Lots of Dots

Recently, we read The Dot again. Love this book! I think I first read about it over at ArtProjectsForKids.org, and decided to take it out of the library a few weeks ago. What I really love about this book is that it shows the kids that all you have to do is start with ANYTHING, even a small dot, and you can have art. It makes it so simple to do art with reluctant or perfectionistic children. Not that my kids are reluctant when it comes to art!! But I do have a boy that leans towards perfectionism. So we've read the book a few times, just before an art project.

Today, we painted dots! Big dots, little dots, and all different colors and thicknesses. To make it interesting and easy, I pulled out toilet paper tubes, marker caps, plastic cups and empty yogurt containers and a few straws. I demonstrated the general idea to the boys, who were a little puzzled by the lack of brushes, and they were off! :)

Clean up was pretty easy as well, as the paint had been poured out onto styrofoam plates, and pretty much everything could be thrown out when we were done. The only caveat, if you decide to try this sometime, was that the toilet paper tubes roll, if not stood on end, and could easily make their way to the floor. Fortunately, ours didn't quite make it to the floor, but it was definitely on its way when I caught it!

Spiritual Awakening

January 19, 2011, my oldest son sat at the breakfast table with me, while his little brother slept. I thought to wake the little guy, but was enjoying the one on one time with my firstborn. As we talked, the conversation turned to spiritual things, and we began to talk about what the Bible says about God and Heaven. We talked about how everyone has a decision to make, and how we can choose to live for God, accept Jesus' death on the cross and receive forgiveness for our sin. I asked him if he had ever done that. "Nope." I asked him if he'd like to do it. "Not right now," he said. So I told him if he ever decided he wanted to, he could come to me and I would help him. I went into the kitchen to make some coffee and a few minutes later he was calling to me to tell me that he had prayed!

Now, I'm one who is, by nature, skeptical of everything. And not having been raised in the church, I am skeptical of children that make professions of faith, but I also know that very often these little ones are the ones who really have that childlike faith to trust God... As I talked with my son afterward, I questioned him briefly, but I also noted that the Spirit of God within me seemed to be rejoicing, and so I found that encouraging. Also, Ian soon after started expressing a concern about when his little brother would make that decision as well, which was kind of cool.

So the question that's really been pressing on me lately is where do we go from here? How do you properly disciple a 7 year old? Yes, we are involved in church, and he also attends AWANA at another church, and of course we have devotions in the morning and before bed. Is that enough? Is it the right kind of thing to be doing? Are we missing something?

In my search, I came across this page, which expresses a few things beautifully and gives me a few things to look into: CharlotteMasonHelp.com

The Plans of Man

One of the things that I struggle with in general is being organized. Although I don't really like the constraints of a rigid schedule, I do like to know what's coming up so I can plan and be prepared. I used to just keep things in my head or make lists of things to do. But ever since I became a mom, I've HAD to rely on those lists. This works pretty good for my "Things to do" list, but not so good for the homeschool stuff. So I thought I'd share something I've found that have really helped me.

First, I have to tell you about the Well Planned Day Yearly Planner. I LOVE this planner! It includes monthly calendars, a weekly meal planning section, sections for field trips, attendance, inspirational quotes, and pages for writing out your children's assignments for each day of the week, subject by subject. (They say that you can record assignments for up to 3 children. At this point, I'm only using it for one, and there seems to be enough room for me to record my second child, when I get to that point, but I don't know that I could squeeze in enough info for 4 kids... I suppose I'd come up with abbreviations if I had to.)

What I really like is that I can sit down on the weekend and plan out the coming week, meals and assignments, and even priorities and weekend activities... AND it's all right there on a two-page spread right before me. AND the Well PLanned Day Yearly Planner for the coming year is on sale till the end of February. So if you're in the market for a planner, this may be the time to check it out!

On the Safe Side

Recently we borrowed the Stranger Safety DVD from our library. It's produced by John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" and Julie Clark, the creater of Baby Einstein. The boys have really enjoyed it, and have asked to watch it again and again. I was wondering how much of it was sticking in their little heads until Tuesday.

We were in the kids' section of the library, the little one on the computer, Ian and I looking for books. Usually, if the little one needs me, he just calls out, but on this particular day he went looking for me, didn't see me and instead went straight to the librarian and told her he needed help finding me. The very kind lady found me and told me that he knew she worked there because of the ID tags she was wearing and came right to her! Awesome! :)

Sick Day?

Friday was a sick day for mom, but one in which I could muddle through, provided there wasn't a lot of resistance and whining. So I mixed it up a bit. Here's what the day looked like:

• Devotional time, working in Quiet Time Journals and AWANA verse memorization
• Handwriting in our Handwriting Without Tears book.
  
• Science, in which we read about animals, and watched a couple of brief videos related to what we were reading about
• Reading through a few more Bob books
• Tried out a new website, NeoK12, for some logic games. Ian liked Connect 4 and Parking Zone in particular.
  
• A little time outside before lunch
• During lunch, we had a picnic in the living room while we watched "Sunken Treasure", an episode of Reading Rainbow that dealt with the discovery and recovery of treasure from the Spanish ship Atocha. Part of the episode also showed some real life footage about the Titanic, which was pretty cool too.
• After lunch we went to the library and quite accidentally, Ian saw a book about the Titanic and immediately recognized it and decided he wanted to take it out. :)

Part of our History lessons has been learning about Archaeology, and how we learn about past civilizations, so the Reading Rainbow video really fit in quite nicely. :) After we got home Ian "read" through the Titanic graphic novel he had found, and then I showed him the National Geographic book I have on the Titanic, which he thoroughly devoured as well. All in all, not a bad day.

Later in the afternoon, we worked on making Crazy Hats for our AWANA Crazy Hat night. If you would have seen the hats, you would understand why this presented a physics and engineering lesson all by itself! LOL... But really, it was a fun time of creativity and brainstorming.

Reading is Fun!

Okay, so school has been in full swing for a little over a month, and we are managing quite well. Things that were a struggle last year, like attitudes and Math, seem to be a breeze this year. What a difference a few months make!! I'm so happy. :) See?

Reading was a bit of slow going last year, but has picked up considerably this year. Again, so happy! Over the summer, I began to see some encouraging signs. For example, one day we went to the library, and for the first time, Ian made straight for the books, instead of the videos. It used to be that he would nag me about getting a video, and he'd let me worry about the books. No more. He had discovered some of my childhood comic books from Scotland just before this, and that seems to have been the catalyst for finding more comic books and graphic novels. I have mixed feelings about the Star Wars GNs, but if it keeps him interested in reading, I'm willing to reserve judgment.

In the meantime, we are continuing in our schoolwork with The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading as extras like Bob Books. The Bob Books are a bit below where he's at, but I thought they would be fun, and build his confidence. I was right on both counts. The first day I pulled out the Bob Books, my intention was just to read through the first book. (There are 12.) Ian pulled out one after another, till I finally stopped him at the end of book 4. It was a huge encouragement, just to see his enthusiasm. :)

Even with all this positive stuff happening I have to say that the reading process is frustrating to me. He is learning and picking up things at a decent rate, but sometimes he gets confused and flustered and starts making guesses at the words, and the guesses are SO off-base! So I'm trying to make it fun for both of us, and right now fun for Ian is drawing! So today, while working through our reading lesson, I wrote sentences and stories up on our white board, and had him draw simple pictures of the subject matter after each sentence. It really seemed to keep the mood light and fun, so I think we'll be doing that a lot more! :) In fact, halfway through our lesson today, he said, "Reading is fun!" YAAYYYY!

Back to School

So this week we were back to school. Mostly this was a week for review and getting back into the school routine. The boys did well, I'm glad to say! :) Aaaahhhh, such a relief! :)

Since it was a review week, I decided just to stick with what we knew. So we went back to the Horizons Math, Handwriting Without Tears, An Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, and Sonlight's Read Alouds. Next week we'll be adding some new material into the mix, and I'm so excited!! Truth be told, I really can't wait!

This year's new stuff includes:

• All About Spelling and readers
  
• Math-U-See Primary
  
• The Story of the World, vol. 1
  
• The Story of the World Activity Book
  
• Sonlight Science 1

Plus, we are using all sorts of art books that we are taking out of the library. My little guy love to draw, and we discovered the 1-2-3 Draw books, so he has been trying his hand at learning to draw all sorts of things. Also, last year, I discovered this great website called Art Projects for Kids. It's probably my favorite site for art projects, although this year we'll actually TRY the projects instead just READ about them. :)