Well, the deck is covered in books, a hammock, pillows and a fort, but I think the reading party is finally coming to an end. The weather couldn't have been better! It was really a great day.
Zoë has just stopped reading for the day (near 5 pm). She took a break for lunch, but otherwise she has been reading non-stop since 7 am. She thinks that she has read over 15 books today. Aiden spent all morning reading, and around 3 he started getting stir crazy. He read 4 books and a bunch of Artemis Fowl. Needless to say I think the Reading Party was a big hit! Now I need to take them back to Barnes and Noble and the library to turn in their reading lists.
It was wonderful to hear one of them giggle to themselves about something they read, then run over to share it with me, or in Zoë's case, hail me from her throne on the hammock. We took a break to grab some lunch from the evil empire (I promised they could have a Happy Meal), and have an afternoon snack, but otherwise we read all day.
The morning started out interesting when we found a surprise resident trying to build a nest in a muffin pan in the drawer under the oven. The rodent perpetrator was promptly set free outside. Good thing they wanted muffins for breakfast, or who knows when I would have found him! He's lucky the snake is still too small, or he would have been breakfast for Diamond instead of relocated. Maybe now the kids will listen to me when I tell them to shut the door behind them.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Reading Party Here We Come
We finished out our week of eclectic learning. Aiden is back on the typing bandwagon and working hard to learn how to type at 20 wpm. He's certainly frustrated that it isn't something he can learn in one day. It's nice to find a challenge for him.
They're both doing well with their daily writing sessions. They've produced lots of stories, poems, and the beginning of a graphic novel. The hardest thing about it for me is not editing anything. At this point I'm not even making suggestions for improvement. They will get enough of that when we're working on the projects with our curriculum starting in September.
Today after school they realized they were 11 beads away from their reading party. After lunch they asked me if there was anything they could do to earn the rest of the beads so they could have their party on Monday. They decided they would get one bead for each room that they cleaned. Hooray!! As I'm writing this, they have 2 beads left to go. Tomorrow we'll head to the library to get stacks of books for Monday morning. I'm excited for them. They've worked really hard and have both done an excellent job quelling the "I don't know" answers. I think they only lost 2 beads the whole time for using those words. Now I need to find something to read too!
They're both doing well with their daily writing sessions. They've produced lots of stories, poems, and the beginning of a graphic novel. The hardest thing about it for me is not editing anything. At this point I'm not even making suggestions for improvement. They will get enough of that when we're working on the projects with our curriculum starting in September.
Today after school they realized they were 11 beads away from their reading party. After lunch they asked me if there was anything they could do to earn the rest of the beads so they could have their party on Monday. They decided they would get one bead for each room that they cleaned. Hooray!! As I'm writing this, they have 2 beads left to go. Tomorrow we'll head to the library to get stacks of books for Monday morning. I'm excited for them. They've worked really hard and have both done an excellent job quelling the "I don't know" answers. I think they only lost 2 beads the whole time for using those words. Now I need to find something to read too!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Olio of learning
The last few days have been rather uneventful. The kids seem to have gotten back into the groove of morning classes quickly, although I have had to explain several times why we're not taking the week off since it's technically our 4th week of school. After I told them we have most of July off, they weren't upset and have worked very hard.
In typical Aiden fashion he's already taken his spelling test for the week. I found some 5th grade spelling lists that they're working on. I was astounded that he quickly learned to spell achieve and acoustics among others.
Zoë has been devouring books. She's finished The Westing Game and is ready for the discussion on Thursday. She reads at the grocery store, as she's eating lunch, and while she's walking around the house. She finished both the library and Barnes and Noble's summer reading programs weeks ago.
They're both learning to read music now, and seem to enjoy that part of piano practice. We've also started a new system where they have to write everyday for 20 minutes. I don't care what they write, and I don't edit any of it, but I spend time telling them what I liked most about the work. I just want them to get used to sitting down everyday to get something on paper. They really took to the idea of setting a timer and we've incorporated that into Spanish, reading and spelling practice too.
They have almost earned their first reading party day. It looks like probably some time next week we'll have our party. They saved the beads they earned during Mystery Camp and yesterday we were going to add them to the jar. Aiden put his in with a sour look on his face and Zoë didn't even want to add hers. I knew right away what they were thinking, but pretended to have no idea why they were upset. Aiden said that he didn't want to use the beads from Mystery Camp because they were smaller than our beads and that would mean that they'd have to earn more before they could get their reading party. Zoë didn't want to add the beads because she was afraid that the next time they were working toward a reading party they would have that many more they'd have to earn. I gave them both an extra bead for thinking and communicating and let them count out the same amount they'd earned from our beads. They were thrilled!
In typical Aiden fashion he's already taken his spelling test for the week. I found some 5th grade spelling lists that they're working on. I was astounded that he quickly learned to spell achieve and acoustics among others.
Zoë has been devouring books. She's finished The Westing Game and is ready for the discussion on Thursday. She reads at the grocery store, as she's eating lunch, and while she's walking around the house. She finished both the library and Barnes and Noble's summer reading programs weeks ago.
They're both learning to read music now, and seem to enjoy that part of piano practice. We've also started a new system where they have to write everyday for 20 minutes. I don't care what they write, and I don't edit any of it, but I spend time telling them what I liked most about the work. I just want them to get used to sitting down everyday to get something on paper. They really took to the idea of setting a timer and we've incorporated that into Spanish, reading and spelling practice too.
They have almost earned their first reading party day. It looks like probably some time next week we'll have our party. They saved the beads they earned during Mystery Camp and yesterday we were going to add them to the jar. Aiden put his in with a sour look on his face and Zoë didn't even want to add hers. I knew right away what they were thinking, but pretended to have no idea why they were upset. Aiden said that he didn't want to use the beads from Mystery Camp because they were smaller than our beads and that would mean that they'd have to earn more before they could get their reading party. Zoë didn't want to add the beads because she was afraid that the next time they were working toward a reading party they would have that many more they'd have to earn. I gave them both an extra bead for thinking and communicating and let them count out the same amount they'd earned from our beads. They were thrilled!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Lizards and Diamond
After a weekend at my Aunt and Uncle's in Springfield chasing skinks, Aiden decided that he wanted a pet lizard. As soon as we got home, he ran over to Grandma's to try to catch a lizard. Of course the neighborhood kids all thought this was a great idea, and soon there were four of them running around trying to catch a lizard.
As I was sitting out on the deck relaxing from a lack of sleep and a long drive home, the kids come running back with their jar yelling "we caught it, we caught it!" All four of them are talking excitedly at the same time and are so happy with themselves. This is when I discover that "it" isn't a lizard at all. It is a baby king snake. Great...now what do I do. Snakes don't actually bother me, but I'm not sure I want one as a pet. I was okay with a lizard, they eat bugs.
So I try to think of a way out of this without actually saying no. I tell Aiden that he can't just keep a snake in a jar. What do they eat? How big will it get? What do they need to survive? It wouldn't be fair to take a baby snake out of the wild and make it into a pet if you didn't know how to care for it. He says okay and the four kids run inside to the computer room and start doing research. The little boogers come back with all kinds of information! Now I'm stuck. They did the research, they got the habitat ready, and now I have to say it's okay to keep him. My only hope is that when it actually comes to feeding the snake they won't want to do it. It's too small to eat even pinkie mice, so the mice will have to be cut before we feed him.
A few days later we head to the local pet store to buy frozen mice to feed to the snake. I'm trying the whole time not to be squeamish about this. I've dissected frogs and fetal pigs in biology for pete's sake. I should be able to handle a tiny mouse. We tried to feed him that night, but apparently he wasn't hungry. So I told Aiden that if he doesn't eat something by Monday, we'd have to let him go so that he could fend for himself. This was on Wednesday. On Friday we're getting ready to pack the kids up for a week at Nana's. While I'm busy doing laundry and such, Aiden decided to feed the snake on his own. He cut up the mouse and fed the snake all by himself. Maybe I should have acted squeamish about the mice!!
So now we have a pet snake named Diamond that could grow to be 6 feet long and live for 20 years. Sometimes I hate the Internet and the ease of which information can be found!
As I was sitting out on the deck relaxing from a lack of sleep and a long drive home, the kids come running back with their jar yelling "we caught it, we caught it!" All four of them are talking excitedly at the same time and are so happy with themselves. This is when I discover that "it" isn't a lizard at all. It is a baby king snake. Great...now what do I do. Snakes don't actually bother me, but I'm not sure I want one as a pet. I was okay with a lizard, they eat bugs.
So I try to think of a way out of this without actually saying no. I tell Aiden that he can't just keep a snake in a jar. What do they eat? How big will it get? What do they need to survive? It wouldn't be fair to take a baby snake out of the wild and make it into a pet if you didn't know how to care for it. He says okay and the four kids run inside to the computer room and start doing research. The little boogers come back with all kinds of information! Now I'm stuck. They did the research, they got the habitat ready, and now I have to say it's okay to keep him. My only hope is that when it actually comes to feeding the snake they won't want to do it. It's too small to eat even pinkie mice, so the mice will have to be cut before we feed him.
A few days later we head to the local pet store to buy frozen mice to feed to the snake. I'm trying the whole time not to be squeamish about this. I've dissected frogs and fetal pigs in biology for pete's sake. I should be able to handle a tiny mouse. We tried to feed him that night, but apparently he wasn't hungry. So I told Aiden that if he doesn't eat something by Monday, we'd have to let him go so that he could fend for himself. This was on Wednesday. On Friday we're getting ready to pack the kids up for a week at Nana's. While I'm busy doing laundry and such, Aiden decided to feed the snake on his own. He cut up the mouse and fed the snake all by himself. Maybe I should have acted squeamish about the mice!!
So now we have a pet snake named Diamond that could grow to be 6 feet long and live for 20 years. Sometimes I hate the Internet and the ease of which information can be found!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Mystery Camp
Last week was Mystery Camp with two other families with highly gifted kids. I can't even describe how fantastic it was to see these six bright young minds at work. When I think about the potential in that room, I am amazed!! It has been so wonderful to have a group of kids together with similar odd senses of humor, amazing reading abilities, and seeing the joy on their faces at being challenged to think. They all worked very hard, and I'm proud of each of them.
I have learned a lot from Mystery Camp too. Of course I've had to learn about the lessons that I taught (Amelia Earhart and the Mary Celeste), but more importantly it was an eye opener. I have never been one to compare my kids to others, but last week, that was difficult. After some thought (and some enlightenment from Tom) I realize why that changed last week. I have never really had anyone to compare them with. They're my only kids, and I assumed that's how all kids were. When they started school, I realized they were different. But they were still so different that it was like comparing apples to oranges. At Mystery Camp I have for the first time been able to see them with other similar children. That wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't wired to see ways toward improvement so clearly (it is after all why I chose to be a therapist).
Like all human beings, we have flaws, or places in our lives that could use some improvement. It wasn't until the middle of the week that I was able to stop looking at the negatives and focus on Zoë and Aiden's strengths. By Friday I had a solid plan of attack to help them make some small improvements, and also was able to see things in perspective. For example, Aiden tended to have a hard time paying attention while people were reading out loud the first day. My first assumption was that he just didn't want to sit still. When I actually talked to him about what was going on, I discovered that the older kids were reading too fast for him to keep up. So once he got lost he just didn't bother to try anymore. After knowing that it was easy to help him keep up and he did much better the rest of the week.
This week they're staying at Nana's and going to Zoo Camp. They're learning about all kinds of different animals and animal conservation. The highlight of the week is Thursday night when they get to spend the night sleeping outside at the zoo. Both of them seem really excited about zoo camp and want to do it again next year.
I've been spending the week getting the house back in order, running errands, preparing for our solstice party, and reading.
I have learned a lot from Mystery Camp too. Of course I've had to learn about the lessons that I taught (Amelia Earhart and the Mary Celeste), but more importantly it was an eye opener. I have never been one to compare my kids to others, but last week, that was difficult. After some thought (and some enlightenment from Tom) I realize why that changed last week. I have never really had anyone to compare them with. They're my only kids, and I assumed that's how all kids were. When they started school, I realized they were different. But they were still so different that it was like comparing apples to oranges. At Mystery Camp I have for the first time been able to see them with other similar children. That wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't wired to see ways toward improvement so clearly (it is after all why I chose to be a therapist).
Like all human beings, we have flaws, or places in our lives that could use some improvement. It wasn't until the middle of the week that I was able to stop looking at the negatives and focus on Zoë and Aiden's strengths. By Friday I had a solid plan of attack to help them make some small improvements, and also was able to see things in perspective. For example, Aiden tended to have a hard time paying attention while people were reading out loud the first day. My first assumption was that he just didn't want to sit still. When I actually talked to him about what was going on, I discovered that the older kids were reading too fast for him to keep up. So once he got lost he just didn't bother to try anymore. After knowing that it was easy to help him keep up and he did much better the rest of the week.
This week they're staying at Nana's and going to Zoo Camp. They're learning about all kinds of different animals and animal conservation. The highlight of the week is Thursday night when they get to spend the night sleeping outside at the zoo. Both of them seem really excited about zoo camp and want to do it again next year.
I've been spending the week getting the house back in order, running errands, preparing for our solstice party, and reading.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Surprise Visit with long lasting effects
We had a surprise visit today during school time from Tom's uncle John who lives in Chicago. The kids were so excited to show him our classroom and some of the things they had been working on. They pumped his head full of volcano facts and played some piano for him.
It's interesting how one surprise visit can have such an effect. Because he wanted to see what the kids had been up to, they enthusiastically gave him a tour of the classroom. Their obvious excitement made me feel even better about our decision to home school and the job that I've been doing. This feeling gave me more patience during our lessons later that day, and in turn the kids got a lot done and enjoyed working hard. So despite the fact that I was mad at myself for somehow sleeping through my alarm this morning, we had a great day.
Thanks for the visit, John. It made us all smile!
It's interesting how one surprise visit can have such an effect. Because he wanted to see what the kids had been up to, they enthusiastically gave him a tour of the classroom. Their obvious excitement made me feel even better about our decision to home school and the job that I've been doing. This feeling gave me more patience during our lessons later that day, and in turn the kids got a lot done and enjoyed working hard. So despite the fact that I was mad at myself for somehow sleeping through my alarm this morning, we had a great day.
Thanks for the visit, John. It made us all smile!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
And we're off...
Today was a busy day. We spent the first part of our morning reviewing all the challenges we have for ourselves during the summer (i.e. summer reading programs, short story contests, piano practice goals, etc.), then introducing the new math system, and lastly discussing our new reading day incentive program. The kids were thrilled to learn about reading day. We spent a while talking about what kinds of things are good behaviors and how they might earn a full jar. Then we talked about those 3 horrible words "I don't know," and how we can avoid saying them and hence losing beads from the jar. They both had excellent ideas and at least twice I saw them working hard to change "I don't know" into something more helpful. They really did a great job today.
Math was a little longer than I hoped. This is one of the issues with having 6 and 7 year olds working from 4th and 5th grade levels. Even after only doing the even problems, they both spent over an hour (Aiden 90 minutes) on their math assignments. I'm sure this will improve, but right now they were doing a lot of new things since I didn't know exactly where to start them in their new curriculum. Zoë was working on reading mixed numbers from a number line and Aiden was working on transformations of geometric figures.
After finishing piano, spelling, Spanish, and writing, we ate lunch and went to the pool. An hour after we got to the pool it started to thunder so we decided to pack up for the day. Hopefully, this is how most of the summer will go (without the rain interruption). Now if I could just get back to getting up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym, everything would be in order!
Math was a little longer than I hoped. This is one of the issues with having 6 and 7 year olds working from 4th and 5th grade levels. Even after only doing the even problems, they both spent over an hour (Aiden 90 minutes) on their math assignments. I'm sure this will improve, but right now they were doing a lot of new things since I didn't know exactly where to start them in their new curriculum. Zoë was working on reading mixed numbers from a number line and Aiden was working on transformations of geometric figures.
After finishing piano, spelling, Spanish, and writing, we ate lunch and went to the pool. An hour after we got to the pool it started to thunder so we decided to pack up for the day. Hopefully, this is how most of the summer will go (without the rain interruption). Now if I could just get back to getting up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym, everything would be in order!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Our first day
Today starts the 2009-2010 school year for us. The kids decided that they wanted to attend their public school's Olympics Day. The school was very accommodating, and the kids should enjoy the games and time with their old friends. It was definitely an odd feeling to take them back there, and I certainly don't miss doing that every day!
I'm set to hit the ground running tomorrow with a new math curriculum, the Spanish program loaded onto the computer, spelling lists already entered into spellingcity.com, a year's worth of lesson plans finished, and all kinds of ideas of fun things to do. Since we're doing some work through the summer, we only have to spend 3 hours a day on school things, and can spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool. I've also started a new system where they can earn a reading day and pizza party (thanks to Heather for the great idea!) Hopefully, this will curb some of the antsy behavior and stop them from immediately answering "I don't know" to a question all with the added bonus of being excited to spend the day reading. Of course it's not that I expect them to know the answers every time, but I do expect them to learn to communicate what things they understand, and what route their thinking is going. I'm going to spend some time in the morning talking about this with them and helping them find better answers than "I don't know".
It's looking to be a really fun school year. I'm very excited to see how far they progress.
I'm set to hit the ground running tomorrow with a new math curriculum, the Spanish program loaded onto the computer, spelling lists already entered into spellingcity.com, a year's worth of lesson plans finished, and all kinds of ideas of fun things to do. Since we're doing some work through the summer, we only have to spend 3 hours a day on school things, and can spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool. I've also started a new system where they can earn a reading day and pizza party (thanks to Heather for the great idea!) Hopefully, this will curb some of the antsy behavior and stop them from immediately answering "I don't know" to a question all with the added bonus of being excited to spend the day reading. Of course it's not that I expect them to know the answers every time, but I do expect them to learn to communicate what things they understand, and what route their thinking is going. I'm going to spend some time in the morning talking about this with them and helping them find better answers than "I don't know".
It's looking to be a really fun school year. I'm very excited to see how far they progress.
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