Making Progress

My sixth child, Jackson, has been a little bit more of a challenge academically for me than my other children have.  Granted, Jackson is only seven years old, but he has had a few learning delays that my older children did not have.  This child loves to work outside and developed control of his large motor skills early.  He was riding a bike without training wheels before the age of 4 and was cutting down small saplings with a hack saw at age four.  Give him a job to do outdoors and he'll get it done.

However, his fine motor skills have been slower to develop and he has some speech delays that I think caused him some delays in reading.  I did have his speech tested just before he turned five years old and the therapist felt that I should be able to handle his therapy at home.  We even found a speech therapy program developed by a homeschooling mother who just happens to be a speech therapist.  We used Super Star Speech for a while and had great results.


I think, though, what has made the biggest difference for Jackson is working to make our school time more focused.  Instead of making daily lesson plans for Jackson, I put all of his school activities in plastic drawers according to subject matter.  I made a list of daily activities that we do together and placed it in his "meeting book" in a page protector.  As we complete one task, I mark it off with a dry erase marker.  Caedmon joins us on much of the work that is oral and has learned much himself.  I don't necessarily follow the order that I typed things up, but we are getting much more done just by having this one checklist handy.  This saves me much frustration and even though I am not making out daily lesson plans we are seeing great progress.  I thought I would share my list with some explanations for you today.

1.  Bible reading-we are reading from The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos.  We read this on the couch with Caedmon.

2.  We read a book together either from our home library or from the public library.  This may or may not be related to our history, science or geography topics.  Caedmon joins us for this time as well.

3.  Scripture review-we haven't been as focused on this as I have in the past with the older children.  I need to get working on this area with him.

4.  We head to the school area and work on some oral drills incorporating songs.  We go over the days of the week and the months of the year.  I have these written on cards and Jackson puts them in order.  We do not do this every day.  We also go over our address, phone number and how to spell our names through song.  Again, we don't do all of this every day, but it helps to review and Caedmon is picking up on all of this as well.

5.  We work on money and time.  We have been using the appropriate levels of the KUMON workbooks for this and he is doing great!  After buying several of these workbooks for Jackson, Caedmon and the grandchildren, I finally decided to have the spines cut off and put them in page protectors so they can be used many times.  These pages are put into Jackson's "meeting book" so they are easily accesible.

6.  Weather chart--we set up a bulletin board using some ideas from confessionsofahomeschooler.com.

7.  Sight word game--I take all of Jackson's sight word cards and make up fun things to do with them for review.  Sometimes we spread them neatly on the floor into equal rows and columns....I call out a word and he finds it.  We may spread out some large alphabet cards and then place the words under the letter they start with (introducing alphabetical order) or I may just have him read each word from the card.  We do not do this every day, though.

8.  Math review--We picked up a fun dot-to-dot book that has each page with dots 1-100.  This has been a huge help for Jackson.  He is almost finished with it and I will be getting him another one with higher numbers.  He also does a facts sheet review page from Math U See and a critical thinking skills page.

9.  We work on a Math U See lesson.

10.  We work on a phonics/reading lesson from Learning Language Arts Through Literature.  

11.  We do one lesson from Life of Fred.

12.  We do two pages in Explode the Code.

13.  We do a handwriting page from Italic Handwriting.

14.  We practice skip counting by 2, 3, 5, 6, and 10.  We count backwards as well.

15.  We look at his calendar in his "meeting book".  We count the days using ordinal numbers.  We count how many days Daddy will be out of town this month and how many days he will be home.  We look at events on the calendar.

Jackson also listen in to the history tapes, read alouds and geograpy lessons that I do with the older children a couple of times a week.  It looks like a lot of work, but with everything organized it only takes a minute to set things out for him to work on.  Some he can do independently while I work on laundry or activities with Caedmon.  Finally, we are making great strides and we are all so excited to see him learning so much.

Little Boys' School

 Yesterday we had a few extra students in our homeschool.  My oldest daughter, Lauren, had her bi-annual check-up with her pulmonary doctor and we watched her three little ones while she was away.  When I went outside to greet them and get some grandma hugs, I asked grandson Chase, 4,  what we should do.  His response?  "Schoolwork!"  So after lunch and cleanup we proceeded to do just that.

Naps were out for the two year olds.  Usually fighting like cats and dogs, Elisha and Uncle Caedmon were caught peacefully sitting together on the couch looking at books.  Caedmon is a whole 5 months older than Eli.

Chase and I worked on tracing his name for a little while and then I broke out the pattern blocks.  I know we have had these blocks for at least 20 years now....and still use them weekly!  I had Chase sort the blocks by color and then I made a simple picture and had him copy it to the side.  I then placed a few blocks in a row and had him copy.  That was a little more challenging for him.

You can sense his deep concentration. ; )

A pretty flower that he said looked like WalMart.  Does WalMart have a symbol like this?

And while I was working with Chase, Jackson took a break and did this!  Yes, seeing my boys upside down and sideways is not that unusual...even during school time!

Elisha and Caedmon eventually settled on the rug to play with a huge box of Duplos.  I have a rule that the Duplos (or whatever they are playing with) must stay on the rug.  Yeah, right!

Caedmon was caught in a thoughtful moment.

All the little boys moved to the school table.  Jackson was instructing Caedmon in putting together a puzzle (no instruction was needed, but he is the big brother).  Chase was matching patterned four leaf clovers in a file folder game that I printed from a website.

Busily occupied with learning activities

Elisha is putting together a circus puzzle that is over 20 years old!

 

Fun times with the boys!  So grateful to have the opportunity to teach my own little boys and occasionally the grandsons as well.

Essentials--Oregano

In the past two years we have been experimenting with growing our own herbs.  We have had peppermint and spearmint for several years and have enjoyed hot mint teas and iced tea.  Last year we added many more herbs to our garden:  sage, thyme, lemon balm and oregano.  This year we have gone even further with chives, stevia, rosemary, apple mint, chocolate mint, sweet mint and another mint that I can't recall right now!  One great benefit to these herbs is that they are all perennials!!  Only one purchase last for years and years!

I thought I would share how we are using some of these herbs in the next few weeks.  Today we'll look at oregano.  We all know oregano is terrific for Italian dishes like spaghetti, lasagna and pizzas, but it is also good used fresh in green salads.  It can also be added to bread doughs for a wonderful herbed bread or pizza crust.

Oregano also has a few medicinal uses that we hope to test as needed.  You can use the fresh leaves to make an infusion (think tea) that is claimed to help headaches, menstrual cramps, insomnia and aid in digestion.  Adding leaves to bathwater may ease aching muscles and hot compresses made with a very strong infusion can help clean and reduce the swelling of cuts and wounds.  In medieval times, oregano was strewn on the floor along with the rushes to help mask the smells of rotting food and unsanitary living conditions.

This week I began harvesting some of our oregano that was growing like crazy and dehydrated it.  I washed the cut stems and let dry on a towel then placed on the racks of the dehydrator.  After it was dry I was easily able to pull the dried leaves from the stems and gently crush them into a bowl.  I now have about 1/2 a cup of home-grown dried oregano to store for winter use.  I will be drying lots more in the future...it's a simple way to preserve for year 'round use.

It's Okay to Be Late!

As a homeschooling mom of seven children I have had my share of sitting down side by side with each child to work on reading, math, spelling, phonics, handwriting and much more.  Ok, I've done this with 6 of the children...I don't believe in starting book learning in the preschool years, so it will be a little while until the two year old starts.

I remember really pushing my oldest 22 years ago during her kindergarten year.   I was young, had just recently finished my master's degree (in education, no less) and was determined to succeed.  There was stress and there were tears.  We finished kindergarten in one semester and went on to first grade.

As the years went on I learned to relax (relaxing is relevant, isn't it?) a little bit and now we are at the point where our soon-to-be seven year old is not reading.  He is still in the very early decoding stage.  Still writes some letters and numbers backwards and generally writes his name in all caps.  He also has some speech delays.  Although I tell myself it's okay and I know in a couple of years he will most likely be caught up, I do occasionally find myself wondering if it really IS okay.  Those are the times he heads upstairs to the Sunday school class room with other six year olds and I pray the teacher doesn't expect them all to be able to read.  I silently beg the other children not to make fun of his speech delays.  I hope he isn't written off as a dummy.  I cringe inside as my sister sits down to play Slap Jack with him and instead asks him to spell the numbers on the cards.  I smile on the outside, but inside I wonder what she thinks.

I remind myself of what he can do.  He loves to be read to.  He loves to look at books.  He is advanced in his gross motor skills:  rode a bike without training wheels just before turning 4, can shoot a bow and arrow with great aim, climbs trees, cuts down saplings with a hack saw, can hoe the garden and sticks to long jobs like shoveling manure onto a trailer.  He loves to draw and does so every day.  He makes up songs, gives great hugs and has the best smile ever.

So, again, I remind myself that children mature at different stages and I focus on the positives and try to make extra time to work on those areas that need work.   I know that God made this special boy and He is shaping him into the man that He intends him to be.  My job is to work diligently with him, to encourage him to work hard without overworking him and to teach him to love learning.  It's the work that God has given me and I am thrilled to be this guy's mom!

themobsociety.com

 

Wise and Witty Sayings of My Two Little Men

My two little guys can come up with some doozies!!  I have noticed that every time I wear a skirt Caedmon says, "Mom, you're beauful!"  Beautiful in two year old language and then immediately asks me to dance!! Hmmm, what is about about men and women in skirts?

I walked into the kitchen the other day to find Caedmon digging in the sugar bucket.  Yes, bucket!!  I buy in bulk for my big family, remember?  Anyway, he saw me and with his sugar-coated face and hands said, "Look, Mommy!!  It's nummy!!"

It's a plane!

And then on Sunday as we were traveling to church I was talking with Jeff about how my hands were stained from the onions I had been chopping onions all weekend for the dehydrator.  Little ears in the back seat were listening in and a little later Jackson gave me some advice.  "Mom," he said, " I think you need to let Kaelan do more cooking in the kitchen.  You are getting too old for all that chopping and cooking!"  Bless his heart!  He'll be looking out for his old momma for sure one day!

Learning to chop firewood.

Now that's a face that will melt your heart for sure!

I am so very thankful for these future men that God gave me in my 40's!  What a blessing we would have missed out on if we followed the wisdom of the world.  God's ways are always better....even if on some days I feel like Sarah!






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Around Here This Week

Please continue to share your favorite children's books here.


Around here this week there has been lots of cooking.

Around here this week there has been lots of eating.

Around here this week there have lots of diaper changes.

Around here this week there have NOT been lots of naps.

Around here this week there has not been lots of school time.

Around here this week there has been lots of laundry.

Around here this week there have been lots of little boys.

Around here this week there has been lots of toys.

Around here this week there have been lots of olive shoots around our table.

Around here this week there has been three generations worshipping together each evening.

Around here this week there has been lots of "Mom-Mom, look at me!"

Around here this week there has been lots of lap time.

Around here this week the noise level has gone up just a tad.

Around here this week we realize how blessed we are....once again!!

Cowboys and Indians...Elisha, Jackson, Chase and Caedmon

My sons are the Indians.  My grandsons are the cowboys.

Caedmon makes a ferocious Indian!

Cowboy Chase

Sheriff Elisha

Me with all the cowboys and Indians

Ashtyn Claire--at six months she is crawling and starting to pull up

tearing up

Learning Adventures with Dad

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Jeff recently took Aaron, Kaelan and Jackson on an overnight camping trip at the state part just a mile from our house.   The boys and Jeff have been camping several times with former Contenders for the Faith group, but Kaelan has missed out on those adventures and has only gone a couple of times. 

Kaelan made a list of all the items that they would need to take plus a shopping list of foods for her dad to purchase.  The day of the camping trip found them hustling to gather up sleeping bags, pillows, tackle and rods for fishing, filling jugs with water, loading the tents and many other needed items.  With the exception of hooking the boat to the truck and shopping for the groceries, they did most of the planning and the work.   Planning, packing, organizing, building fires, cooking, boating and fishing....all great learning activities.

I thought I would let Jackson tell you about their camping adventures today.  Jackson used the pictures to tell me what happened.

In this picture, I (Jackson) was chopping wood for the fire.  

I was still chopping wood when I saw Dad come up to take a picture.

So I stopped and smiled for him!

Aaron and Kaelan were boating.

I was fishing with a stick because my pole wasn't ready yet.  It was tangled and Dad had to untangle it.

Kaelan and Aaron love boating.

I am drinking coffee.  (not a every day thing, I assure you!)

I was still drinking coffee.

Aaron and Kaelan are cooking breakfast.  

Dad took a picture of Aaron cooking breakfast.

Aaron is flipping the pancake on Kaelan's plate.

I am drinking coffee because I like coffee.