verse poems and the kindergarten version of first-person essays, a different topic on each page, which makes a nice change from a standard storybook.
Big Like Me, by Anna Grossnickle Hines. We all enjoyed this depiction of the big brother showing his baby sister new things as she grows up from a newborn to a toddler. Now if we just could get these babies born to practice on . . .
The Duchess Bakes a Cake, by Virginia Kahl. OK, so this is one of those books that silly rhyming couplets belong in. Because it is very, very silly. D1 enjoys it very much.
Petunia the Silly Goose Stories, by Roger Duvoisin. On the upper edge of their attention span and written with pretty obvious morals, but still quite fun.
Activities:
Birthday party for D1, who is now officially 4. (And going to be 5 next June.)
Swimming in the backyard.
Waiting for babies to be born.
Blowing bubbles and drinking through straws. (Combination of fun and speech therapy, which is hardly necessary but Grandma is a speech therapist and worries about them setting good models for the twins.)
Gluing and decorating foam dolls. I was surprised how much they enjoyed this; they both worked more than an hour without a whimper of frustration, which I usually expect with any sort of art materials, including crayons and playdough.
Visited Parky's Farm and watched the animals.
Trips to the grocery store and the library.
Acting out The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Observations:
According to Grandma, D2 is making some progress with potty training, but we have not yet tried to translate it to home.
They both enjoy big numbers (20-99) even though they are not always entirely clear on how to get there.
They have been helping more than ever with the household chores. D1 often sets the table without even being asked and D2 is learning how to sort the silverware into the drawer.
D1 can stand on one leg without support and is getting better at jumping with both feet simultaneously. |
Posted: 4:31 AM, Jun. 30, 2008 |
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Lowercase vs. Capitals
Before D1 started learning her letters, I was quite convinced that the proper procedure was to teach lowercase letters first. The shapes are more distinct and the letters are more common. Words written in lowercase are easier to distinguish. All perfectly logical.
Although lowercase letters are more common in the world at large, I soon discovered that letters large enough to get the attention of a toddler are almost always capitals: fallen Scrabble tiles, book titles, signs. I compromised by teaching her both together.
Then she started teaching herself to write. Ninety percent of the letters she writes are capitals. For one thing, more capitals consist entirely of straight lines, which are much easier for her to write. She recognizes lowercase letters just fine, but she only writes a few that way (mostly in writing her name).
My sister brought me some mementos she found when cleaning out the house, among which was a letter I wrote at the age of four. Sure enough, it's in all capitals. I know I recognized lowercase letters, because I learned to read from ordinary picture books about that time.
So now D2 is learning his letters, even more randomly than his sister did. Once again, he's picking out the capitals sooner than the lowercase. The only alternative seems to be artificially limiting his environment and learning opportunities so that he only gets exposed to information in the "correct" order. |
Posted: 1:51 PM, Jun. 18, 2008 |
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What We Did: May 2008
Bible: We have done a few stories in Acts, but we're really doing badly here. Our traditional reading method (finding the appropriate story picture in their own picture Bibles) is getting too labor-intensive for me to handle right before naptime. I have a beautiful Bible reading schedule for the next year that starts on Monday, so we'll see if I can figure out a way to do it. I feel like we haven't had closure with our last read-through, though.
Memory: ABC verse book, through I: "If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it."
Poetry: Some Mother Goose here and there.
Hymn: "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us"
Books:
The Elves and the Shoemaker, illustrated by Margaret Walty
The Shepherd's Song, illustrated by Julia Miner
Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey
Cowboy Small, Lois Lenski
Mostly whatever repeats the children have begged me to reserve from the library. I haven't come up with any bright new ideas. I have also been telling them stories extemporaneously: Three Little Pigs and Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The Princess and the Painter, Jane Johnson. As picture story books on paintings go, I was impressed by this one. It's about the real people behind the painting, and there's a print of the actual painting (not just the illustrator's impression of it) in the back. D1 especially enjoyed it. I'd been reading about Velazquez art, so it was a good fit.
Activities:
Playing in the backyard, watching birds feed their babies, picking up worms, learning NOT to eat mushrooms (I hope!) but experimenting with wild strawberries.
Playing cowboys and firemen--er, firepeople. (We have a fireboy, a firegirl, and sometimes I am the firemama.)
Cutting straws. They both seem to have the right scissor position down.
We finally got down to try out the new jungle gym at the park a few times. (Now that I can't walk that far, we have to wait for just the right opportunity.) It has steps, for which I am profoundly grateful. No more spending my days giving boosts.
D1 was chatting with me about everybody's age this morning, so I printed her out a hundreds chart and she colored in different squares. I'm really trying to work with her on getting her numbers between 10 and 20 straight.
D2 is getting a little bit of potty training at Grandma's house. She plans to do an intensive effort sometime after the twins arrive.
Observations:
D2 is starting to come into his own a bit with climbing and other large-motor activities. He needs more chances to do it, though.
D1 is working very hard to teach herself how to write (sometimes on inappropriate surfaces, but that's a separate issue.) She will ask us to spell out whole words for her. She's also obsessed with making cards for people.
D2 is developing a deep interest in people's feelings, which makes reading books a little more challenging. "Why is the dog frightened?" "He's not frightened, he's sad." "Why is he sad?" "Because he didn't win the first prize." "Why didn't he win the first prize?" And so forth, until we turn the next page, where no doubt some new trauma is mirrored on some character's face |
Posted: 5:42 AM, May. 31, 2008 |
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Preschool Checkup
It occurred to me today, flipping through the parenting magazines at the doctor's office (I never take books out with me because I'm so bad at leaving things behind) that D1 has now officially missed her first year of preschool. She'll be four next month. So I felt the urge to discover what she should have been learning instead of staying at home playing with her little brother and watching her mother throw up.
World Book has a list of Curriculum Standards for Preschool. I'm not going to duplicate them all, just consider ones that stick out as particularly noteworthy. I would also point out that this list doesn't distinguish between three and four year olds, so this is the list for next year, too.
Size/Colors and Shapes/Numbers
Most of these skills (distinguish "big" and "little"?) seem more like toddler skills to me; anyway, she certainly knew colors and shapes and sizes by the time she was two, let alone four. Counting by rote was easy, too. Counting with one to one correspondence is something she's mastered much more recently, but she's really taken off with it and is starting to apply it to the beginnings of addition and subtraction. We do a lot of math at the breakfast table, counting how many pieces of fruit or pancake are on the plate, how many we're eating, how many are left. We also play games.
Reading Readiness
Do we read? Why yes, we do. Letter sounds aren't even on this list; I guess that goes with kindergarten. The only areas where she still has a problem is with left-to-right progression (at least, when she writes she's almost as likely to go one way as the other) and with writing her name--the two letters at the end are still not something she's very confident in writing. She knows perfectly well how to spell it, though, and she's practicing hard.
I do wonder if I should work more on the left/right thing but I also think it likely she'll grow out of it. That or I'll just start teaching her Hebrew.
Position and Direction / Time
I can't say I would have thought of these as school skills, but I'm pretty sure she knows up and down and day and night. (D2 does too, but he always thinks he can rearrange the world for his convenience.)
Listening and Sequencing
Well, she listens carefully to SOME things. Like most children she suffers from selective hearing at times . . .
Motor Skills
This is without doubt our weakest point. However, I'm impressed with how she's developed over the past few months. She is starting to jump well, and learning to stand on one foot. She loves to show it off. She's also just learned how to button her own coat, and therefore insists on wearing that coat even though it's far too warm.
I can't believe 5 piece puzzles are the standard for preschool. D2, let alone D1, can do 20 piece puzzles. I'm guessing this is bare minimum rather than average, though. D1 has figured out (or copied from DOB) the strategy of starting with the edges on jigsaw puzzles.
She loves cutting with scissors and is starting to be able to cut out strips of paper (she found some striped old wrapping paper to do it on last week.) She can draw, but she's terribly uptight about it. Most of the time she'd rather try to write letters, where the goal is well-defined.
Social Development
She handles two overnights a week at Grandma's house with no qualms (she'll hardly talk to us while she's there: "Hello! I'm at Grandma's house! See you later! Bye!") so I think she's sufficiently independent. (More so than I would like, perhaps, but that's the only way I've survived this pregnancy.)
Just when we had her trained to flush the toilet every time, our toilet started hanging and we're trying to teach her to NOT flush so we can go in and make sure it doesn't get stuck. Such is life. Other than that she's pretty independent with the toilet.
We are working VERY hard on crossing streets and parking lots safely, even without an adult hand, as all available adult hands are about to be filled. They're doing great.
I do want to teach them their address and my cell phone number, but I need to be more consistent about practicing. She at least knows our street name and it's not a very long street.
She's never asked to go to school, but she begs to go to Sunday school.
She is a big help around the house with both her regular chores and unexpected Mama-can't-stand-another-second chores.
So I think she is doing all right. On top of this, she knows a whole lot about pregnancy and prenatal development, from the timing of morning sickness (when the babies are "teeny-tiny") to the need for special care of babies who are born early. She loves to look up locations, from stories, songs, or conversation, on the map and can locate us (at least within North America) on a world map. She has memorized numerous Bible verses, some poems, lots of story books, and is familiar with many folk songs and several hymns. She can find things to do to keep herself occupied for several hours.
I don't think she's missed out on too much, except on the latest social life and entertainment preferences among preschool girls, and I think that's something just as well left alone. |
Posted: 8:37 AM, May. 6, 2008 |
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What We Did: April 2008
Bible: Working through Acts, very slowly. Pentecost, Stephen, Saul's conversion, etc.
Hymn: We've been trying to do "This is My Father's World," but not very consistently. I'm too tired to sing during our usual story time.
Memory Work: Bible ABC book, starting letter H, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He restoreth my soul."
Poetry: The Mother Goose books have resurfaced and they have been enjoying them. D1 gets the full-size one and D2 the board book and they hunt through for matching pages.
Books:
Pelle's New Suit, Elsa Beskow
Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey
Reprise from last spring, but definitely worthy of being re-read every spring. Many times.
Who is in the Garden? Vera Rosenberry
Jack's Garden, Henry Cole: We did these last spring, too, but this spring they really got into it, especially D2. I think it's helping us open our eyes to the things we can see in our garden.
The Tale of the Little, Little Old Woman, Elsa Beskow: The same story as the Wee Little Woman by Byron Barton book that we have gotten in the past. I like the pictures better in this version, but the ending of the story better in Barton's. A fun, brief folk tale good for very young children either way.
The Pea Blossom, Amy Lowry Poole: Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen. Love the illustrations, and it's a great story as well.
Activities:
Playing in the mud, playing with the rocks, playing in the pool. Digging, throwing, climbing, pushing, pulling, riding.
A little bit of planting and weeding.
We met a neighbor who grows all sorts of different things; we look forward to visiting his yard throughout the summer (and gratefully accept his surplus plants!)
Watching worms, birds, cats, rabbits. D2 had a little apprehension about birds on the ground in the yard but seems to be getting over it. He doesn't like things that move unexpectedly.
Grandma's cat had kittens, which they were excited to see and hold. D2 was under the impression that the Mama cat eats the kittens; we tried to explain that that's how she carries them but I'm not sure he got it.
Moving furniture and hauling books to get ready for the babies' coming.
Observations:
D1 is working pretty steadily at teaching herself to write. Not only is she learning how to copy different letters, she can write most or all of her name (and everyone else in the family's) now, and one morning she showed us how she had sounded out "CAT" and written it on her magna doodle (a wonderful invention, btw). She wrote it backwards, though. Then she proceeded to do "dog" the same way. I'm trying to find the right level of interference; some of her letters she forms from the bottom up or otherwise strangely. She's very obsessed with doing things "right," though. (That's probably why she prefers learning letters to drawing.) I may continue giving her occasional pages of dotted letters from here--she loves tracing letters--and showing her formation if she is interested.
D1 is also increasing balance and likes to show off standing on one leg or trying to hop.
D2 is full-fledgedly into the little-boy obsession with parking cars. He can spend hours lining them up on the couch--do all little boys go through this phase? On the other hand, he's entering into imaginative games more all the time. He still likes pointing out letters he knows, but I haven't noticed him picking up that many new ones.
D1 is starting to make sense of simple addition and subtraction. D2 is beginning to grasp what counting is for and understand numbers larger than three. |
Posted: 6:51 AM, Apr. 29, 2008 |
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What We Did, Mid-Late March 2008
Bible: Last Supper, Arrest, Crucifixion, Resurrection and post-Resurrection appearances.
Hymn: Christ Arose!
Memory Work: Now working on F--Romans 3:23. D1 is always eager to start reading a new verse, but D2 takes a little longer to really know them well.
Poetry: When We Were Very Young, a new poem and an old poem every day. They are actually requesting poems besides "Disobedience"! The one about the toy soldier was very popular.
Books:
Millions of Cats: One of those nice old classics that can rely on an excellent story and clever drawings instead of garish colors. The climax might be a little gruesome for some, but that sort of thing (millions of cats apparently eating each other up) never fazes the ducklings. Great book. It served us well through the flu.
God Gave Us Two: Yes, it is rather sappy, and I have to edit out a too-obvious reference to new-sibling-angst, but they have two babies. So this one has been requested over and over. I suppress my desire to comment that actually papa polar bears have nothing to do with the rest of the family and mama polar bears kick out the big baby when the little ones come along, not to mention that they would all be eating seals and caribou rather than making friends with them. Why this annoys me when Beatrix Potter's don't, I'm not sure, but Potter's animals live in a dangerous world. Her cats may wear pants, but they still eat mice.
Treasury of Beatrix Potter: D1 asked for several of these stories: Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (who has a minor role in the Thursday Next series, which I've been reading), and the Tailor of Gloucester. Tom Kitten is still the favorite, though.
Activities:
Somebody has had the flu at every point for the past two weeks, so we haven't done much.
We did have an egg and carrot hunt on Easter, but we never did really color eggs. (I dumped some dye in the one pot for Easter breakfast.)
They did watercolor painting one day. D1 made lots of rectangles, trying out how to use the paints. D2 was not feeling well enough to stay interested for long.
We played a game with dice and poker chips a couple of times. We've played the Very Hungry Caterpillar a few times, too.
Observations:
They wanted the counting bears and frogs out one day last week. D1 especially was sorting them in careful rows by color. She said they were at the museum watching the star show. (That's from January.)
D1 can count by twos up to six at least (while we were playing the poker chip game) and calculated how many people would need plates if there were three guests coming for breakfast.
They are still asking for Mis Numeros in Espanol almost every day. They both know all the numbers from one to ten in Spanish and I think D1 knows most or all in French. D2 looks set to learn the names of the numerals in Spanish before he learns them all in English.
They've been doing a lot of pretend cooking. Most of my pots are in the living room or bedroom, full of plastic food. D2 was making cookies in the crockpot for awhile, but D1 stuck with the more plausible soup. |
Posted: 9:31 AM, Mar. 29, 2008 |
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Too Smart for Charlotte Mason?
I feel like I need some sort of disclaimer at the top of this post, in case someone takes it too personally. I don't claim to know everything. I don't know enough to tell you what to do with your kids. I'm just exploring in my own mind the question of how far Charlotte Mason's principles can be trusted and how serious I am about following them. My children are still very young (3.5, 2.5, and twins coming soon), so I have no real experience to draw on, and though they are bright and verbally gifted, I don't think they're any smarter than your kids and I can't guarantee results. Check back in twenty years and I'll tell you how it went. That being said . . .
I belong to a list devoted to applying Charlotte Mason's principles for young children under the age of six: avoiding formal lessons, spending much time out-of-doors, participating in a rich home life. Every so often someone posts something along the lines of:
"Of course I *love* CM's ideas, but my child is so gifted (long list of achievements starting in infancy) that we have to do lessons or she would be bored."
Well, maybe so. I don't know their child. But is the world and everything in it really such a small field that a four-year-old can't find enough to do and learn without a lesson plan? I'm twenty-nine, much smarter than even the most profoundly gifted four-year-old, and I am never bored even if nobody does lessons with me.
I can't help but think there must be some miscommunication somewhere. Some possibilities come to mind:
1) They are seriously misunderstanding CM's advice to think they must somehow hold back their child and prevent them from learning anything taught in school. Quite the contrary, CM expected many children to teach themselves reading, writing and arithmetic before their sixth birthday. But she expected that to grow out of the children's interests and questions, not out of a formal scope and sequence imposed by the mother.
2) They have trouble interacting informally with their children and feel a need for lesson plans to give them some ideas, because their child is tired of being sent off to play while they do laundry. There are many perfectly good parents like this; their laundry gets done much more quickly than mine does, I'm sure. Keeping books of projects and activities around is a good idea; for many families it will be helpful to schedule a special time for Mom to sit down and do things with the kids. But that's not the same thing as formal lessons; far better is to watch the child and suggest projects that seem likely to be a good fit. And they still need to make an effort to include the children in the laundry. Even Einstein got his socks dirty.
3) Their house is a really boring place. Modern suburban life is rather devoid of interest. There are few grown-ups to watch working. The landscaping is all the same. Buying a curriculum may seem simpler than resolving this problem, but it's only a band-aid. If life isn't interesting, make it more interesting. Let Mom take up a complex and absorbing hobby--and let the kids watch and help. Travel around to watch people at work and, if they seem nice, ask them questions. Go visit new parks, museums, businesses, etc. Horrify your neighbors by piling up scrap lumber and mud in the back yard for free exploration.
In the end, though, I think people still really haven't absorbed the point of Charlotte Mason's advice. The world is a rich, wonderful, amazing place. Learning to read and write is a tiny, tiny portion of it. A four-year-old who is ready to read--who gets read to and who has her questions answered--will learn to read without any need for a curriculum. (I did it myself, so it's not like I'm a hereditary dimwit who's completely clueless about the challenge of gifted children.) And if they don't, they are not being held back while they learn a million and one other things.
For mother to turn her attention from going out and exploring, from answering the children's questions, from hunting up new and challenging books that match the children's interests, from teaching handcrafts and household skills, and to focus instead on introducing the three R's, is to turn from a rich, diverse, nutritious banquet to a making sure they down their bowl of oatmeal. Indeed, perhaps a child with an abnormally strong taste for oatmeal (traditional school skills) needs extra encouragement to entice them into a more adventuresome diet (imaginative play, physical activity, out-of-door time, crafts).
The smarter a child is, the less they should need formal lessons at an early age, because they have a greater capacity to perceive, inquire, and learn without being prodded. If your child is zipping ahead, teaching themselves to read and write, asking dozens of insightful questions--why slow them down with someone else's idea of what they should be learning? |
Posted: 9:21 AM, Mar. 20, 2008 |
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My New Rule of Thumb
"If an activity takes longer for me to prepare than they spend doing it, it's not worth it."
This has coalesced from various advice and people. It has its origins in the question of who is doing the learning. Five minutes for me to spend setting out materials and thirty minutes for them to spend freely exploring them is a good trade-off. Thirty minutes of me tracing and cutting for them to spend five minutes gluing is not. (I'll exclude clean-up time; they should help with that anyway, and it's too much of a wildcard.)
Similarly, fifteen minutes to locate and read a good story together (note they are involved in the story part) which they then take and interpret in their own play for weeks is a good learning investment. Twenty minutes for me to prepare a learning activity from the story that keeps their attention for ten minutes is not.
This is probably too strict of a rule for many people. I once saw a blog of a mom who had created little bags for each letter of the alphabet with various hands-on items that corresponded to that letter sound. Very cute. Though not a good trade-off on my system, I'm sure she had a great time doing it and her daughter learned her letter sounds. And that's a perfectly valid reason, if doing crafts like that is fun for mom.
But D1 learned her letter sounds just fine with my quick printout of family pictures for each letter of the alphabet. And D2 is learning his just as well with the even less elaborate method of me or D1 answering his questions when he points to a stray letter on a book, sign, or (this being the stage of life we are at) barf bucket.
So I like the reassurance that the ducklings are learning and can learn with very little time and energy invested on my part, because right now I have very little time and energy to invest. When I do have a little, we can do some things that require a little more investment of my time but still have plenty of bang for the buck: messier craft materials, muddier play outside.
When I have a little more energy than that, rather than burdening them with elaborate learning programs just to keep myself occupied, I'd rather read or write something for myself, or try out some project that interests me. And if they learn something from that, too, it's all gravy.
Here's today's high-return learning activity.
Materials:
Stack of poker chips
Dice
Procedure:
Each person rolls a die in turn and takes the corresponding number of poker chips from the stack. When the stack is exhausted, compare each individual stack to find out who won. They wore out me and two uncles playing this game; they probably stuck with it for forty-five minutes. |
Posted: 3:08 PM, Mar. 19, 2008 |
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What We Did, Mid February-Mid March 2008
Bible: Miracles and parables, up through the Garden of Gethsemane. On track for Easter!
Hymn: Christ Arose! (Which of course they call, "Low in the Gravy.")
Memory Work: We've been working through a book of ABC Bible verses from the old Bible Memory Association. So far they've learned A, Isaiah 53:6; B, Acts 16:31; C, Ephesians 6:1; and D, James 4:8. We're working on E, Proverbs 20:11. They are really enjoying this, and we work on letter sounds with D2 at the same time, while D1 is starting to pay attention to how the words track as she "reads" them. Wondergirl found them a coloring book based off the same book, too.
Poetry: When We Were Very Young. "James James Morrison Morrison" is always the hands-down favorite, but we try to read a new one every day, too.
Books:
Boats, by Byron Barton: Handy basic guide for toddlers, as always with Barton.
Ship Ahoy, by Peter Sis: Very cute book of boy pretending to sail various boats from his couch. Perfect for the ducklings, who are always sailing on the couch, or in the laundry baskets.
Saint Patrick, Ann Tompert: I thought this would be a little too advanced, but they begged me to read it more than once. I'll pull it out again on Monday.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen: For some reason I had always thought this book must be overrated, but it's not.
Hello Baby!, Lizzy Rockwell: I like this best of the big-sibling books I've seen thus far. It contained enough detail to satisfy D1, who is utterly fascinated by prenatal development, newborn behavior, etc., without giving so much information as to be overwhelming. And the pictures are sweet and the overall attitude very upbeat but not too syrupy.
Baby on the Way, William and Martha Sears: This one is also good, but didn't quite hit the spot the way the other did; I think it's just a little too long for the ducklings. Also there's more about how Mom feels, which interests the ducklings not at all. No, they want to hear about the babies. :-) I think this would be more appropriate if they were a year or two older.
Too bad I can't find a big sibling of twins book, but they've enjoyed looking at the pictures in *my* twin books. D2 seems to think they are catalogs, and keeps asking, "Are *those* the babies we're going to get?"
My Little Golden Book of Manners: Remember this one? D1 is suddenly very concerned about what is proper manners. Some parts seemed a little dated--I doubt they'll ever have to take phone messages, since we don't even have a home phone and my cell phone is always with me. But still lots of good stuff.
Crow Boy, Taro Yashima: Yashima's Umbrella has been a favorite for a long time; this is one they are just growing into. Yashima's books are just right: simple, beautiful, engrossing, moving but subtle. This one is set in a small village in Japan where a young outcast demonstrates an unexpected talent. It's a similar theme to The Hundred Dresses, but suited for a much younger audience.
Activities
Mud pies, wading through puddles, and a little bit more playing in the snow.
One day we had the perfect snow for following tracks and found cat, squirrel, bird, and dog tracks as well as observing the differences between different boot tracks and testing what tracks the little wheelbarrow made. D1 was most interested in this.
Cutting paper into little bits.
Grew carrot tops.
Working on learning to follow a routine for morning and night chores--hopefully to the point of independence or at least able to help another adult remember all the steps by the time the babies arrive.
Observations
D2 can pull his own pants on and off and manage some shirts. He tries to change his own diapers, but I draw the line there.
D1 asked to take a "card" (coloring page) to a neighbor she only knows slightly, and presented it to her quite politely. It was all her own idea. |
Posted: 2:18 PM, Mar. 13, 2008 |
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What We Did, February 4-16
Bible: More miracles and stories of Jesus, especially ones pertaining to boats (calming the storm, walking on water). Boat stories are always popular. Also feeding the 5,000.
Hymn: How Great Thou Art
Memory: ABC verses, A (Isaiah 53:6) and B (Acts 16:31). They are really enjoying this book, and they like to take their turn saying the verse while pointing to the words--or at least in the general vicinity.
Poetry: More of When We Were Very Young. So much fun!
Books: In addition to many of the same ones from the last two times,
The Tale of Tom Kitten, Beatrix Potter: Hooray! Beatrix Potter at last! D1 has fallen in love with this book and asks for it every day. A real plot! Beautiful drawings! Big words! I can do Beatrix Potter every day. D2 doesn't really get it yet, but he likes the marching sound of the Puddle-ducks. (Pit pat paddle pat! Pit pat waddle pat!)
My Numbers in Spanish/French, Zakkiyah: I've been trying to integrate some simple Spanish picture books from time to time. This one they picked out themselves. They really love the counting. The only trouble from my perspective is that I have to read the French side, too, and my French is really rusty.
My Clothes/Mi Ropa, Rebecca Emberley: Emberley's bilingual board books are wonderful introductory Spanish books for toddlers. One page per term, one category per book. Sometimes I throw in a few simple sentences and exaggerated actions using the vocabulary: "Donde estan los pantalones? Aqui estan los pantalones!" which they find hilarious. (That's about as far as my Spanish goes, but it will work for now.)
Activities
Took a few winter nature walks; spotted a hollow tree, berries and seed pods left on bushes. Smashed and melted icicles. Also learned about walking on ice, climbing on snow mountains, and dealing with falling down in the mud!
Made felt bookmarks and special muffins for Valentine's day.
They spent one afternoon going through all the old Montessori activities. I really need to make up some new ones.
We started some carrot tops to grow; we'll see if they actually do it.
Observations:
D1 can hang up her clothes on hangers and fold most of them (if she feels so inspired).
D2 can hang his clothes up on hooks and folds washcloths very neatly.
D2 can climb on to the fire engine at the park by himself. He should really get a burst in climbing skill once he gets out of snow boots, gloves, and heavy coats.
D1 is teaching herself to write more letters, including curving capitals: O, C, P, and a few lower case. She copied D2's name freehand. She writes lower-case "a" backwards, but I'm not going to get concerned about it yet.
D2 keeps showing interest in letters and numbers. He's also starting to move into more elaborate, jigsaw-type puzzles although his manual skill at keeping the pieces together isn't quite keeping pace with his ability to visualize where things might go. |
Posted: 9:16 AM, Feb. 16, 2008 |
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What We Did, Mid-Late January 2008
Bible: Finally got back to reading regularly (or at least a few days a week). Since I like coordinating our Bible story readings roughly with the church calendar, I skipped all the rest of the OT stories we missed in November and December and jumped straight into the New Testament. Jesus in the Temple, Baptism, Nicodemus, Temptation, Calling of Disciples, several miracles, the Sermon on the Mount.
I go back and forth on the idea of ever teaching a catechism to the ducklings, but I love introducing doctrine through stories. After all, God started with stories. Our reading of the past few weeks have let us bring up baptism, Satan, the new birth, discipleship, etc., all in a real context.
Hymn: How Great Thou Art. I figured I should occasionally teach them hymns they will actually encounter in church.
Memory: Review of past passages. I really need to finish up the Ten Commandments pages so we can learn the rest of them.
Poetry: We've been reading a poem a day (when we have our story time!) from When We Were Very Young. D1 is memorizing "Happiness" with motions.
Books:
Snow Music and the Kamishibai Man remain as popular as ever.
Babies in the Bayou, by Jim Arnosky. I've been hoping Arnosky had nature books suitable for younger children, and behold, he does! Beautiful and simple, with realism that's not too gruesome.
They Didn't Use Their Heads, Jo Ann Stover. A little preachy, but it's given D1 and me some good grounds for discussion, especially as she reaches an age to move beyond mere obedience into considering her actions for herself.
Chicka Chicka ABC, by Bill Martin, Jr. The abbreviated board book version. (I don't think I've actually read the original.) If you insist on teaching the sounds before the letter names, this book just doesn't read quite right. However, D2 has not noticed and has asked for it over and over, poring over the last page with the heap of letters and asking me the sounds of each one, comparing shapes of new letters with the letters he already knew.
He was confused when he pointed to the y and I said, "That's 'Y' for 'yellow'." "No, it's not," he said, "It's gween." So for him, "y" will have to be for "yummy."
Anno's Counting Book, by Anno. An old favorite (that we own) getting pulled out again. So beautiful and so much to look for.
A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams. Another old favorite they've been asking for again.
Activities:
For Christmas they received two games: The Very Hungry Caterpillar game (a simple sequencing card game) and Two by Two (Concentration with animal pairs). They love both of them and are for the first time really starting to pay attention to the rules of a game, turn-taking, etc. I am amazed at how well they both do with the Concentration game. It's fun, too, because DOB loves playing games and it gives them something new to do together, especially since with a fractured foot DOB isn't up for much roughhousing right now.
Cut paper scraps and made thank-you cards.
Most of their activities have been of the low mess and parental involvement variety: blocks, Duplos, play dishes, coloring.
Observations
They've both taken on increasing work with both parents hardly able to walk for awhile. D1 can take things in and out of the refrigerator now and even tried spreading peanut butter on the bread one day.
D1 spent one day fascinated with spelling out words and names using magnets, with my help to sound them out. She can spell her own name and D2's easily. Grandma saw her writing the first three letters of her own name, initial capital and then lowercase, without prompting or a model. However, she usually sticks to printing capital letters that only involve straight lines. She has been sounding out more letters, too, although she still doesn't hear the whole word. She needs to learn to always move left to right.
D2 seems to be picking up a few more letters, too, and seeing more of the sound/letter connection.
D2 learned to use scissors for the first time and D1 progressed to cutting long lines instead of just single cuts across. |
Posted: 5:11 AM, Feb. 7, 2008 |
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What We Did, October 2007-January 2008
What we did was begin working on production of D3, which monopolized my energy almost entirely. However, the older ducklings have not entirely been neglected (although sometimes it came pretty close.)
Bible: The Christmas Story, illustrated with pictures in a beautiful book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
We also may have gotten to the story of Elijah before I was unable to read stories entirely.
Hymn: They picked up a few more Christmas ones, I think.
Memory: Nothing, but we kept up the Lord's Prayer, and D2 can recite it easily now, too.
Books: There have not been many of these until the arrival of my sister a few weeks ago. I hope seven weeks without books read aloud will not scar them for life. It is unlikely to be repeated.
The Listening Walk: Fun and inspiring for an activity to do while walking or any quiet time.
Tractor Day: A little out of season, since it's spring plowing, but there's lots to look at on the pages. They are getting to really enjoy hunting for details.
Snow Music: They loved this one. I'm not sure why. The illustrations are charming, and the different noises are fun to make.
Swan Harbor: Beautiful counting book set in Maine.
The Relatives Came: A fun (and rather silly) book useful to read when the house is full of relatives.
Owl Moon: I got this with other moon books a few months ago and no one was that interested, but D1 has asked for it more than once this time. Her attention span seems to be growing. (We got Moon Plane again and its popularity is undying.)
Kamishibai Man: This one has left me scratching my head. I think it's a charming, evocative story, but I'm not sure what has made it such a favorite with the ducklings that they clamor for it several times a day and both know how to pronounce the Japanese title. The themes of cultural change and aging hardly seem standard preschool fare. Anyway, they love it. We have had some conversations about Japan, too.
Activities: (Generally with someone besides me)
Visited Mound City
Saw a museum of early West Virginian life. (Mostly they liked the model trains.)
Climbed on an old steam engine.
Visited the Blenko Glass Factory and watched glass blowing.
Hiked in a new forest.
Made creatures out of gourds.
Built a snowman.
Made a gingerbread house.
Made borax snowflakes (very cool!)
Played in the mud.
Painted caterpillars.
Played the Very Hungry Caterpillar game. (They love this game, and for the first time they are actually paying attention to following rules in a game.)
Observations:
They have grown quite a bit in independence. D1 can handle most of her own dressing and toilet needs. D2 can climb where he needs to go much more easily. Their creativity at coming up with things to play seldom flags, and they are learning to get along and play together better.
D1 is still getting her head around how sounds go together to make up words. We have been doing some games, such as me saying the sounds in the word and her guessing what the word is. She still has a lot of trouble with this. A fun game for both of them is to write letters on the ground and have them run to different letters--D2 can just run to the sound, while for D1 it can be embedded in a word to make it trickier.
D2 is showing a much better understanding of one-to-one correspondence in counting and can usually come up with the right amount for quantities up to five. He knows "c" and "a" and is starting to learn "m" and "p".
Montessori
We haven't done anything formal, and I consider it a guilty pleasure to peek into the Montessori classroom upstairs at our church. But they are developing different skills in less formal ways. When they were playing in the mud I watched them carefully balancing toy frying pans full of rocks so as not to spill them. Today they played with glass gems (from the glass factory), spooning them into and out of bowls. D1 arranged a large, precise rectangle of the gems. |
Posted: 12:08 PM, Jan. 14, 2008 |
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What We Did, October 22-27
Bible: Solomon becomes king, Solomon's wisdom
Memory: Exodus 20:1-12
Song: Now Thank We All Our God, verses 1 and 2. They've been interested in having me sing it out of the hymnal while following the notes with my finger.
Poetry: See below.
Books:
Nursery Tales Around the World, Judy Sierra: This book does a good job of finding stories suitable for preschoolers, and telling them in a way that they will appreciate. Fairy tales proper seem a little over their heads, but I like to read them traditional stories, as well as occasionally reading from books that are not entirely picture-driven. So far we've read "The Gingerbread Man" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."
Click, Rumble, Roar--Poems About Machines, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins: Now here's a book for introducing little boys to poetry. We have really enjoyed these.
We also read several not especially noteworthy books about teeth, partly because DOB's mother (a speech therapist) wants D1 to chew more on her back teeth to help clarify her speech. (Not that she has a real problem, but then, there's no big deal about learning to chew properly with your mouth closed.) Also, we're going to the dentist this week, D1's first time to get cleaned.
Observations:
D2 has figured out the first move in folding a washcloth, although things tend to get rumpled when he tries to fold it a second time.
While riding in the car one evening, D1 seemed to have an insight into the decimal system, and with DOB supplying the necessary tens and hundreds, counted up to about 112. She's figured out that the 1-9 sequence repeats each time. She still has trouble between 10 and 20, though. With some child I'm really going to make good on my idea of teaching counting first in the same way as the Chinese system (though in English): Ten-one, ten-two, ten-three, ten-four. It just seems like it would be easier to translate into "fourteen" later than it is to figure out a second sequence of barely-related words as soon as you've made it to ten.
D1 likes to practice writing letters that involve straight lines: A, I, H, and T. DOB wonders what primal trouble is motivating her to write long words of AIIAIIAII.
D2 is showing much greater understanding of connections and sequences in what he says. Like holding up a bib and saying, "This one is dry. Can you put it on?"
Activities:
Some heavy rain filled the pond we dug out in our back yard, and the ducklings had a wonderful time poking sticks in and occasionally sliding in.
We also looked at mushrooms that sprouted after the heavy rains and made spore prints (set dry mushrooms on dark paper for several hours). D1 especially was intrigued by the mushrooms. (And yes, we had careful instructions about Not Eating Them. Also some berries I found growing in the yard. I tell them these things are for the birds, which seems to satisfy them.) After we came in from a walk in the rain looking at mushrooms, we read a poem about an elf and a toadstool from our Childcraft book.
On a chilly day we were able to observe a bee very closely, as it was too sleepy from the cold to move.
DOB got them dart guns. D1 is a crack shot.
We dressed up as cowboys (well, we were bandits and the ducklings were sheriffs) and went to a costume party. D1 hit at a pinata and did the limbo. D2, of course, just found the wheeled toys and was content |
Posted: 1:40 PM, Oct. 28, 2007 |
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What We Did, October 8-20
Bible: David and Jonathan, Saul pursuing David, David becomes king, David and Bathsheba.
Memory: Exodus 20:1-11. D2 is really picking this up. In fact, when the pastor announced last Sunday that he was going to read the passage, D2 immediately started reciting it! (Of course, that made it hard to reprimand him for talking in church . . . )
Song: "Now Thank We All Our God" We did this last Thanksgiving, but only the first verse. This year I want to do them all.
I keep wanting to teach the ducklings songs as an introduction to foreign languages, but the language I want to teach them is Spanish, and the only thing I know to sing in Spanish is "La cucaracha, la cucaracha, something, something, something else." So instead I am teaching them "Hodu l'adonai, ki tov" which is "Give thanks to the Lord, He is good" in Hebrew.
Also we are learning "The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night" thanks to Peter Spier.
Books:
Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees, by Jim Arnosky: They're still a little young for Crinkleroot, but I'll try again soon. It certainly made me feel like going for a walk with some trees. I'm starting to know the trees around here.
A Medieval Feast, by Aliki. I really got this to preview for a few years down the road, but they have enjoyed it greatly right now. (It is about food, after all.) Maybe when we study the middle ages again, they'll have small siblings ready to enjoy it.
The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night, by Peter Spier. Very fun illustrations. The moon helps, too. D2 latched onto this book the instant we checked it out. After much labor, I think I have the tune down. You would think after years and years of music I could pick up tunes quickly, but it's still a long, slow labor.
As the Crow Flies, by Gail Hartman: Another map book, this time showing important points to various animals.
Homeplace, by Anne Shelby: Beautiful book. I'm usually crying by the end. It traces a family farm through seven generations, with simple text and intricate illustrations that show the changes over two centuries.
Harald and the Great Stag, by Donald Carrick: Another one I was checking out for future use that they latched onto, probably because of the deer. A very cool story, and nice to see a children's treatment of the Middle Ages from a peasant's perspective.
Long Night Moon, by Cynthia Rylant. Another moon book! This one goes through Native American names for the different moons of the year. Some of the poetic phrases strike me a bit oddly, but the ducklings love it. We were all making up our own moon names later: The "Tuber Moon," which shines on fields of potatoes. The "Kicker Moon," in November, shines on late evening football games.
A B C, by Alison Jay: Another lovely book. I'm sort of in a lull with any reading-related activities with D1, until she grasps sounding out better, so I like having a nice alphabet book once in a while to reinforce the basic sounds.
Observations:
D1 has gotten much more comfortable with drawing lately (no longer complaining that she "doesn't know how.") Maybe coloring has helped, maybe watching her friend draw, maybe big drawing outside with chalk. I drew a house plan on the driveway and she would draw various things inside. Another time she wanted me to draw her a bus, and then she drove around in it.
D2 finds walking on the piles of dirt a real challenge, so I'm very glad we've been digging them up for him to work on. Nobody ever brings this up, but one very important thing toddlers get outside that they never get inside is a chance to walk on rough terrain. The rest of the time outside, he's still glued to the seat of his tricycle.
Activities:
Hiked through the woods, waded in streams, and gathered leaves and nuts. Repeat this one several times; it's been cool enough for us to be outside a lot. We're going to try curing our own black walnuts this year, thanks to my friend who is a more daring and persistent scavenger.
Made an apple pie and saw the world, finally. They loved mixing everything, and wow was it a good pie.
Dug in the dirt. Their Majesties visited and one of the things we did while they were visiting was start digging up part of the back for a raspberry bed.
Played with poker chips (Hey, it's a great early math activity. D1 declared she could make a "person" with five chips, and then would figure out how many more she wanted for whatever. Or stack them in different rows.)
Bought a huge globe at a thrift store, so now we can talk about where places are even easier.
Went to a campfire along the river and cooked hot dogs over the flames. D1 made a connection with the pictures in Homeplace and people cooking over open fires. |
Posted: 12:19 PM, Oct. 22, 2007 |
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What We Did, September 24-October 6
Bible: Anointing of Saul, Saul's Rebellion, Anointing of David, David and Goliath, David and Jonathan. They love David. I think they may be confusing him with their uncle, who was once asked by a (different) wide-eyed toddler if he was the David who killed Goliath, and modestly answered, "Yes."
Song: "Amazing Grace" They kept asking for this one, so I decided to go ahead and teach them all the verses.
Memory: Exodus 20:1-10
Poetry: Selections from A Child's Garden of Verses
Books: I reserved several books with the "moon" theme from the library and scored some real winners.
Moon Plane, Peter McCarty: They liked this one before--this time D2 loves, loves, loves it. Clear, sharp, dreamy gray illustrations show a little boy flying to the moon and then flying home to Mama. What more could a little boy dream of?
I Took the Moon for a Walk , Carolyn Curtis: Gorgeous illustrations (by Alison Jay, of whose work we must have more!) and rhymes a good shot above the standard children's book doggerel show a fanciful but accurate moonlit walk.
The Moon, Robert Louis Stevenson, Illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson: A lovely illustrated version of the poem showing a child and father on a nighttime boat ride.
On The Moon, Anna Milbourne and Benji Davies: They only have asked for this one once, it paling in comparison to the books above, but it is a nicely-done factual account of a trip to the moon.
Me on the Map, Joan Sweeney: I really got this to preview for an introduction to maps three years down the road, but they love it right now. The maps zoom out from a hand-drawn one of the girl's own bedroom, all the way out to the globe, and then back in again. Very simple and clear.
1 2 3, Alison Jay: After seeing the illustration style in the other book, we had to pick this one up at the library. Each number depicts a scene from a different fairy tale, yet there's continuity from page to page. Totally fun and delightful, even though they only know a few of the tales yet.
A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams: This one we picked up at the yard sale. It's the story of a little girl, her mother and grandmother saving up to buy an armchair after their old house was burnt in a fire. D1 really enjoys it.
The Maggie B., by Irene Haas: Very cute story of a little girl and baby brother going sailing on a ship (which, incongruously, has a full farm on the poop deck). A little girl and littler brother, a ship, and cooking meals, you know the ducklings have to love it. Personally, I find it a little odd that so little time is spent sailing the ship and so much time on the meals, but that probably only enhances the appeal for the ducklings.
Activities:
Visited the Cincinnati Fire Museum, where the ducklings got to slide down a fire pole and sit inside a fire engine turning on lights and sirens.
Visited Eden Park, where you can sit on a wall and look at the boats going up and down the Ohio River. We also gathered different kinds of nuts, including buckeyes, which I had not seen before.
Worked on digging up the flowerbeds preparing them for gardening next spring, and transplanted daylilies
Climbed trees at the park.
Drew roads and houses in chalk on the driveway.
Baked cookies and bread. (D1 rolls worm cookies because she's not sure how to make balls yet. D2 just smashes them into the pan.)
Observations:
D1 has been very interested in coloring, working on being inside the lines and also figuring out how to draw a stick figure (one head, two legs, and a face). I printed out a pumpkin picture for her one day, and she said, "No, I want a facey pumpkin."
She hasn't been as interested in letters lately, except for one day putting different random combinations together and asking me to sound them out.
D2 spends a lot of time on his new tricycle. He can't reach the pedals yet, but he doesn't care. He rode it nearly a mile to a yard sale and back on Friday. |
Posted: 12:19 PM, Oct. 6, 2007 |
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Sequencing
D2 was playing in the bathtub with the bathtub toys: an alligator, a frog, a purple duck, and a blue duck. Finding he couldn't hold them all in his arms, he started lining them up, all facing the same way, on the edge of the tub.
"Alligator in da back, duck is in da middle, fwog in da back!" he announced. (Everything he figures out comes with exclamation points."
I was a little puzzled by the extra back, but then I realized he must think of "front" and "back" as equivalent to "end." I tried to clarify their meaning for him while we were playing, but he didn't really pick up on it.
Next he took the frog down. "Duck is in da back!" he said. He replaced the frog.
"If you took the alligator down," I asked, "Who would be in the front?"
He looked at the animals but didn't touch them. "Da purple duck!"
He continued arranging the animals different ways and talking about which one was in which position.
Next time I mop I should really help him line up the cars and make a train--I'm sure he would love it. Then again, maybe I shouldn't wait as long as it will take me to get around to mopping again. |
Posted: 10:06 AM, Sep. 24, 2007 |
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What We Did, September 10-21
Bible: Finished up Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and began Samuel
Song: None. I've got to get back to this.
Memory: Exodus 20:1-7
Poetry: Selections from A Child's Garden of Verses
Books:
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel: Once again, a choice that they were unenthusiastic about at first became a favorite after a few readings. Grandpa was especially excited to get to read it to them.
The Story of Ping: D2 is finally starting to get into this one.
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World: Still popular. I still haven't gotten around to making an apple pie with them.
One Lighthouse, One Moon: We seem to be into a moon-fascination time here.
Harold and the Purple Crayon: The moon follows Harold, just like it follows us!
Activities:
Went on a couple of different picnics.
Saw a farm with animals.
Watched bees sipping nectar, a grasshopper resting on a leaf, squirrels eating at the park, a spider spinning a web, deer by the side of the road, the moon and the stars at night.
Cooked countless meals of whatever objects were available.
Observations:
D2 especially has grown entranced by the moon and stars--I suppose part of it is that it now gets dark before his bedtime, yet it's warm enough to linger outside and look at them. He loves trying to spot it as the car moves; D1 has noticed that it seems to follow us. They also like to spot airplanes in the dark.
D2 is starting to get the idea of counting beginning at one, although he's still not too strict about one number per object. D1 is getting more precise and more patient and usually comes up with the right total for quantities below ten. |
Posted: 12:11 PM, Sep. 21, 2007 |
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Reading progress
Every once in awhile I like to stop and make a note about what the ducklings are picking up with regard to letters and reading. I suspect they'll both teach themselves to read before I get to formal lessons, and I'd like a record of how it happened.
It seems like with both of them, it was the shape of the letters that got their attention first. (Of course, my aversion to premature teaching of the alphabet song may be relevant here.) D1 would play with scrabble tiles and I told her the first letter of her name. After a few months of this, she spotted a similar shape in sticks in the dirt. Then she started confusing it with similar letters, and I would tell her the sounds of those. Between 2 and 3 she learned quite a few of them in this way.
Now D2 is starting to do something similar. What he likes to do is play with D1's letter magnets. (These live on the front door, where they don't get in the way of food preparations.) He tries to match up ones that are shaped the same. He's especially intrigued by ones that are almost, but not quite, the same, like capital Z and N, or M and W. (We have capitals and lower case, and D1 learned them all together.) At this point, it's just like learning their shapes: That's a triangle, and that's an A.
I told D1 the most common sound of the letter, rather than the name. (This is confusing around other people, but that's not a big concern.) I also would model sounding out words for her, such as if she asked me to write something on a paper for her, or if there was a large, simple word we came across. Obviously when we read books, we just read the story.
When she was about 2, she started doing random "sounding out" of letters when she saw them. Now D2 is starting to do the same thing. Of course, I don't do nearly as much of this directly with D2, but he lays blocks and magnets with D1 and copies whatever she does.
Since she got all of the basic letter sounds down, D1 has been doing more and more "sounding out" of words on her own, but still not quite seeing the connection between the sounds she would recite and a word she knew. She cracked us all up one day as we were driving in the car and she sounded out something from the side of the road: aah, t, m. Doesn't quite make a word, unfortunately.
Last week we were reading a book of opposites, one word per page along with a picture, and D1 started sounding out the words immediately after me, and then reciting the word at the end. I decided to see if she was ready, and on the next page, "up," I let her go first. Sure enough, she sounded it out and figured out the word. Then she did "down." We went on for several pages like this, and then she was getting tired so I went back to reading it.
Although the opposite book wasn't limited to words that use only the most common phonetic sounds, it had enough to be rewarding (up, in, big), and many that weren't quite so simple were close enough that she could work it out for her self (down, out, little). The pictures helped, but she couldn't entirely rely on them. I saw her looking at the same book, sounding out words, on her own one day this week.
I'm not sure what to do next. We are singing the alphabet song now, so that she can learn the names of the letters. (And of course D2 wants to sing it too, so there goes my waiting until after the sounds theory.) I could teach her the multiple-letter phonograms, like "sh" and "ow", but I'm not sure she's mentally ready to understand the possibility of a letter being one sound in one place and another sound somewhere else. I might just work on letter names and let her figure out the multiple-letter groups on her own if she can--as I could see in the opposites book, many times they are close enough that she can make the connection and figure out the word. |
Posted: 11:51 AM, Sep. 13, 2007 |
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What We Did, August 27-September 7
Bible: Twelve Spies, Wilderness Wandering, Death of Moses, Joshua, Spies in Jericho
Memory: Deuteronomy 20:1-6
Song: O Worship the King
Poetry: Occasional reading from When We Were Very Young and Block City by Stevenson.
Stories:
Boats on the River, by Marjorie Flack
Little Toot
Some books about fire engines and boats. (We seem to be stuck on a permanent transportation unit study around here.)
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Geography AND transportation AND cooking!--perfect for both of them. Now if apples would just come into season so we could make the pie.)
Hungry Planet (after their enjoyment of Children Just Like Me, I thought they would love this. They did. Except the rest of us got bored with the pages long before D2 was ready to turn them.)
Activities:
It doesn't seem like we did much this time. The weather has been oppressive and the air quality terrible, so even when it has been cool enough to go outside I haven't wanted to let them out there.
We had a fun walk in the woods on Labor Day after the family picnic, looking at where DOB's aunt and uncle are going to build their new house.
Set up a better shopping area in the basement, with empty cans and boxes (it takes us awhile to collect those--we don't eat that much out of packages).
Visited the Creation Museum; they loved looking at the reproductions of things. Also the botanical gardens were lovely. And way too hot.
Observation:
D1 sounded out a few words on her own in a book on opposites this week. She's been doing a lot of sounding out letters without making the connection to words, but this time she seemed to be getting the words, too, all by herself.
D2 likes to match up the magnetic letters with each other. He was quite perplexed by the "N" and the "Z."
D2 is starting to enter in to imaginative play more, although he still mostly follows D1's lead. But who wouldn't? |
Posted: 12:29 PM, Sep. 9, 2007 |
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Writing lessons for the year
Last spring I started working with one of my brothers-in-law, a home schooled 16 year old, on composition. The work we've been doing has gradually expanded, though, as I began to realize his writing would not improve without ample exposure to good literature. Then I wanted to correlate different works of literature we would be reading at the same time, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and plays, and the easiest way to do that was to select a historical era.
So what started out as editing his writing has expanded into literature and even history, and right now I have him doing very little actual writing. We went for several months where he did no writing at all, just oral narration. He was not a fast or eager reader, and had read few books of literary quality. But he does very much want to write, and he's willing to work at it.
This year I'm trying to be a bit more organized in the way we go through our readings. I haven't really aspired to be more organized in the written assignments yet, since I'm just going to stick with where he is until we're ready to move on; right now, it's learning to write a paragraph that sticks to one topic and reviewing his own sentences to make sure they make sense to other people.
Anyway, I decided to organize our readings around a medieval England theme, mostly because I'm reading about the Middle Ages this year and it was easy to find suitable works to read.
We'll be reading:
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. 1: The Birth of Britain, by Winston Churchill. He's been learning to take short notes on what he reads, which has greatly improved his comprehension, but I think for this book I'll have him take them in the form of a map of mentioned places and a timeline of important people and events. Nothing fancy, just a way of organizing his recollections. We'll do a lot of writing assignments based on people and events in here, I expect.
Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott. I confess, I haven't read this yet. I picked up my own copy at Half-Price Books, though. Anyway, should provide a good and fun sample of fiction about the time period.
Macbeth and Henry V by Shakespeare. I thought we really should get some Shakespeare in before he graduates high school, and these fit the time period. Plus, I've always loved Macbeth. I haven't previewed a version of Macbeth to watch yet, but I think I can get one from the library. I know we can get the Branagh Henry V. I had him start by reading a picture book (Bruce Coville) version of Macbeth, then I'm hoping to read it together out loud each week when we meet together.
The Ballad of the White Horse, by G. K. Chesterton. It's poetry, it's about Alfred the Great, and I love it. So we're going to read it, out loud together in between studying the two plays.
I know there's tons of other stuff we could be reading and should be reading, but we can only get through so much, and I think this selection is hard enough to be challenging for him, but still achievable. He's also taking a chemistry class and is supposed to be finding a Spanish class this year on top of two musical instruments, so he's going to be pretty busy. |
Posted: 8:49 AM, Sep. 4, 2007 |
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