goddess of love & beauty

Ki is working on a Game for his Mythology LapBook. It's a Astronomy/Mythology Matching Game.

It's like Memory Match, but one card will have the name of a planet or moon and the MATCH will be what Roman god it is.

For Example he has a card that says DEIMOS (moon) and the matching card is "SON of the god of war (Mars)" and another that says VENUS (planet)--and he made this in fancy letters, too... the MATCH is, of course, goddess of love & beauty. He has 9 matches done and 6 more to make.

These are cut in circles out of card stock, round like a moon or planet.

He will highlight a constellation in his lapbook, cut out of a star shape, of course. He is using my Creative Memories Cutting things. It's good for his manual dexterity and fine motor skills. I think I will call it Occupational Therapy for Dyspraxia.

The Pantheon Lego Model isn't going well. We may have to find a different medium for this project.

I noticed today that though I have made sure Ki is doing scripture work with his MayTerm Study, I have not had the older 2 doing it with their Astronomy. So tomorrow they will get to use my Strong's Concordance to look up some Bible Passages.

ʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚ

KNITTING SCENE :

My gloves are done. I have already thought of a better design I want to try...

Yes, I know, I could just LOOK UP patterns online or at RAVELRY, but what's the fun in that? I am figuring out on my own what works for fingerless gloves and what doesn't. I like reinventing the wheel, I guess.

In June I will be working on my DNA scarf. For this I will be following a pattern, to the letter!

And I will be teaching Ki to knit a hat "In the Round" in June.

ʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚ

SCHOOL THOUGHTS:

Tuesdays are Independent Work days. I go to Bible Study in the morning and The Boys do their morning chores and morning school all on their very own.

G&C have been doing their Morning MayTerm class all on their own the whole month. (Astronomy). I wrote out things for them to research and projects/reports for them to work on for the month, but they are doing everything on their own.

K really needs one on one, constant supervision to get anything of reasonable substance accomplished. On Tuesdays I try to give him a list of things he can do himself, based on what we have been doing together. Usually it is working on his lapbook and reading online links I have found for him. I give him a decent amount to do, expect 1/4 of it to get done, so when he actually gets half of his work done, I'm good with it.

Today when I came home they were all researching how to draw Anime Style and practicing that. Ki had finished his reading book, too. (Number 3 in the Series of Unfortunate Events).

Knitwit. Make that a KnitTwit.

I am working on the second glove. It was going SOOO Nicely. It looked better than thee first.... then I dropped a few stitiches, lost a stitch, and developed a hole. It was all because I thought I was not such a hot-shot knitter that I could knit while watching TV.

NOPE. No Can Do.

So I will take out the last few rows and restart.

I don't even think Cindy can easily fix this one.

* * * * * * * * * *

MYTHOLOGY CLASS!!

is still going well. I hoped to get Ki to make a model of the Pantheon out of paper and straws. He tried. But with his dyspraxia, some things are just so hard for him and SO frustrating it's not worth it. He said he'd make it with Legos. The Pantheon has an Oculus. it's cool. Ki wrote some vocab words for the architecture.

Yesterday we had a long drive to visit a short doctor.I had Ki read in Acts 17 about Paul in the Greek temple of 'all the gods'. We talked about how it wasn't THE Pantheon, since it was for 'all gods' it could be called a pantheist temple. Then I showed him how to use the Strong's Bible Concordance to look up verses and had him look up verses that talk about the greek goddess Diana (Artemis). I think he liked that, being able to look up verses like that. I taught him how to look up verses online the other week for his lapbook.

While in Santa Barbara, I pointed out that the entrance to the parking garage had a portico; which was one of his vocab words from the day before.

ASTRONOMY- Gavin is still eating it up with 2 spoons. He loves showing me all the notes and drawing in his Astronomy notebook and due to the Sketch Class this month, his Astronomy notebook is full of little sketches.

Back to Brain Gym

Ki and I decided we need to go back to doing some Occupational Therapy before math. Ki has Sensory Integration Disorder and Dyspraxia. Lately we haven't done much OT, but he doesn't need it very often these days. He used to need a whole list of therapy activities a few times a day.

He has been having more and more trouble learning his math and being able to have a functioning brain during math. He's been going into his 'Dyspraxic Muscle Fatigue' during math lessons. Which I term as "being a bowl of limp jello"

Brain Gym activities work well with him. They also help the others boys a bit; it's good for helping with focusing and dyslexia. Joint Compression helps Ki, too. I should get him a new exercise ball for that.

Today, as we were starting on his math, I could see the chaos in his brain taking over, so I told him that if he keeps having problems focusing on his math, we'd start doing Brain Gym again beforehand. He said that'd be good and would help him, then asked why I made it sound like a bad thing because it's a good thing. I told him I didn't intend for it sounds like a bad thing; sometimes words are like that.

So I had him do some Brain Gym and drink some water and his math time went MUCH better.

He did some CrissCross marches, some Brain Spots, and some Leg Muscle Massage things. not sure of the later really works; the book says it is a 'before math' activity. I wonder if Ki just thinks it is supposed to work, so it does.

Also, today he told me that he really like his science book! (Apologia Land Animals)

*********

I picked a few early potatoes today. my friend Kirsten was over with her little boy. I thought he might like digging in the dirt, but he seems enthralled with the 3 "Big Boys" running around the back yard. Anyway, I only got 3 small red potatoes. I boiled them to go with my dinner, then mashed then with some salt & butter; but not much. Homegrown, fresh-from-the-garden potatoes don't need much salt or butter at all.

Here is a pretty picture I took this morning. It has been raining here, but the sun had come for a few minutes so everything sparkled with raindrops.

Spoiled Kids

I learned about El Niño today, the weather pattern. I was feeling fed up with the spoiled brat Spanish kid wreaking havoc out in the ocean, so I decided to arm myself with information. Why is it called El Niño? What exactly is El Niño and what does it mean for my headaches? What can I expect in the future from El Niño?

As all highly intellectual people do when they need to know something, I went to Wikipedia to find my answers. Some people selfishly drink from the Fountain of Knowledge, keeping all that information for them self. Some others of us more selfless people Rinse and Spit, so you, too, can have this information soaking the front of your shirt and pooling beneath your shoes. You can thank me later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño-Southern_Oscillation
http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/ http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/el-nino-story.html for those that like to have alternative sources of information


۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝ ۞۝۞۝


It is another rainy day. Ki slept in til around 8:30. On rainy, sleepy days we throw the time table out the window; if we have one, which we did today, but don’t anymore, because it is a rainy day.
With May-Term coming up in a couple weeks I want to get buckled down, a bit, so we are on a bit of a schedule. We will still get everything done today, just not on ay time table.

Speaking of MAY-TERM, my students have Made Their Choices.
Gavin chose Drafting/Sketching and Astronomy.
Connor chose Drafting/Sketching and Astronomy.
Ki chose Drafting/Sketching and Mythology.

Connor was confused and dismayed at the lack of choices. I am bit surprised he chose drafting/sketching, but at the same very glad, because he is good at it.

I am a bit surprised Ki chose drafting/sketching, but at the same very glad, because he needs practice and help in that area. I think honing those skills will be good for his dyspraxia.

Having all 3 boys take the same class will make it easy on me.

Now I need to plan their ‘required classes’


۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝۞۝ ۞۝۞۝

Back to El Niño. I now have to tie some plants that were blown. .. when the rain finally stops!

I lost a couple plants, too. But I didn’t have to water anything for 2 days.

language arts & dyslexia

This is a NanoFictionary story Ki wrote. I corrected a few things in blue-

There is 2 xplorers they persuwtid [parachuted] there cars out of there
plans [planes]. Then they ran in tow ech other on the shakes remote islandand died the snake uyuy whitnis [witnessed] it all and they ware naver seen oh gen [again].

can your 12 yr old do this?

It seems odd and very unimportant as far as skills go. Something we probably never even think about. Ki is 12. He's never really been good at scooting a chair.

We go to sit at a table or desk and scoot the chair under the table as we sit down on the chair.

We scoot the chair back out when we stand up to leave.

Ki can't do this. He places the chair and then squirms to get into it. Or just sits on the very edge of the chair and doesn't have it scooted up at all.

when he gets out, he has to slide off and wiggle out (or often he is doing the 'barely on the edge of the chair with the chair not really scooted under the table)

He had trouble with our earthquake drill today because he couldn't scoot his chair out of the way of the desk and instead he ran across the room to the door frame. door frames are good and under a sturdy desk is good-- but you need too do whatever is CLOSEST. so if your at the desk you shouldn't run across the entire room to get to the door frame and vise-versa.

so I guess now I have t teach my 12 yr old how to scoot his chair. I started to, but Ki was very defensive and about to have a meltdown over it and I decided to do it later and maybe avoid a meltdown and subsequent bad day.

SPELLING FUN! 20+ ideas

These ideas are not 0only great for kids with dyslexia or other reading/spelling difficulties, they work well to enhance the learning of any child!~

Ideas for dyslexia letter fun-
Choose a different activity each day! (let your child help choose which ones to play)

1. Writing in a tray of salt, shaving cream, sand.

2. Use clay to make the word. Then make a model of the word. (make the letters 'c-a-t', then make a little cat from the rest of the clay)

3. Use finger paint to spell words or practice letters, alternate hands, spell with toes, use you nose!

4. Use dry erase markers on the window. It is perfectly safe and wipes right off and kids LOVE IT! (though you may want to test beforehand)

5. Before starting the writing or spelling lessons, have the child make large infinity signs with their finger or on the chalk board. Have it so they cross the infinity sign in front of the middle of their body. (Brain Gym Lazy 8s)

6. Use plastic textured letters. Have the child hold one letter at a time to get used to the feel. Have them close their eyes, place the letter in their hand (the correct direction/position), have them figure out what letter it is. After they can recognize the shapes well, hand the letter to them upside down or backwards. Then do the same with simple words or sight words. Hand them the letters all at once, (while eyes are closed) have them figure out how to lay the letters in the right direction (not upside down or backwards) then open their eyes and move the letters ion the right order to make the words., when they can do that, have them figure out the words while their eyes are closed still.
Some kids with dyslexia often see words in jumbled order or letters backwards, upside down. It helps when they can recognize letters and words no matter what direction or jumbled order they are in. It helps the brain learn how to process the information.

7. Games like Scrabble and Boggle are good. But with your own rules or none at all. For Scrabble, get a list of words, set aside all the letters that go to those words, have your child spell the words out on the Scrabble board and find the best way to organize the words to get the most points. For Boggle, you may want to spend the first few times arranging the cubes to make sure there are some easy words there. Show the words to your child and have them write the words down. My middle son likes to arrange the tiles to make words and have me find the words. Then we make silly sentences with his words. The next time have them find the simple words (you previously arranged). Eventually you will be up to playing the game by the real rules.

8. The tiles and cubes can be used without the board. get letter tiles/cubes for an ending ( __ a t ) and take turns placing different tiles in front to make new words. Make 'cat', rat, bat..... Then ask "Which letter gets changed if we want to make 'bat' into 'bag'?" or “which part of the word gets changed; the beginning sound or the ending sound?” Don't ask what the new letter is yet, just work on having them identify which letter (beginning, middle, end) is different. You can tell them it becomes a 'g', if they can't figure it out yet.You can do this on paper, but the act of picking up and exchaging the letters by hand is great reinforcement for their brains! combining phsyical with mental helps to cement concept in the mind- check out this book- Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head by Carla Hannaford

9. HOPSCOTCH- Make a Hopscotch board (with chalk outside or colored paper inside, each sheet a different box). Write a different letter in each square. Have the child call out the letters or make the letter sound as they jump along. Use all vowels, or random letters. It's fun to use for spelling words, too. You can change around the amount and layout of the boxes to fit what you need.More mental+phsyical.

10. Throw/bounce a ball back and forth while you take turns spelling out words. Or Have the child bounce the ball to himself (against a wall or on the ground) while they spell out words. More mental+phsyical. I try to use both when I can , esp for my son with SID/Dyspraxia.

11. Spelling words-Use Index Cards- use 2 cards for each word on the list. write the word in all lower case on card #1, write the word in ALL CAPS on card #2. Use the cards to play "Memory Match". My son also likes to play other games. One is "Five in a Row" I put out a row of 5 cards and he picks up the words as I call them. "Make a Sentence"- Put out 2-4 cards (start with 2 and work up). Have your child think up a sentence using the cards. To put less stress on them. Both of you think up sentences for the cards. Another one we play is "Pick Up". I layout 6 cards and say four of them (making sure they are not in order on the table) and he has to pick up the cards in the order I called them. You can start with 3, or even 2 if needed and work up to 6 or more. click here for more WORD CARD IDEAS. this post is 2 yrs old, but Ki still used Word Cards

12. Write/draw on each other’s backs- have a guessing game. Keep score, if you want.

13. Make a photo/word book. Make words PERSONAL. Take pictures of your child’s mom, dad, pet, car, van, etc. rite the words LARGE under each picture (one per page). Take a picture of the STOP sign on your corner…….

14. Let your child use one of those Magnadoodle boards or a large dry erase board.

15. Use beads. Have the child line the beads up to form letters/words.

16. Grab Bag Spelling. Use letters (tiles, plastic, written on seperate pieces of paper) for their list of words they are working on learning. Get one brown paper bag for each word. Number the bags. Put into each bag letters to make one word. Write down which word is in ech bag for you to check them. Give them a sheet of paper and have them take the letters out of each bag (one at a time) and arrange them in the correct order. They can write the word down on the paper or just tell you.

17. Write individual letters on index cards (or squares or paper). Scatters the letters for a word on the floor. Have them use their toes to put the letters in order. For more advanced- use letters for TWO words or just add extra letters that do not belong in the word.

18. Make your own crossword or wordsearch or other words puzzles online. Print them out for your child. I use this site= PUZZLEMAKER

19. Teach your child the alphabet in sign language. Use this to spell words. (more physical reinforcement- plus b, p, d aren't similar and therefore confused) ASL ALPHABET CHART ASL ABCs COLORING PAGES ASL Alphabet Font for printing worksheets

20. WORD SHADOWS! fun for older kids, too! check it out!

** from our Occupational Therapist- Spelling. Write each letter of the word on a separate 2-3" square of paper. Tape them out-of-order and jumbled on the wall about a foot above the ground. Have child be barefoot and 'crab-crawl' to point to the letters in order (pointing with their toe)

OBSTACLE COURSE & semi-unschool

It's been a good week so far- Yesterday's blog........ Monday's Blog. Lots of pictures this week, so far!

I don't really unschool. I do have 'unshool days'...and 'unschool moments'...

 

But I also have structure and rules for the kids to follow. I guess I might call it...."relaxed, child interest guided ecclectic school with therapy"We started the day with an obstacle course before Breakfast.

 

Jump over then boxes leading to the wheelbarrow, zigzag the wheelbarrow around the boxes – there and back.

 

 feet together hop over sticks.

 

one foot jump through ladder rungs.

 

 walk the beam

 

 

 crawl under the table

 

 

do 3 figure-eight loops around the chairs.

 

 

balance and count to 10

 

 

Breakfast was waffles. Gavin diced strawberries and added a little sugar. BACK outside for crisscrosses and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. (with water)

 

SPELLING- G&C had to write variations for their words. So for evade- they wrote evading, evasion, evaded…. These variations were added to the list of words they will have to write on their test. The write all their words from memory. I don't say them for the boys to spell.

Ki played a toe touch game. I wrote the letters for his words on pieces of paper. Lay them on the floor out of order. He touches them with his toe in order while spelling them out loud. Half way through he decided to add a couple extra letters that aren't in the word and he had to find the correct letters (or figure out which didn't belong). This used both sides of his brain I am pretty sure (esp since he thought it fun to alternate which fot he used each letter) and using both mental and physical together is great for cementing facts and great for his dyspraxia.

Then Ki worked on writing a story. He likes to write stories with his words. He choose this activity. I asked him what he wanted to do with his spelling words today.(that's my semi-unschool moment). I added the toe game, because I know he needs stuff like that for his dyspraxia, dyslexia, SID.

 

Gavin and Connor wrote 10-15 sentences with their words.

 

 Ki choose to write in his story instead of read.(another semi- unschool moment..LOL)

 I sometimes allow that. It's good for kids to get some say in what and how they do some things…sometimes….. but it's also good for them to learn to follow the instructions of those in charge of their welfare, even if it is boring- after all- that's pretty much how life is …

The first school sessions are the ones that are something to write home about…… the rest is pretty boring… like last time. like usual… not much therapy or fun ways to teach going on the rest of the school day

GAVIN- 1- Switched On Schoolhouse- History (we only use the history- it's not great, but it's more of just something to do and maybe learn a bit at the same time) 2- Review Math Lessons with mom

 

CONNOR- 1. Going Places- reread story and draw 5 sequence pictures.(Connor asked to drawthe sequence pictures from his Cat Warrior book, I let him) 2. two Math Detective Cases 3- Online Science

 

 Ki- 1-Beyond the Code. 3 pages 2- Miquon F-45,45 J-13

Manuel- 1. Ingles in 10 Minutos 2- Miquon J-6,8,9

No real links this time, folks....sorry...