We did some chores around the house to get ready for Breakfast. Even Manuel did work. Connor and Gavin made Breakfast.
The school day started with Brain Gym. With my headache, I put the boys in charge. Ki led Criss Crosses, Connor led Body Scales (these are not a Brain Gym activity. It is a sensory activity made to help Ki's dyspraxia.). Ki always wants to lead these, but I only can let him lead them if I do a round first. (to make sure it gets done as needed to work, LOL). Manuel led Lazy 8s with arms. Gavin led Hook Ups.
I made word worksheets for Ki while they did this. I used Puzzle Maker(free to use website) and plugged in Ki's spelling words for this week. I made a word search and a crossword puzzle with his spelling words.
During Brain Gym., I also used Babelfish to give Manuel his writing assignment. Babelfish is a free language translator online. Id does dozens of languages , but it's not perfect. You have to think carefully about your wording. If you type. I was right (meaning correct) it will translate the ord RIGHT ad the directional word. (right or left). So I have to think carefully about how to word things. and sometimes it's still a bit off, but if I use the correct wording it does a good enough job that Manuel can understand it.
After Brain Gym, I gave the boys their writing assignments. They had to choose an event from a short list I provided, as I have learned long ago, an open ended choice leads to 3 hours of trying to decide for my younger 2. They had to write a list of what happened in order. Gavin needed 25 things, Connor 20, Ki 15. Tomorrow they will turn their list into a story. I will Ki make a comic book story- less words, yet he gets the story writing concept. They all wrote more than needed. The seemed to enjoy iy. I had Manuel write 10 sentences about going to Danny's house on Sunday. (The boys' friends). Ki also choose their day at Danny's house.
Manuel was done first. I found a book with instructions on dinosaur origami. I started with the easiest in the book. The dinosaur snapper head. I helped a lot with the first time. He thought it was SO NEAT that flat paper made a 3-D toy! So we did another one, with him doing most of it. Then he did one all on his own. Connor loves these snapers and son all the boys were making them.
Click on the link for Unit Membrane- Read and click NEXT to get to the next page. Continue this. Some pages have little animated diagrams with a PLAY feature. Make sure you watch them.
At the end is a quiz, Take it. Record your grade- Correct if needed.
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We went for a walk at the nature reserve place . Lots of nice pics. The boys skipped rock, caught insects, looked at fossil, climbed trees and swang on vines. I locked my keys in the van. Brian's dad had to come take us hone, I got the spare, then drop me off at the van. I took the boys to lunch. everyone wanted Panera except Manuel. So we went to Panera (becuase we almost always go where Manuel wants and I think it's not fair to my own kids if Manuel is always chosen instead of them and it's not good for Manuel to always gethis way)
So he sat and pouted the whole time and refused to eat. Kids are kids no matter what country they live in....Ki is like that, too when we don't go where he wants. Now he is crying. Poor kid.
Conor was reading in the bedroom and I didn;t think I should always kick Connor out of his room everyday. He's been getting upset and sad that we always kick him out of room 2 times a day to do Mannuel. So I let him stay and did Manuel's massage and therapy on the sofa. I told the boys to make sure they didn't come into the room.
This tree had long thin roots that were just drapped across the path!
SHELF fungus put to use!
A big, fat lightening bug That crawled on Ki for half of our walk. He had a little green inchworm on his face after this.
There was some large shelf fungi at this place!
Swinging on a vine
A better vine !!
Connor had wiped most the blood from his finger already.. Manuel and Connor got cut skipping stones...
A cool tree!
--Kimberly
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The only reportable events from yesterday are the Mentos Experiment and the fact that we were given a pop up camper trailer. It sleeps 8 and has a fridge, stove, sink….. The man is a friend of my husband and was thinking of asking $100 for it but decided to just give it to us. He said his family got more than their money’s worth out of it and hopefully we will get lots of fun, too.
Yes, I know- this expeirment was the big thing about 2 yrs ago.... And we just NOW finally got around to doing it...
Today we watched a few videos of the Mentos Experiment and read an explanation. So now we know ways to make our Mentos Experiment better. We will try it with diet coke and Mentos nd also try it with salt. I think I will assign the boys the task of figuring out how to implant a delayed trigger (like on the videos- whish are AWESOME and linked at the end of this blog)
And Manuel was singing a Tobymac http://www.tobymac.com/ song. He only knows 2 lines and slurs the third line all together. It’s funny because he only speaks Spanish (he does know a handful of English) and he has no idea what he’s saying. He sings “Shake it---Don’t break it….” the next line is “took your momma 9 months to make it”- but he can’t quite say that line. He calls the Tobymac my “CD Muy rapido”
Soksey brought a bird to us. I guess he thought we were hungry. I really wish he’d eat what he kills.
Ki got a 95 on his spelling test. I told him to study his words, he did, said he was done studying. I asked if he was sure, he said yes and told me to ask him his words. So I did. He spelled them all except for one. I gave it to him again and he got it correct. I figured he spelled them for me out loud and it counted as his spelling test. He missed 1 out of 10- then corrected it and got it right- so I gave him 5 points for it. Told me had a 95%. Later I had him spell a few words with his feet; using his foot to ‘draw’ the letters on the ground. I think I’ll add that activity to his spelling routine- It will be good for his SID. After that, Ki made French Toast. He made the batter and made his French Toast, then the other boys cooked theirs. Ki helped Manuel with his. Connor finished book 5 from Cat Warriors.
His reading has gotten so much better. He’s been able to read since he was 4 or 5 (it’s hard to tell exactly with autistic kids). He was always able to read on grade level. but he was very, very slow and had very poor retention and comprehension. I changed his Language Art program around _I used a reading program that was 2 grade levels lower than his reading level- but on his comprehension level. It is a Silver Burdett book and workbook-Going Places) and I added lots of things like doing puppet shows, dioramas, drawing book covers, etc… for each of the short stories. And now he just ZOOMS through books on his reading level with great comprehension. He thought he couldn’t read this book 5 on the 3 weeks you get from the library- so he bought the book. He read it in 6 days. Ki has started reading ‘real books’- no longer those 10 words a page kindergarten readers. He wants to read the Cat Warrior books, too. He reads the titles (this book is called ‘The darkest Hour’) but he can’t read much more. He has read a couple other books that are about 3rd grade and he reads a passage here and there or bigger books.
This is why I don’t force my dyslexic kids to read 30 minutes a day of books that are a bit too hard. I do not push at all. I let Ki read simple Dick and Jane type books over and over and over and over and let him progress when he was ready and wanted to. same with Gavin). and it happens. One day (towards the end of 4th grade, they just decide they are now ready to go very simple Kindergarten pre-readers to reading on level AND the WANT to.. They are excited to read, they have the desire. I know they wouldn’t have the reading desire if I was continually pushing them to read before they were ready. Today was spelling tests and math tests and Science Experiments.
For Math tests- well, lately I have the older two doing Saxon- but JUST the examples and practice problems for that chapter (and make up 3 of their own problems), so I decided on Fridays they will do the Problem Set at the end of the last chapter they did. I’ll grade them later- we’ll see if this works.
We did more science fun today.These are things we have doe in the past, but i thought Manuel would enjoy. He says science is no fun,,, boring..
Last night I put a little water in one of the 2Liter bottles and topped it with a balloon. I put it in the freezer overnight. We took it out this morning. The bottle was sucked in on the sides and the balloon shrivled. it's hard to tell with the small picture-
but the ballon and bottle are both shriveled.
Then we put it in a pan of water and watched the balloon fill with air as the hot water melted the ice in the bottle.
a little more air into theballoon
enough to make it stand upright!
a little more air.....
It's getting quite full now...
The balloon at it's max. Though I think it would have gottenbigger once the water IN theballoon boiled. At the end the bottle itself was swollen with air so I turned off the stove. I didn’t want it to explode.
Not sure if you can tell, but the upper portion of the bottle is expanded and fat with air. It was bulging quite a bit.
Then we did the Ghost in a Bottle trick…. Here is a poor video. You can’t see the coin hop- but it does.
You can hear it.
It does tiny hops as the ghost is trying to escape. Freeze a glass cola bottle (we used IBC) then take it out the next day, put a drop or two of water on the rim. Put a coin on it. As the air warms and tries to get out, it pushes the coin.
DON’T Do this one at home with your kids- but neat to watch- MENTOS ROCKET
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It's almost National STAR WARS day!!!! Once again, the boys took to digging their underground house before breakfast. School didn't start until after 10. well, the 'in class sitting down' type of school. It is good that they were digging before school. The physical work is good for them The brain needs the body to work. Learning is more complete when both there is physical activity, too.
We started with Brain Gym and drinking water. Manuel was able to do the criss-crosses much better this week! Connor is just an annoying little goof. He ended up doing extra Brain Gym because he was just playing around and being so silly.
Then we went over Spanish/English words and phrases. The boys enjoy quizzing each other. My boys say a word in Spanish and Manuel says it in English- and he says an English word to them and they have to say it in Spanish. Manuel is much more wiling to try English words for my kids- then for me. I guess it's less embarrassing to mess up with other kids than with a 'teacher'.
We didn't do spelling today. We did story writing. While Manuel read with his foot propped up, I did a little lesson on time sequence in story writing. I told them what it means to tell a story in sequence of events. Starting with the first thing that happened and moving on…. to the end. First I told a little story- part of it. I said something like":
"The alarm sounded early in the morning. With my eyes still closed, I rolled over and turned it off. I took a deep breath then opened my eyes. I went to brush my teeth and hair. Then I got dressed."
I then asked the boys questions about what happened first and next and last. Connor (12)didn't do well. He just sat there. He couldn't figure out what happned first and next. Kids with Asperger's often have trouble with time sequence and with his bothers jumping into to answer he just sat back. So I directed some questions to him. Just for him and was detailed and tried to lay things out in for him. He did better that way.
Then I gave the boys a list of out of order sentences for the next part of the story. They had to put them in order. Then they had to write 5 more sentences to finish the story. Here are the sentences they had to put in order:
-I followed the drops into the kitchen.
- In front of the fridge I found a bone.
-As I stepped into the hall, I noticed drops of blood.
-I picked up Soksey.
-Soksey was eating a chipmunk by the door that leads to the garage.
Ki wrote 3 sentences (I told him he only had to write two or 3). He made them out of order for ME to figure out. He had"
? I put Soksey outside. ( Ipit sokey ot siid)
? blood fell on my shirt (blod fal on my shrt)
? Soksey brought a bird in. (Soksey brot a bord in)
Connor wrote: "Soksey had 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks. It took me 79, 258,010,236,547,721 seconds to count them. Soksey was very happy. The lanet exploded. Then Soksey was sad! Soksey was sadder than me because he lost 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks." He gave himself a HUGE RED A+
Gavin wrote: "But he didn't like it when I picked him up, so he bit me on the hand. I yelled and dropped him. He finished eating the chipmunk. Then I closed the door and locked him outside, but before I could close the cat door, he came inside. He ran under the bed and took a nap. I made breakfast and woke the boys. They ate breakfast and we started school. Soksey woke up and tore up the school books. We did a little work on blank papers. We made lunch and ate it."
Then it was time for Manuel's therapy and the boys did their reading while I took care of Manuel.
After that I wrote a list of schoolwork for the boys and took Manuel to Taco Bell for doing such a good job with his therapy this past week or so. I really enjoy spending time with Manuel. He opens up and tries hard to learn English and also to explain and teach me Spanish when we are one-on-one.
After taco Bell we went to a School Supply Store. They had one of those 9 tile puzzles with a split picture on each side and you have to match the tiles…. B-Dazzle Puzzles He loved it. He would get it almost done and the last 2 or 3 wouldn't match up and he laugh about how easy it looks but it's really very difficult. The he'd rearrange them and laugh when the birds had 2 heads… picture is link to website. bdazzle-
I finished my purchase and we stopped by the dollar store in search of index cards, to no avail. So we went to the little coffee shop to do sit and do his schoolwork. They had one of those triangles pieces of wood with the pegs that you hop over each other and try to get one peg left. I taught him that . he really enjoyed it. He played it over and over and over. He got one left a few times and would say "YO GANA!" We worked in his Ingles in 10 minutos a dia book. We read outloud back and forth and he wrote things out.Then we did math. I couldn't get him away from the peg game… I told him if hw could win again (one peg left) he'd not have to do his math today…LOL. He had 3 left…
so I used the pegs to demonstrate the math concept. having groups og 4 or 6 pegs, making equal groups, taking one of the groups away, etc... He couldn't get it for awhile.
I finally was able to make him understand the problems. They were problems like: ½ X 6 = 6 - ? he didn't understand ½. I went over and over it, with pictures, and using the pegs showing that ½ is the same as 3/6 (and 2/4 and 4/8…) Finally we stumbles upon the word medio… and I finally got him to understand…medio de sais = the same as 6-3…. He finally caught on. He was getting confused my the word HALF. He is great with math as long as there is only an equation on ONE side. So we are really exercising his brain here. Teaching different ways to see things. I wrote out a few more problems and he did great.
½ x 10= 10-? ½ x 6= 6-? ½ x 50=50-?........ etc..
I think I had 7 for him. So I moved onto ¼ x 4 = 1 out of the group of 4 pegs…. same with 1/3 x 3 =1 of group of 3 pegs… THEN we went to 1/3 x 6 =2 (if you double the 3(6)- you double the answer of 1 (2). so he was able to get the answer to ½ x 12 = ? just by seeing to double the answer again. We finished. He played the peg game again and won. And then said that because he won, he doesn't have to math tomorrow…LOL. We'll see….
Ki didn't have his work done, but I knew he wouldn't. I sat him in my lap and we worked on it together and he did well.
Manuel rested with his leg elevated (it is still swollen) and watched Star Wars 2.
Connor was asleep when I got home. and still coughing. I bet his antibiotics aren't working… I'll have to take him back to check in a day or two (he has one more pill left) And I think he has impetigo. He is a face picker.. a scab picker.. he used to have open sores all over his face until he was 4 or 5. He doesn't scab well, so wounds stay open for a week often…. anyway, he finally got out of the face picking habit….. until he had chicken pox two months ago… now he has open scratches on his face again and can't keep his hands off….. just another autism issue…
THAT'S IT from me today! it's TACO TUESDAY here!
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How often do you see cool science experiments online videos???
How often do you see perfect, easy science experiments on kids' science TV shows??
How often do you read (see illustrations) of awesome and fun science experiments in books?
I bring you- REAL SCIENCE experiments-- the ones you try 6 times and they still come out a bit not-correct...
Bill Nye I am not. I am just a Bill Nye Wanna-Be.
Today we did 2 science experiments. The first was creating a vacuum in a glass bottle to suck a hard bpiled egg into it. It is a GREAT experriment... if the egg and bottle are correct sizes. My egg was too big... or maybe my bottle too small. Iused a Snapple Teas bottle and a large egg. If I can get a small or maybe medium sized egg, it may work.
We tried 4 times to get the flame IN the bottle, but it kept going out as soon as we put in there. The 5th time, Connor left his hand on the egg the whole time. so you didn;t get the effect of the vacuum sucking the egg.... it culd have been Connor pushing it. So we did it AGAIN! and I saved the footage. But I need to hire a more compatent camera man. This one was too close, so he couldn;t get the entire bottle in the frame. So you either saw the fire at the bottom or the egg at the top. He wiggled when the egg was starting to be sucked into it, but if you look closely you can see it. And JUST as the egg was being sucked the rest of the way, he TURNED IT OFF! You can hear the start of the suction sound, though. You see Manuel (in red) and Ki in the background. I have the fire, Gavin puts the egg on the bottle (I straighten it). The camera man will remain nameless.
Then we floated citrus fruits. Limes and Lemons to be exact. This was another experiment that didn't work. ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS (just who are 'they' anyway??) the limes sink and the lemons float. SEE VIDEO of REAL EXPERIMENT If you cut their rinds off and try just their rinds, both float, if you try the lemons and limes without rinds the lime still sinks, the lemon still floats. Limes are more dense (compact mass) and are heavier than the water so the sink. Lemons are less dense, so they float. We have dense lemons. They stood sort of upright at the bottom of the bowl.. didn't float all the way- didn't sink all the way. WAIT!! We were supposed to use the WHOLE lemon and lime I think!! DOH!.
Then we floated mangos pieces and rinds... (no pics of that)
I LOVE MY GLASS BOWL! I bought is with science experiments in mind. So many need a big bowl for water and this is smooth and straight and clear- so you can see right in. I also use it for mixing things (like a double batch of waffles)- most science experiements with water are food items anyway.... water, juice, baking soda, cabbage juice/lithmus tests...
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What a GREAT day! I slept in late. I let the boys sleep in, too. Connor and Ki were up and out on the computer before I was out of my room. Gavin and Manuel needed to be awakened. We have breakfast around 9. I read Pilgrim's Progress and Psalms 23 to them.
We were out of the house by 10. We went to the Beavercreek Wetlands. I always just call it the fen, but the boys like to call it the wetlands.
I had recently purchased hand held microscopes.(Steve Spanlger Science) This was the first time we used the and the first time the boys had seen them. They loved them! They range from 60-100X and have a focus and a light source. Gavin was excited to see plant cells and see the cell walls. Connor saw a 'worm' in some wood. I wonder what it was. It was microscopic- not visible when he just looked naked eye. It was a great purchase. I even tried it out a few times. Manuel was quiet. Not really sad, just melancholy; deep in thought. He stayed on one of the benches about 1/5 the way through. We saw about 5 frogs. One was a big bull frog that I think was the big bullfrog from last year. The cat's tails are coming up new and thee was a lot more green plants than last month. We are taking pictures every 2-3 weeks and comparing them to see how the fen changes through the spring and summer.
Then we stopped by Grammy's to invite her to Burger King with us. Pappy was home, too, so he came. That was fun. It was me, my four boys, Grammy and pappy. We needed two tables. I was approached and told what a polite nice boy Connor is. He had to go ask for an extra chicken nugget and the lady that was up there said he was so polite and well behaved! What makes that extra nice to hear is the fact that he has Asperger's Syndrome and he can have trouble with social situations.
Then Gavin went to Grammy's house and worked in her yard. She paid him $30! too much…LOL. Even he told her next time he doesn't want $10 an hour. Connor gets to work for her next time.
I dropped Ki off at drama rehersal and took Connor and Manuel to a children's science museum. They had a tidal pool and Manuel got to pet starfish and sea anenomes and sea cucumbers. We took a walk outside and looked at plants and birds. We looked at the wild animals in the mini-zoo. Connor's favorites are the otters and the bobcat.
When we picked Ki up from school we also brought Miguel home. Miguel is 9 and also a burn child from Honduras. Being Tuesday it is TACO NIGHT at my house. A evening where everyone eats a good meal and likes it! We had to do wound cleaning and massages and garment dressings with both M boys. Brian took them outside and they say 3 different satellites in the sky! And now for a BOATLOAD of pictures!
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Brian stayed home till 11:30. He was using the school table to fix a car part. This threw my school schedule off. And I had to all the hospital about Manuel's leg. I wasn;t sure hpw deep to get into somethinguntil I knew if we'd be gone all day.
I had Manuel do about 5 pages in Miquon. He was coloring fractions and writing fractions to go with pictures. While he did that Gavin did his History CD and Connor did his Saxon Math. G&C continued while I did massage with Manuel. Then they all played outside with magnifying glasses.
I called them to do another round of school. Gavin and Connor did online Science. Gavin's went well. Connor was too distracted by Gavin's to do much on his own. Though he didn;t learn much about human anatomy, he learned a bit about atoms and chemistry from Gavin!
I found a Picture Encyclopedia for Manuel. It's Spanish. He read 6 pages and I told him to write something down from each page. He wanted to copy everythng from every page. Hey- I didn't tell him he had to, but more power to him! I'm sure he learned more by copying it all.
Ki and I played Word Card games, then he wanted a "SpellCheck" for his story he is writing. So I read through it and wrote down the correct spelling of words and he corrected them.
LUNCH and Recess (Ki an Connor fought)
Then we finished school.
To Start I had Ki do 4 laps on the Joint Compression Ball. Then he played Game Goo while I did spelling with C&G. I had Manuel choose if he wanted to read or use the LEap Pad. He choose Leap Pad 'Party en le Casa'. It is a Bilingual story with vocabulaty and word games.
Afer that Ki had one page of math and C&G read.
I was much happier with school today!
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The boys woke up around 7:30 and did their morning work before they got on the computer. I woke at 8. I decided that on Mondays breakfast will be at 9. So I gave the bos extra time to be on the computer. They each got 20 minutes.Morning computer is a special privledge to those who get up extra early nd get their work done. They often think they are all 3 entitles to it. I have to explain, htey are not. It isn;t a right. It is something extra they get if they put forth the extra work (in getting up early and being disciplined) on their own.
I woke Manuel at 8:30. We had scones and boiled eggs and bacon for breakfast.
I read from Little Pilgram's Progress while they ate.
*** I made YUMMY homemade scones for Easter. Some plain sweet scones and some blueberry scones***
Then we did our Brain Gym. I had Ki do joint compressions as he had a bad SID weekend and I wanted to make sure he had the JC for today. He no longer needs them everyday, but I need to make sure he gets them on his bad days.
The boys copied their spelling words down. I had Spanish-English words/phrases for Manuel.
Ki chose the words GAMES for his word of the week. He then wrote a little story using his words. The other boys wrote a few sentences as well.
Then it was massage time for Manuel. I bet my husband would like leg massages twice a day...LOL. His pressure garments didn;t dry completely last night, so I have him doing math in his stockings. His garments shoule be done soon.
Ki is did 3 pages in Miquon, Gavin did his chapter in Saxon math and Connor did 3 pages in his reading comprehension notebook.
Manuel is doing a Fractions Booklet from Miquon. We also did some work with problems that have different opperations....like 2x4+3x5.... I showed him to do the multiplication first (2x4)+(3x5)... so its 8+15. Then I showed him how to work with negative numbers. He had never worked with negative numbers before. I drew a numberline on the board from -5......0......6 and did some probelms without negatives to show how touse the numberline, then some problems with negative numbers.
His garments were dry by then. The other boys took a break while he donned the pressure garments. I had him doing them all on his own, even the hard part over the foot.
After the little break, Ki and Gavin worked on Critical thinking sheets and Connor played Math Detective and Manuel read. That is pretty much the school day. Everyone did reading, spelling, writing, math and 2 did Critical Thinking.
I don't feel super happy with school today. I felt too pulled to help anyone effieciently.It felt 'hurried through to get done.' I need to re-eval the day, find out exactly when/why I feel it didn't go smoothly and correct that for tomorrow.
Normaly on Mondays we have to be out of the house by 1:15 to go to drama and computer- so I want to be done with school by 12-12:30 for lunch.
And I still have trouble with not doing every subject every day... I feel so incomplete.
The boys will do other things today. Brian downloaded a new CAD for Gavin. Ki and I will go shopping for the fabric to make his Costume. Connor is designing melee characters for a game..
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We took a wak at the fen today. Thismorning I packed a lunch. As we were about to leave it began to sprinkle. I decided I had already packed a lunch and I have boys who love wet and dirt, so we'd go anyway. The fenin the rain might be fun. And hopefully it'd clean and we could eat our picnic lunch.
Here are pictures:
ABOVE- the bpys would pull the dead reeds and then shoot them like spears...see below--
I forget the name of these. I like them though, They are everywhre and thick and hearty. I keep thinking they are some sort of stink cabbage... I'll have to look up their name.
here is a link to little leech movie. Connor found a leech and we took a short video. well, our guess is that it is a leech.
and we watched 7 deer run through a feild and then right in front of our car.
We are on Spring Break.I like to do lots of 'educational trips' on breaks. I view breaks as 'unschooling'
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I was told Manuel lived at home with his parents, 6 siblings (and brother in law)and 2 nephews. That his sister was married with 2 kids.
Well,his sister is married, so are two of his brothers. He lives at home with his parents and 3 of his sisters. The others live in their own homes. 2 close to his house and one in a nother city.
I was told he doesn't have electricity, but he does. He has a TV, a fan and I think a keyboard. or something that sounds like that word.
it is true that he doesn't have running water.
Manuel and his family go to church every day. from 6PM-8PM.
His parents have been baptised but he hasn't.
He still doesn't want to speak or learn any English.
We went to the skate park today.
Ki---Manuel--Connor
Manuel's new haircut.
ME- Connor did that. Took a picture of me.
CONNOR
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I normally like to have a free-flow, child guided eclectic approach to school. But somedays the boys are stuck with boring seatwork and workbooks. But they are old enough to learn that sometimes the real world is like that. As adults we are sometimes stuck with boring mundane work and we have to just do it. (like laundry...LOL)
(written Sunday night) - I will be taking Manuel to the hospital and will be gone a few hours.his knee was bad tonight, so I decide to make a last minute change of plans. The boys wil be on their own for school. It's nice to have them at a stage I can trust them to stay home and do school. Though I hate when I have to change plans last minute....
Got the school work planned for Monday
FIRST- they clean up from Breakfast, then They each take turns leading a Brain Gym Activity (I listed which for whom). They love when they get to be in charge of a Brain Gym. Nothing quite as fun as telling your brothers what to do!
Gavin :
Switched on School History w/ his Hisptry notebook. (if it doesn;t work- as computer stuff always messes up when I'm not here) I have an online Chemistry Research project for him. He is doing well with independant studies.
Saxon Math
Write a One Page story using randomly drawn cards from our NANOfictionary Story telling card game.
Connor-
His Going Places reading book with activities and questions
Leap Pad Geography Book
Math Detective (computer CD from Critical Thinking Co)
Can't give him too much freedom yet. He just can't focus on his own. He nneds to have everything planned out for him. More so thanhis younger brother, Ki. Ki needs things planned out, but can plan some ofhis own school or schedule. Connor get's too distracted to even do that.
Ki- Leap Pad History Book
Math Dice. 5 Multiplication, 5 Additon, 5 Subtraction (with specifications as to which dice to use) and then 5 of his own made up Math Dice problems. He loves making up his won Math Dice problems. A lot of this is review. Ki needs a lot of review. Costant review of everything he has learned. Or else he forgets it. It's like a short term memory problem or something. Or maybe long term memory. Anytime we go more than 3 weeks without school it is like being back in Kindergarten for awhile. He is 10 and will forget letter sounds and basic math if he isn't always doing review of everything.
4 pages in Explode the Code.
They each have a housecleaning task and reading time.
When that is done they can play outside in the back yard or play their computer time.
This should be a nice mix of school and has a few things they are in charge of and can choose. So it should work out.
Time For Bed!
Monday-Morning- called the hospital, they can't see Manuel until 2:30. I will still have the boys do independant schooling I planned last night. Maybe I canget some housework done.
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(Life) Manuel was very sore this morning. Very sore. He was crying when he treid to walk. I let his lay in bed with his garments off for awhile.
He's feeling better now.
I took Connor to the doctor when I finally finished with Manuel and ice and Motrin and calling his doctor and doing massages and redressing him. I need to get Connor's meds. The doctor thinks he is getting a secondary skin infection.
(school) I did some spelling with Ki. I took his 9 word cards and our plastic letters. I made bags with letters for the different words. He had to dump the letters out and arrange them to make a word. Some he needed to look through his word cards, some he could do without looking. Manuel tried, too, and actually got 'school'. Then Ki and I played Memory match. His words are in print and cursive so he has 2 of each word. Then we played 5 in a Row. I lay 5 cards out and say them in random order. Ki has to pick them up in the order I said them. It's good for his auditory processing disorder. Then we played Make a Sentence. We take turns drawing 2 cards and have to make a sentence out of our two words. Sometimes we do 3, but today it was just 2.
After that I did some of the plastic letter jumbles with Manuel and Spanish words. He really seemed to like it.
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We had French Toast and bacon for breakfast. Manuel was very sore this morning. We did some school. Then Manuel's therapy. My neighbor needed a ride to get her car from the shop. I set my boys up with math work while Manuel and I took her. On the way back we stoped at the store for eggs milk and a mango. Manuel was very sore and depressed, so I figured a mango was needed. It worked. After lunch, he and the boys played. I took a short nap. Then we did science. Gavin read about the heart, lungs and muscles. Connor and Ki games and info about different parts of the body (Leap Pad). I translated some info on nutrition for Manuel. He knew food was good for him, but that was it. So I had him read some info on what foods have protein, what protein does and about how many servings he should have a day while he is healing. Same with calcium and other vitamins and minerals. Aftr he read it. I felt kind of bad telling what healthy amounts of food are, since I know he doesn't get it at home.
I took a load of towels to my neighbors, the one who I gave a ride to this morning. She washed them for me. (I sent detergent). She was nice enough to fold them after she dried them, too.
Did some cleaning (not that you can tell, though, it's such a lost cause). Then took the older 2 boys (mine) to Laser Tag and Ki, Manuel and I met Brian for dinner at a work function. Then home, bath and therapy for Manuel, he called home, I picked G&C up from Laser Tag, took a friend of theirs home, came home myself.
Then we played cards. Manuel and I. I taught him Go Fish. Brian had taught him Speed earlier. So we plaed those. Then Ki played with him.
I tucked them in at 10:30 and hand washed Manuel's tights. Then cleared the dishwasher. I need to hand wash his garments and load the dishwasher and go to bed.
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Connor helped put breakfast condiments on the table. Ki made bacon and got the dishes around the table. Manuel put the placemats on the table first. I vacuumed the floor. Gavin helped clear the table.
They all made their beds and brushed their teeth.
9AM- school started on time! I read Little Pilgrim's Progress to the boys. Manuel read more of his Narnia en Espanol. Then a water br4eak, a few stretches and I read Story of the World.
I gave myself 45 minutes for this first section of school… so far…so good….
Ki did his Word cards. He wrote them in salt, then he wrote them on a dry-erase board, then he wrote out sentences. Gavin, Connor and Manuel practiced the Spanish-English words for their week. Then Manuel filled out a book he was given at the hospital. It is a book of favorites... favorite color, favorite television show, favorite food…..
That was spelling class. Spelling and writing. I think it went well. Nothing grand, but good enough.
The my boys read while I did massage and therapy with Manuel. We finished..still on schedule! I asked God to keep us on schedule today, and He did. it really is a big accomplishment here.
After massage and therapy we did math/science. Gavin and Connor did math. Gavin did Saxon and Connor played Math Detective then read through some things on coolmath4kids. During that time, I taught some science to Manuel and Ki. Manuel was still totally clueless. I need MORE BASIC…. Ki did pretty well though.
Then they had lunch and recess. I closed my eyes for 25 minutes and was so sad when recess was over.
After recess I gave Connor and Gavin some science print outs and pictures to label about cells. I assigned 4 pages in Miquon for Ki. They are all on fractions. For Manuel I converted a neat math site into Spanish. If you type the URL of a page at Babelfish, it converts the page into any language. Gavin is in one of those "HUH????" moods. ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Arg. The kid is smart, I don't like these moods where nothing makes sense and he says HUH? to every simple thing. Oh, well.
It's neat. not just the site, but Babelfish. Because he can click to go the next page, or back to the home page…. and it's all in Spanish.
I had him do all the pages of lesson one. He was CLUELESS. (what is it with the boys in my house today????). We went over the pages together. He understood the words, but didn't understand the concept. So I got out pen and paper, drew pictures, used my very broken Spanish and went over it with him. Then we got an apple out. and cut it up. ONE APPLE into 2 parts. the 2 parts are ONE APPLE. the denominator is the number ot total parts in the whole thing. So when we cut the apple into 2 parts we had a denominator of 2. If I stole one part, 'que fraccion piezas yo robo'… and he kept saying I stole 1 part, so we worked on 'I stole how many parts (numerator) out of how many total parts (dominator). He soon got it. I cut the apple into 4 pieces. We stiil have UNA MANZANA (one apple) but todas piezas4. My Spanish is seriously all broken and patched together. But he understood. Then I cut the skin off one piece. "Qunatos piezas no piel de TODAS piezas? Que Fracccion?" and he wrote the fraction ¼. Then I peeled 2 more and asked the same question in my broken Spanish. He wrote ¾. Then I cut it into 8 pieces. He found out the denominator. I had him eat a piece and "enscribir fraccion- que piezas vos comer (de piezas todas)"
he wrote 1/8. Then he ate 2 more pieces and wrote the correct fraction. Then Ki ate 2 pieces, Connor had a piece, Gavin had a piece and I had a pieces. I asked him how many todas piezas mi manzana. helaughed and said nada! I got him to understand how many did I have.. I had 8….si? ?cuantos piezas /we/(hand motioned) comer de piezas todas? Que fraccion?" and he wrote 8/8. and I said. 8 piezas de 8 todas piezas= UNA MANZANA---"… and hegot it. Then I asked him. "Cuantos ninos mi casa? he said 4. I asked quantos ninos de todas ninos –pelo negro? he said 1. I said 'enscribir fraccion. cunatos ninos pelo negro de todas ninos mi casa' he wrote ¼.
THIS IS WHY I DO WHAT I DO!!! Me, in my severely broken Spanish, was able to explain factions to Manuel when the math site in Spanish couldn't. It's just a great feeling to help find that path that leads the light buls turning on! And I love exploring and researching all the different paths till I find one that works.
then it was 2:30…right on time.. they all went out to play. Juego afuera
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We started the day with our Bible story. "God wants obedience not meaningless sacrifice". It was about how God told King Saul to totally wipe out a wicked city and not spare the animals or take treasures. He kept some of the best sheep and oxen and then told the priest "Oh, they are to sacrifice to God!" (probably to over his tracksthinking 'surely he can't fault me for wanting to give burnt offerings to God!". Well, God said- you didn't obey- you are no longer King of Israel.
Then we did Brain Gym (whensay Brain Gym- some things are taken from the Brain Gym book and some are from our Sensory OT book)
We started with 'Head/Shoulders/Knees and Toes"… then we did a few in reverse order- (which is SO HARD for Ki. But I just let him do what he can and never make a big deal of it)
after ear rolls I read Story of the World. We are in Ancient China now.
After that was a short break and Spelling.
Ki was adding to his Story and was told to use 10 different word cards. When he writes his own stories he is more than willing to respell all of his missed words and doesn't complain one bit about it. In fact he is the one that wants to respell everything to make it correct.
Connor and Gavin had their last review test and were given instructions as to homework and what tomorrow's test will be like.
We will clean until lunch and Dominion Classes. We have a lot to do before our in-home interview Saturday. We won't have much time to clean though. I will try to get some dome while they are at their Dominion classes.
UPS brought a package from Florida for the boys. Fruit Candies and a dragonfly toy that balances on their finger.
SOME MORE PICTURES:
Connor and Gavin Spelling
Their Spelling Words-
Ki's Writing Time:
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a little more air into theballoon
enough to make it stand upright!
a little more air..... 
It's getting quite full now...
The balloon at it's max. Though I think it would have gottenbigger once the water IN theballoon boiled. At the end the bottle itself was swollen with air so I turned off the stove. I didn’t want it to explode.
Not sure if you can tell, but the upper portion of the bottle is expanded and fat with air. It was bulging quite a bit. 
