Week Four!
Saturday: We are having school today so
that we can take Monday off as Thomas has an eye appointment and we have a date
with Ashley, Kaleah and anyone else who wants to join us at the Chocolate Bar
where we will eat ourselves silly because it’s my birthday! My last year in my
40’s, let the good times roll!
Last night as we were having
school, we were talking about the Trinity. I said, “The Trinity is the
Father...the Son and" KK pipes in: "THE MOOOOOON"!
Thomas says “I can’t do it” when
it comes to writing letters by himself. He can trace like a champ and loves to
trace the big flash card letter with his finger. Give him a pencil and paper
(even with the “road” looking line) and he kind of blanks out. So I told him
today that if he did a great job tracing the letters, I would let him do his
seat work with a color pencil. He was very excited and chose the blue pencil
today. I hope this works!
Tuesday: I think we were all glad to get
“back to school” today having taken yesterday off. We had a wonderful day but
the kids and I like routine. Thomas’ “a’s” are the most legible of the letters
he is learning to write. I think he is going to be a doctor. J I told him today as
he was writing are awesome!” to which he replied “yes, I AM awesome!”
He had the opportunity to
apologize to Kaleah for some reason this morning and my heart was made happy.
“”KK, I’m sorry”….”I give you” replied Kaleah. Sweet and precious exchanges
between the two of them that just bless me. Kaleah also announced “Thomas is my
brudder.”
Wednesday:
It is amazing how
school seems to settle Thomas down. He is a lively young boy (and that is
putting it mildly!), yet he will sit in his seat and focus on school (as much
as a 4 year old can be expected to) for 30 minutes to an hour. Of course he has
his moments so I am going to implement a “marble system”…3 marbles per school
day…act up and you will lose a marble and if you lose all of them there will be
no sticker. The number of stickers he ends up with at the end of the week will
dictate his “Fun Friday” treat. So “losing your marbles” is not a good thing
(thank you Liz Tims for this idea!).
Yesterday and today we read about
Cain and Abel. When I reviewed the story and asked Thomas what they names of
the brothers were he said “Caiden and Aiden”… Thomas was very irritated with
Cain for giving Abel a “boo-boo” and when I told him that Abel died, he wanted
to know if Abel died on the cross…I am thinking we have Jesus plenty ingrained
into Thomas’ sweet heart!
Thomas is at the age where he
wants to color everyone a picture and have his pictures displayed all over. It
is so precious. As big as our house is, we don’t have enough wall space to
accommodate his desire!
Thursday: We got a late start today as I
needed to do some running around with Ashley. I prefer to start no later than
9:00 homeschooling.
Thomas does better with routine
(Teacher mommy too) and he was pretty cranky as we started. He lost a marble
before we even got started but then sucked it up and got through the pledges
and the school day proceeded well.
Kaleah didn’t quite make it
through school today as we ran into naptime; thankfully Charles was home and
put her down for a nap so that we didn’t have to interrupt Thomas’ class
time. Kaleah still thinks the Trinity is
“The Father, The Son, and the Mooooon”, I just crack up every time she says
that!
When Thomas writes, he likes to
be on his knees in the chair and have his upper body leaning on the table. I
don’t know if it is his vision or just the way he likes it. Homeschooling
parents, how strict do I need to be about posture? I have never seen a
businessman on his knees with half of his body on his desk. I think it is safe
to say that this is something he will grow out of. Just how important is
sitting in the chair in a seemingly uncomfortable position?
I also made the mistake of
leaving the room briefly while the kids did seatwork…my fruit snack incentives
disappeared! Thomas confessed before I even made it back into the kitchen.
Goofy kid.
As I type this, Thomas is
coloring his picture of Enoch and singing “My Country Tis of Thee”…so sweet. ♪
Friday: Fun day
today though Thomas lost all of his marbles within the first 20 minutes of
class! He hollered, “I DON’T WANNA LOSE MY MARBLLLLLLLLES!” as he was sent up
to his room to gather himself. It didn’t take long for him to pull himself
together and school went on as usual.
As we
were working on our memory verse Thomas said “Unto thee oh Lord do we give
Stanks!” I nearly fell out of my chair.
Then we
were talking about Enoch and his son Methuselah. I told the kids “say
Methuselah” and Kaleah said “the Foosa”….I wonder if we have watched the movie
“Madagascar” too many times?
Weekly
Synopsis: Hearing the kids say
the pledges and the Lord’s Prayer really blesses me. KK will be playing and
just talking to herself and I will hear bits and pieces of one pledge or the
other. It is precious.
I chose the Abeka K5 Bible
program because Thomas knows the Bible well for a 4 year old and we plan to use
it for two years. There is a part of me that thinks it is too advanced for even
kindergarteners, the concept of the Trinity is hard for even some adults to
comprehend. Yet the kids love the stories and even Kaleah stays interested. It
will be so neat to see how much they have comprehended when we go back over the
curriculum next year.
Preparation…preparation…preparation…next
year I will pay closer attention to the teaching materials and begin cutting
out little pieces before the school year starts. Abeka has the neatest teaching
games and such but you have to cut out these tiny little game pieces. I would
have paid more for them to at least perforate the pieces. Thankfully it is
early Saturday morning as I type this and the kids are still sleeping as I
cut…and cut…and cut. J
I have learned over the last four
weeks that I am cut out to homeschool the kids. It was a scary undertaking but
I love every minute.
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