Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Homeschool - Boys at Play

"Do you see the boys at play? Yes I see them; there are five of them. Tom is too fat to run fast. Nat can catch him. I like to see boys at play" -McGuffy's Eclectic Primer

I have good days homeschooling. Sometimes I think I'm not getting through, but today was proof that I am doing something right.

Today as a family lesson, I used "Nature - Evidence of Heavenly Father's Love", adapted for young children, from the Family Home Evening Resource Guidebook (which I will be using frequently as it promotes good discussions on a wide variety of topics). We had a fruitful discussion about nature, how plants purify the air, and the three states of water. It wasn't the most spiritual discussion we've had, but that will come another day.

During our quiet study hour, Colin surprised me by drawing two street signs (one of which he made up): a stop sign and a "go" sign. What surprised me was that he spelled the words correctly even though I have never gone over them with him. He just sounded out the words and wrote them down, taking note that the "o" in "go" is a hard sound. I guess I'm getting it right in teaching him phonics.

Watching Colin learn to write has been interesting. He has been learning to write the way a baby learns to speak. Starting with random letters, then copying words from a page, and over time is now starting to write simple words he thinks of by sounding them out slowly and writing down the sounds he hears. I honestly was afraid for the days ahead wherein I would have to teach spelling. This might not be as scary as I previously thought.

I give each of the kids one on one instruction time and will do so until each has become proficient in reading, writing, and arithmetic.With Karyn, I have been teaching the upper and lower case alphabet, the numbers 1 through 20, colors, shapes, and to predict simple patterns and observe differences. We play a lot of "One of These Things is not like the Others".

Colin has started lesson 19 in the Mcguffy Eclectic Primer. His reading gets better each week. I've heard boys can have a difficult time learning to read, but that doesn't seem true in Colin's case. Some days are more difficult than others, but over all he is making good progress. Actually, the bigger struggle has been learning to add and subtract with accuracy. He seems to understand the mechanics of single digit addition and subtraction, but the actual functioning is still difficult for him; but he will get there.

My kids are smarter than I was at their age. They are going to challenge me.

No comments:

Post a Comment