It has been a rough week, first Eliza was sick, then I was, and still am. Unfortunately again that means no pictures. We had a great day Monday, accomplishing a ton. We did binders a few times this week and continued our study on Ancient Egypt. Since then we have been playing a lot of games, especially Qwirkle, a Mensa approved game introduced to us by some friends. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you check it out, it is fun for all of us.
Qwirkle
We have done some wonderful playtime with friends, and worked on sight words, as well as reading together daily. We have been watching Beakman's World and other educational television the past few days while I have been sick, and I can not feel bad about it. The kids still have been learning, doing puzzles, working with our magnet center, crafting, playing outside, and even building an intercom system with their Daddy. Now I just hit a buzzer and pick up a phone to talk to the kids while they are upstairs instead of yelling up the stairs. It is fun, and the kids were so proud of themselves for doing it. It was actually their idea, and CJ helped Rich draw the plans and buy the equipment.
It has been difficult this week to do lessons led by me between being sick and having the carpets cleaned. We had to move the furniture out of the school room and living room making it difficult to get to any of my materials. The kids have dealt with our changes well this week. They surprise me all the time with how much they have learned.
This coming month we will be visiting the CT Science Center a few times to see the Lost Egypt exhibit. We will be visiting a new exhibit at the Florence Griswold Museum, and making a few trips to the aquarium. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough for a visit to the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and the Roger Williams Park Zoo. We will finish our Egypt science kit this month and continue with our Human Body Magic School Bus science kit. I have looked at several opportunities for group learning, but all of them require an exorbitant amount of money, or are inappropriate for my kids. Our library used to have excellent offerings, but I have been unimpressed and even dissappointed in the library since they hired a new head librarian in the children's department. We might visit the Lyman Allyn Art Museum tomorrow, as first Saturdays are free between 10:30 and noon. But first we have to go to Home Depot as the kids look forward to their monthly kids' craft. They have been to more than 12 of them and love to use real tools to make something they use. Last month was a small desk size perpetual calendar which they use daily during school. We will continue to do crafts and finish off our kindergarten art curriculum this month. I am looking forward to starting some plants for the garden as well as doing some Valentine crafts. It will be a fun month.
My favorite thing that I am going to start this month is a weekly poem type. I am going to start with something simple like acrostic poems. I am going to show them examples, discuss the form, and then we will write them. We will do one type every week, or two depending on the month, going from really simple to more complex as we go. We will continue to write daily sentences and pretty soon we will start "writing" stories. They will write the first sentence, dictate to me, then write the last sentence. In addition we will continue to practice handwriting skills weekly with our tracing center as we have been doing. It is amazing to see how much progress they have made in so many areas. All of a sudden Eliza is reading so much more confidently and fluently than before. She has mastered her kindergarten and grade 1 sight words, and has begun working on grade 2. A couple of months ago it was pulling teeth to get her to read super simple age appropriate books and words. Now she is reading signs, boxes, leveled reading books, and her favorite, Dick and Jane and Vampires. She reads to her dolls and toys at quiet time, reads to us before bedtime, and reads to CJ every morning. It makes me deliriously happy, as she has never shown as much interest in reading as the rest of us. She has come a long way in a short time.
I have been making sure to take time to hug, kiss, and enjoy the kids every single day, being sure that they know how important they are to me, and how loved they are. I have found this extra effort is improving CJ's behaviour, and his outlook, as he tends to be quite melodramatic and negative in attitude. I am making a concerted effort to be more patient. My friend Megan at The Joyful Homemaker has been helping me a lot with this. While she tends toward the Joyful, I tend more towards the snarky. I am totally the Snarky Homemaker. She is teaching me how to be more joyful and grateful for every minute with my sweeties. What a journey towards this self awareness and improvement, it isn't easy, but I feel like this hard work is going to really enrich my children and their education.
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