Our school time is running peacefully and precisely! (Well, as precisely as educating two different learners on different levels can go!)
The boys are doing great! We are doing our school year a little funny, starting and ending in April - doing year round school, with week long breaks every 4-5 weeks. It's a great schedule, and I'm happy about it. My oldest has jumped right into Kindergarten, and although all this new curriculum is a bit overwhelming, he just works one subject at a time, and he loves it! I let him pick what order we go in, and let him help me read the schedule, so he feels like he has some control over how his day is going.
The biggest turn around: My youngest sits and does worksheets with us for the full 2 1/2 - 3 hours that we do school. I quit fighting him. I just let him pick what pages he wants to do, and what stories he wants to read, and we just go at his pace. If he doesn't want to, he can go play quietly in his room with the door closed, and guess what? Not ten minutes later he is always back asking to do more school! My heart and head feel better about this, because I don't like struggling through our days - no one looks forward to that!
My oldest has realized that he really can read, it's pretty funny. We had an argument that he can read words, but not books. So I got out one of my big books and had him sound out words on the page, when he realized that words make books, he got really excited. Then he caught me writing my book, and he got even more excited. He is really curious about why I'm writing a book - so I think we'll have a book writing/illustrating lesson tomorrow!
My youngest has discovered that he can cut out anything, as long as he goes slow. So, our new favorite medium: Scissors and Glue. He's one cuttin' fool! Those are his favorite worksheets - and numbers are a close second. He wants to read, but he gets a little frustrated because memorizing the letter sounds seems to be a challenge for him. Well, just a few of them. He's got all but 4 of them down! I keep reminding him that letter sounds come first, then sounding out words, but I may have to find a mix of sight words and phonics for him. I think I'll give it another few months - he's only three right now! I have to remember that!
Well, I'm pumped, I'm loving how our school year has started, and I'm looking forward to all of the learning we will be doing this year!
How is April going for you? Can you believe May is so near?
PS - My book is coming along beautifully! I am very excited about how it's going!
No comments:
Post a Comment