School roundup

We decided to work through the weekend since we will be taking a few days off at the end of this week. Rhiannon got through the basics each day (phonics, math, handwriting, bible story, language arts, read aloud and narration).

Ciaran did some coloring and we took a walk tonight - just him, me and Sirah and we kept a list of all the B things we came across along the way. Some words from our list: ball, blue, bird, boat, bug, baseball field, base, bleachers, bench, basketball hoop, bicycle, brown, building, box, bucket, and black eyed susan. There were others but my list is not in front of me at the moment. We also had a great time listening to a variety of bird and frog calls online for about an hour and surfing to find online frog games he could play.

Serona took the kids to the barbershop to have their haircut. He also took them for a walk around the mall and let them have cookies and lollipops for lunch! I took a wonderful mid afternoon nap while he did that.

We did get some reading time in over the course of the weekend as well. We began our focus on B books with some of the kids personal favorites thrown in (will try to update the reading list this week) and we seemed to focus on non-fiction quite a bit. The kids amazed me by sitting through a 42 page non-fiction book on Bison - very detailed and descriptive book with far more words than pictures. Of course what stuck with them the most was that the Native Americans would use Buffalo Chips (poop) when firewood was not available for their fires. They could not stop laughing and it was what both kids chose to narrate about later.

I love reading whole books - it really sparks the kids interest in different subjects and keeps them choosing to read non-fiction books. Sometimes they surprise me when they chose a nonfiction book over a fiction story. Tonight at bedtime (always a free choice of any book) Rhiannon picked "How a Book is Made" by Aliki and Ciaran picked Frog ABC (a nonfiction book about a wide variety of frogs) and both loved their choice. There is something special about reading a whole book on a topic rather than just a snipet in a textbook. Oftentimes after reading a book the kids have further interest and we hit the web to find more details or answer particular questions and then supplement the lesson with a coloring page, handwriting worksheet or an online game, photo, or sound file. Just tonight while reading the Bison book - Serona googled for us to discover if there is a difference between Bison and Buffalo because the kids wanted to know and the book was not clear.

We ended the day with some free playtime outside with some neighborhood children while we visited with the parents. It was interesting to see our kids interact in a different way. These kids are heavily into action figures and the kids were exposed to playing with water guns, swords and other action figure type play they are not used to. Overall it went okay. Ciaran got upset at being squirt with the waterguns and I was a bit concerned about Rhiannon being too aggressive but she did fine. It was nice to see an impromptu playdate pop up for the kids and to have some time to talk as families as well.

Peace,
Tenn