Because of all the holiday hoopla I decided to just put the hardcore school stuff on the back burner. I am so glad to get back to our usual routine. Its a new year and with that I feel inspired to shake things up a bit and try some new tactics in regards to our lesson time.
Goal One - I want to find myself saying no to her as little as possible. Often times I am so committed to a specific schedule or getting a certain amount of schoolwork done for the day that I find myself saying no to her harmless requests for change. I am choosing to be more mindful of this and less rigid in general. I have to remind myself that part of why I do this is cause I want her to enjoy the process of learning & also feel empowered at every turn.
Goal Two - to be even more experimental & open - starting with the switcheroo of doing
reading comprehension first, her favorite thing. Instead of math which is far from a favorite.
We began with a bit of conversation breaking down the root of the word comprehension, comprehend etc & also the connection between comprehend and the Spanish word comprende, to understand. Which in essence is basically what it means. of course mom, duh! lol
I let her know its not just enough to be a voracious reader but to actually understand what you have read and be able to talk to someone else about it, give details & share the main idea this is what matters. We read some essays together and then she had to write a few sentences on each one sharing the main idea and also give a short verbal explanation of each . The parable I gave her was that she was sharing information on each essay with someone that could not read but they needed to know the points made in each passage. Of course she enjoyed this because she felt like she was teaching me something each time. We did four passages and then transitioned into animal classification & how to use a dictionary.
In regards to our animal studies sometimes we choose one specific animal to focus on, we research everything & anything there is to know about the chosen animal (her choice), visit zoos and/or museums with relevant exhibits, (btw AMNH is a great spot for this type of research work or any for that matter), we check out videos & articles on line, watch documentaries, ask questions of folks that have first hand experience with the animal & also of course read tons of books. We have done bats, frogs, dogs, dolphins and more. And sometimes we choose a specific class of animals, to focus on such as amphibians, reptiles etc. Today she chose to focus on mammals. The assignment was to read all about mammals & then choose five words from the chapter read and look up their definitions in the dictionary. Write them out neatly on a piece of paper. She chose words like hair, cub, and mother which by the way had some very interesting definitions that encouraged more worthwhile dialogue. This was a great way for her to develop an understanding of how the dictionary works, in terms of looking at the top of the page for the first & last word & deciphering if your words would be on that page or the next or the next. It also helped to develop a higher knowledge of what differentiates mammals from other classes of animals. She loved the dictionary and I was reminded once again that I have a child that loves words most of all.
While she wrote her definitions up I made us a lunch of roasted quinoa & purple kale, prepping her for whats to come after I said okay after we eat we will do some math and then a science experiment, she interjected and asked can I do some art first. My first instinct was to say no, remembering my promise to myself I said yes. She took advantage of the makeshift blackboard that I had created with black board paint and extra wall in the hallway to do some fun stencil drawing and sweet character doodling. She drew people from different parts of the world in clothes that were particular to their culture. What came up then was the different between a country and a continent,. Something we had discussed before but like every other subject geography is never ending
I feel if I left things up to her she would draw all day long. I gave her the space to get busy and have fun with the different color chalks and then noticed her transition to her note pad and more and more drawing was taking place. I did not want to miss my window of opportunity for math time so in my most gentlest voice i said - Okay lets practice some mathematics now and if you want to continue drawing when we are done you can, to my surprise she did not protest or sulk. This is her usual reaction but instead I got a vibe of cooperation & respect. I was quite surprised and also so thankful. We started out with word problems, again this is where knowing your child learning styles comes in, back in the day I hated word problems but she loves them and I feel this is tied to the fact that she is a linguistic learner. She loves a story whether it be mathematical, scientific or pure comedy. She was able to solve them with little difficulty and even boasted at certain points about how easy it all was after the words problems, we did multiplication problems which led her to have to count in multiples of 6, 7, 8, and also multiplying double digits with some major regrouping. This was relatively pain free. huge hooray :)
Our plan for science was to make cheese from yogurt but we need coffee filters which I did not have so we had to table that till tomorrow. She got on the computer and had some graphic design fun. Day transitioned into evening and although we didn't get everything done I feel satisfied.
I am so grateful for this day and have learned that it is often a good idea to take chances and try something completely brand new. every day.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
friday
we made a doll from some fabric scraps yarn & seed beads, she insisted on her having a headwrap. I have tried a trillion times to turn the picture right side up to no avail.
& also worked on regrouping multiplication of double digit numbers.
explored antonyms & synonyms.
& also worked on regrouping multiplication of double digit numbers.
explored antonyms & synonyms.
thursday
so I will start out by saying first that my daughter is not a morning person at all. she loves to sleep, so much so that during her toddler years she would actually say - "I'm tired" - and proceed to go to her room and lay herself down for naps.
she is the cuddly, cozy type. stare out the window, sucking the thumb, and lay rolled up snugly in a blanket as we say 'like a burrito' this is also known as the big girl swaddle :) one of the many advantages to this homeschooling thing is that I don't have to deal with getting her up at dawn each morning, force feeding her a healthy breakfast and then shuffling her out the door as quick as possible because she has to get somewhere on time. I have never had to do it I picture it as being quite stressful. I could be wrong.
but still its nice that most mornings are a peaceful unfolding into the day.
I can give her the space of easing softly into the day with as little anxiety as possible. I on the other hand am very much a morning person and this has made for some very interesting conflict between us in the past but I have thankfully learned that she is not me and I am not her.
I learn this daily..... but I digress
.
today.
we always do mathematics first thing in the morning, whether it a game or a drill or working with manipulatives, place value or money. It's very important to me that she is good with numbers and not intimidated by them. also I know that she has this love/hate relationship with mathematical concepts. I think their exactness annoys her, although this is just a theory of mine. I always say during breakfast or right after lets do some mathematics so that we can say we did it and also because the more we do it the easier it gets. she grumbles and says okay.
This morning we did multiplication & division and chatted about how they are the opposite of each other. While I made brinner ( dinner for breakfast) mac & cheese with curried vegetables. She sat in her pajamas in the rocking chair and answered my questions. I had her count in multiples of 6, 7 and 8, then I asked her division questions that correlated to the answers she came up with, for instance - 48 divided by 8 is equal to what? 63 divided by 9 is equal to what? She likes doing math in her head and was coming up with the answers with confidence. I could tell she was feeling awesome as opposed to overwhelmed, so hooray for that.. we talked a bit more about mathematics and how its all about remembering to have a clear understanding of the value of each number you are dealing with (mastering place value is key.) Each number represents a quantity, so when you see the number 462, you can easily picture 462 puppies or cookies or buttons or whatever then follow the commands of the equation take it step by step and you are golden.
After a little more math talk it was time to hit it, we had tickets to a show at the New Victory Theatre courtesy of our sweet friend Dumeha who is a teaching artist there. The New Vic is this super cool theater where they have family friendly shows that are often conceptually interesting, fun & educational. They sometimes have lesson plans attached and fortunately for us Auntie Dumeha is one of the creatives that puts them together and thus has access to all the shows.
Part of the beauty and magic of living in New York is that there is so much culture brought to you through every medium, - art, music, food, dance, workshops. It don't stop as long as you are willing to do the legwork, you are golden.
On the way their via subway we did something I classify as 'language arts' also known as just simple reading and talking about what we read. Some essays on U. S. History, Health, Native American culture, & geography. We picked apart certain ideas, pointed out new words and used them in a sentences. Came up with scenarios, antonyms & contradictions. She has that linguistic intelligence thing happening so this is something she has always enjoyed, words words and more words.
I would highly recommend reading up on Howard Gardners theory of multiple intelligences (for parents and teachers) it might give insight into your child's learning style, this comes in handy beyond academics. Day to day conversation is much easier when you have an understanding of the best way that your child might process information. She or he might be musical as opposed to visual as opposed to kinesthetic but once again I digress.....
In the back of my mind while we were talking about Washington D.C. & government stuff I decided we need to take a bus ride one day soon, an extended field trip in where we catch all the national monuments and tour the white house. Probably for MLK week. It would be a nice way to honor his legacy to visit where the I have a dream speech happened, he is one of our favorite people to talk about.
The show at the new vic was in my eyes just okay but she enjoyed it, it was a journey into movement with ideas that played with how sounds & time and how they both connect to make rhythm.
After the show we had errands to run, bank, supermarket, etc. then home. while I taught my yoga class she chilled and munched on some wraps filled with turkey, cheese, granny smith apple & baby greens.
After yoga we did a whole bunch of science experiments using her Halloween candy, we melted chocolate to see how the molecules dissolved and separate due to the the heat and then froze it again. We added baking soda to sweet tarts to test for acidity the bubbles were not as intense as we hoped. We then made ice water and also boiled water and put the same type of candy in each cup to test how the water temperature affects how fast the same item would dissolve, the candy in the hot water took about 5 seconds to dissipate. That was exciting to her. We also cooked twizzlers they didnt melt or change shape in any way they just turned black from the heat. We both thought that was interesting and weird. We also melted some chewy candy to test it for oil. It looked and felt like candle wax when it melted then we we froze it and it was very shiny. It looked like plastic. I was going to throw everything out right away but she insisted on keeping them in the same condition to stare at and look at for awhile. I gave her the space to do that cause truth be told they all did look quite fascinating. The chocolate was weird shades of grayish brown with craters and valleys of beige. The pink & purple chewy candy was a puddle of gooey swirly pretty fun and the twizzlers just looked like licorice :)
here are pics
candy after
twizzlers well done
we talked for a while about all the various things we discovered and what it all meant. Then I told her it was time to get ready for bed, she washed up, brushed teeth put on pajamas and voila ready for bed. I gave her the choice of reading a chapter novel or doing some drawing in her sketchbook while lying in bed.
she chose her sketch book and did some drawing I thought this would be a nice way to wind down from the excitement because all the experiments had her very hyped up!
she drew some strange pictures of made up hybrid animals, half bird half elephant for example.
she thanked me for letting her draw a bit instead of saying to go straight to bed as I sometimes do. eventually she fell asleep peacefully.
looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow
she is the cuddly, cozy type. stare out the window, sucking the thumb, and lay rolled up snugly in a blanket as we say 'like a burrito' this is also known as the big girl swaddle :) one of the many advantages to this homeschooling thing is that I don't have to deal with getting her up at dawn each morning, force feeding her a healthy breakfast and then shuffling her out the door as quick as possible because she has to get somewhere on time. I have never had to do it I picture it as being quite stressful. I could be wrong.
but still its nice that most mornings are a peaceful unfolding into the day.
I can give her the space of easing softly into the day with as little anxiety as possible. I on the other hand am very much a morning person and this has made for some very interesting conflict between us in the past but I have thankfully learned that she is not me and I am not her.
I learn this daily..... but I digress
.
today.
we always do mathematics first thing in the morning, whether it a game or a drill or working with manipulatives, place value or money. It's very important to me that she is good with numbers and not intimidated by them. also I know that she has this love/hate relationship with mathematical concepts. I think their exactness annoys her, although this is just a theory of mine. I always say during breakfast or right after lets do some mathematics so that we can say we did it and also because the more we do it the easier it gets. she grumbles and says okay.
This morning we did multiplication & division and chatted about how they are the opposite of each other. While I made brinner ( dinner for breakfast) mac & cheese with curried vegetables. She sat in her pajamas in the rocking chair and answered my questions. I had her count in multiples of 6, 7 and 8, then I asked her division questions that correlated to the answers she came up with, for instance - 48 divided by 8 is equal to what? 63 divided by 9 is equal to what? She likes doing math in her head and was coming up with the answers with confidence. I could tell she was feeling awesome as opposed to overwhelmed, so hooray for that.. we talked a bit more about mathematics and how its all about remembering to have a clear understanding of the value of each number you are dealing with (mastering place value is key.) Each number represents a quantity, so when you see the number 462, you can easily picture 462 puppies or cookies or buttons or whatever then follow the commands of the equation take it step by step and you are golden.
After a little more math talk it was time to hit it, we had tickets to a show at the New Victory Theatre courtesy of our sweet friend Dumeha who is a teaching artist there. The New Vic is this super cool theater where they have family friendly shows that are often conceptually interesting, fun & educational. They sometimes have lesson plans attached and fortunately for us Auntie Dumeha is one of the creatives that puts them together and thus has access to all the shows.
Part of the beauty and magic of living in New York is that there is so much culture brought to you through every medium, - art, music, food, dance, workshops. It don't stop as long as you are willing to do the legwork, you are golden.
On the way their via subway we did something I classify as 'language arts' also known as just simple reading and talking about what we read. Some essays on U. S. History, Health, Native American culture, & geography. We picked apart certain ideas, pointed out new words and used them in a sentences. Came up with scenarios, antonyms & contradictions. She has that linguistic intelligence thing happening so this is something she has always enjoyed, words words and more words.
I would highly recommend reading up on Howard Gardners theory of multiple intelligences (for parents and teachers) it might give insight into your child's learning style, this comes in handy beyond academics. Day to day conversation is much easier when you have an understanding of the best way that your child might process information. She or he might be musical as opposed to visual as opposed to kinesthetic but once again I digress.....
In the back of my mind while we were talking about Washington D.C. & government stuff I decided we need to take a bus ride one day soon, an extended field trip in where we catch all the national monuments and tour the white house. Probably for MLK week. It would be a nice way to honor his legacy to visit where the I have a dream speech happened, he is one of our favorite people to talk about.
The show at the new vic was in my eyes just okay but she enjoyed it, it was a journey into movement with ideas that played with how sounds & time and how they both connect to make rhythm.
After the show we had errands to run, bank, supermarket, etc. then home. while I taught my yoga class she chilled and munched on some wraps filled with turkey, cheese, granny smith apple & baby greens.
After yoga we did a whole bunch of science experiments using her Halloween candy, we melted chocolate to see how the molecules dissolved and separate due to the the heat and then froze it again. We added baking soda to sweet tarts to test for acidity the bubbles were not as intense as we hoped. We then made ice water and also boiled water and put the same type of candy in each cup to test how the water temperature affects how fast the same item would dissolve, the candy in the hot water took about 5 seconds to dissipate. That was exciting to her. We also cooked twizzlers they didnt melt or change shape in any way they just turned black from the heat. We both thought that was interesting and weird. We also melted some chewy candy to test it for oil. It looked and felt like candle wax when it melted then we we froze it and it was very shiny. It looked like plastic. I was going to throw everything out right away but she insisted on keeping them in the same condition to stare at and look at for awhile. I gave her the space to do that cause truth be told they all did look quite fascinating. The chocolate was weird shades of grayish brown with craters and valleys of beige. The pink & purple chewy candy was a puddle of gooey swirly pretty fun and the twizzlers just looked like licorice :)
here are pics
candy before
candy after
melted chocolate
we talked for a while about all the various things we discovered and what it all meant. Then I told her it was time to get ready for bed, she washed up, brushed teeth put on pajamas and voila ready for bed. I gave her the choice of reading a chapter novel or doing some drawing in her sketchbook while lying in bed.
she chose her sketch book and did some drawing I thought this would be a nice way to wind down from the excitement because all the experiments had her very hyped up!
she drew some strange pictures of made up hybrid animals, half bird half elephant for example.
she thanked me for letting her draw a bit instead of saying to go straight to bed as I sometimes do. eventually she fell asleep peacefully.
looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow
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