Just a little update.
We are cruising right along, and are on our 75th day of school already! We are about 15 or so days ahead of our local district. We've tossed aside our school work on those un-seasonly warm days we had so we could get out and enjoy the day. We've canned a couple of days where the going just got rough, or when everyone needed a break. But we'll stay ahead through the holidays, and hopefully have some snowy days to enjoy in the next few months.
So here's what we've been up to.
I still have the least amount of Chase pictures. He does Journal, Math, Spanish and part of Language Arts on his own, Science and Art with Indigo, Social Studies with Indigo and Riley, and everything else intermittently as scheduled. He recently got into the Harry Potter series and read all 7 books in 5 weeks' time (which counts me dragging my feet on getting to the library every time he needed the next book!), and is now reading the other works by JK Rowling. We didn't see him for long periods of time, as he went off to devour the books any chance he got. Band and lessons continue at the middle school. December is going to be heavy on indoor physical education, with Pilates DVD's and strength training, and a new Writing Course begins for he and sis.
Chase does his work seated on his bed, which is temporarily in the girls' room while the boys' room gets a makeover.
Indy is also elusive, and in not so many pics! While she needs a bit more prompting to stay on task than her big brother, she also completes her work in similar fashion as listed above. With the room updates, we are trying to incorporate nook space so that she can do her work without distraction of youngers, but the problem is - she can easily distract herself! She also picked up the Harry Potter books at the same time, but doesn't stop to read as much as Chase does. She is currently waiting for a library trip to get Book 4. Band, orchestra, violin lessons and drum lessons continue at the middle school.
We found small space to work in, as the homeschool room was piled up with the furniture and boxes from the boys' room. Please ignore bouncing monkey on the chair in the background!
Making meatballs with a sister!
Next is our "1st Grader." In quotes because almost nothing Riley does is 1st Grade level, except apparently her spelling! Her most recent reading assessment puts her word recognition, phonemic awareness and oral vocabulary in mid-12th grade, and she maxed out on everything else, except for spelling. She spells like an end-of-1st grader. Which gives you an idea of just how differentiated her learning needs to be! The spelling I am not worried about, it will come with time and I suspect a great deal of it has to do with her confidence and desire to have it always be right. She also picked up Harry Potter at the same time as Indigo, and they fought over the first book. They finished it at the same time, and although the other kids moved on, Riley lost interest somewhere in the middle of the 2nd book (perhaps because a certain sister kept hiding it...). But that may also have been because she picked up another series, and I guarantee she'll be back at Book 2 soon. We dabble in multiple math resources, but can't stay for long in any one because she already has the concepts down, and I really don't want to waste her time. I've just recently gotten a 3rd Grade Grammar workbook to go through, and I had a difficult time picking the level. She gets the concepts and terms easily, but higher level work wants her to be writing more than she can handle at age 6, motor-wise, attention-wise, and even content-wise. She loves doing History with her big sibs, and her science goes in spurts. She'd rather be doing the experiments all day and I just don't have the time for that! Art is interspersed with other subjects, and phys. ed. is not an issue as she is outdoors a whole lot!
She can also work under pressure...
She's covering her answers so RJ can't copy... how sweet!
Making the Earth's layers with play dough
My last post was focused on preschool/Kinder level stuff and RJ, so no need to go into it again. Our biggest development is that he's gotten "diagnosed" with Sensory Processing Disorder, and I use quotes because SPD isn't a recognized diagnosis in the DSM yet. He gets weekly services, and the occupational therapy he's receiving is teaching us a lot. The goal is for RJ to learn what he's feeling, and how he can regulate himself to be able to function in socially acceptable ways. We are (supposed to be) incorporating 15 minutes of "Heavy Work" into every 2 hour period, in an attempt to keep him as even-keeled as possible. When I do it, we generally have great days. It's new to us, and with the chaos of a now-mobile baby, I admit, we are only hitting it about 40% right now. I also learn things about him all the time. He is very visual. More than most, even. I'm a visual learner, but it's my preference, I can still learn in other ways. He struggles greatly with this. Since much of the preschool and Kinder material out there includes visuals, I am finding that I have to be picky. If the pictures don't match up completely and literally, the lesson just won't work. For instance, a Rhyming Workbook has some pictures like this: a pan frying an egg, and the word was "Cook." He could not, even after multiple prompting, get it that the word was "Cook." To him, it was "Pan." Which most certainly did not rhyme with Book! So I went back to the drawing board with that, stashed a lot of our materials, and scoured the 'net for things that would work for our little guy. He remains very mechanically-inclined, and grasps math concepts well, so I'm making some math bags for him to be able to work on independently. He also has fine motor bins as part of his day, and of course, some sensory fun as well. He learns best when he is in motion, or his hands are busy!
Magnetic letters spell sight words from the BOB books.
Cutting and gluing are always a hit.
A nuts and bolts Fine Motor bin keeps him busy.
He joined his sibs in building some of our many USA map puzzles.
I found a Beginning Sounds unit that contained all literal pictures, no confusion with the visuals! It's laminated and the pieces all have Velcro Dots so we can do this again and again.
And sometimes, he's just the subject of everyone else's fun...
Phys. Ed. in the rain...
And last but not least, little Shel is nearly 8 months, crawling all around since the end of 5 months, standing up, cruising on furniture, bouncing down the stairs (accidentally), going after the broom, my kitchen rugs, stereo wires, forgotten LEGO's, any paper she can get her hands on, and cleaning up under the kitchen table since we don't have a dog. She's a happy little thing, and would prefer for Mom to hold her all day long. She is a completely awful sleeper, and is just now getting into regular naps... which occur on the couch, my bed, in my arms, the carseat or the stroller... pretty much anywhere but her bed!
Exploring the dry noodle bin
Exploring the Project Club cardboard pile
Down for the count
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