Since we don't have school today I'll post early or it won't get done.
LHTH: Since dh is schooling Little J this year I don't have much to report - other than I hear a lot of "Are you listening ___, sit still ___."
BEYOND:
LITTLE BROTHER JOINS IN FOR MATH!
This week we were making subtraction equations with an ant hill and chocolate chips (one of Carrie’s great activities). Little J was immediately attracted to the proceedings and was taking it all in as I was making stories and Big J was writing and solving the equations. After a few equations Big J was writing and talking “5 – 3 = ”, but before he could finish Little J yelled out “2.” Big J was perturbed that Little J was “messing him up,” but mommy was pleased that Little J (turns 4 in November) was taking in more than chocolate chips.
STUDENT REMEMBERS BETTER THAN MOMMY
First, I am so pleased at how well ds is doing with the poetry. Given that he currently below the recommended age for the guide, I was not too sure how he would do with some of the poems. He seems to really love them however, and this week when I read the new poem he yelled out a title as soon as I was done reading. I was telling him that this poem was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a famous poet from a long time ago and he said “We had him before mommy.” Me, “We did???” “Yes, in the library book, remember mommy?” (no)
. Then I remembered at the beginning of the summer I had checked out two library books on Paul Revere and one was the famous poem, which I knew was written by a famous poet but the actual name was slowly coming back to me. I replied, “You mean the Paul Revere poem?” “Yes mommy, Longfellow wrote that.”
Oh my, I fear we will have more of these episodes as time goes on. It is so fun to teach little sponges, but I so wish my sponge was operating at full capacity.
UPS AND DOWNS OF NARRATION
Narration has been a slow work in progress for us. There was a day last week when dh had to school Big J, then we had a couple of days off and the weekend. When we got back to storytime I asked Big J to tell me what happened last time so I wouldn’t be lost in the story. He gave the best narration of his little life.
I was so pleased and thought we had gone over a hump. We did that day’s reading and he was to give a narration; Once again I got the blank stare. How can a child narrate so well several days out and have a blank stare immediately after reading? I have been reading some threads and remember that I should be taking very small sections and have him narrate, so I am really going to work on that in the coming week. I know it will come, narration is not something learned overnight.
LEARNING CURVE FOR MOMMY
Teaching a strong melancholic can be interesting. There are moments when you are blown away, like the poem example above and there are moments when you, well, you just wish the child could have a little more phlegmatic in him.
Example, we are doing the penny exercise for math and after he tosses the pennies I ask him if he would like to separate heads and tails before writing his equations. I would just throw them into two groups, but Big J lines them in a straight, two-column row with the tails and heads perfectly lined up as well. Now we can do math. When it is time to write spelling words he carefully draws two columns of boxes before we begin (yes, this was my child that lined up his toys all day long from 14-36 months of age). Last year I read a book for parents on temperaments and it was an eye opener. Suddenly school-related issues that had been puzzling me (like his extreme hesitance in doing the action rhyme) made sense to me. Even as Big J has been learning, I have been learning too – learning how to address his temperament and school him in manner that gives him success, builds confidence, and lessens frustration.
FUNNY OF THE WEEK
During math one day Big J was staring at the page. I thought he needed further clarification and began to tell him something when he interjected, “Mommy, you are messing up my mind!” No, I don’t recall messing up our children’s mind being in our homeschooling mission so next time I’ll wait patiently for him to ask for help.
Sorry, no pictures this week, I guess our camera was missing in action.
Here is ds6 finding his "treasures."
