Field Trip to the Zoo ~ Moments to Remember
28 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in Moments to Remember, Science
After 2 years of living here we finally made it to the Virginia Zoo here. This was a really special trip, it was the first time the Littlest Man has been to the zoo. And the Curious Monkey hasn’t been since he was really little so I don’t know if he remembers it. He was so excited. It was a good thing I brought the camera. He kept running over to me, “Momma, you have to take a picture of this animal. And Momma take a picture of this one. And Momma hurry come here, take a picture.”
Curious Monkey grabbed me by the arm, telling me to come and take a picture, and ran me over to the termite mound, then made his brother pose with him.
The Little Sidekick loved watching the elephant. I think he could have sat all day and watched this one. It had an amazing calming effect on him.
My girls wanted to take this little fennec fox home. They thought it was so cute. In case you didn’t know a fennec fox is a small nocturnal fox that weighs about 1.5–3.5 lb and is between 9–16 in long. It is the smallest species of canid in the world.
The Karate Kid almost missed the field trip. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to go and refused to get out of the car leaving me in quite a bind. But he finally came around and decided he would give the zoo a try. And much to his surprise he love it.
Even though there is no evidence the Gymnast was with us on the trip but kept hiding from the camera. Don’t think she’ll get so lucky next time. We can’t wait to go back to the zoo again.
This week I’m linking up to Moments to Remember on Homeschool Creations.
Nature Study ~ Moments to Remember
14 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Moments to Remember, Science
This week the big kids found some of these creepy crawly caterpillars in the front yard. They decided to make them pets and put them in their butterfly habitat. They caught three so that each of them had one. They fed the fresh leaves every day.
![DSC_0136_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0136_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0136_thumb[1]")
And they made sure they got out to play.
![DSC_0129_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0129_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0129_thumb[1]")
They would rather play with their nature study than draw it. Maybe when the weather is cold and there are no bugs to play with they will want to make a nice watercolor of their pet caterpillars.
![DSC_0131_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0131_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0131_thumb[1]")
I guess there isn’t a better way to lean about nature than to feed it and play with it.
While the girls and Karate Kid were intrigued by caterpillars this week. The boys were excited to learn about magnets. Here they are repeating Karate Kid’s experiment of pulling paper clips with a magnet through different medium.
![DSC_0142_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0142_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0142_thumb[1]")
The Sidekick wandered around the house filled with wonder and joy as he find things that the magnets would stick to.
![DSC_0146_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0146_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0146_thumb[1]")
His little face just lit up and he got giddy when he found something that the magnet stuck onto.
![DSC_0149_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0149_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0149_thumb[1]")
Little Man took this experiment very serious. He watched all the magnet experiments on the Discover and Do video, did many of the experiments himself and made sure to take good “notes” just like his older brother.
![DSC_0167_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0167_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0167_thumb[1]")
Notice the very serious face….
![DSC_0159_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0159_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0159_thumb[1]")
Ta dah!! I made them stick!
![DSC_0166_thumb[1]](http://pricefamily6.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0166_thumb1.jpg "DSC_0166_thumb[1]")
Little Man has shown a real interest in school topics the last few weeks. He has been begging to do school and he is having a blast. I love to have them beg for school instead of dread it.
If I had planned our science this week, it would not have looked like this. I love that the kids can get engrossed in their study when they are interested in the topic. And with a house full of little sizzlers you never know what is going to strike their fancy. (Not familiar with the term sizzler, head over to Sizzle Bop and read her story.)
This week I’m linking up to Moments to Remember on Homeschool Creations.
Final Concussion Update
13 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Daily Life
We made what I hope is our final visit to the concussion doctor this morning. Over the last two weeks my Gymnast has been much better. She is able to do her schoolwork, her memory is better and she is happy.
The doctor has declared that she has made a full recovery and she is released to get back to gymnastics. She is so excited and can’t wait to flip again. She’s missed two meets and there is another next weekend that she will likely miss. There’s only one left, she would like to be able to compete at the State Meet at the end of May.
I asked him what this concussion meant for the long term. He said that he feels that she has completely recovered. He doesn’t think we should see long term effects but there is no way to know for sure. If she should suffer another concussion he would evaluate that one and we would go from there. But the goal is to not have another concussion. He says for her to be a little less of a risk taker.
I am so thankful to everyone that prayed for her healing and her safety. I praise the Lord that she recovered and that he kept her safe from a second impact while she was healing.
Repost: Learning Not to Compare Myself
13 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Daily Life
| I originally wrote this almost 6 years ago. It was a great lesson that the Lord taught me. It is one that I remind myself of often.
_______________________________________ |
|
| It is so easy to fall into Satan’s trap sometimes. It is so easy to look at your friends and think that they have everything figured out, that they always have a clean house, always fix fresh healthy food for dinner, have well-behaved, well-mannered children everyday.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. Where one Mom struggles another succeeds. However, Satan pulls at us in those weak areas. He makes us think that we aren’t doing a good job as a Mom. He makes us feel guilty becuase we don’t do it like Mom over there. He makes us feel like Mom over there does everything better than us and has everything figured out. This summer I have spent a lot of time with two wonderful Moms in the same season of life as me. We all have children born within months of eachother. What I have realized is that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. What has been incredible is that God has placed us together to teach each of us how to overcome the guilt of our weaknesses. We can help each other recognize Satan’s powers. We can offer advice on how we are able to do the things we are good at. God does not intend for us to go through life with daily guilt. I have also realized that the things that are important for the day get done. Each Mom’s focus on what is important for the day is different. Each Mom has different circumstances with their children. For instance, I have been going through a terrible battle with Eli and his allergies which provoke behavioral problems. It is very hard to get much done when you have a child that is needy. I haven’t been able to journal like I wanted to, take pictures of Laura Ashley like I wanted to. What was important for many months was taking care of Eli and trying to figure out what was making him sick. Now that things are getting better I can focus on other things. I need to stop allowing Satan to make me feel guilty about not accomplishing everything. |
Concussion Update #2
04 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Daily Life
We saw the Concussion Doctor about 10 days ago. She was asked a series of questions about her physical symptoms. She had to rate them on a 1 to 6 scale, 6 being the worst ever. The nurse asked her about headaches, dizziness, nausea, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise, irritability, easily frustrated, ability to fall asleep at night and a few others. The first time we saw the doctor she answered 4 to 6 on nearly all of those questions. This time she was able to answer 1 to 3 on all of them. She hadn’t had a headache for 2 weeks but noises were still bothering her and she was still having a little more trouble than usual to do schoolwork, however she wasn’t really irritable or easily frustrated. She was also back to her regular sleeping habits, instead of falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow she was back to taking an hour or more to fall asleep.
After the nurse’s questions, the doctor came in and gave her a neurological exam. He made her follow his finger with her eyes, gave her things to remember, and asked her to say the days of the week starting with Tuesday, and what day of the week today was. She did much better this time. She really couldn’t answer any of his questions the first time we went other than it was Friday. He was happy with her improvement and released her to start increasing her activity level.
She has spent a lot of time with her rabbit lately.
We were given an exercise progression that started with brisk walking and ended with a 100% cardiac workout. It was a 3 step process and if she got a headache after any of the workouts she was to rest for 24 hours and return to the previous step. We were to call 7 days later with her results. She started by just walking a few laps around the backyard and then jogging and then running 10 laps around the park. She was able to progress through without any physical symptoms. When I called in they asked how she had progressed through the regiment. I said she did great, no symptoms. Then she asked how her memory was. Hmm. I had forgotten about that little symptom. In fact, a few hours before I talked to the nurse she couldn’t remember something. Her brother wanted to play Connect 4. She had no recollection of what it was even after we tried to explain it to her. She is also still having a bit of trouble with her math assignments. She isn’t understanding them as easily as she was a few months ago. So the nurse would relay this to the doctor and call me back.
She made a desert diorama today to go along with our study of the desert.
Based on her troubled memory the doctor wants her to sit out for another 2 weeks and see us back in the office then. She is allowed to have full physical activity but she still can’t go back to the gym. We’ve been trying to get back to a full school schedule since last week and we still can’t get there. She seems more frustrated with her work than she used to be. It’s a little reminiscent of the pre-LearningRx Gymnast. She’s isn’t as interested in learning as she was past LearningRx and pre-concussion. So we will give it more time to heal and continue to pray that the Lord restores all and that there is no permanent cognitive function loss. It’s quite bizarre seeing this child on her feet as much as she has been. Ordinarily I find her on her hands and flipping upside down constantly.
Cotter Fractals for RightStart Math
02 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
It took us over a year to finish this project but we finally finished it. The Gymnast was to construct a one thousand fractal to understand place value better.
You first start with tiny triangles or ones (green) and glue 10 of them onto a larger triangle to make a ten triangle (white). Then you take 10 of the larger white triangles and glue them onto the blue triangle to make a hundred triangle. Then you take 10 blue triangles to make a large 1000 triangle.
For many months every day she did a few ten triangles (gluing 10 tiny greens onto a white). Her little sister and I helped out on several occasions. Then over a few days she made the hundred triangles (blue). Then they sat and sat until one day the furniture was moved to vacuum. We seized the opportunity and hung our one thousand fractal up. However, since we have textured, plaster walls the triangles barely stayed up until Daddy arrived to see. Oh well, Little Bit is almost to that lesson herself so in a few months we can start all over again.
Reptile Show ~ Moments to Remember
31 Mar 2012 2 Comments
We are part of a wonderful co-op in our area. We meet every Tuesday for classes and on some Friday for Topic Friday or a field trip. Yesterday J.B. Rattlers came to teach us about snakes and reptiles. Jack volunteered at the beginning of the show to hold a corn snake.
And for the rest of the show Spencer was begging to hold a snake. At the end of the show all the kids got to hold a black snake.
Eli was so brave. I was very surprised that he wanted to hold the snake. He said it was slimy and didn’t want to hold it again.
It’s not by accident that all the kids are wearing yellow shirts. We went to the park after the reptile show. I dress the kids in yellow so I don’t have to remember what color they are wearing and I can quickly spot them throughout the park. The yellow stands out very well and makes them easier to keep track of.
This week I’m linking up to Moments to Remember on Homeschool Creations.
A Child’s Weaknesses and Moses
28 Mar 2012 2 Comments
Every child has areas of their life that are strong and some that are weak. As a parent we tend to focus on their weaknesses. We want to help them overcome their weaknesses. We look for programs to “fix” them and curriculum that helps them.
I believe God designed and purposed each and every one of us. Can God use a weak vessel? Absolutely!! In fact I think God prefers to use us in areas that we are weak or that we have always struggled.
Why wouldn’t God use our strong areas?
Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to [His] purpose.”
God knows our weaknesses. But He can use that weakness by giving us strength to accomplish his purpose.
One illustration that comes to mind is the story of Moses. God called Moses to a life of public speaking. Moses resists this calling as he has suffered with a speech impediment all his life. But God knows Moses and knows this weakness. God calls Moses because of his weakness. God gave Moses the strength he needed to go in front of Pharaoh and the Israelites to proclaim God’s words. All who knew Moses knew that he could not have completed this without the help of God. Therefore, God was glorified.
If Moses had been a naturally gifted speaker God would not have gotten the credit for giving him the strength. People would have proclaimed that it was Moses, the gifted speaker who convinced Pharaoh to let his people go. God may have chosen someone else for the purpose that he called Moses. And Moses would not have experienced the rich life of experiencing God work through him.
I am always hearing stories of children who are physically weak who are used in big ways by God. So why do we mourn a weakness in our child. It is only through the weaknesses that God can use you to glorify his purpose in you. So we need to change our perspective. A weakness is an area that God will possibly use our children to be glorified. Of course God gives us natural giftings as well and can use those. However, I think it is harder for us as humans to acknowledge God through those strengths. It seems to us as those these are things we do ourselves apart from God. However, if we see it that way we fail to see that only God gave us that strength and natural ability.
For God knows your child, He knows each and every one of their weaknesses. And God has a purpose for your child. And He can and will even use their weaknesses to accomplish His purpose. We as human we parents can only do so much to help them overcome those weaknesses. It’s still important to help them strengthen the weaknesses. But it’s not important to accomplish it overnight or to stress over the fact that it isn’t fixed by a normal age. It isn’t important that your child doesn’t perform everything at normal age range. Only God can give you strength in an instant that you need it.
Playing Together ~ Moments to Remember
24 Mar 2012 1 Comment
These two usually fight if they are near each other. They have no developed an ability to talk to one another nicely. In fact I nicknamed them oil and vinegar. But I heard the sweetest sounds of them playing nicely together this week. Karate Kid later commented to me that Little Bit was fun to play legos with. He had great surprise in his voice. And I heard Little Bit ask him first thing this morning if he wanted to go build legos. So I guess legos can help oil and vinegar mix.
This week I’m linking up to Moments to Remember on 1+1+1.
We Love School with Ziggy or A Review of All About Reading Level Pre-1
18 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in APD, Dyslexia, Preschool, School
The Curious Monkey started asking me to teach him to read at Christmas time. His exact words were, “Mom, my teacher said you would teach me to read. I’ve been practicing my letters.” He proceeded to sing me his version of the alphabet song. He looked at me with the saddest eyes. I, of course, said I would indeed teach him to read.
He didn’t relent after that day so I decided he must be ready and I ordered All About Reading Level Pre-1. I have been waiting since it came out to use it with him when he was ready. I decided to go with All About Reading for him because he has shown some signs of auditory processing delays. Since All About Reading is designed to make sure that all the pre-reading skills are taught I knew I wanted to use it.
Ziggy the Zebra arrived in the mail about a month ago and all my kids (even the 9 year old) played with him the entire weekend. He was quite a hit. I intended to only do it with him but the Sidekick was drawn in and has done great with it.
They both beg me to do “Ziggy” school every morning after breakfast. And the girls have gotten drawn in to the fun of Ziggy as well. They can’t resist but to join in the fun.
So what is so special about All About Reading that I decided to use it. All About Learning Press designed Level Pre-1 to teach the five necessary skills for learning to read. This program is designed to teach much more than letter sounds. The Big Five Skills as Marie calls them are:
-
Print Awareness learning that letters make words that we read
-
Letter Knowledge learning and understanding the alphabet
-
Phonological Awareness learning to hear sounds in words
-
Listening Comprehension understanding the meaning of words
-
Motivation to Read wanting to learn to read
You can learn more about the Big Five Skills here. Visit the Reading Resource Center for even more articles and information on teaching reading. The website claims that “We teach the Big Five Skills in fun and creative ways.” I can honestly say that All About Reading Level Pre-1 is fun and very creative. I wish I would have had this to teach the older kids to read. It is so much more exciting than the way I taught them to read.
What makes it exciting, fun and creative?
Well, Ziggy the Zebra for one. In your teacher’s manual there are scripted games where Ziggy comes to play. In the very first lesson you are teaching the child rhyming. I had such a hard time teaching the oldest two to rhyme. They just didn’t get it. Curious Monkey has not started to rhyme yet but the way it is taught makes it easy for the kids to understand it. Ziggy comes and touches different body parts. But he says the wrong word, a word that rhymes with the correct body part. The child then corrects Ziggy. Here’s Ziggy touching Sidekick’s “leek”. And they say, “No Ziggy, it’s a cheek!”
We laughed and played this many times. And they still ask to play this one. The first time I played with Curious Monkey he didn’t know the correct word for some of his parts. He leaned up to me and whispered in my ear, so Ziggy wouldn’t hear, “Mom, what’s that called again?” Then he would sit back and correct Ziggy with eagerness.
The student pack is another fun and creative feature of the All About Reading Pre-Reading Program. The student pack comes with My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book. This book is filled with letter craft activities that include cutting, pasting, and painting. Several ideas are given for how to complete each sheet. The pages are clean, non distracting and beautifully illustrated.
Even my girls have wanted to get in on the letter craft fun.
In addition to the activity book your student pack will include picture cards. So far we have been working on rhyming with these cards. After a couple rounds of silly Ziggy and rhyming body parts the Monkey has been able to find rhyming words from the picture cards. I have to admit that I didn’t think he would catch on this quick but even the Sidekick is finding the rhymes.
These picture cards make it so much more fun than just trying to do this activity orally. And I appreciate not having to print or find picture cards for each lesson from a suggested word list. I keep our cards inside the reading activity box. The cards are filed behind dividers labeled by lesson number. I love how much thought has gone into the organization of student materials. The student cards in all the products are organized in an easy to use fashion.
These beautifully illustrated alphabet charts are also included in the student pack. Curious Monkey enjoys following along on the poster as we sing our alphabet son.
What All About Reading Level Pre-1 lessons look like in our house.
All of the All About Learning Press programs are designed to go at your child’s pace. There are 78 lessons in All About Reading Level Pre-1, first learning to recognize the capital letters then the lowercase letters and finally learning the letter sounds. Right now we are doing 1-2 letters a week. I have 30 minutes of teaching time for the preschoolers in the morning. The first day we sing the alphabet song, read from the associated All About Reading story book, do our letter page and then read from our Jane Belk Moncure set of My First Steps to Reading. The second day we sing the alphabet song, try to recall the name of the letter we are on, do the language exploration activity or game, and then read from our Moncure book again. If time and interest permits, I read a book from Sonlight P3/4. The boys also sit in on our Sonlight
Bible, History and Science reading so they are getting plenty read aloud time each day.
We school through the summer here so I plan to continue at this pace or do more letters a week if Curious Monkey becomes bored and ready to move faster. When we finish this level we will move to the next level whenever that is. I’ve learned from many failed attempts not to push faster than a child is ready for, it only frustrates Mom and child.
You can see samples of the teacher’s manual here. And you have nothing to loose with All About Learning Press’ Go-Ahead and Use It One-Year Guarantee. Buy it, try it for a year and send it back if you don’t like it. You can receive two creative, fun free e-books here.
