Austin
Austin is such a great little engineer. He loves building things and figuring things out. His brain is practically a little calculator and you can just see it clicking away as it works on math problems. I often laugh because we will finish a section of his math book about a simple math concept and almost immediately after I will see him thinking about something and then he'll say something like "Mom, is 6x8, 48?" Clearly much more advanced than what we had been working on. However, I feel happy about building him a strong math foundation without getting to advanced, too quickly, and we are working our way through the basic concepts with enjoyment and ease. Language Arts is much more difficult, but I am so proud of him for working so hard to learn to read and write. He's right on the cusp of the tipping point where reading is difficult and decoding takes maximum effort, but almost on the other side where the basic elements are understood and reading starts to become truly engaging. I am grateful to be his teacher and witness first-hand the amazing process that learning to read is.
Austin has discovered a love of gymnastics. We had discussed putting him in last year, but didn't because #covid. He is really enjoying it and I'm so glad to see him learning those physical skills. Also, he's enjoying his science rotation, and I'm still just so happy that this rotation worked out this year. Three boys the same age, all homeschooling on our street!? It's a homeschool dream-turned reality.
Lydia
The Utah-History portion of our homeschool rotation has been a smashing success. We are learning about pioneers right now. Working to answer three big questions: 1-Why did they come? 2-What did they sacrifice? 3- What did they build? (What was their legacy?) I hope that I am doing a good job of creating a balanced view of history. We spent a lot of time talking about how difficult "colonization" was for the Native Americans and how unfair it was for them and how heartbreaking it was for them to lose their way of life and also of their courage and determination to survive and adapt. History is not black and white. It's complex and messy. Full of difficulty and also beauty. Unfairness and also strength. Lack of understanding but also incredible faith. A thousand different perspectives and experiences woven together in a tapestry. Even with all of the difficult things, I want these children to be proud of the faith and effort of the Utah Pioneers. They were absolutely far from perfect, but they were also determined to do the best the could, to build the best community they could, to help each other, and to faithfully live their lives.
Lydia and her group also decided they wanted to decorate cakes for their cooking class. We started by making cupcakes, then learning how to decorate cupcakes with piping bags. Then they made cakes and decorated those cakes.
Lydia is smart and funny and learning so much. She's started doing some digital art classes and we even bought a little Cricut Joy vinyl machine so she can turn her art into stickers. She's a great friend and if I ever worry about homeschooling, all I have to do it look at her - and I see how well rounded, kind, funny, educated, and happy she is.
Lydia
The Utah-History portion of our homeschool rotation has been a smashing success. We are learning about pioneers right now. Working to answer three big questions: 1-Why did they come? 2-What did they sacrifice? 3- What did they build? (What was their legacy?) I hope that I am doing a good job of creating a balanced view of history. We spent a lot of time talking about how difficult "colonization" was for the Native Americans and how unfair it was for them and how heartbreaking it was for them to lose their way of life and also of their courage and determination to survive and adapt. History is not black and white. It's complex and messy. Full of difficulty and also beauty. Unfairness and also strength. Lack of understanding but also incredible faith. A thousand different perspectives and experiences woven together in a tapestry. Even with all of the difficult things, I want these children to be proud of the faith and effort of the Utah Pioneers. They were absolutely far from perfect, but they were also determined to do the best the could, to build the best community they could, to help each other, and to faithfully live their lives.
Lydia and her group also decided they wanted to decorate cakes for their cooking class. We started by making cupcakes, then learning how to decorate cupcakes with piping bags. Then they made cakes and decorated those cakes.
Lydia is smart and funny and learning so much. She's started doing some digital art classes and we even bought a little Cricut Joy vinyl machine so she can turn her art into stickers. She's a great friend and if I ever worry about homeschooling, all I have to do it look at her - and I see how well rounded, kind, funny, educated, and happy she is.
Caleb
I don't have many pictures of Caleb this month, but he is enjoying his preschool (he still requests to ride his bike every day). He is doing upstart and LOVES to join in with the kids for their cooking rotations. One of the things that he loves to do is to write letters over and over and over. He will fill up whole pages with line after line of letters. (Not spelling words, just letters one after the other.) He's learning a lot about self-regulation, but even though things are sometimes high-emotion, he has such a tender heart and I love watching him grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment