Library Day

Books to Read: The Accidental Zucchini, Max Grover An Edible Alphabet, Bonnie Christensen A Gardener's Alphabet, Mary Azarian The Graphic Alphabet, David Pelletier My First Farm Book, edited by Constance Robinson Wake Up, Big Barn! Suzanne Tanner Chitwood Midnight Farm, Carly Simon That Sky, That Rain, Carolyn Otto Once in the Country, Tony Johnston Going to Sleep on the Farm, Wendy Cheyette Lewison If You were a Farmer, Virginia Schomp Life on a Crop Farm, Judy Wolfman Baby Farm Animals, Merril Windsor My Chickens, Heather Miller My Cows Magpie Magic, April Wilson We read ten of the books in one hour-long sitting.  That's the longest i think i've ever read at once (aloud i mean!) and it was tiring!

Evaluating

i'm getting ready to really get down to the business of Kindergarten with Ryvre.  What we did this past year was something between pre-K and real Kindergarten stuff, because preschool activities are far too easy, but he's not quite reading yet.  Honestly, i planned on doing more structured activites with him (worksheets, etc), because he does enjoy that, but having a new baby in the house makes it a little difficult to plan anything.  He has been learning though (kids do that!) despite my own organizational shortcomings.
(Warning, mama bragging time)

Ryvre is doing well, even with no real instruction; he has taught himself to rhyme words, and the sounds most of the letters make (thanks to starfall.com?); he can spell his own name and those of his sisters, and he's beginning to recognize other words by sight.  He has a strong interest in the human body ("Mommy, if my heart stopped beating, does that mean i would die?"), and draws a surprisingly accurate skeleton.  Add to that the awesome amount of patience he has with his little sisters, and willingness to help out around the house about half the time i ask, and it's really hard not to brag about the kid!
Not to be outdone, Willow can now spell her name (out loud, she's not yet writing).  She also counts to 10 (she has been since last spring, but now she makes no mistakes) and beyond (with some mistakes), and sings a mean alphabet song (she's also been doing this since last March, but now without missing a letter).  This year i will be lableing her as a "preschooler" and making sure to have plenty of things for her to do with her mind as well.

Ember is sitting up like a pro, even in the tub, rolling, creeping, and scooting across the floor.  No crawling yet, but i caught her trying to pull up on the walker, which she may have done if the darn thing was heavy enough to keep still!  She has said "Dada" and "Mama" on occasion, but she's so quiet, it's hard to tell if she meant it or not.  Even her laughs are pretty much silent, only rarely do you hear a "ah he he" usually she just grins with her whole toothless face. 

(End Brag)

i could try to get him tested to go to public school a year early (maybe could have even done it last year), but i want to teach him at home even if he is ready for regular school.  i realize some kids need the structure and discipline of a classroom environment, but Ryvre is one of those kids who learns the best when it's in his own good time (i believe most kids, especially young ones, do).  i will homeschool him as long as it's providing him what he needs, but if and when the time comes that public school provides him more opportunities, you better believe he will be there, whether it's second grade or highschool.  i will never use homeschool to limit my children in any way, be it what they learn, or who they meet.  i will never be the kind of mother who uses it shelter my children from the outside world.

Good Day

We had a REALLY good day, homeschool-wise!  Ryvre did worksheets for almost 2 hours in one sitting!  i was totally shocked, and it was his idea of course, because he won't do them at all if it isn't his idea.  We did some time flashcards, but he really wasn't in the mood for that.  Willow did really well with her colors and shapes though, which has been a struggle.  For awhile my mom was even worried she was colorblind, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all, it just took her awhile to learn them, and she still mixes them up on occasion, but for the most part knows them.  She even caught on to the time flashcards (we're still on One o'clock, Two o'clock, etc) when Ryvre refused to answer them!  We read three books; one winnie-the-pooh that Willow picked at the library, and two Native American tales.  Then Ryvre did MORE worksheets. The kids didn't fight very much today either, so i was a happy mama!

First Letter

	Ryvre wrote his first letter last night, to my husband's friend in Canada; it said: Dear Kimmy, Thank you for the stickers! Love, Ryvre First, i wrote my own version of the letter, and he copied it letter-by-letter.  He kept looking up at the alphabet poster though, and couldn't keep track of which word he was on, so instead i spelled each word out to him, and he wrote them much better.

First Sentence

Ryvre just wrote his first sentence!  Okay, so he copied it, but i am still very, very proud!  We've been having "trouble" getting him to write letters; apparently he's just bored of writing the SAME letters over and over, and so he writes it once or twice and says he can't do anymore, or he's too tired, etc.  i'm not surprised at all.  But he just wrote: The season is fall. ...with no trouble at all; he hasn't even "learned" to write most of the letters!  (He's only officially up to F, as far as his practice worksheets go)  AND it all fit on the line provided on the journal page print-out

First Day of School

One day down...sheesh, how many more to go?   Ryvre's first day of kindergarten just about killed me.  It started off ok; we went to the library, and got tons of books (the lady checking us out actually seemed a bit annoyed by the 3 huge stacks--hey, it's not my fault they raised the check-out limit to 10 items per card!)  I've got enough material now for the first few units--if only i can get through them.   We came home and watched one of the movies the kids picked out, reasoning that it IS a classic faerie tale, so that's literature...we filled out a weather chart and talked about using the calendar, etc.  Then i got out the video camera to record the kids singing their ABCs and whatever else they would do...Willow can be heard crying in the background throughout the whole thing, because she kept nagging at me for a glass of ice (shaking the camera to the point i'm afraid to watch the tape), and my husband had the audacity to tell her "in a minute" which caused her to have a major breakdown.  Argh.  Ryvre was being a doll though, so i couldn't bring myself to stop him.    Ryvre had a major fit concerning WORKSHEETS.  These have always been his #1 obsession, and when i told him he needed to write his A's, a's, B's, and b's on lined paper before moving on to the C/c worksheet...all hell broke loose.  He claimed he was too tired to write the letters any more, but he DID want to do the next worksheet...surprise surprise.  When he's 18 and wonders why i can't pay for his college education, i'll pull out his homeschool portfolio, and calmly explain to him the cost of ink cartridges, back in the early 2000's   Later in the afternoon he was alot more receptive; he colored and cut out a leaf for the "fall word wall" which took an hour, he was so meticulous about it (this is a good thing, he usually breezes through everything i hand him to the point that i run out of things for him to do long before he is satisfied).  I love the way his mind works too--i suggested he color the stack of papers i handed him in "fall colors" (which Daddy helped him determine), and instead of scribbling one red, one yellow, etc, he used EVERY shade of red, yellow, orange, brown, and green on one leaf, creating a tie-dyed effect.  Awesome.    Dale also did a little math with Ryvre; he just wrote down a few addition problems on the chalkboard, and demonstrated them with potatoes as long as that held his son's interest--i laughed when Ryvre didn't recognize Dale's "2's" because he wrote them "wrong" hehe.