Week four - 2014

D week. We played dominoes. Good for counting, matching, and starting to recognize numbers represented as dots. 

I have slacked on having him write his alphabet letters. I must remember to get him to catch up this coming week. 

We did a little "project" on boating. I showed him a LEGO lion toy, asked him where he thought it lived on our map. We pointed out Africa and where he lives, and I asked him if he was to visit Africa to see the lion, how could he get there?

He told me all the water was in the way, so he'd have to take a boat. How do boats move? They can't use wheels like a car. He said they can use wind! So we constructed a boat out of a straw, some paper, and a styrofoam meat tray. He put his lion on it and we floated it in the sink. I showed him how he could blow on it and it would move. 

He later added a tiger, and I helped him locate the general area they live in. 

Week three - 2014

We were very lax on homeschool this week. I don't know if we were busier or just lazier, but I guess we'll just have to catch up a bit this coming week. 

It was C week. Jace and I practiced writing letters (not just C) on our whiteboard while Remi scribbled. 

I read to him the story of the cock crowing when Peter denied Jesus. Interestingly, I think there's an idea that the cock crowed three times. According to what we read, it only crows once, when the sun started coming up. I think sometimes the story gets muddled because it was Peter who did something in threes, not the rooster. 

We also did some more work with sequencing. I made a row of beads on a pipe cleaner and then he copied with his beads. It is great for his fine motor skills, and thought it was pretty cool to make a bracelet when he was done. 

And, just for fun, we made a paper chain of the days remaining until his birthday (27 tomorrow!) Good for counting, and good for keeping track of what day it is. 

Tomorrow is the first day of fall. I suppose he should move his sunshine off the felt calendar and put up the brown leaf. 

Week two - 2014

This was our "B" week. 

Jace's bible story was about Jacob and Esau and the trick played on their father. The first day I read it to him, I felt like it might go over his head. I always try to read the story to him, directly from the scriptures, only substituting words when I absolutely have to (in this case, explaining raiment and venison). 

The second day, we cut a brown grocery bag open into a shirt and Jace glued cotton balls onto it for Esau's hair. I had him explain the craft to Jeff later, and he even remembered the names Jacob and Esau. So, some of it must be sinking in. 

For a fun break, we played dress up. I've only recently started putting a box of clothes together for them to dress up in, so the selection is not huge. But it has a couple of tube tops that we use as skirts, some scarves, and a hat. He seems to have fun doing this. It feels like learning but with more fun involved. 

The material has him sorting and matching different objects a lot. This week, I placed a line of our shoes out and he matched the sequence with the other pair. 

As it was "B" week, we made banana bread. He had a good time helping open bananas and put the ingredients together in the bowl. He even used the mixer by himself (with me holding the very end of it). We tried a new recipe (Trisha Yearwood one) and it was pretty good. The particular site I got it from recommended a "streusel" lining, but it turned out that it burned the bottom of the bread to the pan. So, we ate bottomless banana bread. 

I also found a book at the DI that has him counting to 100 by 5s using Reese's Pieces. It is fun, like the Cheerios books, but I think it's too early to expect him to have an attention span beyond maybe 40. 

We worked on writing the letters A and B tonight. I am thinking of looking into "Handwriting Without Tears", maybe it can teach me some tricks to help him write letters more legibly. I know it's not super important yet, but I think it frustrates him anyway. 

Week one of 2014

This week, we were in Seattle at the beginning so homeschool was already off to a rocky start. I'm the kind of person who needs to get into a kind of rut on doing something that needs to be done daily. If I fall out of that rut, it is SO hard for me to get back on it. 

Jace and I practiced some tic tac toe. I like to think it helps him learn to plan ahead, and there is some counting to it as well. He learns across, down, and diagonal.

While he and I did that, Remi scribbled in a coloring book nearby. I love scribbling with children. You can see their coloring get more purposeful over time. I tell her what colors she is using and point out objects in the page she is using. 

We borrowed a box of colored bears from the local resource building, Family Information and Resource Center (or FIRC). It comes with some pages of patterns for Jace to copy and fill in a box with what bear he thinks comes next. There are also some math cards, but he is not quite to that age yet. 

Some other things we did this week were learning about air travel (which worked out well, as we were flying to and from Seattle), how to hop on one foot (he's unsteady, but can do it while holding onto the couch), and we set up the idea of what manners are. They'll be introduced to him one at a time over the year. 

I found an app for my iPad that allows me to write a list of chores for him to do. i can set point values for the chores and create a rewards list for him to use the points on. He also earns a ticket to the "monster carnival" within the game, though he's yet to win anything from it. Hopefully it will help him do more around the house. We got kind of lax over the summer.