Christmas Vacation? December 23, 2008

So, we officially began Christmas vacation on Saturday!  We spent the day getting the kids’ rooms in tip top shape, which surprisingly, they are excited to try to keep up.  We’ll see how long that excitement lasts.  We’ve got all kinds of activities planned for the next couple of weeks, and I just hope I have the necessary energy. 

We don’t have to do any school work over the break, or log any attendance.  However, I’m a bit leery of letting school fall by the wayside, even for two weeks.  Once you get out of the routine, it’s so hard to get back.  I think we’ll just do a little bit everyday, but nothing too stressful.  This will be a good time to catch up on some subjects that we’re behind in. 

Now, for an update on school: 

An amazing thing has happened!  I’m SO excited!!  Gavin is asking me to do phonics!  I don’t remember if I mentioned before, but he just despised doing phonics.  It was all sounds, but they weren’t associated with any letters.  Just the very beginning of the phonics ladder.  It really was very boring, and I didn’t much care for it myself.  But, it was necessary.  We’ll we’ve climbed the ladder up to putting the sounds with letters and making words!  This was highly exciting!  Gavin was so happy when he read his first word:  am.  Now he’s got a whole list of words he can read.  He asked me this morning if he could do phonics.  He’s anxious to read like his brother.  I’m so happy I don’t have to fight with him to do his phonics stuff now!  Gavin is also continuing to speed ahead in math.  He’s almost done with the kindergarten math stuff, and then he can start with the first grade stuff.  He really seems to enjoy math. 

Logan is doing really well, too.  He’s slower with his math, but has made incredible progress!  He’ll be starting double digit addition and subtraction shortly, and I think he’ll like that.  When he went through the section on calendars, he didn’t need an ounce of instruction or help.  He had it down!  He’s really enjoying art, and has a great talent for it, too.  Seems like he’s constantly drawing something, and usually includes a lot of detal.  I enjoy watching his eyes light up as he learns about different artists and methods.  He’s also doing great in history!  I’m loving that, of course!  I love that this history curriculum seems to be conservative.  They actually praised the founding fathers, and drew comparisons from Ancient Rome to today.  I’ve enjoyed teaching his history stuff too, because it’s helping me remember those things that I learned way back, and I’ve actually learned some things I never knew. 

So, we’re making progress, getting into a routine, and I’m discovering tricks to help the kids learn and focus better.

Update: Field Trips and Progress October 29, 2008

It’s been a while, but life is busy.  Let’s update.  We’ll start with field trips. 

A couple Fridays ago, the boys’ teacher at NVVA arranged for a field trip to McKee Ranch.  The kids all had a great time!  There were animals, and pumpkins, and ranch “stuff.”  It was all very exciting!  They got to feed carrots to a goat, donkey, and horses.  They also saw a pig and chicken, which they got to pet.  Logan, Gavin, and Daphne went on a horseback ride.  Genevie was too little, and too tired.  While they were on the horses, they got to learn some interesting things about the horses, which Logan especially liked.  Here’s some pictures. 

                       

Sadly my camera battery died right after that picture of Logan, and I couldn’t get Gavin or Daphne on horseback. 

Also in the last month, NVVA arranged for a field trip to the Planetarium.  This one was just Logan and me.  It was pretty good.  They had some getting to know you activities for the kids, and they were all pretty shy, but it was still fun.  Then we got to go watch the Planetarium show which was Black Holes.  I was pretty excited about that.  It was actually very good.  (Nerd alert!  The narrator for the movie was John de Lancie, who played Q on Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  I thought that was pretty nifty.)  After the movie, the kids got to ask lots of questions.  It was a fun trip, and one I’d definitely like to do again! 

October was a busy month.  The Library District also held a Scottish Festival and an Autumn Arts Festival, both of which were fun.  Here are some pictures from the Scottish Festival.  (I LOVE the costumes!!) 

               

 

On to actual schooling.  The boys are doing great!  We’ll start with Gavin.  Gavin has 17 math chapters in kindergarten math.  They are meant to last the whole year, but since everything is mastery based, if you know it, you can test out of it, or move through it quickly.  Gavin has gone through the first 9 chapters already, testing out of more than half of it.  He really loves math, too.  Once he finishes kindergarten math, he can move up to first grade math.  He’s had a bit of trouble with phonics, because he says it’s boring, and he’s right.  It really is dry.  But, we’ve got to get through it so that we can get to learning how to read.  I tell him you’ve got to know the sounds before you can read.  So, it has been a bit of a battle getting him to do phonics, but I discovered two great things that have changed things completely.  First, if we do it while he is eating, he doesn’t mind doing it.  Also, if I chunk together 3-5 lessons at a time (which he gets through really fast), it is much easier.  Then, I pointed out to him that when we get through all this, he will be learning to read.  That got him pretty excited, and now he is asking to do phonics!  He came out the other day in the middle of me cooking dinner and asked if he could do phonics right then, because he really wants to learn to read! 

Now, for Logan.  He’s doing really well.  He really likes history and art.  I enjoy doing history with him, too (and Gavin as well).  He’s been learning about Ancient Rome, and is really sailing though the lessons.  At the end of each lesson, he gets to draw a picture about what we’ve learned about.  He seems to enjoy that quite a bit.  I’ve loved it, too.  I’m learning things that I was never taught about, or that I’ve forgotten.  Being a history lover myself, I’m pretty tickled that Logan has taken a liking to it.  Also with his history, I’m able to draw a lot of parallels to our society and politics today.  I love being able to tie things together like that, and I think it helps make it more real for him.  With art, he’s been learning about different artists and styles.  He likes to experiment with all of them.  I love seeing how creative he can be.  He’s pretty talented, too.  Logan had a little struggle with math, but is still ahead of the game with it, and seems to be understanding stuff more.  We’ve just worked with him and done extra practice.  I found that if I make it relate to real life, he does a better job.  For example, one morning I was cooking pancakes, and I asked him something like “If I have 15 pancakes, and Gavin eats 4 of them, how many do I have left?”  It worked well for him. 

So, we are progressing.  Some days I feel like I want to pull my hair out, and other days are just great.  But, such is life.  So far, I’m glad we went with this program, and I’m pretty satisfied with it.