Sunday, September 19, 2010

School Days: Week 2

Week 2 went very well. We started the week by reviewing the letter A. Sean wrote an A all by himself!

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Our lessons then turned to the letter B and caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies. A friend brought over 2 Monarch caterpillars that were just about ready to change to chrysalises. We watched how they first hung in their J position and then changed to their chrysalises. This lesson will go into late next week when they emerge as butterflies.

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We also found a Tawny Emperor butterfly. They are a very tame butterfly. We caught it, put it in a jar to look at and then let it go.
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At the end of the week, Sean surprised me by spelling his name. I always write his name on his papers and have him help me. While we write it, I call out the letters.



This week I've had changes on my mind. I'm debating on buying the curriculum again. I think we will try October with me making my own lesson plans and then decided. I think the curriculum is going too fast in some areas and too slow in others for Sean. The other change was a physical change. We do school more at the kitchen table than in the playroom. I think the toys are too distracting. Our school supplies now live in our kitchen:
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Dance class...I guess you can say it went a little better. I still couldn't leave him but he did dance a little. He then had a melt down near the end of class so we left early.

4 comments:

  1. That's a nice hutch, I knew you'd end up in the kitchen, lol! Good job Sean with the letters! I'm still debating how to introduce letters to Charlotte, thinking about going all unschooling with it.

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  2. That's not a hutch..it's my granny's trophy case that's been sitting in our bedroom unused the last 6 months. :) I'm just introducing a letter each week...the name and the sound. We don't harp on it all week but it's brought up often...including past letters. Like last week, we went on a letter hunt in Walmart. He enjoyed that.

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  3. I don't know why I said hutch, guess that's what was on my mind at the moment, lol, either way, great utilization! I think I'm going to do sandpaper letter and 3 period lesson to teach letters but without sounds. I've been trying to teach Charlotte sounds and she isn't realizing that the sounds go with certain letters. I'll tell her something like, "Sh, sh, Charlotte" and then I'll catch her in her room reading like, "Sh, sh, monkey" In the book I just read, Learning All the Time by John Holt, he mentions stuff like that can sometimes happen so I think I'll just stick with reading to her a lot and teaching her words as a whole, it seems to be doing the best job. I have also been recording Between the Lions, that show is fantastic!

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  4. PBS has some awesome shows...Between The Lions, Word World, Electric Company, Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, Word Girl... When the TV goes on during the day, it goes on PBS. He seems to really like them and they're educational. We're going to start with phonics. I feel it's the first building block to reading. Without it, you have a long road ahead of you. I know this first hand.

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