So Noodle was a bit late to the whole reading game. A year ago at this time, we were diligently working through beginning chapter books (like the Rainbow Fairy series) by having her read aloud to me for a while every day. It was quite tedious at times, but I felt that she just needed to keep practicing to improve her skills, more than more phonics work, so that's what we did. Now she is at the point where she really does enjoy reading, and she is skilled enough that she does okay reading on her own. She started Scout, one of the Puppy Place books last night at bedtime and then finished it off today, all on her own! I was thrilled! I will continue having her read as part of our school day, but it is just so rewarding to think of the progress she has made over the past 18 months.
Spud is also doing really well with his reading. He is really getting his beginner books down solid and he is much less intimidated when encountering new words. He is working through Explode the Code book 1, and I think that is a really good way for him to practice & review.
Hooray for books!
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Week Two
So, I don't think I have it in me to maintain an exhaustively detailed update of everything we do. Especially since I am kind of cutting back for now, seeing what we can handle, and then will add back in "extras". Some notable things from the week, thus far:
Spud has done REALLY well this week with his lessons. He has only had one "poor attitude" incident, and that was today. I tried to help him shake it, but in the end, I asked him to go to his room until he felt ready to continue with a happy voice and happy face. He came down and did just fine after that. I talked to Noodle about the importance of responding to him with kindness, as I think her rudeness earlier in the morning had put him in a bit of a funk that he just wasn't shaking. During lunch prep, we had a nice conversation about how you can always look for things to be angry about. I said, "You could wake up every morning and think of a new thing to be upset about, and NEVER run out of things." We went through a number of examples, mostly ridiculous like, "Today I'm upset that I don't have my very own horse to ride," and "Today I'm going to be angry that I don't get to eat all the chocolate I want," but I think it made the point. Not that they'll remember it, but I plan to revisit the lesson in the not-too-distant future. I said that we can also look for things to be happy about, and told them how people who look for things to be upset about aren't as healthy because their bodies spend so much energy dealing with the bad emotions that they get worn down.
One thing that seems to work really well with Spud is explaining the why behind some of the parts of his schoolwork that seem pointless. He is definitely not a kid to do busy work. Also, when he asks me if he has to do something a certain way, or at all, I will explain to him what the idea is, and allow him to do it "his" way as long as it accomplishes the same goal. For example, in his Explode the Code book, yesterday he said he couldn't read the sentences because they were too small. I am pretty sure that his eyes are fine, but I know that smaller print can be hard for beginning readers, so I didn't push it and allowed him to skip that page. I asked him if I could type the sentences up and print them larger so he could do the page, and he said he thought that would work. So I did, and he did the page without problem today. Also, today he was supposed to "X" the box that went with the correct sentence, but he only wanted to do a slash instead of a full X. Since this is something that obviously doesn't matter, I allowed it. Also, I haven't been requiring that he do the pages where you have to write the words out, since his fine motor skills are not quite there yet. But he has chosen to do them, after asking me if he has to write in lowercase letters. I told him that it is preferred, as most of our writing is, in fact, in lowercase letters, but that he can use capitals or a mix of capitals and lowercase if he wants. I figure this isn't a penmanship exercise (no way I'm touching that right now), so it really doesn't matter. He is sufficiently exacting upon himself that I really don't feel the need to be at all critical of his writing attempts. He has been very good at asking how to write the numbers he doesn't know, and has been amenable to my gentle suggestions that he might find it easier to do them in such and such way.
Today we did something that I've been wanting to do for a looong time and we've just not really done it before (at least not quite so thoroughly). Noodle picked up the most recent National Geographic magazine that was on the counter since it just arrived this week, and asked about something on the cover. We started looking through it, and we looked through THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE together, reading photo captions, answering questions, etc. It was awesome! And it was interesting to all of us. We learned about the oil spill in the gulf, talked about kids born with cleft palates (there was a Smile Train advertisement in there), talked about mountain climbers on Everest, a paternal mouth brooding fish, Jane Goodall and what she's helped discover about chimpanzees over the past 50 years, prehistoric animals of New Zealand/Australia, and problems of overfishing in the ocean. Pretty fabulous science/geography/current events lessons, methinks. I know they won't remember all or even most of it, but I love the analogy of the grammar school years giving kids "pegs" to hang future information on. They need exposure to a lot of information, and they will be able to start to organize it and develop interests. I am actually amazed at how much they do remember.
One last thing, then I've got to get to bed. Noodle is doing a karate class with a couple of friends at a local charter school two afternoons a week. After talking to David, I realized that I really need to give Spud more attention. So on Tuesday, after Noodle left, he asked (as he always does) what he could do while she was gone. He's usually hinting around to watch extra cartoons and such, but this time I said, "Why don't we start reading your Captain Underpants book?" He was pretty excited about that, and he chose to read it up on his bed. We read the first 14 chapters (they are short chapters) and the next day he was so excited to read more. On Wednesday, we also went on a walk to collect cans from the neighbors and came home and made pudding to eat after our reading. It was a lot of fun to spend some quality time with him, and I look forward to continuing it. Captain Underpants is a pretty fun series. Noodle started reading it at bedtime tonight because she wanted to be in on the story, too. I'm a fan of all things that promote reading!
Spud has done REALLY well this week with his lessons. He has only had one "poor attitude" incident, and that was today. I tried to help him shake it, but in the end, I asked him to go to his room until he felt ready to continue with a happy voice and happy face. He came down and did just fine after that. I talked to Noodle about the importance of responding to him with kindness, as I think her rudeness earlier in the morning had put him in a bit of a funk that he just wasn't shaking. During lunch prep, we had a nice conversation about how you can always look for things to be angry about. I said, "You could wake up every morning and think of a new thing to be upset about, and NEVER run out of things." We went through a number of examples, mostly ridiculous like, "Today I'm upset that I don't have my very own horse to ride," and "Today I'm going to be angry that I don't get to eat all the chocolate I want," but I think it made the point. Not that they'll remember it, but I plan to revisit the lesson in the not-too-distant future. I said that we can also look for things to be happy about, and told them how people who look for things to be upset about aren't as healthy because their bodies spend so much energy dealing with the bad emotions that they get worn down.
One thing that seems to work really well with Spud is explaining the why behind some of the parts of his schoolwork that seem pointless. He is definitely not a kid to do busy work. Also, when he asks me if he has to do something a certain way, or at all, I will explain to him what the idea is, and allow him to do it "his" way as long as it accomplishes the same goal. For example, in his Explode the Code book, yesterday he said he couldn't read the sentences because they were too small. I am pretty sure that his eyes are fine, but I know that smaller print can be hard for beginning readers, so I didn't push it and allowed him to skip that page. I asked him if I could type the sentences up and print them larger so he could do the page, and he said he thought that would work. So I did, and he did the page without problem today. Also, today he was supposed to "X" the box that went with the correct sentence, but he only wanted to do a slash instead of a full X. Since this is something that obviously doesn't matter, I allowed it. Also, I haven't been requiring that he do the pages where you have to write the words out, since his fine motor skills are not quite there yet. But he has chosen to do them, after asking me if he has to write in lowercase letters. I told him that it is preferred, as most of our writing is, in fact, in lowercase letters, but that he can use capitals or a mix of capitals and lowercase if he wants. I figure this isn't a penmanship exercise (no way I'm touching that right now), so it really doesn't matter. He is sufficiently exacting upon himself that I really don't feel the need to be at all critical of his writing attempts. He has been very good at asking how to write the numbers he doesn't know, and has been amenable to my gentle suggestions that he might find it easier to do them in such and such way.
Today we did something that I've been wanting to do for a looong time and we've just not really done it before (at least not quite so thoroughly). Noodle picked up the most recent National Geographic magazine that was on the counter since it just arrived this week, and asked about something on the cover. We started looking through it, and we looked through THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE together, reading photo captions, answering questions, etc. It was awesome! And it was interesting to all of us. We learned about the oil spill in the gulf, talked about kids born with cleft palates (there was a Smile Train advertisement in there), talked about mountain climbers on Everest, a paternal mouth brooding fish, Jane Goodall and what she's helped discover about chimpanzees over the past 50 years, prehistoric animals of New Zealand/Australia, and problems of overfishing in the ocean. Pretty fabulous science/geography/current events lessons, methinks. I know they won't remember all or even most of it, but I love the analogy of the grammar school years giving kids "pegs" to hang future information on. They need exposure to a lot of information, and they will be able to start to organize it and develop interests. I am actually amazed at how much they do remember.
One last thing, then I've got to get to bed. Noodle is doing a karate class with a couple of friends at a local charter school two afternoons a week. After talking to David, I realized that I really need to give Spud more attention. So on Tuesday, after Noodle left, he asked (as he always does) what he could do while she was gone. He's usually hinting around to watch extra cartoons and such, but this time I said, "Why don't we start reading your Captain Underpants book?" He was pretty excited about that, and he chose to read it up on his bed. We read the first 14 chapters (they are short chapters) and the next day he was so excited to read more. On Wednesday, we also went on a walk to collect cans from the neighbors and came home and made pudding to eat after our reading. It was a lot of fun to spend some quality time with him, and I look forward to continuing it. Captain Underpants is a pretty fun series. Noodle started reading it at bedtime tonight because she wanted to be in on the story, too. I'm a fan of all things that promote reading!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
update
So, in case you are curious, what we ended up doing for summer was this:
Noodle continued reading aloud (some Encyclopedia Brown books and others) a few days almost every week, did a couple weeks more of Writing With Ease and a couple chapters of Math. Spud kept working on his Progressive Phonics flash cards and stories. Other than that, we've had a lot of unstructured time, so it's been good.
A few months back, we started checking out books on tape/CD for the kids to listen to at night, which Noodle absolutely loves. I think Spud falls asleep too fast most of the time to enjoy the stories much. Noodle just finished listening to all four books in the Dealing with Dragons series, and she told me last night that when she is ten, she wants to read all the books by herself. I think she chose age 10 because it seems far enough in the future that she feels like her ability will be up to it by then. I thought that was great, and I was so happy that she is so excited about the books. Books on tape have been great because I have a hard time carving out read-aloud time with them. We can usually get two or more picture books in during the day when we are "in school," but after history and the other reading I do with them, I'm tired. David typically reads a chapter to them at night from a book (they've done all the Chronicles of Narnia a couple times in Noodle's lifetime and are presently reading the 3rd Alcatraz book). But, her love for these Dragons books has really shown me the power of books on tape. She is so interested in them, which is awesome!
Noodle continued reading aloud (some Encyclopedia Brown books and others) a few days almost every week, did a couple weeks more of Writing With Ease and a couple chapters of Math. Spud kept working on his Progressive Phonics flash cards and stories. Other than that, we've had a lot of unstructured time, so it's been good.
A few months back, we started checking out books on tape/CD for the kids to listen to at night, which Noodle absolutely loves. I think Spud falls asleep too fast most of the time to enjoy the stories much. Noodle just finished listening to all four books in the Dealing with Dragons series, and she told me last night that when she is ten, she wants to read all the books by herself. I think she chose age 10 because it seems far enough in the future that she feels like her ability will be up to it by then. I thought that was great, and I was so happy that she is so excited about the books. Books on tape have been great because I have a hard time carving out read-aloud time with them. We can usually get two or more picture books in during the day when we are "in school," but after history and the other reading I do with them, I'm tired. David typically reads a chapter to them at night from a book (they've done all the Chronicles of Narnia a couple times in Noodle's lifetime and are presently reading the 3rd Alcatraz book). But, her love for these Dragons books has really shown me the power of books on tape. She is so interested in them, which is awesome!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
the right motivation
I think I've mentioned the sticker charts I do with the kids. Noodle gets a sticker for each page of math she does (I was tired of hearing her complain about doing math when it really isn't difficult for her) plus two if she gets 100% on ] her weekly test, and Spud earns stickers through reading or doing phonics lessons with me. But it isn't something I want to require that Spud do every day, or even really on a regular basis. Today, though, I mentioned to him that he might want to read some books to get some stickers on his chart, as Noodle would have hers full in a few days. "Okay," he said. We pulled out the beginner books and he ended up reading three books from the Clever Critters Level 1 Advanced Set (The Hot Yak, The Big Cub, and The Fox Begs, and re-reading the BOB books Sam and Mat. (I gave him 4 stickers for each "new" book and three for each "re-read".) He needed very little help, I was so proud of him! He filled up his chart (16 stickers) in one fell swoop!
Of course, then I had to figure out a way to let Noodle finish up her chart today, so she did today's math pages, plus tomorrow's, plus an extra one, and then took her weekly test. So, happily, they both earned their prizes. And now Noodle is done with her math for the week! (We'll do computer drills and flash card reviews, but I thought it was funny that she was willing to plow through so much.) It's all about motivation, I tell ya!
Of course, then I had to figure out a way to let Noodle finish up her chart today, so she did today's math pages, plus tomorrow's, plus an extra one, and then took her weekly test. So, happily, they both earned their prizes. And now Noodle is done with her math for the week! (We'll do computer drills and flash card reviews, but I thought it was funny that she was willing to plow through so much.) It's all about motivation, I tell ya!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Yay!!
So today I included an extra book in Noodle's workbox for her to read, in addition to her Amber the Orange Fairy reading. She read the first page, and I was sure she would complain about having to read the whole thing (it was fairly long), but when I offered to take turns reading pages with her she said, "No, I want to read it!" I could have done a happy dance! She read the entire thing, and didn't get tired or complain! I was so proud of her! I really think that working through the Rainbow Fairy chapter books is boosting her confidence. We've also been doing better at reading scriptures (instead of just working on the ones we memorize), and I'll have her read a verse. She's doing really well at that, too.
I don't know if she would have "bloomed" faster in reading if she'd been at school, but if not, it makes me happy to think that she hasn't ever had to feel "slow". From everything I've read and from talking to teachers, kids develop at wildly different paces when it comes to reading, but often by about third grade even the late bloomers have caught up. When I think of how Noodle was struggling last May and how much improved she is now, it's really encouraging.
Oh, and this is happening more often: Noodle will pick up a picture book or one of the baby's
board books that are lying around and read the whole thing, either to herself or Spud or Sprout. Yesterday she read this book, which I have to say I just love. A very cute story of a boy whose mom won't let him get a dog, and his clever plan to convince her that dogs are pretty good pets to have around.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Term B, Week 2 Report
Oh yeah, I'm on top of things this week. We actually ended a little early today because Noodle had a friend come over so I decided "socialization" (snerk) was more important than more science (which we've already done 2x this week).
Language Arts
Reading
Noodle is nearly finished with the Yesterday's Classics First Reader. It has been a good one and
she's enjoyed it. Three days this week, though, she read from Ruby the Red Fairy. It is a bit above her comfort level and is a beginning chapter book, but I wanted to find a book she'd enjoy reading and that would show her that YES she CAN read chapter books. If I'm there with her to help her when she gets stuck on a word (only so she doesn't get too confused trying to decipher the meaning when the words are wrong), she can maintain a fairly decent pace and enjoy reading the book. Earlier in the week we agreed on a "4 page/day" assignment, which seemed a little skimpy to me but I didn't want to push her too much, and today she was so into the book she read 10 pages! She just kept saying, "I have to find out what happens next!" and, "Sorry, Mom, but I just have to read one more page." I was so delighted!
She also read some advanced BOB books that we hadn't done before. And she picked up the Big Dog, Little Dog book I'd read to Spud yesterday and read it all the way through. Since she has not been a self-motivated reader, I am tickled every time she chooses to read something or read more on her own.
We (Noodle & I) also played the Y Not? game from Happy Phonics a couple of times this week after reviewing the Y-ending pages in Phonics Pathways. The first day we played it, she loved it and we had to play it three times. I was happy to do so.
Grammar
We learned pronouns this week. "A pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun."
I, me, my, mine
you, your, yours
he, she, him, her, it, his, hers, its
we, us, our, ours
they, them, their, theirs
She did really well and seems to grasp the concept without much difficulty. Next week we'll do a review page (from the Worksheet generator link I posted yesterday) to see if it is clicking. I think it is.
Spelling
Noodle was struggling with the words could and would when she would encounter them in her reading, so we did a list of regular "ou" words (i.e. proud, loud, round, found, out, etc.) and the three irregular words could, should & would. She got 100% on her Spelling Test today, but then in her reading stumbled over could the first time, but got it in subsequent encounters. Being as visual as she is, I think she has to see the words a lot before they are solid in her mind. My goal with spelling is to reinforce the rules as well as revisit some of the ones we may not have covered too solidly in the past.
Spud spelled some words from some pictures cards, but he wasn't too excited about it. I am planning on taking a break from really requiring him to read anything for a while. I wish I had some sort of handbook that would tell me the best way to motivate this little guy to learn. Te thing I have to remind myself over and over again now is that he hates to do things he can't do
well (as judged by some unknown standard in his mind), but he likes to do things he CAN do well. He hates to be on the spot for knowledge he isn't confident about. So we are shifting our preschool approach to reading books and doing activities.
One of Spud's favorite books is Big Dog, Little Dog, so for our first day of "new" preschool, we read this book and then he colored pictures of items from the story either red or green, depending on whether they went with Fred or Ted. I cut them out for him (because he didn't want to, for who knows what reason) and he glued them on. I freehand drew the dogs, and was pretty proud of myself.
Our agreement was that we would do two activities of my choosing every day (in addition to his computer school) and then we would do "Fun Time," where he gets to choose an activity to do with me for 15-20 minutes. We only started Thursday, but both days we built towers/buildings with blocks in the playroom and then crashed our matchbox cars into them. It was surprisingly fun. I have to keep reminding myself that learning stuff (reading, numbers/math, etc) isn't a race, and it really isn't going to affect them in the long run if they master reading 6-12 (or even longer) months earlier or later. What WILL matter, though, is the attitude they have about learning. Spud is a hard kid to teach, but he's a pretty easy kid to have fun with. So I'm hoping that working on our relationship will help him feel happier and more capable.
Writing
Noodle is doing really well with Writing With Ease, Vol. 1. I like that the lessons are grab-n-go and typically take less than 15 minutes to complete.
History - The Phoenicians
Did you know that the reason purple dye/cloth was so expensive long ago is because it came from sea snails that had to be gathered and boiled to get the dye, and it took a lot of snails to make the dye and it STUNK. Maybe you did, but I didn't. We learned all about the Phoenicians this week. How they lived in land (modern day Lebanon) that was inhospitable to crops or raising animals (due to the whole "no crops" thing), so they became totally awesome goods-makers and traders. They were the first to invent blown glass! They also had the first alphabet and made really nice furniture from the cedar trees there. They set up colonies around the Mediterranean. For our activity we made "Phoenician bread," which is known today as pita bread. No, I don't know if it is exactly the same, but it was one of the suggested activities in our book and we did it. The bread is delicious, by the way. I think we'll make it again sometime. (And I had to include these pictures of the kiddos enjoying the bread this morning!)
Math
Noodle started subtraction this week. She actually did a bit of subtraction in the Primer book last year, so it doesn't seem to be giving her any trouble right now. I suppose we could move faster through the Alpha book, but I feel okay at our current pace and I like that she is getting these basic math facts down solidly. From everything I've read, staying at our current pace she'll be plenty caught up by the end of elementary school. Also, I'm considering doing math through our longer breaks (Christmas & summer) which would help us keep making progress. Ever since I instituted the sticker charts for doing her math work, her attitude has been a lot better. I will say again, incentives definitely have their place! I also found my old addition flashcards so we did those a couple times this week. She earns one Skittle per card correctly answered, as many as she can do in a minute. (She also earns an equal amount of Skittles for Spud. I have him earn Skittles for her, too, some days, to keep it equitable and help them be happy for each other's achievements.) It's great because on Tuesday she got 9 the first minute, 10 the second minute, then 14 the third minute. She wanted to keep trying for more. Thursday she got 14 right off, and tried one more time and had some trouble and only got nine. A book I read about right-brained kids talked about how doing math problems quickly for timed tests can be a challenge since it takes time to visualize the problem, so I'm hoping doing the flash cards will improve her speed in a fun, not-too-stressful way.
Spud can count to 20 very solidly, so we are working on going to 100 now. He will get a "100 Cake" when he can count to 100 unassisted, just like Noodle did, and he is excited about that.
He also does well actually counting objects up to twenty and not just saying the numbers. We are also working on counting by 10s, as I think that will help with counting to 100.
Science - Seas, Oceans
So much STUFF about the ocean to learn. Which makes sense, seeing as oceans cover ~70% of the planet. I had no idea that the Pacific Ocean alone covers 1/3 of the Earth!! Crazy! I think it would be fun to do a longer, more in depth study of oceans sometime, but for now I feel okay with only a week. We did some experiments from the book Awesome Ocean Science. Two addressed how warm water and cold water interact and one was about how the coloring of penguins helps them hide from predators. There were 3 Bill Nye shows to watch (Ocean Exploration, Ocean Life and Oceanography), but we only got the first two done. In addition to our notebook page of drawings/information, I had each kid pick an animal discussed in one of the books we read and we did a coloring page of it. Spud picked an angler fish and Noodle picked dolphins. Spud really wanted a flatfish, but I couldn't find any good coloring pages of flatfish, unfortunately.
This experiment shows how warm water and cold water can take a long time to mix (part of what happens during El Nino). The yellow water was warm and the blue water was cold. Five to six hours after combining the two, they were only somewhat mixed (2nd picture). By morning they had completely mixed. It was really a fun one to do.
For this one, we made a red ice chunk in the bottom of a paper cup and froze it, then put it in a glass of lukewarm water. You can see the cold water carrying the color down, so it demonstrates cold water sinking.
New Activity - Safari
I came up with a new activity for Spud's workbox this week. We call it "Safari" and it means he picks an animal out of our "Wildlife Fact-File" and we read about it, find it's location on the map and then color a picture. This week he picked Desmodus rotundus, the Vampire Bat. We found out that an adult Vampire Bat drinks about 5 teaspoons of blood/day, so we measured out five teaspoons of water and dyed it red. (Though at first we couldn't find red so we did green instead. Then we found the red.) And then the kids wanted to drink the colored water. Sure, they don't really need the food coloring in their systems, but it was a nominal amount and added to the fun.
Music Appreciation - J.S. Bach
We did Vivaldi last week and are just going in order. I'm either going to have to keep rechecking this book out from the library or find another one. (Heck, if I get some $$ I might even buy it.) I really like the one I've been using. We talked about Bach and listened to some of his music. I also got some very simple sheet music from Making Music Fun
It's a little advanced for Noodle right now, but I played it for them and when she has the skills, she can try it. We also colored pictures of Bach. We all did really funky color combinations, which made it fun. Punk Bach.
In other music news, Noodle was assigned to learn a simple version of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." At first, she was really intimidated by it (it is her first encounter with eighth notes) and said she didn't think she'd be able to do it. Within two days, though, she was in love with playing the song and played it many times a day. Soon she had it memorized. Such a funny girl. I'm trying to teach her to replace her negative "I'll never get it!" self-talk with more positive speeches. Slow going.
Other Stuff
The Hiding Ghosts activity. (They liked it, then Noodle drew one for me to find the ghosts.)
Muffin Tin Monday
Yup, we're still doing it. I've seen some online that are all theme oriented (i.e. apple related or all round). I don't yet have the creative juices for that (nor do I have the money to buy "special" food), but the kids enjoy eating their lunch this way. I have been glad that we often have a variety of cereal opened,as it's good when I run out of other foods.
Fall!
Either Tuesday or Wednesday, we woke up to see that most of the leaves had fallen off our maple tree. The kids had to run out and play (they even raked the leaves themselves to play in!). It was great to watch them and it made me happy that we have the flexibility we do because of homeschooling. Granted, overall there are lots of great reasons for homeschooling, but somedays it feels more poignant than others.
Language Arts
Reading
Noodle is nearly finished with the Yesterday's Classics First Reader. It has been a good one and
she's enjoyed it. Three days this week, though, she read from Ruby the Red Fairy. It is a bit above her comfort level and is a beginning chapter book, but I wanted to find a book she'd enjoy reading and that would show her that YES she CAN read chapter books. If I'm there with her to help her when she gets stuck on a word (only so she doesn't get too confused trying to decipher the meaning when the words are wrong), she can maintain a fairly decent pace and enjoy reading the book. Earlier in the week we agreed on a "4 page/day" assignment, which seemed a little skimpy to me but I didn't want to push her too much, and today she was so into the book she read 10 pages! She just kept saying, "I have to find out what happens next!" and, "Sorry, Mom, but I just have to read one more page." I was so delighted!She also read some advanced BOB books that we hadn't done before. And she picked up the Big Dog, Little Dog book I'd read to Spud yesterday and read it all the way through. Since she has not been a self-motivated reader, I am tickled every time she chooses to read something or read more on her own.
We (Noodle & I) also played the Y Not? game from Happy Phonics a couple of times this week after reviewing the Y-ending pages in Phonics Pathways. The first day we played it, she loved it and we had to play it three times. I was happy to do so.
Grammar
We learned pronouns this week. "A pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun."
I, me, my, mine
you, your, yours
he, she, him, her, it, his, hers, its
we, us, our, ours
they, them, their, theirs
She did really well and seems to grasp the concept without much difficulty. Next week we'll do a review page (from the Worksheet generator link I posted yesterday) to see if it is clicking. I think it is.
Spelling
Noodle was struggling with the words could and would when she would encounter them in her reading, so we did a list of regular "ou" words (i.e. proud, loud, round, found, out, etc.) and the three irregular words could, should & would. She got 100% on her Spelling Test today, but then in her reading stumbled over could the first time, but got it in subsequent encounters. Being as visual as she is, I think she has to see the words a lot before they are solid in her mind. My goal with spelling is to reinforce the rules as well as revisit some of the ones we may not have covered too solidly in the past.
Spud spelled some words from some pictures cards, but he wasn't too excited about it. I am planning on taking a break from really requiring him to read anything for a while. I wish I had some sort of handbook that would tell me the best way to motivate this little guy to learn. Te thing I have to remind myself over and over again now is that he hates to do things he can't do
well (as judged by some unknown standard in his mind), but he likes to do things he CAN do well. He hates to be on the spot for knowledge he isn't confident about. So we are shifting our preschool approach to reading books and doing activities.
One of Spud's favorite books is Big Dog, Little Dog, so for our first day of "new" preschool, we read this book and then he colored pictures of items from the story either red or green, depending on whether they went with Fred or Ted. I cut them out for him (because he didn't want to, for who knows what reason) and he glued them on. I freehand drew the dogs, and was pretty proud of myself.
Our agreement was that we would do two activities of my choosing every day (in addition to his computer school) and then we would do "Fun Time," where he gets to choose an activity to do with me for 15-20 minutes. We only started Thursday, but both days we built towers/buildings with blocks in the playroom and then crashed our matchbox cars into them. It was surprisingly fun. I have to keep reminding myself that learning stuff (reading, numbers/math, etc) isn't a race, and it really isn't going to affect them in the long run if they master reading 6-12 (or even longer) months earlier or later. What WILL matter, though, is the attitude they have about learning. Spud is a hard kid to teach, but he's a pretty easy kid to have fun with. So I'm hoping that working on our relationship will help him feel happier and more capable.
Writing
Noodle is doing really well with Writing With Ease, Vol. 1. I like that the lessons are grab-n-go and typically take less than 15 minutes to complete.
History - The Phoenicians
Did you know that the reason purple dye/cloth was so expensive long ago is because it came from sea snails that had to be gathered and boiled to get the dye, and it took a lot of snails to make the dye and it STUNK. Maybe you did, but I didn't. We learned all about the Phoenicians this week. How they lived in land (modern day Lebanon) that was inhospitable to crops or raising animals (due to the whole "no crops" thing), so they became totally awesome goods-makers and traders. They were the first to invent blown glass! They also had the first alphabet and made really nice furniture from the cedar trees there. They set up colonies around the Mediterranean. For our activity we made "Phoenician bread," which is known today as pita bread. No, I don't know if it is exactly the same, but it was one of the suggested activities in our book and we did it. The bread is delicious, by the way. I think we'll make it again sometime. (And I had to include these pictures of the kiddos enjoying the bread this morning!)
Math
Noodle started subtraction this week. She actually did a bit of subtraction in the Primer book last year, so it doesn't seem to be giving her any trouble right now. I suppose we could move faster through the Alpha book, but I feel okay at our current pace and I like that she is getting these basic math facts down solidly. From everything I've read, staying at our current pace she'll be plenty caught up by the end of elementary school. Also, I'm considering doing math through our longer breaks (Christmas & summer) which would help us keep making progress. Ever since I instituted the sticker charts for doing her math work, her attitude has been a lot better. I will say again, incentives definitely have their place! I also found my old addition flashcards so we did those a couple times this week. She earns one Skittle per card correctly answered, as many as she can do in a minute. (She also earns an equal amount of Skittles for Spud. I have him earn Skittles for her, too, some days, to keep it equitable and help them be happy for each other's achievements.) It's great because on Tuesday she got 9 the first minute, 10 the second minute, then 14 the third minute. She wanted to keep trying for more. Thursday she got 14 right off, and tried one more time and had some trouble and only got nine. A book I read about right-brained kids talked about how doing math problems quickly for timed tests can be a challenge since it takes time to visualize the problem, so I'm hoping doing the flash cards will improve her speed in a fun, not-too-stressful way.
Spud can count to 20 very solidly, so we are working on going to 100 now. He will get a "100 Cake" when he can count to 100 unassisted, just like Noodle did, and he is excited about that.
He also does well actually counting objects up to twenty and not just saying the numbers. We are also working on counting by 10s, as I think that will help with counting to 100.
Science - Seas, Oceans
So much STUFF about the ocean to learn. Which makes sense, seeing as oceans cover ~70% of the planet. I had no idea that the Pacific Ocean alone covers 1/3 of the Earth!! Crazy! I think it would be fun to do a longer, more in depth study of oceans sometime, but for now I feel okay with only a week. We did some experiments from the book Awesome Ocean Science. Two addressed how warm water and cold water interact and one was about how the coloring of penguins helps them hide from predators. There were 3 Bill Nye shows to watch (Ocean Exploration, Ocean Life and Oceanography), but we only got the first two done. In addition to our notebook page of drawings/information, I had each kid pick an animal discussed in one of the books we read and we did a coloring page of it. Spud picked an angler fish and Noodle picked dolphins. Spud really wanted a flatfish, but I couldn't find any good coloring pages of flatfish, unfortunately.
This experiment shows how warm water and cold water can take a long time to mix (part of what happens during El Nino). The yellow water was warm and the blue water was cold. Five to six hours after combining the two, they were only somewhat mixed (2nd picture). By morning they had completely mixed. It was really a fun one to do.
For this one, we made a red ice chunk in the bottom of a paper cup and froze it, then put it in a glass of lukewarm water. You can see the cold water carrying the color down, so it demonstrates cold water sinking.
New Activity - SafariI came up with a new activity for Spud's workbox this week. We call it "Safari" and it means he picks an animal out of our "Wildlife Fact-File" and we read about it, find it's location on the map and then color a picture. This week he picked Desmodus rotundus, the Vampire Bat. We found out that an adult Vampire Bat drinks about 5 teaspoons of blood/day, so we measured out five teaspoons of water and dyed it red. (Though at first we couldn't find red so we did green instead. Then we found the red.) And then the kids wanted to drink the colored water. Sure, they don't really need the food coloring in their systems, but it was a nominal amount and added to the fun.
Music Appreciation - J.S. Bach
We did Vivaldi last week and are just going in order. I'm either going to have to keep rechecking this book out from the library or find another one. (Heck, if I get some $$ I might even buy it.) I really like the one I've been using. We talked about Bach and listened to some of his music. I also got some very simple sheet music from Making Music Fun
It's a little advanced for Noodle right now, but I played it for them and when she has the skills, she can try it. We also colored pictures of Bach. We all did really funky color combinations, which made it fun. Punk Bach.
In other music news, Noodle was assigned to learn a simple version of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." At first, she was really intimidated by it (it is her first encounter with eighth notes) and said she didn't think she'd be able to do it. Within two days, though, she was in love with playing the song and played it many times a day. Soon she had it memorized. Such a funny girl. I'm trying to teach her to replace her negative "I'll never get it!" self-talk with more positive speeches. Slow going.
Other Stuff
The Hiding Ghosts activity. (They liked it, then Noodle drew one for me to find the ghosts.)
Muffin Tin MondayYup, we're still doing it. I've seen some online that are all theme oriented (i.e. apple related or all round). I don't yet have the creative juices for that (nor do I have the money to buy "special" food), but the kids enjoy eating their lunch this way. I have been glad that we often have a variety of cereal opened,as it's good when I run out of other foods.
Fall!
Either Tuesday or Wednesday, we woke up to see that most of the leaves had fallen off our maple tree. The kids had to run out and play (they even raked the leaves themselves to play in!). It was great to watch them and it made me happy that we have the flexibility we do because of homeschooling. Granted, overall there are lots of great reasons for homeschooling, but somedays it feels more poignant than others.
It can be a challenge homeschooling with a baby. His new mobility (he's a great crawler, though still not too speedy) is both a blessing and a challenge, as it keeps him entertained but his capacity for finding the wrong things to play with has exponentially increased. Plus, the diaper changes and naps can interrupt our flow. And it's really hard to do read-alouds if he wants to be held, since he likes to grab the book and crumple or eat it. That said, he's a lot of fun to have around. And he helps us not take ourselves too seriously, and remind us of what's really important. 
(Not to mention the awesome power of cuteness.)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
first & second days of school
So we started "back" to school yesterday. (I put back in " " because we really only took a week off from doing anything...we had a lighter schedule in the summer, but as Noodle needed to improve her reading skills, we kept with a lot of phonics instruction and did math on occasion, too). I opted to go with a workbox approach this year. I'll get some pictures up at the end of the week. Thus far, it has been a BIG success with the kids, which is great. I'm certain it will take less time and effort from me as I get the hang of it. Honestly, it's Spud's workbox that takes a little more thought, as he mostly just needs activities that have a loose tie-in to academics. They don't really even need that, but it's nice. He has really liked using his workbox, though, and it forces me to be engaged with him instead of just sending him off to do his "computer school" or entertain himself for the 2ish hours I'm doing school with Noodle. So, while I feel pretty wiped out at the end of school time, I feel like it is productive and enjoyable. I'll keep working on coming up with ideas for the workboxes and hopefully that will cut down on the prep time for me. I'd like to have a sort of rotation for him where he has some types of activities he does every week, and then only 2-3 variable ones each day. As it is now, I feel like I'm trying to come up with 9 fresh things every day. Though we do have his phonics instruction/review, his computer time, and "A Label A Day" everyday, so that's three down out of nine.
One minor frustration has been that Noodle was disappointed that Math was part of the workbox, as she thought the workbox was supposed to make school fun. It's funny that she seems to have an aversion to math, as it seems to come quite easily to her. I've been reading up on right brained learners and I have to wonder if it isn't the effort of getting the answers from her head down on to the paper that makes it so tedious for her. So for the second page of math today we did it mostly verbally and I didn't require her to write down the answers. I think I'll try that with her everyday and see if it helps.
Her reading is really improving. I got this primer (and the later books) for her, and I think it is a great book. It had received quite high reviews, and I think it lives up to them. What is nice is that the stories are REAL stories, and likely ones the child is familiar with. There is a lot of repetition, so once the child figures out the words, they have a lot of opportunity to practice them. Plus, with so many words on each page, it feels like they are really reading a story. So, I've been impressed. I've also been printing out a coloring page for her to do after each story, which I think she enjoys. I need to figure out a way to incorporate more art in our week. Mostly, I think I just need to figure out a way to have a bit more energy. I was wiped out after today. I actually had to take a little nap.
One minor frustration has been that Noodle was disappointed that Math was part of the workbox, as she thought the workbox was supposed to make school fun. It's funny that she seems to have an aversion to math, as it seems to come quite easily to her. I've been reading up on right brained learners and I have to wonder if it isn't the effort of getting the answers from her head down on to the paper that makes it so tedious for her. So for the second page of math today we did it mostly verbally and I didn't require her to write down the answers. I think I'll try that with her everyday and see if it helps.
Her reading is really improving. I got this primer (and the later books) for her, and I think it is a great book. It had received quite high reviews, and I think it lives up to them. What is nice is that the stories are REAL stories, and likely ones the child is familiar with. There is a lot of repetition, so once the child figures out the words, they have a lot of opportunity to practice them. Plus, with so many words on each page, it feels like they are really reading a story. So, I've been impressed. I've also been printing out a coloring page for her to do after each story, which I think she enjoys. I need to figure out a way to incorporate more art in our week. Mostly, I think I just need to figure out a way to have a bit more energy. I was wiped out after today. I actually had to take a little nap.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
New book
One of the best things to encourage novice readers is high-interest books at below their current level. The problem I've had is that there just haven't been any of high enough interest for Noodle. On Friday I took the kids to Barnes and Noble to use a gift card I'd gotten for my birthday. She originally picked out a single "Biscuit" story (for $3.99), but then we found a collection of 10 stories for $12, which I figured was a pretty great deal per story. She was quite excited about it, and has been reading a couple of stories every day since then. She really loves the illustrations and frequently comments about how cute the various characters in the stories are. And she is looking forward to finding some more Biscuit stories next time she is able to buy a book. I know it is a small thing, but it is certainly notable. She was also reading stories to herself, and skipping words she didn't know but then figuring them out as she went on, which is a big improvement over getting frustrated about not knowing the words. So, yay for Biscuit!
Friday, June 26, 2009
main goal for summer
My main goal for this summer is to get Noodle (age 7) reading up to grade level. I think between her OCD and being very right-brained, reading is just a lot of work for her. We recently went through most of the phonics lessons on http://www.thephonicspage.org and what I realized was that having OCD and being all about the rules, she probably really needs a thorough understanding of phonics in order to feel confident enough to read. I was never trained in phonics, and was an early reader as well as a great speller, so I didn't really understand the benefit of or role of phonics. Last night I made up a bunch of phonogram cards (hopefully I'll have some time to put the links up for those this weekend) and then today we reviewed the ones that I figured she knew well enough and worked through some others ("oy," "oi," "ou," "ew," "ui"). We did some spelling and some sentence reading, and one thing that she really liked is having her read a sentence and then illustrating it. We did a page of Explode the Code book 3 (which we haven't done since the beginning of May when we started those other phonics lessons) and then did some activities from the teacher's guide. She also really liked finishing sentence starts, and put special effort into making them funny. So I think those two things (illustrating sentences read and writing silly sentences) will have to be a part of our regular routine.
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