Here we are at Homeschool Day at the local roller rink.
We read The Story About Ping, and some non fiction books about birds and ducks. We also read The Fire Keepers Son and The Seven Chinese Brothers and took a trip to the fire station to see a presentation about safety.
Next, we'll read A Grain of Rice and a book about China.
Last week we went on a safari at a local wildlife ranch. They had a sloth, a monkey, a capybara, a longhorn, kagaroos, lemurs, deer, camels, zebras, horses, and water buffalo. I try to remember to call things by their real names. So instead of saying, "Look at the baby kangaroo," I say, "Look at the Joey!" It helps the kids' vocabulary.
Here's Drew petting a miniature horse.
Here's Jazzy seeking protection from a dog.
Here she is petting the dog.
The kids went on a train ride around the wildlife park. I rode in the bed of the truck that pulled the train. It was so cold out there!!!
The safari wagons had buckets of food on either side so you could pet the animals when they came up to eat. I had to make sure no animal germs got on my little Joey! I kept saying stuff like, "Don't touch the baby with animal hands." We did lots of hand washing and used antibacterial gel.
I'm so glad we didn't plan on eating lunch at the park. I was shocked to see people eat on tables animals had crawled on. There was animal poop all over the ground, so when we got home I made the kids leave their shoes in the garage. Drew reminded me that I'm supposed to be learning to like animals. I'm trying, but it's gonna take some time!
Drew seems to learn as much or even more on our breaks from formal lessons than he does when we do book work daily. I think this has to do with Katie's "window theory".
I have a foster mom friend who puts her foster kids in every therapy possible. She had some girls in OT a couple times a week and also worked with them extensively in the between times. Each time she would tell me that she did ABC or XYZ with her child and finally after blank number of months the child “got it” I’d say “But how do you know she would not have gotten it anyway?” I am a subscriber to the “window theory”. When it is time for a child to comprehend something all of a sudden that window will open and they get it. Just like you can’t teach a 3yo algebra. Sure you could spend 12 years feeding him the information but until it is time he just can’t do the work.
I've had similar thoughts about all the 2 and 3 year olds in speech therapy, but that's a whole 'nother post.
When Drew was in preschool, his teachers were very concerned about his handwriting, even suggesting I take him to handwriting therapy at the ripe old age of four! I felt he just needed more time to develop. For the most part we have NOT worked on it over the past few years. Now it's seemed to just click.
When I pay attention to my son's cues instead of following someone else's idea of what he should be doing, everything goes smoothly. Learning doesn't have to be a chore.
We started our phonics workbooks last week and Drew did 28 language lessons and 22 phonics lessons in 4 days. Since he is already reading well, the phonics exercises are just reinforcement and they are fun for him.
I am going to try the same thing with math - teaching naturally throughout the day and letting him do book work at his own pace, instead of sitting down to a daily math lesson. It will take a bit of work on my part to stay aware of opportunities to teach certain concepts, but I think it will be fun for both of us. I'm going to experiment a little until I find something that works. First born children make great Guinea Pigs.
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