October and November Chicken Soup

Benjamin really likes his monthly Chicken Soup with Rice poems. Here is Ben reciting November's poem!

I also realized that I forgot to upload the October poem. So, here it is!

Sneaky Christmas Activities

Like most kids, my kids LOVE Christmas time. We have been doing lots of Christmas activities including reading Christmas books and making cookies. We also recently made a gingerbread house. I cheat with that one... I get the premaid kits and then provide our own candy to decorate it with. It's just a lot easier than trying to get the gingerbread perfect on my own.

I am always looking for ways ton incorporate other subjects into fun activities. Kate has been recently working on patterning. I figured this was the perfect way for her to practice. It is also a great review on patterns for both of my boys, even though patterning is usually fairly easy for them. Take a look! 

I tried to include patterns all over the place. I made Kate figure out which one to put next to keep up with the pattern. She caught on really quickly. Ben and Andrew named the types of patterns that we used. More than anything, the kids had fun and learned something too (not to mention ate enough sugar for a month). 

Creating Christmas memories with the kids.

Other math activities that I did while working on the gingerbread house is asking Ben and Andrew how many more of a certain candy that we needed to make a certain total. For instance, "Ben, we have 2 Mike and Ikes on this row and we need 4, how many more do we need to get that many." After some practice, they quickly figured out the answers. This is a skill that Benjamin has really been having a difficult time understanding. I am trying to include as many real life examples into his teaching as possible in hopes that it will click.

We have also been working on crafts for the grandparents. Every year, my kids make ornaments to send to the grandparents for Christmas. Unfortunately, I can't post the ornament ideas on this blog right now because all of the grandparents read this blog and I want to keep them a surprise. Here's a sneak peek of Benjamin working diligently on the crafts. I will post the finished product once the grandparents get and open their ornaments. More to come!

Writing Time!

Benjamin's fine motor skills make writing exceptionally difficult. What I do for his journaling is have him dictate a sentence/paragraph based on a given topic. I write it on the white board as he is speaking. He then listens as I read it back to him and corrects it if he thinks there are any errors. He then comes up with a name. I rewrite it in his journal and then he has to illustrate it. I have really been amazed at his illustrations considering his fine motor limitations. He is also really proud of them.

Ben's drawing of Ben and Mommy holding hands.

Benjamin's drawing of a firetruck.

Today, I asked him to write a caption under his illustration. He wrote "presents!" I am so excited that he is starting to write letters on his own without having to trace them. More importantly is that he is gaining confidence with his writing.

The word "presents" and a picture of a present.

I am hoping that in the second half of the school year that I can get him to write more on his own. I also want to be more diligent with his journalling and make it a daily activity. 

Hooray for Handwriting!

At the beginning of this school year, Benjamin HATED handwriting. He would freak out anytime anybody wanted to make him write. He would get mad, throw the pencil, etc. My goal for the first part of the year was really just to make him feel successful with his schoolwork without pushing too hard on the writing. He gets frustrated easily when the letters or shapes don't come out perfectly.

After talking to his summer tutor, I decided that starting him in the pre-K Handwriting without Tears book was going to be the best way to go. It was all about making it fun and  building confidence. By about October, his handwriting time became what he wanted to do in order to avoid other schoolwork. He would negotiate with me regularly: "Mom, can I do handwriting INSTEAD of math?" Once he got over the frustration and started having success, he blew through the handwriting book. The result is that he is finished with his first handwriting book by December! We will be moving onto the Kindergarten book with hopes that he has gained enough knowledge to be successful there as well. If not, I will just order another preschool book and have him do it again. No harm... especially since the books don't actually say the grade level on them. I'm sneaky like that.

I made a huge deal out of the fact that he finished. He was so excited to finish it that he actually asked to do more pages so he could get it done quicker. I then gave him an award. It is our very first award during homeschool. He was so proud.

Leaf Unit Complete!

I have literally had company for an entire month and have not been able to update the blog at all. We're plugging along here doing our daily work without anything too incredibly exciting (besides hanging with Great-Grandma, friends from college, and cousins). We finished off our leaf/fall unit last week and then celebrated by doing something INCREDIBLY fun... we made a GIGANTIC pile of leaves and played in them! The kids had a blast and I got to play some more with my camera (another passion of mine).

The pile of leaves was huge! Papa, Daddy and cousin Matthew all played in the leaves with us over two days...one time at night thanks to Andrew's suggestion. I guess you could say it was an up-close and personal experience with science. :-)

The pile of leaves was so big that we were able to completely bury Daddy in the leaves. By the time we were done, he was COMPLETELY covered from head to toe.

Everyone enjoyed playing in the leaves. Even Andrew was up for getting mostly buried. Kate ran and jumped in them again and again. Benjamin enjoyed throwing leaves at all of the adults, including the Mommy who was on the sidelines with a camera.

Card Sorts

Once again I scored at Target's dollar section. I found a bunch of card sorts on clearance about a month ago and picked them up as fillers and fun hands on activities. Plus, sorting by attributes is definitely a good math skill to practice. The kids loved them! Ben was working on a "quick add" card sort where he had to count or add together groups of items and then figure out the answer. We have been working on adding groups (knowing that 5 is a group of 5 and can be counted like that instead of counting individual items), so I thought it would be a fun way to practice.

Kate sorted pictures into categories based on various attributes. I read to her the category heading and she did the rest herself! 

This has quickly become one of Kate's favorite activities and asks to do it just about every morning. Sure... why not? :)  I love when we find an activity that helps with an important skill but is also one of their favorite things to do.

Early Readers

Benjamin and Andrew both started reading before Kindergarten. Benjamin actually started reading without having to teach him. I pulled out the K-1 sight words because he was showing an interest and he read through most of them on the first attempt. Since he could barely talk at this point (he was 4 and hadn't started talking until he was 3 1/2, I was MORE than impressed).

Nowadays, my boys can decode just about anything that I hand them. They can answer specific questions about text. They do have some trouble with retelling the story, but I really am starting to think it has more to do with speech and attention issues more than an inability to do so. We are working hard on improving their retell.

Kate has been amazing lately. She is 3 years, 9 months old and has just started putting together letter sounds to make words. She does really well with simple words written out by themselves, so I thought I would try her on the very first BOB book. Check out how she did!! Not too bad for a 3 year old.

No, she isn't like those genius children that you see on infommercials who are reading Charlotte's Web at age 3, but still, I am impressed.

When the boys were little, I was constantly focusing on their speech. I often used flashcards meant for beginning readers for speech. Surprisingly, they picked up the words printed on the cards and could read them easily. Also, when they were learning to talk, I figured that it would be helpful for them to hear the sounds that letters made. So, from the time they were about 1 year old, I would play a game with them while in waiting in line, driving in the car, etc. where I would literally go through the alphabet and say, " 'A' says a a a apple! 'B' says, buh buh buh banana..." I would often put in a word that they would think was super funny like a word in Spanish. They loved the game and it helped them both with their speech and reading. When they were at the point that they were learning their letter names, they already knew the sounds that they made.

Now that I am homeschooling Kate for preschool, we spend some time reading Abeka's Handbook for Reading and are formally learning the phonics required for reading. We are just beginning, but she is quickly learning and is very excited about it.

I have not decided how I am going to educate Kate. She is catching on quickly to the reading and is already starting to learn her addition and subtraction since that is what Ben is working on. She can count well already and recognizes her numbers up to 20 (except for the number 16.... dunno why...). She is already starting to write her letters. However, she doesn't start Kindergarten for 2 more school years. I haven't decided if I am going to go ahead and start her on Kindergarten curriculum early or if I just let her learn at her own pace at home and then send her to Kindergarten in 2 years. Since I am currently homeschooling one child and have one in a very good public school, I am confronted with choosing between 2 very good options for Kate. Another option would be to have her tested to go to Kindergarten early, but she will be barely 4 1/2 when the next school year starts.