Gone! Week four that is.

Seems the school days are flying by now, and we're in learning mode for sure. Harry continues to struggle with the concept that there are some things he HAS to do in life - school being one of them. As always, when he's on, he's on, and when he's not - it just ain't pretty. This week he started off very nicely, having an absolutely great day on Monday - and it went south from there. Oh, in between he had segments where he gave in and did his work - and those time, he did an EXCELLENT job. We'll continue to try and motivate him to work hard and hope that one week he'll actually earn enough marbles to get a Kid's Meal on Friday.

The theme for his weeks Bible Lessons was Keep focusing on God. In addition to reading applicable Bible Verses, they read stories that taught the importance of doing what God expects. They read about Jeremiah & King Jehoiakim, and learned the imporntance of doing what is right, no matter how hard it may seem, and to not give up, through the readings of Nehemiah 4,  & Philipians 4. During the week, when I senses they were getting impatient with the work at hand, or when they began to complain about what they needed to do, I reminded them of our Bible Lessons. This served as a nice reminded to both of them, and usually resulted in their trying a little harder.

Math continues to be easy for both boys. This week Skip continued counting on his own, reaching 150 before (quite honestly I got tired with it) and told him he could stop. Guess he's got THAT concept down for now. As part of Skip's curriculum we also introduced the concept of four seasons.With Monday being the first day of fall, we were to go outside and observe a plant or tree that changes with the season. We chose the red maple, and went on out to look at it. The boys drew a picture of the tree, and then Skip was able to write down some of what he observed. The picture goes into his Math Meeting Book, and then we'll do the same in Winter, Spring and finally Summer. Of course being out there the boys couldn't resist climbing the tree. Something about tree climbing being in their "bill of rights" as little boys...

We also learned about how 2 halves make 1 whole, using an apple as an example. We took it further and after cutting it in half, and demonstrating that 1 whole, divided equally gives us two halves and vice-versa, we started an experiment. Each boy ate one half of the apples and put their seeds in an envelope. The next day they both guessed that THEY had more seeds, but learned that both had the same amount - 2. From then on we started on a quest to eat 10 apples, and document how many seeds there were. Once we reach 10, we'll chart the results and talk them afterwards.  For Harry, we focus on a new number every week. This week it was eight. It seems to be quite easy for him to learn to recognize the number as well as write it. He is also very good at counting sets of items containing the correct number as well. It is our easiest part of the day! With Fall coming I'm working on a new bulletin board and decided to incorporrate our numbers into it. I've numbered apples and each Friday, he'll pick the apple with the number we focused on that week from  the tree, and place it in the basket at the bottom of the board. He seems to like this - alot. We also learned about rectangles this week - and while he does get confused sometimes, for the most part he can tell you a rectangle has four sides, and 2 are long, 2 short.  Our final color to focus on was purple, and I think he finally has all 10 colors down to a science.

After finding the apple with an 8, he puts it in the basket.

In Social Studies we are learning about communicating with sound. Skip saw a picture of two boys cans  talking to each other using cans and a string and asked if we could try it. I researched and found out that paper/plastic cups work just as well - so that's what we made - and it worked perfectly! We talked about how the sound is carried through the string and that it was important that the string be held tight. They were very impressed with this concept and insisted on showing everyone who came to the house this week.

We also touched on the fact that some people communicate without sound and learned about how a blind person communicates. We talked a little about braille, and how blind people can "read" by feeling the patterned messages. I didn't have an real examples Skip could feel/touch, so using play-doh I spelled out words in braille and then had him feel each one, use the chart to figure out each letter, and then read the words. He was of course blindfolded during this exercise! 

We also took a walk around the neighborhood, listening for sounds that communicate. We made a list of those sounds and talked about the difference between warning sounds, happy sounds, and weather sounds. This too, was a big hit as it meant getting out of the class and exploring the outdoors.

Penmanship continues to go well - though I must warn both boys that object is to write slowly and neatly rather than quickly, which results in one big sloppy paper. They're getting better at it - but at least one of the two boys has to redo their paper each day.  Must be a boy thing - again!

Journaling also continues to run smoothly and is another easy subject for both Skip & I. This week's entries included his favorite breakfast food, place to eat & book. I'm trying to get him to elaborate some on his responses, but that aspect is going slowly. Progress however, so that's all that counts.

This week we finished up Unit 1 and moved onto Unit 2 in Science: Learning with your ears. It's a perfect compliment to our Social Studies right now, so it seems to go very well. We talked about nature sounds, people sounds and animal sounds thusfar. Skip is excited to learn HOW sound moves - which will be covered next week. While Harry only does about 1/4 of the science exercises (mainly because he dawdles on the work he's required to do - and also because alot of it is over his head) but both boys love learning about how stuff works. They definitely have their daddy's scientific mind. Me, I'm happy to know stuff DOES work....

Phonics goes well for both boys. This week Harry added the letter H to his list of mastered letters. He practices writing the letter, both lower & uppercase, and we've started teaching the sounds each letter makes. Starting next week he'll be tasked to come to class each day with an object or picture of an object that begins with the letter of the week. I think he'll enjoy that! I am encouraged by the fact he is beginning to listen for the initial sounds in words. A huge first step in phonemic awareness!

Speaking of phonemic awareness, Skip continues to do well with his lessons too. Saxon believes the key step in learning to read is mastering phonemics and teaching the child to speak and manipulate the individual sounds. For example, even though the word “hat” has only one syllable, it has three different sounds: /h/ /a/ (short a) /t/ or the word Skills has 6 letters, but 5 sounds, and learning the rules about double consonants being sounded as one, etc.

Although he had learned all 26 letters already, and the sounds they "usually" make, this program teaches them the rules that used to break words down by coding them. We have already learned about about macrons, breves, accents, suffixes. Each day he learns a new letter, the sound(s) it makes, the keyword to remember the sound(s), and at least one other phonemic concept. We do drills each day, we seem to be making a huge difference. His reading is really coming along as he is doing less "sounding" and more actual reading. I am pleased with this Curriculum thusfar and hope he continues to do well!

In our Reading program we chose a "Fall" theme this week. The boys were lucky to have two guest readers, who read some of the books we had chosen. These books included: One Little, Two Little Three Little Apples, Autumn Leaves are Falling, The Goose who tried to keep the Summer,The three Apples, & It's Fall. On Tuesday, their Grammy came and read to them -and on Wednesday, their Auntie Toni was our special Reader. Toni was a Head Start Teacher for many years and has been a great source of information and encouragement to me, giving me tips and resources for everything from printable worksheets to teaching supplies.

Auntie Toni is reading to a captive audience!

The highlight of the week for me was when Harry was supposed to be practicing writing the letters he has learned and stopped, staring at his paper. When I asked him what he was doing he said "Look - Little "t" is like the cross - Jesus died on the cross for us!" Yet another very encouraging AND heart-warming moment at Island Christian Academy!