Throwing Marshmallows

Things are still moving along. I am trying to squeeze in enough time to do everything that I want to…not enough hours in the day. We seem to be back on track as far as not being quite so over scheduled. The boys are really enjoying their pottery class and have been making some really neat stuff. Jason has started playing around a bit more with the modeling clay that we have here at home too. He seems to have more patience with it then other art activities.

We have started using Sequential Spelling to help Jason with his spelling. It is not something that he really loves, but he also does admit that his spelling needs a lot of help. Sequential spelling is great for him because it focuses on word patterns rather then straight memorization. It is also not phonics based. Being a right brained learner, learning by seeing the patterns is definitely a better approach. The other nice thing is that there really is no “studying”. We spend a little bit of time most days…I give him the words to spell and correct him immediately if he does not get it right. We talk a little bit about the patterns and rules. Sometimes I wonder (being a phonics gal myself) if this can really work, but he is picking it up. And it seems to make sense to him (which is the important thing).

For math, I have decided instead of completely following one “math curriculum” I will focus on different math concepts and bring in various resources. Right now we are focusing on fractions. We are starting with Key to Fractions which he actually seems to be enjoying. I like the materials too…very easy for him to understand and follow. Again we do spend a short amount of time on it, but he is picking it up very quickly. I also plan to bring in some fraction ideas from Marilyn Burns and other resources. Jason says that he likes fractions much better then multiplication and division. Not surprising. I still work with him some on memorizing his math facts, but I think these will come as he uses them more and more. We are also enjoying reading Murderous Maths and I just picked up some of the Theoni Pappas books that Jason really enjoys. So we are talking/reading a lot about a lot of different math concepts. I have found for Jason that the key is to keep mixing things up and providing variety which he enjoys.

Jason has also been working a little bit out of the Handwriting Without Tears cursive book. Cursive seems to be coming more easily then printing (although his printing is getting better…still not all that great, but better).

Jason’s reading still amazes me. Considering he was “late” (around 8 yo) when he started, you would never know it. He reads mostly for information (catalogs, video game cheats, magazines etc) and I have caught him reading some pretty impressive words. He still is not into reading overly word intensive books (he says that when he reads, he has a harder time “seeing” the story) but he really enjoys comics like The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. He seems to also enjoy reading poetry…I think that he likes the cadence in addition to there not being as many words. It is nice now and again to find him sitting on the couch reading…it is all a matter of finding the right book. We also do a lot of audio books as well as Jeff and myself reading to him.

Kyle and I have started doing 100EZ Lessons again. I will need to write another longer post about that because it has been really interesting. We had started doing 100 EZ Lessons last year, and although he enjoyed it, I could tell that it was not clicking for him. So I decided to give him some more time and we stopped the “formal” lessons and just read and played a lot. Fast forward to this year and it is amazing the difference that a little bit of time has made. He definitely is getting it. And getting it pretty easily. I am glad that we did not push it before.

For math, Kyle and I play lots of math games (he still really likes the dice game Pig) and do some work out of his Singapore math book (which he also likes). Can I say that it is actually pretty cool to have a kid who understands my math explanations? (With Jason, I always have to look for other ways to explain math concepts because we think so differently! And while I love this about Jason, it is also nice sometimes to have a kid who understands what I am trying to explain!)

The only thing that Kyle really does not like to do is writing. But he is still pretty young so I am not pushing it. And he does not seem to have the same issues that Jason did at this age. Kyle has a good pencil grip and is pretty good at making his letters. He also likes doing mazes and has started wanting write down his answers when he does math. So for now, I think he is doing fine.

Hmmm…we don’t really sound very “unschooly” lately, but really the above does not take up a huge amount of time and it has come about from seeing what my kids need and working on finding resources that work for them. And it works. Kyle is pretty easy…he reminds me to do his reading and enjoys math workbooks and maze books and the like. And while Jason does not ask to do his math, writing or spelling, he also does not fight me when I say it is time to do them. And when he is working on them, I can tell that he is learning and getting something out of it. Definitely a good experience…and it works because he knows that he does want to learn these things, even if he does not always want to do the work involved. Which is where I come in to remind him and work with him on it. And he sees the results.

I think that this is what Cindy means when she talks about collaborative learning. It is not totally child-led, but it is totally based on the needs of the child. It is not “no structure” but it is structure where it makes sense to have structure. And it feels like the right balance (for now) for us.

And as usual it is getting late and I am getting rambly. So I will say good night for now.

~Stephanie

This is a recreation of the post I lost the other night…I had the boys re-tell their stories, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The idea was to record some of the small snippets of learning that happened throughout the day. These kind of exchanges happen all the time and help reassure me that the boys are learning constantly.

Kyle and Math

As we were getting ready to go to the Nova Unschoolers park day (why do they always do this when we are trying to get somewhere?) I had this conversation with Kyle:

Kyle: 5 is not an equal number, is it?
Me: (guessing because I am not sure exactly what he is talking about) Do you mean, even?
Kyle: Yeah
Me: You’re right. 5 is not an even number.
Kyle: What is an even number?
Me: It is a number that can be evenly divided by 2 (or in half) with nothing left over.
Kyle: You mean like 20? 
Me: Yes, just like 20.

And then I grabbed some pennies and showed him how if you lined the pennies up in 2 columns, the even numbers lined up evenly and the odd numbers had an “odd” penny left over. Since then he has occasionally come up and verified if various numbers are even or odd.

Jason and Government

We are currently listening to the Children of the Lamp series and really enjoying it. One of the story lines led to a great discussion of the difference between a president and a judge and how our government is set up (three branches, checks and balances etc). Don’t ask how we actually got there, but we did! And Jason was really interested.

Storytelling

I have to remember to do this more often as both boys really enjoy it and it is good practice at organizing one’s thought. Jason seems to really go for subtleness…he put a bit of thought into his stories and really choose the words carefully believe it or not. He also wanted to play around with the capitalization of the letters. We have been talking about what gets capitalized and what does not lately. He remembered in one of his books seeing the capital letters all over the place and wanted to see what that would look like. He decided that it made it harder to read, but he still liked it.

Once you get Kyle’s mind going, you can’t stop him. He actually had about 6 different variations of this story that he wanted to tell. I had to stop him after 3 as we had to get going.

One of the hardest things is to stop Jason from editing Kyle’s stories. He is always giving plot suggestions and correcting Kyle’s verb tenses. I have to remind him that this is Kyle’s story and it is up to him to decide how it goes.

A Short and Dumb Story
by Jason 

OnCe UPoN a TiMe ThErE wAs a GuY. He gOt SquIsHeD By a bOuLdeR.
THe EnD

A Little Bit of a Longer Short and Dumb Story
by Jason

Once upon a time there was a guy. He looked up and saw a boulder. It squished him.
The End.

Rock
by Kyle 

Once upon a time, there was a rock.
The End

Run Away from Big Boulder with Eyes
by Kyle

Once upon a time, there was a guy. He saw a big boulder with eyes. The man saw the boulder going after him. The man turned. The rock turned. And then the man was so tired that he hide behind a bush. Since the boulder was so big, he could see the man. And then the boulder squished the man.
The End.

Run Away from Rock with Eyes
by Kyle

Once upon time, there was a rock. A man saw the rock that had eyes. The man runned and the rock ran after the man. And then the man turned and then the rock turned. And then the man was tired. So he hid behind a bush. Since the rock was so thin he couldn’t see the man behind the bushes. Then the rock keep on running. Then the man hopped on the rock and then the rock felt the man on his back. And then the rock flipped over and squished the man.
The End.

Three Pigs went into the wilderness to buy themselves some houses. They all got one big house and made it out of straw. The Straw Eating Mouse came up the path. And the mouse said “Let me in by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin. Or I’ll just come in.” Then the little Straw Eating Mouse ate a hole in the house the size of a mouse and the three Big Fat Pigs ate the mouse for lunch.

And then the Big Bad Wolf came walking down the path and he said “let me in or I will huff and puff and I’ll blow your house down.” Then the Big Bad Wolf saw the little hole.

The End.

Then the Big Bad Wolf said “You are not supposed to end it now. The story’s not done yet!”

“Hey, I’m the author here” said Jason. “Well, OK, fine. It’s not the end. I’ll let you eat the Three Fat Pigs.”

So the Wolf goes in the little hole and eats the Fat Pigs for supper.

The End. (OK Wolf!?)

This afternoon Jason came to me and asked me for paper and a pencil. After I picked myself up off the floor (this is the kid who has never, and I mean never written anything unless asked to and who thinks that writing is pure torture) I pointed to where the paper and pencils were. He preceded to ask me how to spell “Kyle is not allowed in my room”. As I spelled it for him, he wrote. Yes, actually wrote! While this was going on, Kyle came in and wanted to know what was going on. When he found out, he asked for paper and a pencil and asked me to spell “Jason is not allowed in my room”. When they were both finished, they took their signs and taped them to their doors.

It warms a mother’s heart.