On Our Way

Today was a good day for Home Sweet School.  It was packed with activities and meaningful talk.  The great thing is that it didn't feel rushed or forced.  We floated from one activity to the next and had very few bumps along the way.

I did however notice how difficult it was for my son to keep physically calm.  My heart went out to him as I watched him dart from thought to thought.  I had to bring him back to the activity at hand several times.  It brought home how much he needed homeschooling.  How difficult it must have been for him last year to focus when his mind was so distracted by the business of a regular classroom.

Here is a break down of our day:

I usually put out a morning activity the night before.  My son really needs help with his fine motor skills so we are doing a lot of printing work, cutting and stenciling.  Right now we are using printing sheets where you have to trace over the gray letters.  I decided to let him use the animals stencil since we will be going to the zoo on Friday. (Thank Grandma for the zoo membership!)

After he stenciled the animals he coloured them in and then chose 3 to cut out.  This was tricky but really helped him develop his fine motor skills.

He chose the giraffe, mountain goat, and cheetah to cut out.  It was difficult but we did it together.  He glued the 3 animals to a page divided into three.  When we go to the zoo on Friday he will draw their surroundings.  I plan to incorporate our zoo trips with our science as much as possible.

The highlight of Cohen's day- eating local honey from a honeycomb.

Kids of Integrity has great lessons on the fruits of the spirit.  We decided to make the Gentleness Quilt.  In discussing gentleness we turned to a verse for help.  The verse talks about pleasant words being like a honeycomb.  It was perfect because I had some honeycomb on hand from our favourite farm, Hy Hope in Ashburn.  My son had never had fresh honey before so he was excited to taste it.  We talked about how it feels to eat something sweet and hear something nice.  It was a great discussion.  Then we moved on to the quilt.  I drew letters while my son cut them out.  For directions on the quilt visit Kids of Integrity.

More fine motor work!

Cohen was so proud of the quilt that he re-entered the room to get the full effect.

After lunch I did a reading and writing assessment on Cohen.  He is very strong in some areas.  It surprised me how strong he was.  I wrote down the things he has difficulty with and will tackle them one at a time.  My training as a Reading Recovery teacher taught me that time is precious.  I don't waste time teaching kids something they already know.

At bedtime Cohen and I chatted about his old school.  He said he wanted to visit his old school even though he liked Home Sweet School.  I told him it is okay to miss his old school.  He also talked freely about the difficulty he was having at his old school.  At the end I reassured my very social child that he would have lots of opportunity to make friends through  choir, Awana, swimming, and our home school club.  Our fireside chat was the perfect ending to a great day of learning.

Myrtle

P.S.  Cohen will be writing from time to time.  Look for his new posts!