Not a Good Day

Definitely not a good homeschooling day - I'm a bit sick today, and was doozing off all day - so it was a "multi-media" day for the kids. (basically they were half babysat by the TV, the computers, etc while I doozed on the couch on and off.) Delta had his first swim lessons in "Otters" at the Y - we will see how that goes. I took him, Echo was having a nap as she was tired and cranky - and Mike was getting up at that time.

Felt a little better in the evening - took the kids out and they cleaned up the flyers that had fallen out of our mailbox all winter - there are a few still frozen to the ground, but we got a whole big garbage bag full. Then they played tag, and I got out Echo's little push-car. So we got out into the yard at least.

"Teach your child to Read"

[asked which reading program I'm using]

The book I am using is "Teach your child to read in 10 minutes a day" by Sidney Ledson.   It is a Canadian author.    But I think you misread my message - I said that we are focusing on the "Sounds" NOT the "Names".   Echo happens to know the names of a few letters, but not by any teaching on my part.   When she asked for an "Ahh", that would be because that is how she knows the letter A.  Not by name, but by the short ahh sound that A makes.   That was from my teaching.

 

Echo knows the sounds (short sounds for vowels) for U, P, C, A, T, th (as in the), e (as in the), H, O, and G.  She can figure out about 25 different 3 letter words from those letters.

 

Delta knows the above, plus B, I, R, N, S, D, E - and can figure out about 100ish 3 or 4 letter words.   He has just started working on sentences using mostly the words he already knows...  He has read 4 or 5 of the first sentences that this book uses.  He is also enjoying seeing words he knows in "Hop on Pop"....     The book I'm using slowly introduces the other letter sounds, plus some of the different sounds and combination sounds during the sentence work.   

 

The book uses ONLY capital letters at this point (after the first 15 sentences, it introduces lower case) - but Delta seems to have no problem recognizing a letter in its upper and lower case forms.  

 

I have heard a lot of people mention "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons", but have never seen it myself....

Light Day

Today:   Another light day because of the doctor's appointments....

 

Delta did a bunch of puzzles...

 

When we went outside, I got to show him animal "scat" in our yard.  (In case you are not aware of the term "scat" - it is the term for wildlife poop.)   I'm pretty sure it was deer scat.   Delta thought it was pretty neat, because it meant that there was a deer in our yard last night.   (There are a LOT of deer in our neighbourhood - he has seen them in our yard through the window once or twice.)    Guess I better clean it up tomorrow....

 

They got to play at a dear sister's house (in our ward) who was kind enough to babysit with little notice so I didn't have to take them to my appointment.   Apparently when they were colouring, Echo asked the sister to draw an L (her favourite letter), and an M - and then was asking for an "ahh"  (the sound A makes in her reading.... we are focusing on the sounds, not the names....)....  it took a while for the sister to realize what she wanted, then she clued in on it.      This sister used to watch the kids while I ran the cub program at church - and was always impressed on their intelligence.  (ok, I'll try to stop bragging now...)

 

Because I started hurting later on, I didn't make them do anything really.  Delta found the leap-pad that has been stored for over a year.... and he found a matching book and cartridge, so I got out batteries, and he did that for a while.  Unfortunately the "Power-touch Baby" that we have isn't working right, so I couldn't let Echo use that....

 

I think that was about it.....   Delta pointed out a couple of birds though, and has mentioned wishing the leaves would come so he could have his leaf collection....

 

  

So Far

So far today:

 

We did scripture mastery, and I'm feeling that we are getting somewhere, so I've added a new scripture.   So that will be 3 we are working on - the new one every day, and the other 2 every other day.....     I don't think Delta and Echo could recite them on their own, but they definitely seem to know them pretty good for a repeat after me thing....

 

I did reading cards with Echo, and focused on the new letter that she is getting confused, and she did a bit better.   We also reviewed the really early ones.

 

For Delta's reading cards, because he wasn't too eager, I went to the really simple stuff (the cards Echo is working on) - and doing the "I bet you don't know this one..." and being astonished when he got it easily.... so he enjoyed that, and did a lot of the easy ones.   Near the end, I just did the last letter sound that he learned, which he is having a harder time with - and about 2 words that used it....

 

We also did violin practice - and Delta did good at playing his violin.   Echo sure knows the names of the violin parts!

Oh, and earlier Delta and Echo was colouring - and Delta's colouring is becoming more and more that he is either drawing things, or drawing letters.  He wrote out Stop again - he likes that word.... and he drew a couple of "monsters" - and I could see the monster there.   Until really recently, he would just scribble, so it is kind of nice to see it progress into something.

  

This and That

Delta did great at violin lesson, even though he hadn't practice nearly enough....  he got to play his violin!   And he focused pretty much the whole time, although he didn't want to do a few things (including singing "A" for some wierd reason....)

 

Morning was my baby circle - so the kids got to go to babysitting - apparently they played in the gym.   Afternoon was the violin lesson....

 

Late afternoon Delta was playing with his Lego ambulance, and made about 4 different race cars out of it!  (one at a time....) - they looked pretty good too!  So that is cool, I think he will be really good with Lego once he has more to work with!

 

Evening I did scripture mastery - I think they are getting pretty good with the 2nd one too....     Then we did reading cards.   Delta did a bunch (I was trying to review the new material with him...) - and he realized that some of the words are in "Hop on Pop".    I also had him read the first 3 sentences in the how-to-read book...  they are short sentences - and he seemed excited to go for it.    He then was "reading" Hop on Pop to himself - I think he is reading some, and going by memory some - but I think he is finding it satisfying....

 

Echo is doing good at blending (better than Delta)....  but is really confused by the last letter she learned...   And I'm not sure why....  So I'm trying to work mostly with that letter sound with her.   She was doing good, then started getting silly.... 

 

The weather is finally getting better, and a lot of the snow in the front yard is gone.... so we will see about getting out more.

Light Day

Definately a light day.... We had Zulu staying with us overnight, so in the morning they played. After lunch, I had had enough, and so Mike took over, and I had a nap for a lot of the afternoon!

Later on, we went for a drive - we went by the waste water treatment plant (we went by a different one yesterday on our trip to Zulu....) - and so we had another discussion (a review) about it. We also discussed (not for the first time) the electricity towers.

Before bed, I got out the "Hop on Pop" book I had taken from the library, and Delta read some of it. I think he found it kind of cool that he could "read" some of it (although it was hard work....). And he had me read another book I had taken out. It is also a beginner reader - "The Bernstein Bears go Up and Down" - but I just read it to him. He took that one to bed with him....

We haven't practice the violin for days!!!

Disapproval

Yesterday:

Did the reading cards with Delta and Echo, and the scripture mastery. It was cute, I started with Echo doing the new scripture we are learning (we now practice the one we sort-of have down every other day as well....) - and Echo was saying that she wanted to do "Moroni". (our first scripture is in Moroni....) LOL

I also stopped at the book and got a few books that Delta might be able to read on his own with my assistance.

Then we went to Zulu for a daytrip - and visited with Mike's sister.... and proceeded to get told that we need to stop (having kids) - and she also was not happy to hear that we are homeschooling. Mind you, this is the sister that is mad at us since about a year after Delta was born.... so whatever.... but still. Mind you, it was nice to hear Mike defending homeschooling instead of me. (well, we had a discussion with his brother and his fiance about it - but they were doing the whole discussing it like they are interested type of disapproval instead of the straight out saying we are wrong method.... you guys know?

Oh, and when we went outside yesterday, there was a fresh layer of snow - and Delta noticed right off there were paw prints right near our door. I thought they looked like mouse (they seemed pretty small to me) - but Mike said they were probably rabbit....