It is SO cold today! The snow is still on the ground. Yesterday Paddy kept murmuring “Tiddley-pom!” and finally asked me “Mom, HOW does that song go?” I realized he was thinking about the “Song for Snowy Weather” in one of the Pooh stories. He made the connection between the snow outside and the song in the story, and was even hunting through his book basket last night looking for it (I found it somewhere else today and read it to him — he had a big smile!)
Things seem to be going well. Sean wanted to do two days of math yesterday so he could skip math today. He is up to factoring polynomials and cancelling out factors in fractions and division problems. He has an interesting habit of going in cycles. One day he will be so sharp and ahead of his game; another day you’d think he was not grasping the concepts at all, even the ones he skated through the day before. I don’t really get this; can only note that Brendan was cyclicar too; is it a teenage boy thing, perhaps? He seems to do better if he’s had time to get in gear mentally and physically.
Today I started him on Fabiola. We are taking a break from Story of the Church since he doesn’t seem to be getting much out of it, and he is up to the persecutions in the history text, anyway. SO Fabiola fits right in. We’ll see how he likes it. I am hoping it will be good Advent reading for him.
I have gone to reading Bible History aloud to Kieron. I see when looking it up that it is for 6th to 8th grade and it uses Douay Rheims language so perhaps that’s why he hasn’t seemed to engage with the text much when reading it on his own. He generally likes Bible stories and still remembers lots of the stories from the DK Illustrated Bible (couldn’t find the one we own; must be out of print but the link is to a similar one by the same author) which we read when he was six or 7. Anyway, when I was reading his comprehension level went up (as judged by the q&a at the end of each story, which we use for discussion starter).
I asked Kieron to show Aidan the Parent/Child Masterpiece level one art cards, and demonstrate how to match them. They are in the MODG Kindergarten syllabus. Clare was around and took an interest in this, and we found he is very very easily able to do this matching activity. He loved it, too, especially the attention! He did it again and again.
Talking it over with Clare, who said she would like to teach him more things, we decided on trying him on auditory discrimination. So she brought him up to the keyboard and played some openings of various familiar songs, and he did great at this too. Often he could ID a song within a bar or two of the intro, even when the intro didn’t contain the regular song melody. We were so impressed and he had such fun! Clare would like to try teaching him some songs to play on the piano, not music theory yet but just playing, I guess a bit like Suzuki. So we’ll see if that is a seed planted.
Paddy and Aidan both played Starfall and Count Your Chickens for a while; Sean and Kieron did Quia Latin and Kieron did Quia division practice. Now they are having a “free day” which is our term for a day when they can play computer games when they are finished with their work. Of all the systems we’ve tried, including no regulation at all for “screen time”, this is the one that works the best — having two days a week where the kids can play in the afternoon. We started it when Kevin and I had to go into town at least twice a week for Aidan or Paddy’s medical issues. (Town is an hour’s trip one way). The older kids would stay at home and play games or watch videos. The kids as a whole prefer the 2 days a week routine even more than complete de-regulation. Anyway, that’s working the best for us now and has for years now.
Sean did a spelling list and Kieron did his Handwriting without Tears.
Paddy sat with me for almost an hour yesterday listening to stories. We read:
- Millions of Cats
- Jemima Puddleduck
- Frog and Toad all Year
- Uncle Elephant (another Lobel easy book)
- Two Eric Carle books
- The whole Read Aloud Bible Stories (about six stories contained within)
He could have gone on, but I was tired and wanted to say my Rosary before I fell asleep!
I took one last look at Five in a Row last weekend. I love the concept and realize that it’s because this is what we already do, only in a looser way. We read the stories they love again and again. We pick out different details as we get more used to the story. Finally, the little ones narrate or “read” the story themselves from memory, spontaneously. They also apply the story to different contexts — ie, Paddy with the Tiddley Poms.
However, I bought the FIAR volumes several years ago and have never used them beyond buying several of the books. Whenever I look at the lists of FIAR “formal” activities, I get depressed. This is no reflection on FIAR, just something about my right-brained thought processes, I assume. It looks overwhelming and “teachery” to me. But I realized that I could possibly use the FIAR manuals as a springboard for more open-ended activities, thusly:
Take The Story of Ping. It is so cute. The FIAR manual suggests drawing water using water-colors, doing water buoyancy experiments, studying China, talking about discernment and obedience, counting all Ping’s relatives for math. This works beautifully for some people; for me it is like what Charlotte Mason says about what they used to call “concentration schemes” in her day. I can’t imagine my kids getting into it. Clare and Brendan in particular had an antipathy to any suggestion that sounded “educational.” Cindy says Right-Brained Learners love learning, resist being taught! This is SO Clare and Brendan and so ME, in that I love guiding my children in learning, and seeing them learning, but really feel uncomfortable teaching them !
YET I could imagine using the Ping unit as a springboard for putting out the watercolors and paper; having a water-table; etc. In other words, use this as a pretext for more Montessori type, open-ended “learning centers” — I wouldn’t have to draw out the connections for them; the children could connect it to Ping or not, as they pleased. This is more like how I’ve done literature studies with the older kids. It’s closer to my comfort zone and also gives me some inspiration to bring out supplies and materials as I might otherwise not get around to doing.
OK, this is getting quite endless. I forgot to mention last time that Brendan and I have been reading Eirik the Red saga cycle, and an old ballad collection, for our daily hot cocoa time. On his own he has been reading Norse Myths, a 3 volume set by someone Thorpe. It is a bit like Bulfinch; anyway, my father gave it to me to bring back along with the sagas and the ballads, and they are interesting to read. Today we read Edom a’ Gordon from the ballad book– pretty grim !– my Scottish brogue that is!– and the storyline itself was depressing too!
Aidan is STILL matching art cards! He’s next to me right now!
