Pencil Pusher
03-12-2008, 03:45 PM
Or feet, at least.
We're not spending all day doing tedious things that none of us enjoys, but I feel like we're learning more, enjoying learning more, and enjoying each other more.
My kids are spending more time reading and writing now than...well, I don't know what they were doing before. I dreaded school so much, we barely ever got it done.
So besides our amended plans (that chunk the stuff "we" don't like), what's inspired me today? I started teaching ds to write (not just handwriting) on Sun. I posted his first few sentences on my blog. He copies interesting sentences from his science book for science class, too, if that counts.
Yesterday, though, I tried to get him to write a sentence about what he liked/didn't like about a book he read about knights. It was a huge battle. He wrote, "I liked when James left." Um, what???
Finally, though, I realized this was a skill I hadn't really taught. So we dropped it & picked it up again today w an easier book. I let him pick.
We read A Porcupine Named Fluffy & listed the major problems in the story. Then he summarized it on his own: "This book is about a porcupine named Fluffy who isn't fluffy. He meets a rhinoceros named Hippo, and he feels better."
After talking about it, we wrote: "_A Porcupine Named Fluffy_ tries to become fluffy until he meets a rhinoceros named Hippo who teaches him that you have to be happy with what you are."
I know, still room for improvement, but I've. never. taught. him. ANY writing skills. Whatsoever. Do you know how excited I am that he could come up with this on his own? And he recognized the "lesson" of the story. After this writing assingnment, he looked at a book that we got from the library about dinos on trains--it's a sing-songy silly rhyming book--and said, "This book is fun, but it's not as good as the other book" because it doesn't have any kind of hidden meaning. No treasure to dig for in it. And his eyes were all lit up.
This is me doing a happy dance. This is homeschool being what I'd always imagined it to be. Is there a smiley for this? ;)
We're not spending all day doing tedious things that none of us enjoys, but I feel like we're learning more, enjoying learning more, and enjoying each other more.
My kids are spending more time reading and writing now than...well, I don't know what they were doing before. I dreaded school so much, we barely ever got it done.
So besides our amended plans (that chunk the stuff "we" don't like), what's inspired me today? I started teaching ds to write (not just handwriting) on Sun. I posted his first few sentences on my blog. He copies interesting sentences from his science book for science class, too, if that counts.
Yesterday, though, I tried to get him to write a sentence about what he liked/didn't like about a book he read about knights. It was a huge battle. He wrote, "I liked when James left." Um, what???
Finally, though, I realized this was a skill I hadn't really taught. So we dropped it & picked it up again today w an easier book. I let him pick.
We read A Porcupine Named Fluffy & listed the major problems in the story. Then he summarized it on his own: "This book is about a porcupine named Fluffy who isn't fluffy. He meets a rhinoceros named Hippo, and he feels better."
After talking about it, we wrote: "_A Porcupine Named Fluffy_ tries to become fluffy until he meets a rhinoceros named Hippo who teaches him that you have to be happy with what you are."
I know, still room for improvement, but I've. never. taught. him. ANY writing skills. Whatsoever. Do you know how excited I am that he could come up with this on his own? And he recognized the "lesson" of the story. After this writing assingnment, he looked at a book that we got from the library about dinos on trains--it's a sing-songy silly rhyming book--and said, "This book is fun, but it's not as good as the other book" because it doesn't have any kind of hidden meaning. No treasure to dig for in it. And his eyes were all lit up.
This is me doing a happy dance. This is homeschool being what I'd always imagined it to be. Is there a smiley for this? ;)