Live and Learn
Apr. 21, 2006
Week 27
|
April 17-21 Middle: I got some of the books featured on the Reading Rainbow shows we watched last week - "The Maestro Plays" and "The Marching Smithereens." It was good to continue in the enjoyment of music and follow up on some things we learned from the show. Both boys were mesmerized on a segment of the show about "Stomp" so I'll be checking the library catalog to see what I can find. We also read: Ruby the Copycat 10 Minutes Till Bedtime The Day the Babies Crawled Away Middle found an illuminated (mini) microscope I bought for oldest years ago and played with it on an off all week. He had a great time looking at a variety of things - a drop of water, a piece of his shirt, the tablecloth, money, a cereal box etc. etc. etc. Here's a pic of the microscope. They are pretty nifty little things for the money - $8 plus tax. If you have a Radio Shack near you, you might want to check them out.  (image from radioshack.com) I found a book of poems about math called Marvelous Math and we read those during the week for Math. We also read some poems from "Nibble Nibble" (by Margaret Wise Brown - a precious kid's poetry book) and "Animals Animals" (by Eric Carle - a book of poem about animals w/ illustrations by Eric Carle). For History we continued to read in "Children Just Like Me." Middle is loving the peek into the lives of children around the world. I came across this book at the library years ago when oldest was in kindergarten. We really enjoyed reading through it and I filed the title away for possible future purchase. I was thrilled a few years later to find a copy at a used book sale for a few dollars. As I said, we found it first at the library and I feel sure most libraries would carry it if anyone is interested. Here's a pic of the book and a link to Amazon where you can get a look inside.  (image from Amazon.com) We also finished "The Usborne Children's Encyclopedia" this week. Oldest: Oldest has his year-end testing on May 3 so we spent some time each day working out of test prep booklets. Ok let me just go ahead and say that the relaxed, part unschooler, love of learning homeschooler that I am really bristles over testing to measure learning or progress. However, since I'm registered directly with the county and it's one of our state's requirements, we do it (there are other options - testing just happens to be the option that makes the least waves with the school board and is the least expensive for me). I try to remember that it's just one test one time a year - the rest of the time we get to learn how and when we want. Plus it's not all bad for oldest to get some test taking practice (in case he wants to pursue the college route) and also get a glimpse what it must be like living in the "box" of public education (said with a grin and sarcasm that only a mom of a strong-willed, left-brained, global thinker, visual/spatial, "spirited" son could.) So anyways (stepping off the soapbox), since we don't do "testing" in school and oldest really has a hard time with the whole testing atmosphere - being timed, staying focused, dealing with material that's new to him, filling in circles, believing that there's just one answer (you get the picture), I find it best to do some preparation. It also affords us the opportunity to see what we haven't covered and go over it a bit - not to measure up to grade-level learning but rather to prevent oldest from freaking out when he comes across something he doesn't know on the test (and then feeling like he knows nothing and forgetting everything he *does* know in the process - I know those of you with boys like mine are smiling!). We're working on a section or two each day then going through the answers. One surprising side benefit - we found that oldest loves geometry. That was one of the areas we hadn't covered yet so we spent some time going through the lessons on geometry in his math workbook. Imagine my surprise when, after working through the pages, oldest says to me "Hey, I love that geometry stuff. Got any more?" Note to self - enthusiastic about geometry - pursue this area! He continued reading in "Boston Jane" for assigned reading and picked up "Fellowship of the Ring" for free reading. |
| • Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend! |
Comments