Beginning FIAR

Rachel and I have started FIAR.  I've tried before, but it was too soon.  She wasn't ready.  However, this fall we noticed lots of boredom at playschool.  Also, she seems hungry to learn new things, so I thought we'd try it again.

We started this week with Very Last First Time.  It took me a couple of tries to come up with a planning mechanism, but I finally landed on using a grid with days at the top and subject areas on the left.  I never schedule more than 45 - 60 minutes of "Learning" activities a day, and all of those can be done in ten minute chunks, done when they fit naturally in the day.

We are referring to our studies as "Ginger Kindergarten" because she misprounounced Junior Kindergarten, and since she is a red head, it stuck. :)

We also commemorated the start by giving her GrandmaBetts' old iPad and had the cover engraved with "For Rachel Clare, Keep Learning and Exploring".

This Fall.

This Fall pretty much sucked.  I accepted an additional teaching position for two sections of a class, then when my schedule was as full as possible, my mom died.

Thus, this blog got no attention for months.

Rachel learned a lot about death this fall.  Our cat died a few weeks after we returned from my mom's.  What amazed me is that when we went to bury the cat, she took a flower and tossed it in on top of him in the grave.  She had never seen that done.

We read a book about death and we talked a lot about it.  Plus, she has seen me crying a lot and I've explained that I really miss my Mommy.  She has only asked once about when I was going to die and that she hoped it wasn't for a long, long time.

We continue to read every morning, cuddled on the couch with hot chocolate and coffee.  Recently, she was introduced to the concept of an index page.  She loves to look up a word in the index and then find it in the book.  She also is starting to grasp the concept of a book title and an author.

I've started planning for January.  We're going to start FIAR in a formal manner.  David and I have decided that Rachel will be mostly homeschooled for JK.  She will attend a local private kindergarten for 2-3 half-days a week so she can play with other kids.  We don't have any other kids her age on the street, so I have to be very intentional about arranging social time with kids her age.

We're going to start with "The Rag Coat".   I want to take between a week to ten days with each book.

Writing

She finished the workbook on uppercase letters today.  The lower photo is her first complete set of letters that were written and not traced. 

Learnin's at the Cottage

For whatever reason, Rachel worked through almost an entire 39 page workbook on writing uppercase letters this week.  She had previously done about seven pages over the course of several months. Then, I showed her the book while I was cleaning my office last week.  She claimed it and dashed off to work in it.  A week laster, she has completed all but the last page.  Her uppercase letters are coming along nicely!

She also had some great nature encounters this week.  In addition to the new bunnies at home that we've been peeking at every day, she saw a water snake and we caught two different types of fish.  She loves the wiggly worms we use as bait.  Whatever we caught, we put in a large bucket for her to touch and look at, before we released them back into the lake.

However, the best moment was Monday morning when we went down to the protected water garden David constructed this spring at the edge of the lake.  Using rocks as a water break, the area on the protected side has sprouted waterlilies, arrowroot.....and frogs!  Rachel and I went down and caught baby frogs and looked at them.  She loved it.  Later, while sitting on a rock in the beach area, a frog hopped up and sat next to her.  She sat very still and watched it.

We also watched hummingbirds fight over the feeders and can identify the Heron's cry now, which signals that it will fly past.

And, last but not least, she got to see a Hellgrammite at the bait store.  Sorry, but I don't have the guts to use those as fish bait.  The man who owns the bait store said they were a natural bait.  I pointed out that they had wicked pincers.  Don't they hurt you?  His response was "Only if you squeeze them."  Ok....how does one put them on a hook without squeezing them?

Photos upcoming....if I could just find my card reader!

July 22, 2012 - Birdhouse

We've been looking at birds this summer and finding out their names and other bits of information about each one.  So, in keeping with the theme, we did an art project.

So far this summer, we've seen the following birds:

• Ruby Throated hummingbird
• Rufous hummingbird (just one)
• Crows
• Heron
• Loons
• Bufflehead Ducks
• Cardinals
• Doves
• Finches
• Sparrows
• Dark Eyed Juncos
• Whippourwill

Random Learning in the Summer

Today, off the cuff, Rachel and I talked about the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  We were driving into town to buy some supplies and somehow the topic of pretend verse real came up.  We are now reading our fourth chapter book, Pirates After Noon.  We picked up the factual companion volume, which I may not actually share with her yet as it has some violent images that are too much for her right now.

She has also learned today that galvanized bolts are dipped in zinc.  In the new little toolbox that David bought her, she has a new drill bit to add to her collection.  (They come in every box of screws, so we have extras.)

She informed me yesterday, as we were talking about what a "flock" of birds was, that hummingbirds migrate south for the winter.  We had looked up some of the birds we've seen in this app and she actually remembered that the maps showing the range of the birds were color coded to show different seasons.  Ok, she blew me away with that one.

She has learned to swim around in the lake without holding on to me (and yes, she is wearing a life preserver).  Tonight I tested her to see if she could dog-paddle back to shore all by herself.  It took her a little while, but yes, she can.

She loves to swim in the lake.  She hates getting out, even when she is shivering.

She has learned that taking a shower, like Mommy, is fun. (Not to mention easier on Mom here at the cottage.)

We've looked at water bugs, water lilies, fish and wild raspberry and blueberry plants.  She has eaten both berries right off the plant.  We have a container of worms which we will explore tomorrow and go fishing for the first time.

Wildflowers

Over the past few weeks, Rachel and I have been picking flowers at the cottage and pressing them. We've identified several and have included them in our scrapbook of the summer.




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Mummies

We've been reading the Magic Treehouse series of books.  We are currently in Book 3 about Egypt and Mummies.  (Rachel keeps calling it Mommies, which is just darn adorable.)

What I love is that she really find the books interesting.  Enough so that she is focused enough that we can stop and look things up on the iPad so she can see a photo or picture of it.  For example, this week we've looked up pyramids, mummies, scepters, and hieroglyphics.

Luckily, the books are available on the iPad, so we snuggle in with coffee and hot chocolate and can easily flip between the book and other photos and such.   It is really nice to sit on the couch here at the cottage, in the cool of the morning, and read together.

June 30, 2012 - tape measure

Since David got her a toolkit to help with the deck construction, she has been measuring a lot of things. She even marked out the joists (every 16 inches) with Dad's help.

Herbs

Rachel and I harvested herbs today from the garden. Lots of Italian oregano, basil, purple sage, and cilantro were cute. Rachel is helping me prep them.









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Playschool has ended for the school year.

Yay! Rachel loves playschool, but I am definitely to the point that I'm tired of making the drive and would like some days at the cottage.

So, I'm planning learning and play activities for us to do in place of playschool.

1. We're going to be at the cottage a LOT, so in addition to the pressed flowers we've been doing there, I'm going to attempt to do some of the Outdoor Hour studies.  To be honest, we spend so much time outdoors that I'm not sure how useful it will be, except it will help us drill down a bit more.  My hope is to learn the names of some of the wildflowers and bugs we find.  We've already found photos of the hummingbirds online and have names for them.  I'm thinking of grabbing a large, cheap artist's sketch book and putting together a scrapbook of our cottage/outdoor adventures.

2. The kid loves math. She adores problem solving and even sort of likes jigsaw puzzles.  She can play the algebra game now in "equation" mode.  It was a bit startling to walk in on her this week and find her sitting with my iPad solving simple algebraic equations.  She has only finished the first level of the game, but accidentally started on the bonus equations. (I've played the whole game and thus unlocked the bonus material.)  She didn't bat an eye, but solved several of them in a row.  So, I think we'll continue playing math games this summer.  She already does basic addition, so perhaps we'll look at subtraction next.  I also think we'll make a really long number line this summer.

3. She balked at the reading lessons, so we've stopped.  We will continue to read books, in large quantities, all summer.  Perhaps in the fall she'll be more ready.

4.  We'll keep practicing writing ad hoc.  Her little fingers aren't quite developed enough for too much.  She gets tired and I really want her to enjoy it.

Week 1 of Learning to Read

It was a mixed week in many ways.  She clearly started grasping the idea that letter sounds merge to form words and was gleeful when she could "say fast" the slow "sounded out" versions of words.  She seemed surprised the first time the sounds went from being sounds, to a word she knew.  I like the approach of the book we're using.  They view reading as decoding.  The child decodes a set of letters to a sound (word).  Then, the question is whether or not they actually have that word in their vocabulary.  What we're finding is that Rachel's vocabulary is huge.  She has surprised me in the last couple of weeks by knowing words that I don't have a clue where she picked up.

However, she still has pronunciation struggles, which lead her to not want to do the lessons since they have sounds in them that she can't do easily.  I started getting lots of push-back by lesson six, so I think we're going to wait six months and then try again.  If the "f" and "th" sounds don't improve, we'll revisit the speech therapist.

Chapter Book Introduction

Today, I purchased "Dinosaurs Before Dark", the first book in the Magic Treehouse Series.  I thought we might try reading a chapter or maybe two.

We read the entire book. In fact, Rachel and I read over 5000 words today.  She LOVED the book.

She has also taken to her "Reading Lessons".  Twice today I found her opening one of my books, moving her finger around on the page, making the sounds we had been working on and pretending to read.

She actually asked to do more lessons, but I moved her on to something else.  I want to leave her wanting to do more tomorrow.

Reading

I received both of the books I ordered on "teaching kids to read". The first left me going ...meh, whatever. The other I really like. It has a horribly cheesy title, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". After reading all the forward information for parents, which took awhile because of numerous interruptions by both a three year old and her father, I was impressed. (The interruptions were fine. It just meant that I read the material in three sentence snippets.) We started today. She actually made it through most of the first lesson fairly quickly. We'll do two, ten minute sessions tomorrow.

Algebra app....VERY COOL, even for toddlers

I ran across the COOLEST app yesterday. It teaches basic algebra through a very addictive game. I "played" all the levels and was blown away by just how intelligent the game design is. Bravo to the folks who created it. And, Rachel was able to complete the first level by herself. Yes, a three year old could play it. No, she has no clue it has anything to do with math. Go here: http://www.dragonboxapp.com/

Reading...the time has come.

I've been very laid back about reading with Rachel.  David and I want to instill in her a love of books and stories.  I think we've done that.  We read 4-10 books a day with her.

She is starting to recognize words she sees, so I've ordered a couple of "curriculum" books in order to get a bit more methodical about teaching her to read.  One is a phonics book that was highly regarded on the forum Well Trained Mind.  The other one I've seen around and just wanted to take a look at it.  It divides "learning to read" into 100 short lessons.  That would be useful for Rachel since she is still so young. 

I am going to aim for 20 minutes a day of "formal" work on reading.  This will be in addition to our leisure reading.  I'll split the 20 minutes into two sessions, one in the morning and one at another time.  With summer coming on, we can easily do it in the afternoon since we won't have playschool to contend with.

Art.

Rachel sat in playschool this week and stared at the picture in front of her of a door.  Her teacher said they were drawing ladybugs on the door.  Toddlers jumped in enthusiastically, drawing ladybugs and scribbling.  Not Rachel. Granted, she was very tired.  But, when I asked her about drawing lady bugs, she looked at me solemnly and said, "I don't know how to draw ladybugs."

-blink-

She will joyfully jump into other activities such as math or reading or pounding nails with a crowbar.  But she won't attempt to draw a ladybug?  I gently suggested that she think about what shape a ladybug was.  She then managed to draw a couple of circles and stick some antennae on them. 

I think I'm going to start leaving some "games" around that involve her drawing shapes and such.

Slacking. Math. Writing. Construction.

We've been so busy with the Cottage, Work, Taxes, House, etc that BFIAR (Before Five In a Row) has completely gone by the wayside.

Learning has happened all over the place.  However, we also got in some more traditional stuff.  She found this little Kindergarten math workbook and proceeded to work 18 pages in it before she got bored and moved on to other things.

We did some artwork at the cottage.  We made more rock animals to decorate the staircase outside.

She worked on tracing her letters.  Heh.

And she learned a lot by helping David dismantle the deck at the cottage.  Yes, she was allowed to carry around a can of old nails and a small crowbar.  David gave her some extra wood and she actually nailed some nails into the wood.

Pizza

Today, while we were stopped at an intersection, Rachel looked over and said, "That's a pizza shop."

I looked, and yes, it was.

Then, I asked her, "how did you know it was a pizza shop?"

Rachel replied, "Because it has pizza on the sign."

Once I dropped her off at Playschool, I went back to look. Yes, it had pizza on the sign. The word pizza, not an image of a pizza. There was nothing else on the building except the word pizza, which was written a few times.

She READ the sign.

Maps

Rachel has developed an interest in maps.  Four months ago, she didn't understand them at all.  Now, she does.  So, given her interest, I showed her a book I bought that I was saving until she was older.  I thought we could at least look at it together.  Well, I was wrong.  We went through every page and did little exercises/games. 

We then made a map of the living room and kitchen and played hide and seek with different objects. 

Nature Studies

Since the weather has been so fantastic, we have been spending a lot of time outside.  Today, Rachel found a feather, a dozen or so snail shells, and...(drum roll) Louise the "Garden" snake and her two babies! 

I love watching her explore in the yard. 

Legos and Math

Today, Rachel and I ventured to pick up her lego in the basement.  I told her she had to do it.  This was not a universally loved idea. She managed to get some of the blocks in the bin, but was having trouble doing it all.  So, I suggested we play a game.  I got a sheet of paper and drew to big boxes, put a "+" between them and an "=" after.  Then, I put lego blocks in each box and we did addition.  After she solved the math equation, she put the blocks in the bin.  She was doing so well that I added another feature.  After counting the blocks, we put the actual number underneath them so we could see the actual math equation.

All I can say is wow.  I had no idea she had caught on to basic addition as well as she has.

Plus, we got all the lego picked up. Win-Win.

Oh, and she can now count easily to 30.  Again, we were surprised to hear her do this yesterday, out of the blue.

Oops

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word read means:

look at and comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed

This morning, Rachel and I were reading a book that we've only read a couple of times.  It hasn't made our regular stack of morning reading books.  This morning, she saw it and said, "Let's read that."


No problem.  I grabbed it and I started reading it to her.  Several pages into the book, I asked her at random to tell me what this word was:  Oops.


I seriously expected her to go, "I not know that."  (It is her standard response to any question she doesn't know the answer to.  David and I have both taken up saying it.)


Instead, she pondered a couple of seconds and then said, "Oops."  I blinked and then managed to say, "Yes, that's right."  She then followed up with, "You know, like in that other book."


I knew exactly the book she was talking about.  It was one of her baby books, Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton.  


So today, Rachel officially read on her own.  Her teachers at playschool told me last week that they thought she would be reading by summer.  They were right.

Weighing Things

After gymnastics today, Rachel came home and saw the kitchen scale on the counter.  She immediately climbed up on her step-stool, and started weighing things.  We spent time comparing different item's weight and reading the numbers.  She then weighed David's cell phone, and then pretended to call him and tell him we were "doing science".  I love it when she self-initiates activities like this.

Play. No Really. Play.

Kids learn by playing.  There are a staggering number of psychological studies done on the topic and the show, conclusively, that the best way for kids to learn is to play. PLAY.

If I sound a bit irate, it is because I am.  Today at Rachel's gymnastics class I asked the other moms about local playschools.  I was informed that there were a couple of "really good" programs in the area.  When I asked if they focused on play and social skills, they were taken aback.  "No!  They prepare the kids for kindergarten by teaching them the things they need to know."

Sigh.  I grow more and more horrified at what is considered a "good" school.  The idea of Rachel spending all day in a classroom at age 4 is so dismal I can already say that I doubt we'll put her in pre-kindergarten.  Certainly not the all day version. 

SERIOUSLY folks....WTF???  Who thought all day school, five days a week, for a four year old was a good idea????

If folks who make the decisions about our education system want my respect, then they need to start looking at the research and making decisions based on what is best for kids. 

Yeah, I'm frustrated.

Dinosaur. Rocks. Microscopes. Train.

Today, we took Rachel to the ROM to look at dinosaurs.  To my delight and surprise, she could name about half of the ones we saw.  She also used my camera and took a lot of photos.  She's learned to aim it and frame what she wants to take a picture of.  I'm seriously thinking of giving her my old camera.

Rachel took this one of the Pteranodon.

Rachel took this as well.

And this one.

Dad and Rachel looking at the bones.

Touching a tooth!

Then, we visited the kid's discovery zone.

Then, after lunch, we visited the minerals/gem stones gallery.

And then visited an exhibit on the Carolinian forests.  Here Rachel is playing with a microscope that displays what is under the lens on the monitor next to it.

Then, we took the train home.  I bought her a set of Dinosaur Train playing cards.

Science Experiment

I've been so sick (and out of town) for the last month, that I've gotten behind on this blog.

I told Rachel recently not to drop blueberries on the carpet because they stain.  She was quite interested in this.  So, rather than have her test the theory on the carpet, we did an "'speriment".

She understands what a hypothesis is, thanks to Buddy on the Dinosaur Train.  So, she hypothesized that the cloth would turn blue.  David, hypothesized that it would turn purple. 

Stand back, we're doing Science!

First, we got a bit distracted by the blueberries in the pan and had to sample them just to make sure they were blueberries.

We boiled it and then I strained it and added a bit of vinegar.

Voila!  Daddy's hypothesis was right.

Good Planning

We have been talking about and reading about germs this past week.  So, just to drive home the topic, Rachel got an eye infection required antibiotics.  Poor kid.

However, it was excellent timing in terms of learning why we wash hands. 

Letters

Today when I picked up Rachel from playschool, her teacher pulled me aside to show me her worksheet.  Her teacher was impressed. :)  So was I.  She is going to be reading and writing in less than a year. 

January 22 – 28, 2012: A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Opening notes 
I'm starting a bit late on the week (it is Wednesday), however, we read the book yesterday and again today.  We may spend two weeks on it.

I chose this book because it has wonderful artwork and deals with colds. You know, sort of a seasonal book. :)

Books:

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin Stead
Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Why Do I Wash My Hands by Angela Royston
Germs by Judy Oetting
Keeping Clean by Liz Gogerly and Mike Gordon

Video Resources:

The Magic Schoolbus – Human Body

Dora The Explorer - "Dr. Dora"

Math:

1. She is now counting to 20 reliably, and given the starting increment of 20, 30, etc..) is starting to get the pattern of 21, 22, 23...31, 32, 33 We'll keep working on counting to 100.
2. We'll also count little things like Amos does. “1 for my oatmeal, 2 for my tea”
3. I've painted a magnetic chalkboard on one wall of the basement.  I'm going to put the clock up (it is magnetic) and take pictures of us at various times of the day.  Then, I'll print quick copies on our printer and we'll tape the photos up.  Hopefully this will help her associate various activities with different times of day.

Map Skills: 

1. She really loves making and playing with maps and will ask for it about once a week. I think perhaps this week I'll grab a copy of the Toronto Zoo map and we'll locate all the animals in the book on the map.

Language Arts:

1. I wonder if she would like to make up a story about her getting a cold?  Or maybe her doll?  We'll do some pretend play and maybe use that as a basis for a story.

Spelling:

1. She continues to work on her spelling both on my iPad and using the puzzles Grandma Betts bought her for Christmas. She can do several three letter words now.

Science: 

1. The obvious choice is animals. Perhaps revisiting the classifications of various animals would be fun.
2. Also, there is a red balloon in the book, so I may snag a red balloon with helium and then blow up one myself. We can talk about the difference.

Feelings: 

1. I had a friend die this week and have been very sad. Talking with Rachel about my friend's death was enough about feelings for this week. She is working things out in her head and will ask me periodically if I am sad. I think we will continue to talk about things we do when we are sad and that it is ok to be sad.  I may also do a small (ten minutes) "service" and have Rachel help me remember my friend.

Art: 

1. The artwork in the book is pencil and wood print. We can't do wood prints, but I think we can use foam, fruit, potatoes and other things to add some color to pictures we draw with pencil.  I'll demonstrate how the more water you add to the paint, the more you can see the pencil lines through it.

Fine Motor:

1. We'll get back to tracing letters this week. She hasn't wanted to sit and do much of that in the past few weeks, so I let it go. We'll also try a dot-to-dot this week. I'll have her use a pencil for this.

January 17 - Time

Yesterday, I introduced Rachel to clocks and telling time.  I bought a cool clock that she can play with  and we looked at the hour hand.  She's still a bit young to understand minutes and hours, but she quickly understood 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock...etc.  We talked about what we do at different hours of the day.  Photos coming.