I was giving out my blog address to a new friend today and realized that I haven't updated it in awhile! So far school is going good although just like previous years, it's nothing like I planned back in August. I'm really learning that no matter how much I feel like I'm in control of the kids' education, I'm really not. My job is to be a mentor and guide to their learning. I can push a little here or there, but really what they learn is up to them.
Case in point, Ian. I had planned a fairly detailed group of activities all about the letter B for him. We did about 1/3 of it and it took us ummm...2-3 weeks. BUT, we did all sorts of other stuff instead and he still learned a lot. At the School Zone sale I got him an ABC workbook that has stickers that have to go in specific places in the book. At first he was very happy about the stickers, but very upset with me for making him put them in the correct places. Soon he got the idea though and he's been having a blast with it! Some days we'll do 25 stickers on various pages in the workbook. Other times we'll do 2 or 3 stickers and he'll get sidetracked by something and we won't do any more. What I learned though is that he knows some of his alphabet already without me ever teaching it to him! We have lots of educational toys/videos/etc and he's learned them by himself. We also have a car maze book that also has letters hidden in the pictures (like the top of a building might be shaped like an I). He is amazing with finding the hidden letters in the book and it's also helping him learn more of the letters. Finally, he has a new favorite book, Alphabeep. We got it last spring at Spring Lake Library during one of their free book story times. It's helping with letters and vocab. He now knows the name excavator instead of calling everything with a scoop a digger or scoop.
Alison is still having fun with Pokemon. She doesn't play the card game at all, she watches some of the videos and draws them and studies them in her Pokemon Handbook that we got her for her birthday. She is also really enjoying the homeschool co-op that we joined. She loves her art class. They are painting flowers and learning colors and numbers in French and looking at pictures of some famous paintings. Her Michigan class is fun too. They always do a fun project to take home to remind them of what they learned and she has fun telling us about them and sharing what she learned.
I'm so glad we joined this group. Ian has had mixed reactions to going. Today I left him at home since he went to bed so late last night and I'm glad I did since last week he had a really hard time because he was overtired. Dan said he slept till 11:30 (he took a way late nap in the car yesterday and didn't go to bed till 1:30! Luckily, we stay up late too.) I'm starting to plan a class that I want to teach at the co-op starting in January. I love to do hands on science with kids, so I'm planning a science class with lots of experimenting and fun. I've got about 6.5 weeks worth of ideas (I need 8). I really have to decide what age kids to do it with. I think kids Alison's age should be able to handle it, but not really any younger. So maybe I'll do 3-6 grades. Not sure, luckily I've got 2 more weeks to decide. Maybe I'll do 4-8th grade. They would be more independent and maybe understand a little more.
So that's what's up with us lately. What are you up to?
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