Week 4: Discovering Learning Styles

We just wrapped up our fourth week! We are 1/9 of the way through our school year! Getting through the first month is usually the hardest. We are establishing a schedule, learning our routine, and getting used to our new books. We have started all of our subjects at this point and, so far, we are enjoying them all.

This week has been a week of learning about Lilly. I have posted  before about teaching Lilly to read, you can see it here. I have tried so many things with her. It seems like we always take two steps forward and one step back. I have found things that seem to work, but then it's like she forgets everything she learned.; or if she is tired, she just can't focus to do it.

I know she learns well and retains a lot when I read to her, and when we talk through things. Aidan does as well. That has made science, history, geography, Bible, and literature easy to teach. I read and we talk. Both kids retain well. I can use cds for Latin and the kids remember what they hear. Even Matthew has started singing Song School Latin with us! Lilly is also able to memorize math facts and Bible verses if we say them aloud together. She can use manipulatives to show understanding on math concepts.

Our real struggle has been finding a method that works for her for reading. I think I have finally found a combination of programs that works. I won't really know until we have been at it a little longer, but I am hopeful! I needed only one book to teach Aidan to read, but Lilly needs a multi sensory method. She needs to hear, see, touch, and manipulate the letters and words with her hands.

I started the year with Explode the Code and All About Spelling 1. We used the phonogram cards and an app on my phone to memorize all the sounds a letter can make. After 2 weeks she knew them all. She actually knew most of the sounds, but we needed to work on the letters that made 2-4 sounds. (That is Step 1 in the program.)

Now we are working on hearing sounds in words (step 2). She is great with hearing and identifying the first sound, and she can separate the sounds on her own. She is struggling with hearing the last sound in words. So we are working on that.

I decided we needed more drill, more practice. She would not, however, sit for me and drill, and I don't have all day to sit with her. We would both go crazy anyway! So I signed up for a free trial of Reading Eggs. She loves it! She has advanced from Map 2 to Map 5 or 6 in only 5 days. She would play all day if I let her! She is feeling more confident, and she begged to read to me last night. We pulled out a Bob Book and she sounded out the first few pages very easily. She got tired fast, so we stopped. I was so proud of her, and she was excited!

I am thrilled to have found something that seems to be working!

Now for our funny of the week. We were studying the Emancipation Proclamation. We read about Lincoln discussing the proclamation with his cabinet. Lilly looked at me with a look that said, "He was crazy!" And then she said, as she glanced at our kitchen cabinets, "He discussed it with his CABINET?!?!" I love when kids take things so literally. We followed up with a short civics lesson. Now she knows that he did not talk to his kitchen cabinets.

We had a productive and busy week. The only thing we were unable to do was our astronomy lab. It requires going outside on a clear night to look at the stars and draw pictures. If has been cloudy and rainy! If we get a clear night this weekend we will be outside to look at the stars!

Making Connections: A Week in Review - (August 25-29, 2014)

This week started out rough! We had a great time at Mema and Papa's house visiting with Nini and Marty. The kids and I spent two nights and Jonathan came up for dinner on Sunday night.

We did not get home until noon on Monday and I had a lot of prep work to get done for a staff meeting. Everyone was exhausted, so school did not really happen. Aidan did his math because it was a series of Kahn Academy videos and practice problems. Lilly slept. She woke up from her late nap with a fever of 103! Dinner and bed for everyone was about all I could handle!

Tuesday we all slept in, we did most of Monday and Tuesdays work. It was rough! It was really only a couple of hours of school work, but getting the kids to focus was a problem. We stopped before we got to do science, which means they missed out on the really fun stuff.

Wednesday we picked up with science first and my attempt at making school fun failed! I tried to do a fun science demonstration. You stick your hand in ice water, then you take it out and coat it in butter, lard, margarine - something to imitate blubber. Then you put your hand back in the water. Your hand should not be as cold. Well, it failed. I gave the kids rubber gloves that were way too big and they were not at all interested in coating their hands in butter. I did get this great picture of Lilly sticking her hand in the water!

Thursday Lilly continued to sleep off the last of her cold. She did not wake until 1pm! I had to leave at 3:30 so she got another break from school.

But Friday! Friday made up for all of the bad days this week! It made it all worth it! It was a day of making connections and watching lightbulbs go off. Some of those lightbulbs had to shine through some surly attitudes, but I saw them!

First - we finished up our study on the world's biomes. (If you want to see what we did for science this past year, you can find the posts here at Sandbox to Socrates. There are a few more that will go up once a month for the rest of the year.) As we looked at the Wetland habitats we came across a funny little animal called the axolotl. The kids were excited because this was one of the weird animals they talked about in VBS this summer, and we had seen one at the zoo! They love this funny looking little creature!

Second,  as we studied the Wetlands further we came across the term delta. Aidan remembered the Nile Delta from our ancient history studies. He also happened to cover the letter Delta in his Greek this week. Finally, on Friday, we were covering the Jewish religion in our geography/world religions study. We read about the Jewish captivity in Egypt and were able to find Egypt on a map by looking for - guess what? The Nile Delta! They love how it all interweaves so neatly, even if they don't say it. You can see it in their faces!

Third, this week for geography we studied Israel, its location, climate, history, and people. I included the section from our World Religions book on Judaism in this week's studies. We read about Abraham and Moses. For AWANAS, Lilly is studying the story of Moses and working on a long Bible verse to go with the story. For our history timeline, today was the Exodus! We are also working our way through the Narnia books and that has included some discussion of World War II. Today, Aidan and I talked a little bit about the Holocaust. It is a tough subject, but I think we had a nice introduction to the topic and we will be ready to talk about it in more detail as we study World War II later this year. I did not plan for any of this to overlap so neatly! I just love that it did!

Finally, through gritted teeth and frustration that I was making her do something she "knows," Lilly was able to do all of her addition facts from memory! Up until now we had been relying heavily on our manipulatives and pictures in her book. She would not look at me because she was mad about having to recite them, but she did them all without counting!! Math and reading are hard for her, she is my artistic child. Today was HUGE!

Our bad week turned out to be pretty amazing. This is one of those weeks when we really see the benefits of homeschooling. The kids got to spend that extra 12 hours with their Aunt and Uncle, then we caught up on sleep, and we could still do a little schoolwork, even with sickies. In addition, knowing everything they are studying allows me to help them make these connections, which in turn helps cement things in their brains. Sometimes I work hard to plan them and make them work, but I love it when they just happen!

Field Trip! Science Museum Oklahoma!

We took a field trip to the Omniplex almost every year from 1st to 12th grade. It was fun, but eventually we had done everything. There was nothing new and it was not as much fun as it had been.

When Aidan was 4 or 5, we took him to the The Oklahoma Science Museum (new name for the Omniplex) and it was the same as it had been the last time I went with school. Aidan loved it, it was all new to him, but we did not go back for a while.

Last year, we purchased a family pass to SMO because they had started adding new exhibits and there were some fun things for the kids to play with. We went almost weekly for the first two months. Then we went once or twice a month. We have been less in the last few months, but our pass has been a great investment! Every time we go, there is something new!

Our trip today was no disappointment. We started in a play area for the kids. Last time we went, these "roller coaster" pieces were not out and the kids were very disappointed. Today, they were in a bigger, more open space and they set up some great tracks to roll the balls down.

A series of new displays let kids experiment with the principles electricity and air.

The new Tinkering Garage lets kids take things apart or build with circuit blocks. Aidan dismantled a cell phone, a remote, and a drill. Then both kids built circuits with light bulbs, buzzers, fans, batteries, and switches. We spent most of our time here!

Matthew loved putting together tubes for golf balls to roll through. 

We also watched the science show - lots of explosions! We rode the Segway and we played in the shadow box. 

I love playing with the kids at the science museum and I cannot wait to see all the new displays they were making room for! There was construction going on in at least 3 areas. Everytime they have opened something new, it has been great. We are excited!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

My baby is 2! The last two years have flown by! I have a very active toddler now. He talks up a storm and keeps us hopping. Here are his first two years in pictures.

Meeting Aidan and Lilly in the hospital.

Those first teeth!

One year old sillies!

14 months.

21 months.

How he looks after EVERY meal!

Fun things he says:

That cute! (when looking at himself in the mirror)
Puppy! (in a very high pitch)
Stay. Stay. (to the dog)
Two. Three. Jump! (He dislikes the number 1 and refuses to say it. Then he jumps off of what ever furniture he is on.)
My dink! (When he wants his cup)

I love this boy more than I can say! He snuggles, he makes me laugh, and he keeps me on my toes. He loves his big brother and sister and we just can't get enough of him.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Our "Not Back to School Day" Celebration

If Aidan were attending public school, he would have started Kindergarten today. We, however, started First Grade 3 weeks ago. He has some friends that started school today and will have more friends start school next week. The first day of school is a BIG deal. I wanted our "not back to school day" to be a big deal for Aidan, too. So we went BOWLING! Aidan has wanted to go "real" bowling (we play on Wii sports) for a while. He was so excited. Here are a few pictures of our family bowling trip today. (I forgot my camera, so all the pictures are from my phone, they may be a little fuzzy.)

Aidan tried the bowling track and did not like it, he decided to bowl like Mommy and Daddy instead. He did a great job!

Lilly, however, did very well with the track! With a little help, she had a pretty good score.

I think this is a tradition we might keep every year. It was fun to take a break from school on the day everyone else went back. We had the bowling alley to ourselves. I don't know that we will bowl every year; but we have a fun family day.

Week 1 of First Grade and PreSchool!

This week was great! We completed everything that was planned! Tomorrow we celebrate with swimming and a sleepover!

Aidan worked through the Introduction and Chapter 1 of The Story of the World Vol 1: Ancient Times. He loved it! Everyday he wanted to do more. We started his lapbook and plan to do an archeological dig in our backyard this weekend. He flew through his math and English Grammar. After our first day we switched to Rod and Staff English 2. We are much happier now! In science we started learning about taxonomy.

Lilly has mastered the letter A! She LOVES to "do school." We spend time each day on our letter and the sound it makes. We practiced the number 1 and drawing squares. Her favorite part was reciting "Hey Diddle Diddle." This is one of her favorite nursery rhymes!


I worked on getting the last of our supplies together - I laminated all of our history timeline cards today! When I came home, Jonathan and the kids had washed the windows!! I have a beautiful view of our garden now...although there is not much growing right now. It was a wonderful surprise.

Sleeping Beauty

 My daughter has always had the ability to sleep anywhere. She used to stay asleep wherever we put her; now she falls asleep in the strangest places! I have taken pictures of her in her many strange locations; most were with my phone because it is always available, so the quality is not great, but you get the idea.

Lilly in a tub of costumes at the studio.

It wasn't even Easter!

It's not so strange for her to sleep in my arms, but this one was particularly adorable!

It runs in the family.

Waiting for Mommy after dance class.

Under the table at the wedding reception for my sister.

Under my chair at rehearsal.

Another view of Lilly under the chair.

Sitting up in the chair.

She is actually sitting on the arm of the chair, leaning on my shoulder.

Again in the playroom.