school? What School?

I felt the need for a schoolish-type entry.
The J-term entries and the Fun Science entries are, well, fun. Entertaining. Great Blog-Fodder.
But it seems that often our educational experiences of the day just aren't as exciting as those cool posts like about Autopsies or Smoke Bombs or even just awesome plans & schedules.
I sometimes fell not much school happens. But I guess that isn't true. or maybe it is. A lot of learning, fun, research, and freedom to find their passions & goals happens. But maybe not lot of 'school' happens; not a lot that looks like typical-school, anyway.
So, here are some things that are going on at our house:
KI -

• Ki has not been too interested in Life Of Fred (for math). It is a great math book, written as a story. I think Ki is just taking a break from it. Though I not require certain things to be done at certain times for math, nor the completion of something that's not working for them at the moment, math. of some sort, is required. Ki is doing some Aleks Quicktables online daily. It's a TimesTablePractice. I have been looking over KHAN Academy lately and had the boys try it out. It has a great math area; videos and exercises, tracking of progress and earning of badges. It was not assigned to do the math, I just asked them to register and try it. Ki went through a couple sections and earned a few badges. (check out the Khan Academy- it is really good and free)
• Ki has decided he wants to read Lord of the Ring books, finally. Brian has a rule of 'read it before watching it'. Ki's very eager to watch it, but has not been ready to read it. A few weeks ago he asked for the LOTR books from the top shelf so he can read them. He's also reading books from The Series of Unfortunate Events and a Warriors series. Plus he reads his Bible daily. He's more consistent at it than I am.
• He likes to watch Doctor Who on Netflix or NCIS online. (we still do not have a working television)
• Ki loves acting and cooking. they are his passions. He is in a play. He has practice twice a week. This is his 4th or 5th acting session since we've been here. Sometimes he reads skits or watches acting 'lessons' on YouTube. He was a Junior Chef at the local cooking school, but they moved. Now he just has fun planning meals or treats to make for us. I sent a video to him yesterday. It's from Molecular Gastronomy. It is awesome! He lloved what they did and wants to give it a try. I'll be ordering the Molecular Gastronomy kit for us to make creative culinary confections. Seriously- Watch This!

CONNOR-

• Connor's been plugging away at his ALEKS math. I assign a certain numbers of topics to be done each week. Sometimes he gets stuck, so I tell him to have his dad help him. Next thing I know he's figured it out on his own. He also tried the KHAN Academy. I think we'll switch from Aleks to Khan when C & G are done with their current ALEKS. Probably in 2 weeks I guess.
• He's been using Gavin's Bamboo Pen Tablet to do some drawing.







• He's looking up stuff online and reading his books (and from Proverbs).
• He's enjoying acting and is the play with Ki.

GAVIN-

• I don't know what he is reading.
• He is spending a lot of time with his Bamboo Pen Tablet- working on his sketching. He's looking into getting 2 online illustrator programs. He & Connor are thinking about making a mini-animation video.

• He's doing his Aleks Math and has earned a few KHAN Badges.
• He likes to read current events and tell us about it.

ME- I send the boys an email with what I want them to work on through out the week. I also write a few things on our Dry Erase Board- but not this week. This week I just sent the email and some links.

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Gifts from Wise Men

The boys seem to enjoy The 12 Days of Christmas! This is the 2nd tome we did it. Last year we did it and Ki made a King Cake for Epiphany.

This year I am hiding the Wisemen. 3 Wisemen. 3 Boys. Each day the Wisemen are in a different room. They are Travelling Wisemen, after all.

Day 1 was Christmas and we didn't hide the Wisemen.

Day 2 the wisemen hid in the kitchen. The Wisemen brought gifts of Dice. each boy got a baggy with 8 dice.

Day 3 the Wisemen hid in the Front Room. They brought a Big Bag of Pipe Cleaners. Sounds silly, but the boys ask for Pipe Cleaners occasionally.

Day 4 the Wisemen hid in Gavin's room. They were found to be carrying gifts of Those Suncatcher ornaments that you sprinkle with glass beads, cook & melt.

Day 5 I forgot to hide the Wisemen, so the boys hid them for me to find and gave me hugs.

Day 6 We had company most the day. G&C fell asleep by 5PM I think, so I figured we'd skip the Wisemen. They of course woke up around 9 and I was getting ready for bed. I actually had time between when Paul Left and they fell asleep,I was just being A Lazy Mom again. I'm glad I am such good company in the area of Lazy Moms! ( Click to Read Stacey's Lazy Mom Blog)

Day 7 The Wisemen hid in the backyard and gifted the boys with coupons for 1 hour Free Computer Time- but the coupons are for 2 uses.

Day 8- hasn't happened yet. Ki wants to hide 2 of the Wisemen for his Brothers. He said I can hide the 3rd Wisemen for him.


I am actually out of gifts now. The dice & coupons were free, the Pipe Cleaners were about $1 a boy, the suncathers were about $4 I think. Tomorrow Morning I'll go to Michael's and get some things from their $1 bin.
Brian & the boys got me a KitchenAid Staning Mixer for Christmas. The stores here just had the smallest of standing mixers and in white. Brian & I looked online and found the a 6QT, in red, on "Day After Christmas Sale" and ordered it to have instead.


It will be perfect for making a KING CAKE for Epiphany! It should get here on Tuesday.




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I {HEART} Mondays!

I do. I love Mondays. I look forward to my Mondays!

The weekends always feel unorganized and slapped together. Mondays are BACK TO SCHEDULE! (I love my lists and schedules)

Tuesdays have become hectic. Gavin bikes to college class (9-noon) and I have Ladies Bible Study (9-noon). Now C&K will be babysitting (playing with preschoolers) during Bible Study. I know after all that Ki will not be able to get back into lots of schooling, so Tuesday will be easy fun stuff. This means I want to Make Monday Count!

It was a good day.

I made waffles for Breakfast. Ki sifted the flour with his new flour sifter he got for his birthday. And Bacon.

The boys slept in till 8:15, so they did their morning chores after breakfast. Then it was time to fill water bottles, clear the table, and go out back for some stretches and Brain Gym. Just some Criss-Crosses today. Connor and Ki did their stretches standing on the porch chairs.

Inside they all sat around the table to take notes. I never had them do school at the dining table before. I had a school table we'd use, but they outgrew it.

Today I wanted to teach them about gerunds. I wanted to learn about them actually.

Looks like they can be a simple thing or possible complex. We stuck with simpler today. I liked this site: The Gerund and then we did some extra reading onn them at wikipedia. The boys wrote a few sentences and then had fun pointing them out in conversation through out the day.

Next was Research Time. Ki read inhis science book about cows. Connor did some science experiments from his CD Rom course (apologia) and Gavin did some independent research on the ADS; Active Denial System- military weapons .

I did some of my Book of Daniel Homework while they were doing that.

After Lunch the boys did math. Ki did Life of Fred on his own. I often read them with him and we do them together, but he is doing a few chapters he did at the end of the school year last year as review- so he said he'd do it on his own today. Afterwards he was explaining some of it to Connor and they had their calculator out calculating stuff.

Connor and Ki watched about 2/3 of A Christmas Carol on Netflix. It is the play/musical for which they will be auditioning. Gavin worked on his PSAT practice stuff.

Then they cleaned in their rooms.

Gavin is also doing something on his computer. Some program with music. I'll have to ask him what it is. He also worked on drawing eyes today. link: (YouTube Instruction for drawing a photo-realistic eye).

Now it is abut time for dinner. I think we'll play a game afterwards. Maybe GLOOM!!!

Cabbages & Kings!

Ki Oct 2003

'CULOO, CULAAY, no work today,'

'We're cabbages and kings!'

Connor slept in this morning. I don;t blame him. I was SOOOOO tired! I had an upsetting dream and the cat made a huge commotion in the middle of the night....and I am still coughing at night.

Why Connor was overtired, I do not know.

I rarely wake sleeping children. I figure if they are asleep they need it. Another homeschool perk- getting extra sleep when we need it, without it putting us behind.

I read in Story of the World about Charles the 6th. Charles VI (vee-eye), NOT Charles IV (eye-vee), because he was 6 not sick.

And Joan of Arc.

And Henry the 5th. Then they watched the first half of Henry V, with Laurence Olivier.

Ki read about horses. There was a chart that described the hoof sequence for different gaits. Ki also looked up some videos on the different gates. Then I told him I had an idea. I said ; "Ah-Ha!!! I know what I should have you do!!!!!!" while looking at the pictures of the hoof sequences. He replies with. "oh, no. Are you going to have me be a horse? I only have 2 fee.........Oh. I get it."

We go out and he demonstrates the different gait sequences and tells me about them, then he quized me and I have to crawl around like a horse and demonstrate my hoof sequence knowledge. I cantered invertedly at first and had to be corrected.

Ki shouts "YEAH we're horses!..........no....NEIGH! We're horses!!

Brian put away Gavin's science disk and we didn't find it till later. He researched Carbon Nano-Tubes and took notes and explained them to me.....twice.

Connor did some reading in is science and said he doesn't like double experiment weeks. I asked him why he had spearmint. I never see his notes, he often doesn't take them, he does his experiments and never even tells me about them and can never figure out what the review questions are talking about. And gets As on the tests. Connor the Conundrum.

After lunch Ki and I did Life of Fred. Neither could remember where we left off, but we had just done a couple chapters, so we just started over. Ki agreed review was good and we should just start over. He did a few Brain Gym exercises to start off and had a bottle of juice. He likes having juice and a snack when he does his math. He told me his favorite math was Miquon (which I think he remembering much more fondly that reality, LOL). I think the Life of Fred has been the best fit for him. I know what he lied about the Miquon that he doesn't get in LOF, with Miquon, we could choose which pages he wanted to do when in what order. Life of Fred is a book, to be read in order. Ki loves stories though, so he is usually OK with it. Which reminds me.. I am watching "Hoarders" and it is scary- so much reminds me of Ki. and the stories the Hoarders have for every little item....

We did some cleaning in the computer table area and then we played Pandemic. The blue bacteria won. We lost the game.

(oh, that was funny.... "we lost the game".......HA! )

Gavin did some SAT practice. Connor did some ALEKS.COM (math). Apparently only MY laptop works for ALEKS and NETFLIX and Connor's Science- so we need to figure out a schedule for laptop use for people to get their school done.

Brian took C&G out to get birthday gifts for Ki. Ki and I grabbed dinner and watched Alice in Wonderland (Disney). He wanted Del Taco and I had a turkey burger from Natural Cafe.

Oh Happy Day!

It is so quiet in this house!

Gavin is away for the morning at his art class.

I told Connor and Ki to "do something" (towards 'schooling')

Connor is quietly reading a library book.

Ki was looking up varies rodent animal groups online. He is reading in his Science book. This chapter is about rodents (and similar animals- like rabbits). The book names some families of rodents that is doesn't talk about, so Ki is researching them.

Gavin is always researching things. When he takes breaks doing his physics, he will research astrophysics (how is that a break from doing physics??) or weapons or weird animals.

Independent Learners.

That has always been my goal of homeschooling and it is what my boys have become. It makes me very happy!

Gavin has transitioned well into his (one) college class. We homeschoolers get a lot of remarks about how our kids won't do well in college b'c they don't know how to "___ fill in the blank___" b/c they haven't "gone to school"- which I know is bogus- but it's just nice to actually SEE that.

So, I am happy.

SEPT 1, 2009

WOW. 2 mornings in a row I have woke before 7 Am, all on my own. Well, I did have help from the sun shining in the windows, the sound of the Broccoli and Strawberry trucks barreling down Stowell, and the sound of 3 boys doing morning chores. Gavin takes his shower at night now, so he’ll have more time for morning computer; which ends at 8AM and starts after their morning work, but no sooner than 6:30.
So, yes, they may actually get 1.5 hours on the computer in the morning if they are awake by about 6 AM to get their morning work done. Gavin got 2 new games for his birthday. Spore and Grand Age of Rome.
Today was a ‘get your own breakfast’ day. Gavin made a tuna sandwich. Connor and Ki had leftover Birthday cake. Connor also had yogurt. Ki just had cake and toast. I’ll suggest almonds and a glass of milk during Bible Reading.
9:15- Reading time is over. We meet at the kitchen table. I read Eph 6:10-20. We discuss a few things about it. Out of the 6 items mentioned in the full armor of God, only 1 is a weapon. The Sword of the Spirit. It is a defensive weapon, not an offensive weapon. No where does it tell us to fight. (though it does saw we wrestle against spiritual forces, not against man) It tells us to Stand against the evil one. To STAND. To Withstand. To Quench the Fiery Darts. To Pray and Pray and Watch and pray.

We prayed then read some Story of the world. We read chapter 8- about the Chinese Dynasties of the Middle Ages. The boys sat on the kitchen floor in a spot of warm sunlight, eating nuts, while they listened. We got out the world map to see how the rivers in China split the North & South.

Then head off to different lessons. G&C set off to take a progress assessment on their online math course while I read to K the rest of the Shark Chapter in his Zoology book. I had a little project. Measuring shark teeth (in a photo) and estimating the length of the sharks. I had him draw two teeth; one for a 50 foot shark and for a 35 foot shark. They got their timers from their pencil boxes. Let’s hope they put them back when school is finished. Again, he sat on the floor in the sun while he listened. Then he wrote a few notes and drew a few pictures in his notebook. He does better taking notes that are pictures of what he learned then writing out what he learned. So I have him draw pictures and copy any simple graphs and label things.

The boys were told they could take a break and start their last round of school in 15 minutes. G&C decided to play on FB. Ki decided to get a jump start on his math so he’d be done with school early.

Normally, I don’t set times for them to start and keep them on track. Just – no computer if they don’t get stay on track. But I got tired of them not doing much school until Friday, then rushing through and not getting much done. So I decided for a couple weeks I’d keep them on track and we’d do a few fun things each week after school (which should be done around noon or 1). So we’ll go to the park and play a few hours, or ride roller blades on the bike path, or go to the beach for a couple hours. Then I’ll do a couple weeks of letting them be in charge of their time and if they don’t get things accomplished, we won’t do all those fun things. After a couple weeks of that, we have a talk about how they like it better. When they get done early and we go to the beach or when they get t lollygag most the day not doing much of anything. (actually, Ki is always on daily schedule for school. He likes that.

Ki made a decision for Language Arts. He decided he wants to learn German.
And everyone was done with today’s school by about 12:30.

Things I have to do this week:
Find the Miquon Purple book or order a new one.

Figure out what to do for German. Maybe Petra can help us. Figure out what I need to order.
Go over C’s and G’s sciences to see what exactly they are doing so I can talk thing over with them, maybe think of fun activities to do, etc.

Plan some math for Ki . He was struggling with division. He found a way to help his brain figure some things out and also decided to do some multiplication worksheets. Either the first 10 minutes of Math time or just complete focus on Multiplication this week and back to division next week. He said he’d let me know his decision tomorrow.

SCHOOL DAY PICS

GAVIN Checking his morning email. Some from friends, some from his teacher (me) about his assignements.

Connor reading his Rocks Magazine and doing some of the questions- as he sits in the workshop and pauses to work on a model.

Ki is working on his OceanBox for his Zoology Study.

The Ocean Box activity from his Aplogia book. He was excited about it! Every lesson he is to add a couple animals (from that lesson) to his Ocean Box.

To School.... or NOT to School......

My youngest is the most unschooled. I should have seen it from the beginning. When he was 3 he counted to 3, when he was 4 he counted as high as 4. When he was 5 he counted all the way to FIVE! I asked him when he was going to count all the way the higher numbers. He told me:"When I'm six, I'll count to 6. When I'm ten, I'll count to 10. When I'm twenty, I'll count to whatever that number is."When we started homeschooling he was almost 5. He told me he wasn't going to learn or do any school until he was 6. 'SIX is the age to start school. I'm not 6 yet, so I won't do any school yet. I will when I;m 6"...and he did (and he decided to count all the way up as high as he could, not JUST to 6"When he was learning to ride his bike and had training wheels he could ride without them the summer he turned 6. You could tell because the training wheels never touched the round. He refused to take them off though. He told me "I'll take them off when I'm 7. 7 is the age to have training wheels off. I'm not old enough yet." The first nice day after he turned 7 (it was rainy, I remember because my husband hated waiting to take them off when he knew Ki could do it already), he told us it was time to take the training wheels off because he was 7 now. and he rode off down the street just fine.He has always made his own school schedule and decided what games to play to learn spelling words. I started spelling words with his bothers when they were 5th and 6th grade and he wanted to try as well, but he made up how he wanted to learn them. He makes up part of his own spelling list.I dont think there is anything wrong with teaching my kids what I want them to know along with them learning about what they want to know. I guess that keeps me from being a full unschooler, it also seems to keep from fitting into any other type of homeschool group, LOL. But I don't like to have a method/label dictate how I should do things. So I do the parts of it that I want and not the parts I don't want.my boys are working on some independent research right now. they choose their subject and I have a few requirements. (they are making Power Point Presentations- I figured it went with their interest of robotic and computer engineering type stuff). Ki (11) decided to do a puppet show as part of his research project. He decorated the couch and did his first act last night.

I am not a total UNSCHOOLER. I am more of a....."Child Interest Guided relaxed Eclectic with some unschooling tendencies" I think as the parent it is my responsibility to make sure my kids learn certain things. But I donlt go by what texts or reports or curriculum tell me they need to learn 'this school year'. I use their interests and needs. Like they older 2 are interested in Computer/Robotics so I teach them thinks like math and PowerPoint and brian teaches them computer programming. Gavin and Ki had lots of dyslexia, so I use certain techniques with them. A special Spelling program. I am not interest in spelling tests or how well they do on spelling tests, but the program is great for teaching kids with dyslexia decoding and word roots and foundation. WE choose what they learn, but we make our choices based on their interests and needs and with their input of what they want to learn.--Kimberly the partial unschooler7th yr homeschooling 3 boys

Dragon Study Ideas

A friend asked for 'unschooling' type ideas for her son who is into YuGiOh and Dragons.

I thought I'd share what I thought of in case someone here maybe able to use parts of it with their kids:

Maybe he can design his own YuGiOh type game. He can make his own creatures with abilities and cards and points, etc......
AND if you have a friendly Gaming Store, There might be a few people there who would be willing to play test his game. My son designed his own game, the store manager there knows we homeschool and is a great guy. My son told him all about the game and he is going to test play it with my son.

This will have art, writing, math, history (as he resaerches Dragon Lore to create his characters), learning how business works, etc...

Then he can make clay models of his creatures.

Maybe even write short stories about his creatures.



(I know very very very little about YugiOh, sorry)




He can do a puppet show of one of his favorite Dragon Stories.

Drawing Maps of a dragon cave or a forrest.

You can buy poker chips at the dollar store, spray paint them 3-4 different colors. Hide them. He searhces for them, maybe with a map, maybe not... each coin type has a different value. He can calculate the total value.


At the end he can throw a Dragon Party for friends and family- Make invitatons, maybe think of Dragon or Knight names for his guests.

he can make a Dragon Dinner... Hmmm.. carrot spears/swords, Flame grilled Steak, Potato Skin Shields.... Maybe he can think of dishes and give them 'dragon-y names'. Have him make the grocery list and give him cash and let him shop and go through the checkout lane. Have him write a menu (use a fancy old english font with WORD and print it out, use tea and a match to 'antique' the paper -and you can talk about history of Pilgrims or something and their hand made paper.- maybe make youe own paper....). Then roll it up in a scroll and use a wax seal.

Have his new game out and teach it to people, have his diaramas of different dragon Lore or YuGiOh Scenes, Do his Puppet Show. He can have huge maps with Push Pins for where dragons have been reported to have lived.....

You can even teach his to sew, buy a sewing pattern to make a KNIGHT costume and have him help make most of it. He can wear it to his Dragon Party. He can design and make his own wooden sword and sheild.

I just found this in my email today...

Science Experiment.. click here to see

you may need to find a smoke machine for this one.... or not... It might be fun for a dragon study .

these might be fun, too......

Sceince Experiment- make your own homemade fire extinguisher to put out those nasty little dragon brush fire in the back yard...

here is one that was maked as "ADVANCED"..... but you might want to try it anway (after you make a fire exstinguisher...)
Shooting Sparks

Making Sparks and Fire Part 2

MORE FIRE EXPERIMENTS

Sno-Cones

Today's school was easy. I told the boys to do something math, something reading and something writing. I told Manuel to pick any page he wanted in the Miquon book I have for him.

We went to the Rec Center and posed for picture passes for the waterpark pass.

Ate lunch.

Walked to the outdoor mall:





Here is Manuel (the one on red.... in case you couldn't pick him out...)


Here is Connor-


Here is Gavin (It was hard getting a face shot of him....)


Here is Connor and Ki (and Manuel and some kid with a mohawk)-


After we were done there, the boys got a sno-cone. No School next week, so Ki could have a little artificial....

Then I took a nap at home. The boys watched a couple Greatest American Heros shows on DVD. It is "Get your Own Dinner" night. Brian and the boys washed the Miata.

3 parts

This is a LOOOOOOOONG blog........ just a fore warning. The first part is some more on how I schedule school. The second is shorter and a bit about how school used to be in the early years. Then the last is a list of memory/listening skill activities.

With my of my kids being sick, School is not quit happening this week. There is some, but not enough to write home about.

Hence, I am blogging about homeschool schedules. Yesterday I shared out general weekly school schedule. CLICK HERE TO READ.

Today I will fill in some blanks. As you see on the general schedule it just says ‘math’… or just says ‘Going Places’…. or just says ‘Spelling”. On Saturdays I write a one week detailed plan. It might look something like this:

MONDAY

9AM- Breakfast and read-aloud –Pilgrim’s Progress. Story of the World, Proverbs 12:22

Spelling- G&C –Copy words and write a sentence for each. Ki- Copy Words, Do crayon Rubbings of each word with textured letters. Manuel- CopyWork John 2

Massage with Manuel (who is Manuel?). My 3 boys read.

rest of School-
Gavin- 13 yrs old
1. Saxon Lesson 65, examples, practice +3
2.Critical Thinking 1 Mind Bender problem
3. Creative Writing Assignment

Connor- 12 yrs old
1.Going Places. Read Text pages 101-110, answer questions in complete sentences.
2. Online Science (cells) take notes in notebook.
3.Math Detective 2 cases

Ki- 10.5 yrs old
1. 10 math dice problems. Multiply Double Digit Dice
2. Beyond the Code-pages 6,7,8
3. Mind Bender

Manuel-
1. Miquon J-12, 13
2. Ingles in 10 Min/dia – pages 22, 23
3. Read

I can pretty much just write assignments down for my boys. Gavin and Connor can do most on their own. I flit between Manuel and Kiel.

And some days we just go on a hike and bring microscopes or we do science experiments. Some days Ki wants to write a story for most of the day.

When we first started homeschooling my boys were 4,6,7. We didn’t have much of a schedule. We mostly did science experiments, unit studies and projects. Almost everything we studies we had Lego Projects to go with it. We used Legos for math and sorting and classification. School was only a couple hours a day. Some school days were writing checked, paying bills, addressing envelopes, going to the post office, mailing a package, looking at the map to see where it is going, talking about who we know that lives there or if we have vacationed there.

Some school days were having them help plan a week’s menu, go through the kitchen to see what we had and help make a grocery list. Then go to the store and find things to go with our planned meals.

School was very free flowing and almost unschooled those early years. The schedules started to get a little more when Gavin was in 4th grade. And Ki still didn’t have much of a schedule at all. He often got to pick 3 school things a day and in what order he did them. I miss those early days. They were so full of learning and newness. I really think that unsctructured, quasi-unschooling is the way to go until kids are 8 or 9.

IN CLOSING- some activities you may enjoy-

Games to improve memory- ("her/She" is used, but of course is for ANYchild)



1.Play the classic simple game of Memory Match- with the cards that you have to find matching pairs by remembering what you have turned over.. but start with half the cards. Or 5 pairs- something smaller- with less to remember.



2. Play 'Repeat' – Tell your child you are going to play a secret game. A game with a secret word and she can't tell anyone else the word but you and she has a mission to tell you this word anytime you ask her. say a word (like 'cookie')and have your child repeat it. Have a secret code word that whenever you say, shge knows to say her secret word. Like whenever you say "poppadiddle' she says her secret word. . Tell her the secret word and have her repeat 5 times in a row. Wait 10 seconds –say YOUR secret word and have your child repeat HER secret word. Increase the time between "Secret Word". Go for 10 secind, then 15 seconds, then 45 seconds, then repeat it over and over and tell her you will ask her again in 5 minutes…… then 15 minutes…



Go as long as you and she want and have time for.



Later increased from 1 word to a 2 word phrase.



You can also use just SOUNDS.. have her secret word be the making the sound of a car or dog, or making the sound of a secret letter.



3. Play "Hidden Treasure" (do this outside, in the yard ot maybe at the park)—hide 50 cents. (or a plstic whistle or something small) Show her the money first. Then hide it. Tell her where it is. Have her repeat back where it is. Ask her to draw where is it according to what you have told her. Wait 20 seconds (OR however long you think would be good for her) then tell her to find the hidden treasure by remembering where you told her it was.



Gradually increase elapsed time and details of where it is hidden (like instead of "under the blue pillow on the couch" have it be " 5 feet from the cat's bowl"… or "turn LEFT at the chair and walk 3 feet then turn right and measure 18 inches"…



4. Play the word Card game (or picture card or number card).. have a card with a word/picture/letter, etc…. show it to her, have her tell you what it is. Then turn it upside down on the table and have her tell you what it is and turn it over to show her. Then wait 20 seconds and ask her what is on the upside down card. Turn it over to show her. If she got it correct, wait longer next time, if she got it wrong, don't wait as long for the next time.



5. Hand Letter- write the letter of the day on her hand. Frequently throughout the day ask her to look at her hand and go over the letter sound with her. Soon, JUST ask her the sound of the letter in her hand without going over it with her.



6. Put a little red X on one of her toes . Just one toe, either foot. Throughout the day ask her which toe it is (without her looking), then she can take off her sock or shoe, etc to see if she is correct.



7. "What's Next"



At the beginning of the day give her a small itinerary.



"after breakfast we will read a book. After we read he book we will go for a walk"



While you eat breakfast talk about what is next (the book) and what is after that (the walk). Then when breakfast is done, ask her what is next--- see if she can remember it is the book. If she can, ask her what is AFTER the book… the walk.



Increase your list as she gets better with it.



"what's missing"—have a tray with 3-5 items on it (unless your child can handle more). Take the tray away- remove one item, show the child and have them tell you what is missing. As you increase, you can have 10 things and remove TWO and see if the child can tell you both missing items….. (do this outside with things like rocks, leaves, seeds, flowers..)




"Sequence"—have 3-5 items. Call out the names of two items (make sure they are NOT next to each other) and have your child touch them (or pick up and place in front of them) in the order you called them out. Increase to saying 3 things in order, then 4 then 5…… We do this with letters and numbers and words, too. OR, instead of calling out the names of the items, have your child carefully wacth as YOU touch a sequence of items and then they have to touch the same things in sequence. (do this outside with things like rocks, leaves, seds, flowers..)




"What did I say"? Say a list of 3-5 words to your child and have her tell you the FIRST word you said. Make sure you tell her how to play the game first- tell her- "This is a game where I say 4 words and you have to tell me the first word I said." Then give her an example. "If I say the words 'cat, bear, cup, ball'- the first word I said is CAT- so that is what you need to say back to me." ---If 4 is too many, start with 2 or 3. (do this outside with things like rocks, leaves, seds, flowers..)




how to make a sandwich- Pick a task (making a peanut butter sandwich or making a bed) and have her describe EACH STEP involved. Write down the steps she says, then do them like she said them. So if describing a sandwich and she says- get out the bread and put peanut butter on it" you would get out the LOAF of bread and set the peanut butter jar on top the loaf- Then help her learn the specific steps in detail—you get the loaf of bread out of the drawer. Set the loaf on the table, open the bag, take out a slice of bread, put it on a plate. Get the jar of peanut butter out of the cupboard and put the jar on the table. Get a spreading knife out and set next to the jar, take the lid off the jar and set it down. Pick up the knife and scoop peanut butter out of the jar with the knife…."

Don't forget-- a GREAT way to engage them and to help them learn is to let THEM get a turn to be 'teacher'... let them hide something for you and give directions... let them have a tray of 10 things nad take 2 away for you to figure out..... let them tell YOU a word of the day for you to remember.....

this works great with ALL school... math problems, etc...

Take A Look - into my days

Here is my basic schedule for the week. On Saturdays I look through their books and make a schdule filling in the page numbers or assignments.
I think the schedule is esier to follow when each day is next to theohter, but for size and format purposes I have to show them one day under the other.
CLICK HERE to see a picture of the whole week at once







Our Basic day goes like this-------
9AM- Breakfast/Read Aloud (usually Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Story of the Word)

After Breakfast clean up
BRAIN GYM stuff (sometimes obstacle course or other alternatives)

SPELLING/Language Arts (M/W/F- spelling, T/TH- Language Arts)

Manuel's Therapy-My Boys reading time

Individual Shool Work (the chart above)

We are usually done around 2PM

Gavin and Connor do a lot independant. I mostly help Ki and Manuel

TUESDAYS-
Manuel and I go to a coffee shop, have a snack and I help him with his school work, we talk, play a game- my 3 do all their work on their own. Ki usually only gets half of his done. But I am fine with it now. Now it what I expect. He does whathe can while we are gone and I help him finish when I get home)

PUZZLES & SCIENCE

I slept in this morning. I had a headache.

We did some chores around the house to get ready for Breakfast. Even Manuel did work. Connor and Gavin made Breakfast.

The school day started with Brain Gym. With my headache, I put the boys in charge. Ki led Criss Crosses, Connor led Body Scales (these are not a Brain Gym activity. It is a sensory activity made to help Ki's dyspraxia.). Ki always wants to lead these, but I only can let him lead them if I do a round first. (to make sure it gets done as needed to work, LOL). Manuel led Lazy 8s with arms. Gavin led Hook Ups.

I made word worksheets for Ki while they did this. I used Puzzle Maker(free to use website) and plugged in Ki's spelling words for this week. I made a word search and a crossword puzzle with his spelling words.

During Brain Gym., I also used Babelfish to give Manuel his writing assignment. Babelfish is a free language translator online. Id does dozens of languages , but it's not perfect. You have to think carefully about your wording. If you type. I was right (meaning correct) it will translate the ord RIGHT ad the directional word. (right or left). So I have to think carefully about how to word things. and sometimes it's still a bit off, but if I use the correct wording it does a good enough job that Manuel can understand it.

After Brain Gym, I gave the boys their writing assignments. They had to choose an event from a short list I provided, as I have learned long ago, an open ended choice leads to 3 hours of trying to decide for my younger 2. They had to write a list of what happened in order. Gavin needed 25 things, Connor 20, Ki 15. Tomorrow they will turn their list into a story. I will Ki make a comic book story- less words, yet he gets the story writing concept. They all wrote more than needed. The seemed to enjoy iy. I had Manuel write 10 sentences about going to Danny's house on Sunday. (The boys' friends). Ki also choose their day at Danny's house.

Manuel was done first. I found a book with instructions on dinosaur origami. I started with the easiest in the book. The dinosaur snapper head. I helped a lot with the first time. He thought it was SO NEAT that flat paper made a 3-D toy! So we did another one, with him doing most of it. Then he did one all on his own. Connor loves these snapers and son all the boys were making them.

ORIGAMI ONLINE FOR KIDS

Link to Video of Connor folding Dinosaur Snapper

Then it was time to do Manuel's therapy and my boys to do their reading. it keeps them occupied and focused while I am off with Manuel.

That brings us up to lunch.

The rest of the school day will be boring to report. Miquon, Math Detective CD, Beyond the Code, Ingles in 10 Minutos, Online Science Study.

I put the online science studies together for my boys. Here is the CELL one that Gavin just finished.

Lesson 2 Cells

Go Here- read, take notes, explore-

http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/westmin/science/sbi3a1/Cells/cells.htm

Click on the link for Unit Membrane- Read and click NEXT to get to the next page. Continue this. Some pages have little animated diagrams with a PLAY feature. Make sure you watch them.

At the end is a quiz, Take it. Record your grade- Correct if needed.

Click on the Studying Cells Tutorial-

read, click Scientific Method and read.

List the 7 steps in your notebook.

Click- Size & Biology Read

Click Major Events Read

Click to Test yourself

Click on each of the 4 areas to test. record your grades I your notebook.

NEXT- Go the following Site- http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/3dcell.htm

Read, take notes, follow links

GO HERE- http://www.cellsalive.com/gallery.htm

Read and explore

NEXT URL- http://library.thinkquest.org/3564/

CLICK ON LESSONS- Do one at a time, starting with the first- Take all of the quizzes and record your grades in your notebook..

CLICK ON VIRTUAL CELL LINK- Explore- Click the PLAIN links and watch.

NEXT URL- http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/sciber00/7th/cells/sciber/intro.htm

Read, take notes, don't do the Enrichment Links

PROJECTS to DO-

http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/making_a_cell.html

FUN VIDEOS and pics of science!

The only reportable events from yesterday are the Mentos Experiment and the fact that we were given a pop up camper trailer. It sleeps 8 and has a fridge, stove, sink….. The man is a friend of my husband and was thinking of asking $100 for it but decided to just give it to us. He said his family got more than their money’s worth out of it and hopefully we will get lots of fun, too.

MENTOS:


Gavin-
SODA BOYS & MENTOS

Add to My Profile More Videos

Manuel-


Today we watched a few videos of the Metnos Experiment and read an explanation. So now we know ways to make our Mentos Experiment better. We will try it with diet coke and Mentos nd also try it with salt. I think I will assign the boys the task of figuring out how to implant a delayed trigger (like on the videos- whish are AWESOME and linked at the end of this blog)

And Manuel was singing a Tobymac http://www.tobymac.com/ song. He only knows 2 lines and slurs the third line all together. It’s funny because he only speaks Spanish (he does know a handful of English) and he has no idea what he’s saying. He sings “Shake it---Don’t break it….” the next line is “took your momma 9 months to make it”- but he can’t quite say that line.
He calls the Tobymac my “CD Muy rapido”


Soksey brought a bird to us. I guess he thought we were hungry. I really wish he’d eat what he kills

Ki got a 95 on his spelling test. I told him to study his words, he did, said he was done studying. I asked if he was sure, he said yes and told me to ask him his words. So I did. He spelled them all except for one. I gave it to him again and he got it correct. I figured he spelled them for me out loud and it counted as his spelling test. He missed 1 out of 10- then corrected it and got it right- so I gave him 5 points for it. Told me had a 95%. Later I had him spell a few words with his feet; using his foot to ‘draw’ the letters on the ground. I think I’ll add that activity to his spelling routine- It will be good for his SID.


After that, Ki made French Toast. He made the batter and made his French Toast, then the other boys cooked theirs. Ki helped Manuel with his.

Connor finished book 5 from Cat Warriors.
CatWarriors Barnes&Nobles




His reading has gotten so much better. He’s been able to read since he was 4 or 5 (it’s hard to tell exactly with autistic kids). He was always able to read on grade level. but he was very, very slow and had very poor retention and comprehension. I changed his Language Art program around _I stuck him with a reading program that was 2 grade levels lower than his reading level- but on his comprehension level. It is a Silver Burdett book and workbook-Going Places) and I added lots of things like doing puppet shows, dioramas, drawing book covers, etc… for each of the short stories. And now he just ZOOMS through books on his reading level with great comprehension. He thought he couldn’t read this book 5 on the 3 weeks you get from the library- so he bought the book. He read it in 6 days.

Ki has started reading ‘real books’- no longer those 10 words a page kindergarten readers. He wants to read the Cat Warrior books, too. He reads the titles (this book is called ‘The darkest Hour’) but he can’t read much more. He has read a couple other books that are about 3rd grade and he reads a passage here and there or bigger books.

This is why I don’t force my dyslexic kids to read 30 minutes a day of books that are a bit too hard. I do not push at all. I let Ki read simple Dick and Jane type books over and over and over and over and let him progress when he was ready and wanted to. same with Gavin). and it happens. One day (towards the end of 4th grade, they just decide they are now ready to go very simple Kindergarten pre-readers to reading on level AND the WANT to.. They are excited to read, they have the desire. I know they wouldn’t have the reading desire if I was continually pushing them to read before they were ready.

Today was spelling tests and math tests and Science Experiments. For Math tests- well, lately I have the older two doing Saxon- but JUST the examples and practice problems for that chapter (and make up 3 of their own problems), so I decided on Fridays they will do the Problem Set at the end of the last chapter they did.

I’ll grade them later- we’ll see if this works.

We did more science fun today. Last night I put a little water in one of the 2Liter bottles and topped it with a balloon.

I put it in the freezer overnight. We took it out this morning. The bottle was sucked in on the sides and the balloon shrivled. it's hard to tell with the small picture- but the ballon and bottle are both shriveled.

Then we put it in a pan of water and watched the balloon fill with air as the hot water melted the ice in the bottle.

a little more air into theballoon


enough to make it stand upright!


a little more air.....


It's getting quite full now...


The balloon at it's max. Though I think it would have gottenbigger once the water IN theballoon boiled.

At the end the bottle itself was swollen with air so I turned off the stove. I didn’t want it to explode.
Not sure if you can tell, but the upper portion of the bottle is expanded and fat with air. It was bulging quite a bit.

Then we did the Ghost in a Bottle trick…. Here is a poor video. You can’t see the coin hop- but it does. You can hear it.


It does tiny hops as the ghost is trying to escape. Freeze a glass cola bottle (we used IBC) then take it out the next day, put a drop or two of water on the rim. Put a coin on it. As the air warms and tries to get out, it pushes the coin.

URLS for cool Mentos videos!
MENTOS & COKE

MENTOS & COKE Holiday


MENTOS & COKE Dominos


DON’T Do this one at home- but neat to watch- MENTOS ROCKET

Aspergers-Therapy-games-school

Tuesday May 1, 2007

It’s almost National STAR WARS day!!!!

Once again, the boys took to digging their underground house before breakfast. School didn’t start until after 10. well, the ‘in class sitting down’ type of school. It is good that they were digging before school. The physical work is good for them The brain needs the body to work. Learning is more complete when both there is physical activity, too.

We started with Brain Gym and drinking water. Manuel was able to do the criss-crosses much better this week! Connor is just an annoying little goof. He ended up doing extra Brain Gym because he was just playing around and being so silly.

Then we went over Spanish/English words and phrases. The boys enjoy quizzing each other. My boys say a word in Spanish and Manuel says it in English- and he says an English word to them and they have to say it in Spanish. Manuel is much more wiling to try English words for my kids- then for me. I guess it’s less embarrassing to mess up with other kids than with a ‘teacher’.

We didn’t do spelling today. We did story writing. While Manuel read with his foot propped up, I did a little lesson on time sequence in story writing. I told them what it means to tell a story in sequence of events. Starting with the first thing that happened and moving on…. to the end. First I told a little story- part of it. I said something like”
The alarm sounded early in the morning. With my eyes still closed, I rolled over and turned it off. I took a deep breath then opened my eyes. I went to brush my teeth and hair. Then I got dressed.
I then asked the boys questions about what happened first and next and last. Connor didn’t do well. He just sat there. He couldn’t figure out what happned first and next. Kids with Asperger’s often have trouble with time sequence and with his bothers jumping into to answer he just sat back. So I directed some questions to him. Just for him and was detailed and tried to lay things out in for him. He did better that way.

Then I gave the boys a list of out of order sentences for the next part of the story. They had to put them in order. Then they had to write 5 more sentences to finish the story.
Here are the sentences they had to put in order:
I followed the drops into the kitchen.

In front of the fridge I found a bone.

As I stepped into the hall, I noticed drops of blood.

I picked up Soksey.

Soksey was eating a chipmunk by the door that leads to the garage.

Ki wrote 3 sentences (I told him he only had to write two or 3). He made them out of order for ME to figure out.

He had”
 I put Soksey outside. ( Ipit sokey ot siid)
 blood fell on my shirt (blod fal on my shrt)
 Soksey brought a bird in. (Soksey brot a bord in)

Connor wrote:
“Soksey had 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks. It took me 79, 258,010,236,547,721 seconds to count them. Soksey was very happy. The lanet exploded. Then Soksey was sad! Soksey was sadder than me because he lost 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks.”

He gave himself a HUGE RED A+

Gavin wrote:
“But he didn’t like it when I picked him up, so he bit me on the hand. I yelled and dropped him. He finished eating the chipmunk. Then I closed the door and locked him outside, but before I could close the cat door, he came inside. He ran under the bed and took a nap. I made breakfast and woke the boys. They ate breakfast and we started school. Soksey woke up and tore up the school books. We did a little work on blank papers. We made lunch and ate it.”

Then it was time for Manuel’s therapy and the boys did their reading while I took care of Manuel. After that I wrote a list of schoolwork for the boys and took Manuel to Taco Bell for doing such a good job with his therapy this past week or so.

I really enjoy spending time with Manuel. He opens up and tries hard to learn English and also to explain and teach me Spanish when we are one-on-one. After taco Bell we went to a School Supply Store. They had one of those 9 tile puzzles with a split picture on each side and you have to match the tiles…. B-Dazzle Puzzles
He loved it. He would get it almost done and the last 2 or 3 wouldn’t match up and he laugh about how easy it looks but it’s really very difficult. The he’d rearrange them and laugh when the birds had 2 heads… picture is link to website. bdazzle-



I finished my purchase and we stopped by the dollar store in search of index cards, to no avail. So we went to the little coffee shop to do sit and do his schoolwork. They had one of those triangles pieces of wood with the pegs that you hop over each other and try to get one peg left. I taught him that he really enjoyed it. He played it over and over and over. He got one left a few times and would say “YO GANA!” We worked in his Ingles in 10 minutos a dia book. We read outloud back and forth and he wrote things out.Then we did math. I couldn’t get him away from the peg game… I told him if hw could win again (one peg left) he’d not have to do his math today…LOL. He had 3 left…


so I used the pegs to demonstrate the math concept. having groups og 4 or 6 pegs, tmaking equal groups, taking one of the groups away, etc... He couldn’t get it for awhile. I finally was able to make him understand the problems. They were problems like:

½ X 6 = 6 - ?

he didn’t understand ½. I went over and over it, with pictures, and using the pegs showing that ½ is the same as 3/6 (and 2/4 and 4/8…) Finally we stumbles upon the word medio… and I finally got him to understand…medio de sais = the same as 6-3…. He finally caught on. He was getting confused my the word HALF.
He is great with math as long as there is only an equation on ONE side. So we are really exercising his brain here. Teaching different ways to see things. I wrote out a few more problems and he did great.
½ x 10= 10-? ½ x 6= 6-? ½ x 50=50-?........ etc.. I think I had 7 for him.
So I moved onto ¼ x 4 = 1 out of the group of 4 pegs…. same with 1/3 x 3 =1 of group of 3 pegs… THEN we went to 1/3 x 6 =2 (if you double the 3(6)- you double the answer of 1 (2). so he was able to get the answer to ½ x 12 = ? just by seeing to double the answer again.

We finished. He played the peg game again and won. And then said that because he won, he doesn’t have to math tomorrow…LOL. We’ll see….

Ki didn’t have his work done, but I knew he wouldn’t. I sat him in my lap and we worked on it together and he did well.

Manuel rested with his leg elevated (it is still swollen) and watched Star Wars 2.

Connor was asleep when I got home. and still coughing. I bet his antibiotics aren’t working… I’ll have to take him back to check in a day or two (he has one more pill left) And I think he has impetigo. He is a face picker.. a scab picker.. he used to have open sores all over his face until he was 4 or 5. He doesn’t scab well, so wounds stay open for a week often…. anyway, he finally got out of the face picking habit….. until he had chicken pox two months ago… now he has open scratches on his face again and can’t keep his hands off….. just another autism issue…

THAT’S IT from me today! it’s TACO TUESDAY here!

No Bill Nye

How often do you see cool science experiments online videos???
How often do you see perfect, easy science experiments on kids' science TV shows??
How often do you read (see illustrations) of awesome and fun science experiments in books?

I bring you- REAL SCIENCE experiments-- the ones you try 6 times and they still come out a bit not-correct...

Bill Nye I am not. I am just a Bill Nye Wanna-Be.

Today we did 2 science experiments. The first was creating a vacuum in a glass bottle to suck a hard bpiled egg into it. It is a GREAT experriment... if the egg and bottle are correct sizes. My egg was too big... or maybe my bottle too small. Iused a Snapple Teas bottle and a large egg. If I can get a small or maybe medium sized egg, it may work.
We tried 4 times to get the flame IN the bottle, but it kept going out as soon as we put in there. The 5th time, Connor left his hand on the egg the whole time. so you didn;t get the effect of the vacuum sucking the egg.... it culd have been Connor pushing it. So we did it AGAIN! and I saved the footage. But I need to hire a more compatent camera man. This one was too close, so he couldn;t get the entire bottle in the frame. So you either saw the fire at the bottom or the egg at the top. He wiggled when the egg was starting to be sucked into it, but if you look closely you can see it. And JUST as the egg was being sucked the rest of the way, he TURNED IT OFF! You can hear the start of the suction sound, though. You see Manuel (in red) and Ki in the background. I have the fire, Gavin puts the egg on the bottle (I straighten it). The camera man will remain nameless. Click the video area to activate it. Then click the play arrow and wait a few seconds. if it doesn't work- you can try coming back later- if you have the time. Sometimes videos get too busy I think.



Then we floated citrus fruits. Limes and Lemons to be exact. This was another experiment that didn't work. ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS (just who are 'they' anyway??) the limes sink and the lemons float. SEE VIDEO of REAL EXPERIMENT If you cut their rinds off and try just their rinds, both float, if you try the lemons and limes without rinds the lime still sinks, the lemon still floats. Limes are more dense (compact mass) and are heavier than the water so the sink. Lemons are less dense, so they float. We have dense lemons. They stood sort of upright at the bottom of the bowl.. didn't float all the way- didn't sink all the way. WAIT!! We were supposed to use the WHOLE lemon and lime I think!! DOH!.
Then we floated mangos pieces and rinds... (no pics of that)






I LOVE MY GLASS BOWL! I bought is with science experiments in mind. So many need a big bowl for water and this is smooth and straight and clear- so you can see right in. I also use it for mixing things (like a double batch of waffles)- most science experiements with water are food items anyway.... water, juice, baking soda, cabbage juice/lithmus tests...

a colorful day

(Complete with links)
This morning I read Ki's lines with him. He is in a play next week. I made the mistake of doing this before he had a good big drink after breakfast and before his sensory occupational therapy. It is amazing how little and tired he is before his OT. He is like a limp noodle. Not a big deal though. We'll just read through the lines again after his OT. A little Joint Compression and breathing exercises will do wonders for him. Apparently his teacher doesn't say much to him about his performance during class. She sent home a note about how he needs to work on volume and annunciation. But because she doesn't say anything to him during class, he keeps saying "This is how I do it in class and my teacher is fine with it!"
I will do 1-on-1 school with Ki today and have Gavin do SOS History and Connor do Saxon Math.
Today I go down to Shriner's hospital to spend some time with Manuel. The plan is to bring him home tomorrow. So I will probably spend the night there. I should call first to see what time they expect him to be able to leave tomorrow.
For past blogs about homeschooling and archived links and tips, visit WWW.HOMESCHOOLBLOGGER.COM/3FOLDCHORD

You will find links on the top banner for:
Dyslexia/LDs/ADS tips and journals
Charts and Schedules


Online Links
Our School Day- for examples of a day in our school.




TODAY- We did morning Brain Exersices together. CrissCross Marches, Deep Breathing stretches, Lazy 8s with arms and legs and Hook Ups.This was intersparsed with the consumption of water. (Brains are 80% water and need to be fully hydrated)



Next-Gavin looked up spelling words and wrote their definitions while Connor worked on Saxon Math. During this time I did word family reading with Ki. Beyond The Code. Then he circled base words in the groups. After that we worked with letter tiles. He had to find letters and find certain letters in front or behind to work on letter placement in the alphabet. After that he used the textured letter tiles to spell words from his word cards.

Snack Break

Gavin read poetry. His creative writing teacher is going over poetery with him. (Thursday class). I have a book of Robert Frost poetry for him to read. Connor is reading Time Cat. Ki and I did a few pages in his Miquon with manipulatives.


Lunch

Classes at Dominion. Ki takes drama and Connor has art class. Gavin stays home. I will be going to Shriners to stay with Manuel. (click to read- who is Manuel?)

SCHOOL DAY

We started with Story of the World (we are reading about Ancient Greece) then we did Brain Gym. Ki did his bouncy ball Joint Compression. Then water and more Brain Gym. I wrote G&C's spelling words on the board during this time. They still play and bicker when they are in charge of Brain gym, but they are getting better.
For spelling:
G&K had a list of words-
arrange
strange
range
fringe
cringe.
They had to use these words in sentences and they had to have 3-6 sentences for all the different forms of the word they can think of. I told them they could double up words. So some of their sences mght be:
It is strange to arrange eggs by color.
The stranger was arranging flowers.
That is the strangest arrangement I have seen.

I told them I wanted at least 10 sentences (they could use more than 2 words as long as the sentence structure is proper). Connor wrote.
"I like to say. "...then listed all the words with their forms.."
then wrote 10 short sentences like "I see a cat."

Connor is like that. finding loopholes and taking shortcuts..... I have to be so exact with him. I didn't say the 10 sentences had to have words from the spelling list.

Gavin's is so totally sloppy.. and nothing is capatilized. plus he used some words incorrectly, so he hd to look them up in the dictionary.
So they both are rewriting their sentences.

Ki had three parts to his spelling. write his words in ABC order, write in order of shortest to longest and them pick 2 word cards at random and write a sentence using those words. And do 3 sentences like this. He did the 1st part and forgot about the second part and 3rd part. (I was running errands). BUT he couldn't find where in his spelling notebook he did the 1st part so I had him do it again and watching him, I don't think he even did it the first time. So he had to do all of it.

Gavin got most of his math correct. Usualy it was on;y 'wrong' becuase he wrote the answer in the wrong form or forgot the units. I dontt think that's so bad- his math skills are great, it's just the organizational part...

Connor did math online and got a A. But he was supposed to play 3 games not just one. My written instructions were unclear. I wrote - MATH Detective -- 3.....not 3 games. I forgot the GAMES. I think he should have figures it out. I dunno... but he'll be doing what he missed. so I guess it's all good in the end.

Connor had already done his Language Arts book at Grammy's house, he worked ahead and I didn't realize. So he didn't have to do that- but he read the story a second time.

LESSON LEARNED- be more specific in giving instructions! I always think I am specific enough, but it never seems to be.

Ki will not be left to do school on his own for sometime as he really didn't do anything except 2 pages in Miquon. Next time I have to run errands he comes with me then will have to get his work done later after we get home. With his SID and Dyslexia, it's just not working yet. Maybe next year.

Ki has forgotten the alphabet again. He forgets information that isn't constantly reviewed.. I just was thinking by now we'd no longer have to review the alphabet. this is going to be a long road..... he can't be reviewing things like counting in order (which he does still mix up if it's not reviewed often enough) and the alphabet when he's in college...