Favorite Color

I've always given my girls choices from a young age. Starting around 6mos or so, I hold up two items with different colors and let them pick one. I could always tell what my daughters' favorite colors were, because they were always drawn to the item of their favorite color. My first daughter's favorite color was pink. The second daughter's favorite color was blue. My third daughter? Not so sure. I've been suspecting green, because she says "geen". But then everything is "geen". And there was that time that she kept pushing the green circle button on the Tad Frog doll. Here is how the conversation went this morning:

Me: "Georgie, do you want the purple or green spoon?"
Georgie: (Hands me sippy cup) "deet doo" (thank you)
Me: "pick one. Purple or green."
Georgie: (grabs both at the same time)
Me: (takes back spoons) "Let's try this again, pick one. Which one do you want?"
Georgie: (grabs both again quickly, afraid I'll only let her take one) "One"
and then she starts singing "none none none none none"

As far as I can tell, her favorite color is both:)

My Abstract-Random

When my 2nd dd was about 3 years old, it became blatantly obvious that she was an Abstract-Random (Gregoric model of learning styles, for those interested in these things, lol). I didn't know that's what it was at the time, but it really sunk in today...on the battlefield - oops, I mean, during school time.

From a young age, she could relate to people in odd unexpected ways. Women having a bad day could suddenly be cheered just by something my dd said to them in the checkout line at the grocery store. She seemed to intuitively know what people needed to hear.

The emotional quality had another side of the coin. A simple, "hey, can you do this differently next time?" said as gently as possible resulted in a complete meltdown of tears. Trying to work through a problem and find a solution came out with these words, said rashly, "I won't do it again, can you stop talking about it?" There is a constant need for reinforcement, "you're the best!" "you did that really well!", "no, really, you truly are amazing at that!"

She's very random. Her first words that she could read and write was ZOO. By age 4, she could read "Zaphod Beeblebrox" and the word "the". I didn't teach her sight words, she just figured it out herself. Just from watching us, she can play Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee with chords on the piano (beautifully, I'll add) but teaching her how to read music is a challenge. When she cleans, beware: you'll find that item stuffed someplace weird, and she'll never remember where she put it, either. So things get lost, a lot! When she started doing her workbooks, she'd insist that she did her 2 pages of math work. What she didn't tell me is that she skipped around the page, accidentally skipping 5 problems at random, and she skipped ahead 5 pages and did the backside of that page. Teaching the Abstract-Random has been an interesting challenge!

Now, with T4L, we've encountered another problem. 2nd gr is too easy. 3rd gr is too hard. And she clicks into random sections to find what interests her. If it doesn't look like a quick, easy lesson, she leaves it. It shows up in her report as a half completed lesson. Then, she finally lands on a lesson, gets 1/2 way thru it and decides that the rest of it is too repetitious and she already knows that. So she drops out of that one, too. My brilliant, creative girl is suddenly getting incompletes and 67% - eek! I've always wondered how she would do in school. Would she perform well, because she seems to just suck in information like a sponge? Or would she do horribly, because she just decided a lesson wasn't worth doing, didn't follow directions, or did things randomly? I think it would depend on the teacher. I think the right teacher would latch on to her as the prize pupil and allow the spunky whatever-ness of what she does (lol). The wrong teacher would mark her down for every little thing, she'd get upset and feel disliked, and then would sit and sulk for the rest of the school year while pulling in awful grades.

Weekly Review - week of 12/13/2010

10yo:
social studies
phoenicians, egyptians, sidon, tyre, trading routes the phoenicians useed, purple snail dye, and the phoenicians were really good traders and never battled.
math
romen and greek numerals, expanding to the billions, and estimating numbers
science
how to do experiment
LA extensions
how to orgnise and summerize informoshin
language arts
synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, homophones, idioms, and some latin and greek rootsAlso: studying sign language

8yo:
Social studies: eskimos and inuits, continents & countries, aztecs (more than just chocolate) and there are still castles out there (but not the great castle), and wants & needs
LA Extensions: antonyms, prefixes, graphic & web organizers, how to do interviews, compound words
LA: prefixes, synonyms, idioms
Math: slide, turn, flip (shapes), measuring (length), clocks (telling time), nets of shapes
Science: difference between plants & animals & how their needs & wants change. Someone drew a plantanimal (a cow with a flower head), habitat, pollution, extinction

AWANA: last day before Christmas break. The kids earned AWANA bucks and were able to purchase items from their store.
Christmas Party: our homeschool group had a Christmas party at a rollerskating rink and the kids discovered that they love roller skating!
Building project: we are continuing to build our entertainment area in the basement. We installed a pellet stove and got that working [and a BIG THANKS to our outside help for coming over and getting through our concrete wall;) We couldn't have done it without you!]

Weekly Review Week of Dec 6, 2010

We started Time 4 Learning this week. At the end of the week, I printed off a report of their lessons and scores. Then, I asked the kids to tell me in their own words what they learned. I intended for those words to go......HERE......but for some reason I can't get copy/paste to work from the Word Doc into Blogger. I'm definitely less inspired to make these things work since having a toddler around (who has time for that?)

Suffice it to say that the kids love T4L and are motivated to do their work. Most of the grades the kids get are good (90%, 100%, some 80%) with the occasional 63% (fail) and 33% (really fail, lol). But this is good for them, too. The 8yo is learning that if she just flubs her work and doesn't really know what she's doing, she'll get a bad score and I'll see it. So, it's better if she takes some time to review or ask me for help. The kids can select their own grade level if something is too easy or too difficult. The 10yo has been bumping her math up to 5th grade (I put her at 4th gr) - I'm proud of her for giving herself more of a challenge. The 8yo has been bumping some of her work down to 2nd grade. She is easily frustrated this year. She is doing several lessons per day, however, so at this pace, she'll finish 2nd gr early and have to do 3rd grade level anyway. And...the review probably doesn't hurt her any.

The kids are ahead of schedule on their AWANA books. Having 2 kids in T&T has been a challenge (I end up working with them for about 3 hours or more every week). They have 8 discoveries to pass by mid April, and so far, they've finished 4 - so we're making good time. Piano practice is going well - the teacher comes every 2 weeks, but the kids have been asking for weekly lessons. They are both really enjoying piano and doing well at it. The 10yo is learning Amazing Grace in sign language. In January, she'll have to teach this at co-op in her Inspired Signing class. All of our extra curriculars seem to be adding time to our homeschool day. I haven't been 100% hands-off in teaching them - I just find that I have to be super duper selective in what I can spend my time doing with them. Although I'd prefer to use that time teaching math, our choices have mandated otherwise. This Wed is our last AWANA until after Christmas, so I plan to fill that time with math fact drills instead. We really need to get those multiplication facts mastered.

Ahhhhhh (relief)

Today was our first day using Time 4 Learning.
Big sigh of relief!
At last, kids were schooling.
The toddler was toddling.
The dog was dogging.
And the mama was staying on top of everything. Yay!
It lifted such a huge burden today. The kids enjoyed it and even did extra lessons. They even asked to do more lessons tonight. I fully expect that they'll lose interest in a few days, and then I'll need to enforce it as "school", but for now - they enjoy it, I enjoy it, and it is giving me a whole lot more freedom to manage and mom (yes, "mom" is a verb, here).
It especially came in handy today, of all days. My dad had a heart attack on Sunday and has been in the hospital. The fact that we were able to do a full day of school, pay attention to the toddler, and I was able to visit him in the hospital was HUGE. We could not have managed half of that with our old system of workbooks. We desperately needed a change and I'm so glad we did.
I'll keep on with this system for as long as it works:)

Weekly Review - update for Nov

Last year, Georgie was a newborn. I spent a lot of time parked next to a kid with a baby attached to the breast, nursing. I was also suffering from typical newborn exhaustion. I tried to direct the kids' education, however, some days were just "here's a workbook. Do the best you can do. I'm going to bed."

This year is different. Georgie is a toddler. The dog + toddler + 2 school aged kids has gotten to be an overwhelming handful. When a public school mom says, "Oh, I could never homeschool. I don't have the patience," I fall to the floor laughing maniacally. I really don't have the patience. I really, truly do not have the patience.

We've slimmed our school day down. When that wasn't enough, we slimmed it down some more. It finally got reduced to Math, some history, AWANA, piano, gymnastics, and co-op. AWANA takes up a good amount of time every day. Some of our co-op classes have homework, too, so there is more work that we are doing from home. Everything has crescendoed to a point where I was yelling, then crying, then feeling guilty, then yelling some more. It has not been my best school year ever. I've decided that most of the teaching needs to be taken out of my hands.

Next week, we're going to try Time 4 Learning. We did this once before (after the baby was born) as a free 1 month trial. I had thought about continuing it, but as a true stoic, I kept thinking about the money vs. the books I could buy with that monthly money. Yes, for 1 month's price for 1 kid, I could buy a spelling curriculum for both kids for 6 years. But it would be another teacher intensive spelling book. I really need less teaching time. We'll probably stick with our BJU Math. I would love to continue our history (we are 2/3rds done with SOTW 3, and I really like it). BJU Science 5 had me developing an eye twitch last week, and I simply cannot do it this year. Cannot. do. it. So that's my story.

As a review for what we DID accomplish in November:
We wrote novels. The 8yo's novel is full of action and I'd really like to carve out some time to help her finish it. It was 2,700+ words, but it isn't finished yet. Our goal was between 2000-3000, (her age would put her at 2nd or 3rd gr, so this seemed a fair goal for her age). We definitely hit that goal and the story has great promise! The 10yo confirmed what I always knew: she can't handle rewards and goal setting, lol. Trying to find her motivation has always been my biggest struggle. Potty training was awful for this kid. Time has always been the best motivator (she'll do it when she's ready, but be prepared to wait a loooonnnngggg time). If time doesn't do it, then some negative feedback might finally work. So for next year's novel, I think I may just have her work through the Nanowrimo workbook and call it good. It would at least get her thinking about noveling and storywriting, and practicing the elements, without the pressures of having to "perform". She's a perfectionist that doesn't want to perform unless there is some internal drive to put forth the effort.

Math: the 8yo learned telling time, and is now on to measurement. The 10yo learned geometry and is now on to learning long division (fun, fun times). Daddy is building the downstairs entertainment room, so the kids are also getting a lot of hands on lessons in measurement, building.

History: we are 2/3rds done with SOTW 3. We've learned about Napolean, the Haitians, and the start of factories. The kids have learned about how everyone had to go to work, even the toddlers. Days were very long. This makes a good threat to use when kids aren't working hard and are complaining at home:)

We did some familiar quotations this month, but it was about 1/3rd of the time. We did 1 science lesson (boo, hiss). Piano is coming along marvelously. This is our big piano year. The 8yo has been learning to play by ear, and can play above her music reading ability. The 10yo is suddenly interested in piano and has been trying to play from my books, and doing really well with it! The piano is constantly being fought over, and there is always at least one kid playing something at any given time. They also take their lesson songs and rework it into something different, their own songs. Their songs use chords and a melody; the songs also have rhythm and a repeatable pattern.