Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I can't keep up with science boy!

We had no plans today, so I just let the day progress as it happened. The kids watched their library movies first. After we watched The Big Space Shuttle, Cameron informed me that we could get more information at www.littlemammoth.com, lol. He's such a sucker for advertisements! He was quite insistent. We did and actually found a really neat behind the scenes thing from the shuttle launch that they attended during the filming of the video.

At some point in the afternoon, Cameron asked me if we could do his schoolwork. I said sure and he went straight for the phonics book. Yay Cam! We did a lesson on "ew" as the long /u/ sound. There was an activity at the end of the lesson which was nothing more than having him spell out a list of long /u/ words with magnetic letter tiles. It was a simple thing but I could really see how the act of finding the letters, one by one, and putting them together helped him to read them. Physical acts for a physical child. I really need to remember that.

Next he wanted to do science, but I told him that we had to math today since we didn't do it yesterday. He did a simple page on geometric shapes and recognizing patterns. Then he asked to do science, lol. I was kind of trying to talk him out of it since I didn't have anything prepared for today. I suggesting a drawing lesson instead but he insisted on science. So it was back to my old stand-by workbook. We labeled the drawing of the eye in the activity book that we forgot to do yesterday. We did the first couple pages for the chapter in the Workbook which was pretty dull stuff: listing your favorite ways to use each sense, drawing the sense organs on a head, putting recognition & reaction sequence pictures in the correct order. Nothing too exciting at all and I definitely heard "can we be done now." Physical acts for a physical child. I really need to remember that.

Later, as he was finishing up his video game hour, I read a book "to Greyson." It was Hey Diddle, Diddle with an extra verse that I had never heard before. Cassia thought it was hilarious and I ended up reading it four times. (Greyson would purposefully look away every time I tried to show him a picture, lol... BOYS!) Next I grabbed an alphabet book, An Edward Lear Alphabet, and the verses for each letter we so catchy and fun to say that Cameron had to give it a try too. There were a good 10 pages where we were taking turns reading pages. I think it was really a big confidence booster that he could just be enjoying a book and then spontaneously jump in and read it too. Cassia said, "I guess we're doing schoolwork now!" and I had to say, "No, we're just reading." She didn't say "schoolwork" in a bad way, but I didn't like the way it had to be delineated like that. She's all about extremes now anyway. Everything is either "love" or "hate" or whispers or ear-piercing screams. If I have to make learning physical for Cameron, how am I going to make it emotional for Cassia? LOL, I shudder to think. Maybe I can just have them perform everything as a play and that will satisfy both of their impulses.

1 comment:

G said...

Okay, I got a good giggle in thinking about homeschooling as a play! Too funny. I'm glad my CJ isn't the only super-dramatic one lately (and not the only one that screams)!

Sounds like you're on a roll with homeschool these days - WTG!