This week, Squidward is conquering contractions!
We have come across don't, won't and can't in The Magic Treehouse books he reads each day and he has started to use them in his notebook to replace "not" words. Last year he had a brief lesson on them and they had come back up in his language arts curriculum last week.
To help remember what all of the contractions meant, I had him make flashcards to practice and quiz himself. We also played a memory game where all of the cards were turned over and he had to find matches such as "do not" and "don't" I also found this great site full of contraction games that he enjoys to play.
I love that he is using contractions on his own in both his speech and writing!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Commercials and Magazines!
Last week I attended a class about modeling in Japan. The Japanese love using Americans in ads, especially blond hair blue eyed kids so I sent out the kids' pictures to a few of the companies that the base prescreens. Within a week my inbox was full of offers! I mean I knew my kids were cute but I fully embrace that I may be partial to that opinion :)
Zombie Boy ended up getting hired for a print ad for Casio. The shooting date was for this Friday but unfortunately had to be pushed back. Squidward has an audition in Harajuku this evening! I still can't believe it! We have agreed to split any monies earned four ways- a majority of each payment will go straight in each kids' college fund, a small portion will be given to whoever did the work to pick a toy or gift out, a small portion will go to our Disneyland pot and each payment will reimburse me for our travel costs (those trains add up quick!) Everyone is excited to get to travel even more now and practice our Japanese :)
I promise to not go all Toddlers and Tiaras on my kids and keep everything at home in balance between family time, school time and *fame* :)
Zombie Boy ended up getting hired for a print ad for Casio. The shooting date was for this Friday but unfortunately had to be pushed back. Squidward has an audition in Harajuku this evening! I still can't believe it! We have agreed to split any monies earned four ways- a majority of each payment will go straight in each kids' college fund, a small portion will be given to whoever did the work to pick a toy or gift out, a small portion will go to our Disneyland pot and each payment will reimburse me for our travel costs (those trains add up quick!) Everyone is excited to get to travel even more now and practice our Japanese :)
I promise to not go all Toddlers and Tiaras on my kids and keep everything at home in balance between family time, school time and *fame* :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Homeschool Writing
Writing...... For some homeschool parents, this word sparks fear and hesitiation more than algebra, long division, phonics and chemistry experiements. Why? Because many kids just don't like to write. It is easy to teach math and science concepts because there are directions. If you follow the directions, you will reach the result you are looking for. Unfortunatley (or fortunatley for some), writing involves thinking, creatvity and patience. It is a skill that we continually improve and change each time we put a pencil on paper, even as adults.
Squidward is a kid who has never liked to write. He didn't mind the actual task of making letters on paper such as handwriting or copy work, he just hated sitting for an extended period of time and coming up with his own ideas or thoughts. This troubled me very much because he is my most creative child and I just couldn't understand why he didn't want to share that creativity on paper. He would be willing to talk about ideas but not write them.
In the beginning of our home school journey, we were signed up through a public distance learning school because I was very overwhelmed with the idea of coming up with an adequate curriculum that I could use to properly teach my children (I, of course. find this idea ridiculously hilarious now!) For two years, Sqidward learned how to write the same way public school kids learned and each assignment was sent into the teacher for grading which in return, she would grade and mail his assignments back full of red marks pointing out all of his errors. This discouraged him to the point of not wanting to write at all and I knew we had to change something. Last year I ended up finding as great writing curriculum so that Squidward could continue to learn about grammar and writing fundamentals in an eight week course but did not ask him to do anything further than that for the rest of the year and summer.
This year, I bought him a special notebook that only he writes in. I do not correct it at all. In the beginning we would come up with ideas and he would maybe write a sentance or two and draw a picture. He was very hesitant at first but then began to enjoy writing and reading his ideas and thoughts to me.
His writing went from this:
To this:
I am so proud of him. He works so hard on his notebook each day! We are to the point now where he is ok with me circling his mis spelled words so that he can add them to his word wall but other than that, my pen stay out of it. It is important for me to know what writing standards are for Aidan's grade but we are able to take more time when needed in a particular subject since we are home and learning all year long. I love that I had the freedom to recognize that Aidan needed less pushing in the writing area. The break and hands off approach seemed to help rebuild his confidence. I never want my kids to learn or do school because they "have" to, I want them to learn and do school because they WANT to. I try to cultivate their natural curiosity and imagination by homeschooling as I have found those areas of learning are not encouraged in public school.
Have you ever had a homeschooling instance where backing off on a subject or area helped more than anything?
Squidward is a kid who has never liked to write. He didn't mind the actual task of making letters on paper such as handwriting or copy work, he just hated sitting for an extended period of time and coming up with his own ideas or thoughts. This troubled me very much because he is my most creative child and I just couldn't understand why he didn't want to share that creativity on paper. He would be willing to talk about ideas but not write them.
In the beginning of our home school journey, we were signed up through a public distance learning school because I was very overwhelmed with the idea of coming up with an adequate curriculum that I could use to properly teach my children (I, of course. find this idea ridiculously hilarious now!) For two years, Sqidward learned how to write the same way public school kids learned and each assignment was sent into the teacher for grading which in return, she would grade and mail his assignments back full of red marks pointing out all of his errors. This discouraged him to the point of not wanting to write at all and I knew we had to change something. Last year I ended up finding as great writing curriculum so that Squidward could continue to learn about grammar and writing fundamentals in an eight week course but did not ask him to do anything further than that for the rest of the year and summer.
This year, I bought him a special notebook that only he writes in. I do not correct it at all. In the beginning we would come up with ideas and he would maybe write a sentance or two and draw a picture. He was very hesitant at first but then began to enjoy writing and reading his ideas and thoughts to me.
His writing went from this:
To this:
I am so proud of him. He works so hard on his notebook each day! We are to the point now where he is ok with me circling his mis spelled words so that he can add them to his word wall but other than that, my pen stay out of it. It is important for me to know what writing standards are for Aidan's grade but we are able to take more time when needed in a particular subject since we are home and learning all year long. I love that I had the freedom to recognize that Aidan needed less pushing in the writing area. The break and hands off approach seemed to help rebuild his confidence. I never want my kids to learn or do school because they "have" to, I want them to learn and do school because they WANT to. I try to cultivate their natural curiosity and imagination by homeschooling as I have found those areas of learning are not encouraged in public school.
Have you ever had a homeschooling instance where backing off on a subject or area helped more than anything?
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