Can I brag about my oldest son for just a minute? I can? Great, thanks! But where do I start? By telling you he consistently keeps his room (mostly) clean and that he eagerly jumps in to help the girls clean up their room (which can be an utterly disgusting feat)? By telling you that whenever he sees a full trash bag in the kitchen he proceeds to drag it out to the garbage can (even when it outweighs and outmeasures him)? By telling you that on Sunday (Mother's Day) he folded and put up an entire basket of laundy - and that every time I jumped in to help him he said "No, Mama. You just sit down and relax." Well, I could start there - but I won't.
What I'm really proud of at the moment is his incredible math skill and dedicated work ethic.
He's only in kindergarten, but he completed his kindergarten math book around Thanksgiving (he would've finished it earlier but we delayed him until we could purchase his new book). Part of this is due to the fact that his two older sisters started teaching him how to add and subtract at the age of 4 (it's great to have older siblings!). The other part is that he LOVES it. He eagerly wants to do more and more math each night. He usually does one to two pages, but 9 times out of 10 he asks to do four to five pages. He's now almost finished with his first grade math book - which is totally awesome. He is grasping mental math with such speed and skill that leaves me in awe most nights.
I think part of what makes it so incredible is the fact that since 2nd grade, Doodle Bug has struggled with math. She learns new concepts quickly, but if we stray from previous concepts for too long, she forgets them or confuses them with other concepts (something I am prone to do as well). Knowing this, Ryan and I have changed our teaching strategies with her and it helps amazingly. She also wasn't too quick to memorize simple facts (ie- all multiples of 10s or multiplication facts 1-12), that alone has cost her a semester or two of math.
So honestly, I really doubted my ability to teach elementary-level math to my children. If my oldest child struggled so much in the simplest of things eventhough she's an exceptionally bright girl- I must be doing something wrong (which is still a big part of it - I've learned A LOT about how to and how not to teach math - that's for sure). But the fact that he is grasping it so quickly is boosting my confidence in my teaching ability and making me a better math teacher to both of the girls. It's blessings all around!
So, kudos to my son. For learning so quickly, understanding concepts, and changing our home school confidence all at the same time. And BIG kudos to God, who continues to teach and refine me through my children. It's awesome.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Are You Prepared?
So they say that kids learn through play - I'd say I definitely agree with this statement.
Yesterday we started the last phase of our weather unit - hurricanes. We talked about what creates a hurricane, what happens during a hurricane, how to prepare for a hurricane, etc. We looked through the National Geogrphic featuring hurricane Katrina. We watched videos from The Weather Channel's Kids website, and even started an episode of Sesame Street that dealt specifically with hurricanes. When I found the Sesame Street video online, I wasn't sure how the oldest kids would react, but was excited that I found something on Buddy Boy's three year old age level. Turns out, ALL of the kids loved watching the video. At one point the power went out at Sesame Street and Doodle Bug (who's 9) was so surprised and said "Oh no! The power's out!" They were getting into it - it was awesome. The video is almost one hour long, we just watched part 1 (which is 15 minutes) and the kids are looking forward to watching part 2 tonight.
Anyways, our science activity for the next few days is to track a fictional hurricane named Sam across the Atlantic Ocean (so far it's sitting right over the Bahamas with category 5 winds). The kids are pretending to work for the National Weather Service and are issuing alerts to residents in the Bahamas, Cuba, and the US if necessary. They've done VERY well and plotting the coordinates, determining what category the hurricane is, and deciding together what alerts should be issued to neighboring countries. I'm quite proud!
I promised the kids that after we finished some math, writing, and our science that they could outside and play in the sprinkler. So as we finish up our science, the girls are getting all giggly and squeely and say "Hey! We can use our wagon as an evacuation bus! You guys pack up your kids, pets, and purses and wait at the bus stop (our two garden benches). Then we'll turn the sprinklers on and pretend that the storm is coming." They even created a short weather report to issue to the town's residence informing them of the storm. They were getting SO into it. It was great. They played 'evacuation' for almost 2 hours. Gosh I love them.
So, you know you're kids understanding something when: 1 - they teach it to their friends/younger siblings, or 2 - they immitate what they've learned through play.
Yesterday we started the last phase of our weather unit - hurricanes. We talked about what creates a hurricane, what happens during a hurricane, how to prepare for a hurricane, etc. We looked through the National Geogrphic featuring hurricane Katrina. We watched videos from The Weather Channel's Kids website, and even started an episode of Sesame Street that dealt specifically with hurricanes. When I found the Sesame Street video online, I wasn't sure how the oldest kids would react, but was excited that I found something on Buddy Boy's three year old age level. Turns out, ALL of the kids loved watching the video. At one point the power went out at Sesame Street and Doodle Bug (who's 9) was so surprised and said "Oh no! The power's out!" They were getting into it - it was awesome. The video is almost one hour long, we just watched part 1 (which is 15 minutes) and the kids are looking forward to watching part 2 tonight.
Anyways, our science activity for the next few days is to track a fictional hurricane named Sam across the Atlantic Ocean (so far it's sitting right over the Bahamas with category 5 winds). The kids are pretending to work for the National Weather Service and are issuing alerts to residents in the Bahamas, Cuba, and the US if necessary. They've done VERY well and plotting the coordinates, determining what category the hurricane is, and deciding together what alerts should be issued to neighboring countries. I'm quite proud!
I promised the kids that after we finished some math, writing, and our science that they could outside and play in the sprinkler. So as we finish up our science, the girls are getting all giggly and squeely and say "Hey! We can use our wagon as an evacuation bus! You guys pack up your kids, pets, and purses and wait at the bus stop (our two garden benches). Then we'll turn the sprinklers on and pretend that the storm is coming." They even created a short weather report to issue to the town's residence informing them of the storm. They were getting SO into it. It was great. They played 'evacuation' for almost 2 hours. Gosh I love them.
So, you know you're kids understanding something when: 1 - they teach it to their friends/younger siblings, or 2 - they immitate what they've learned through play.
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