This week

Yesterday we had to take our cat to the vet, so we looked at x-rays and talked about what is inside of Chone (nothing bad, thankfully). 

Connor seems to have for a good understanding of the forms of matter and had been doing well with his reading comprehension workbook. It's a Smart Alec book, with short stories about a mouse, followed by 4-5 questions. I'm aiming to finish that book soon and move on to the factual text workbook for second grade that I bought. I'd like to jump into carrying/borrowing with math. He has really great mental math skills and we haven't needed to use those skills yet, but he is really not challenged by the first grade math we are doing. He is over the counting and grouping and triangle identification, and we need to move him on to more difficult material. Here is an acrostic Connor worked on this week as part of social studies:

It's been nice this week so we've had a few opportunities to go for bike and scooter rides. He's also been walking with Marc a few evenings this week. I'd like to focus on his core this year. He needs PT for a weak core so we need to incorporate new exercises. 

One thing that has helped me wrangle the ETERNAL AND INFINITE BOREDOM THAT IS SCHOOLWORK is a to do list. We use a numbered white board and he lists out all of the things we have to do that day (schoolwork and not schoolwork). It helps him to remember that we will not spend all day in school. 

Science

We started a science curriculum mostly because I felt a little uneasy without one. I  remember enough about the early years of math and reading to at least ballpark what is being taught in the primary years, but science is a black hole for me. Right now we are doing one to two pages of the science book a day. Each unit is broken into weeks, and my goal is to combine a handful of weeks so we will finish it up around the end if the school year. I'm not terribly thrilled with the program (unit one taught that bubbles aren't matter) but it works as a guideline. The first units deal with the forms of matter, and this week we are looking more closely at solids. We should wrap that up tomorrow and finish up the units on liquids and gases by the end of next week. 

Boring

Been a busy few weeks. We've established a good routine here and are working on Math, ELA, and Science everyday using workbooks and worksheets. I picked up workbooks for Social Studies and Geography as well so we will put them in the mix as well. I got a great deal at Michael's in canvases so we've been painting a lot. He also found my camera and has been taking a million photos. Connor has really taken a huge interest in basketball, just in time for March Madness! He picks up on the language and the rules so quickly - maybe he has a future as a sportscaster. Hockey is still a huge deal in our house though!

Our biggest challenge at this point is that Connor is SOOO BORED because his work is SOOO BORING! The workbooks are all first, second, third grade level but he isn't challenged. I don't want to keep skipping up because I'm afraid we will miss fundamentals and make it more difficult for him down the road. I feel really blessed that he picks up on stuff quickly and that he is so far above grade level in most subjects. It gives me a huge buffer for determining where we should be in each subject, as well as time to work on the social and communication skills where he is lagging.

And speaking of social skills, we started attending a very small (2-3 kids) play group class to work on social skills with a therapist. We will reassess after the fifth class (he's had two already). 

Math fun

Today we talked about multiplying by zero and how the answer is always zero. Connor did a great job with this math sheet today. He's been resistant to anything that looks like school work so this was a triumph. 

Library

We went to the library for Pajama Night. The kids all wear their PJs for storytume. Much bigger turnout than the events we've gone to in the past and a really diverse age range - kids as young as 2 and as old as 10. The theme was Black History Month and I was really impressed with how much the kids knew. Maybe I sugar coat too much? We've had a lot of discussion about same sex marriage and oppression as a general topic, but it's mostly been "some people don't / didn't think XYZ is / was ok, so they made laws against it / hurt other people". Part of it is that Connor tends to be really empathetic and I have apprehension about making him sad as well as well as how much is age appropriate. But there were kids tonight who are the same age who knew that MLK had been assassinated and what slavery was. They knew who Jackie Robinson was and why he was so important. It's making me rethink the way I'm going to approach these topics in the future. 

We read a book about Jackie Robinson and the activity was about dreams. The kids filled in a booklet asking what their dreams were for when they grow up, listing things they would need to be good at to achieve those dreams. Connor wrote that he wanted to be a doctor, a pilot, or a hockey player. He was able to list that he would need to be good at "being in time for games" and "keeping pucks away" for the last one. We are going to work in the other two tomorrow. 

We were going to go to the Harrison library tomorrow morning for a puppet show but Connor has been a little whimpery and restless in his sleep tonight and I suspect he may be coming down with something. He seemed a little off this evening - more tired than usual. Hopefully it is nothing!

Progress

We had a mostly lazy, snowy week here. Some highlights:

- sledding and climbing in the mountains of snow. It's cold, but I'm glad he is getting outside, even for short bursts. 

- karaoke: he was singing a half-baked version of the Star-Spangled Banner, so we found a video with lyrics. He is SO proud of himself and sings so loudly when he feels confident. We've branched out with other songs he recognizes, and it's a fun way to improve reading skills without "work". 

- Olympic hockey: we are a hockey house, and we've been watching! He is having a lot of fun and really enjoys the time he spends with Aunt Kristin. 

- Connor and Kristin painted USA pictures to show their pride in our country. He also started working in his St. Paddy's day project (foam shapes, glue, and decorations). 

- There has been a lot of pretend play at our house this week. Connor has been pretending he is a puppy named Min. I think it is inspired by watching the puppy bowl a couple of weeks ago. He really gets into it and I'm happy to see the progress he has made with pretending. 

- shoes: we are learning to tie shoes. We are perfecting the first steps and scaffolding to build confidence. I'm aiming to have him doing the entire thing in his own by June. I'm not sure it's realistic, it could go either way. Some things seem to take eons to learn, while others click so fast. Like last summer - Kris and I spent almost an hour teaching him how to push off in his bike by himself with no success, but then I showed him a 10 second video and he did it immediately.

All in all, I'm so happy to see him progressing in multiple disciplines. It's not always as quick as I'd like, but I'll take the inches and the miles however I get them!

Magnets

Connor discovered that magnets not only stick, but repel each other. He was playing with two train cars and realized they wouldn't stick - he started using one to make the other move. Score one for learning through play!

Weekend fun

On Friday night, Kristin and Connor went to a Devils game. Connor was really engaged - he was chanting and cheering. We realized a few weeks ago that he doesn't focus on the clock anymore, which had become a really common stim. In fact, we have noticed that that stimming has stopped altogether. 

Marc took Connor to the new big indoor playground again on Saturday. He came home totally exhausted and well exercised. On Sunday the three of us went to see the new Lego movie. It was really fun and Connor adored it! We will probably go again with Aunt Kristin next week when she is on school break. The music is great and we are having so much fun with this song:

http://youtu.be/t6lHm-stXdM

Reactions

We spent some time earlier this week talking about the word reaction when Connor asked me to define it.  I explained it was a lot like cause and effect and related it to things he has experienced ("What happens when your favorite hockey team scores a goal?" and "When you use the brake on your bike, what happens?"). Today we talked about reactions in science, so we decided to experiment.

Rainbow Science!

We put the baking soda in the muffin tin and mixed some food coloring and vinegar in cups. Connor spent some time using an eye dropper to add the colored vinegar to the baking soda and watch it get all "fuzzed and scrambled". 

We're taking things easy over here with regards to what we should be learning. I'm trying to shift my focus back to self-directed learning (another post for another day), but still offering up project ideas and introducing new subject matter where appropriate, like the arty-science fun above. Connor had a lot of fun with the piano app this week, and chose to spend a few minutes yesterday doing 6th grade elapsed time questions on IXL.  He's looking forward to going to a hockey game tomorrow night and maybe ice skating or indoor playground on Saturday. We've got a bit of cabin fever with all of the snow and cold and spring can't come fast enough!

The Puppy Bowl

Connor and I went sledding today after we got another 8 inches or so of snow.  We did some math on IXL again, and Connor completed all of the fractions sections.  Today, Connor also wrote the paragraph below about the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet last night.

I watched the Puppy Bowl last night. There were nineteen or twenty puppies. The kitties did “locked out of heaven” on the piano during halftime. The stage was on the field.   One of the puppies scored a touchdown during the final second of the fourth quarter.  The next second the Puppy Bowl was over. There were millions of people there. They were very small people. I liked the Puppy bowl.

Music

Low key day over here. Connor really wanted to play pretend phone calls with each other. Found a cool app (I love this iPad) that teaches piano. Connor has been practicing middle c for 2 hours. We also played a pattern game for a bit. Tonight we are off to ice skate at Yankee Stadium!

Math

We've been pretend playing store yesterday and today. Connor really likes being the cashier and swiping the credit cards. We did a lot of math today. Connor did NOT want to do IXL even a little bit (I think he's a bit bored with the kindergarten curriculum) and instead chose to play with a multiplication app on the iPad. We learned about arrays. He was more than happy to do IXL kindergarten math with Kristin this afternoon though!

Sick

Connor has been under the weather this week with a stomach bug, but we are back on the horse today. We did some geometry on IXL (matching shapes) and then talked about mixing colors. Watching a silly muppet video (mahna mahna), Connor thought the muppets with no noses were weird which led to us watching some videos about aardvarks.

Last Friday, Connor painted a picture of our cat at the park at sunset.

Working and Schooling at Home

I've been working from home for roughly twelve years. Telecommuting has a lot of benefits, not the least of which is being able to stay home with my son. When he was born six years ago, I hadn't really considered homeschooling, but here we are. Some of the fun we've had this week in pictures below.

Self-portrait

Mini-Snowman

Snow Angel