Another Great Week of School

Our third week was just as much fun as the first, but a lot more comfortable. We've finally gotten used to our routine and the kids have been doing great with their studies. It is amazing to me how much we can accomplish in such a short amount of time with our lessons. Grayson has been doing great at his multiplication studies and keeps scoring just one point under his sister on the quizzes (who is two grades ahead of him!) Evie's reading has been incredible and her writing is almost as impressive. I am so grateful that we get this one on one time together to play and learn as a family. It has been such an amazing and precious gift.
This week we continued our study of Egypt with a look at what it meant to be called Pharaoh. We loved exploring the British Museum's website that gives kids a glimpse into ancient Egypt. LilliAnn started researching the gods and goddesses of Egyptian mythology and is planning a big project that she will share with us at the end of our study. In Bible we began reading Exodus and learned about the Hebrews becoming slaves to Pharaoh. We read some of David Macauley's Pyramid (which is amazing!) and then began building our own small pyramid out of sugar cubes. This was only somewhat effective, although it did teach us a lot about the importance of accurate math calculations and the problem solving skills necessary to complete a building when materials don't work the way you had hoped.

LilliAnn began sewing lessons and so far has learned how to measure, cut fabric, and sew a straight seam. She was very eager and patient as a student. I think we'll see some wonderful work out of her this year.



Evie has worked very hard on her reading and writing this week, finishing two pages of illustrated story so far. She is very proud and I have to say that her family is equally proud of our little reader. We have all enjoyed hearing her read aloud to us. Even her brother and sister have been excellent cheerleaders, celebrating each new success with cheers and dancing.

I am so proud of us all, honestly. We have really learned how to work together, share together, play together and encourage one another through each day - and those are the lessons that are priceless.

Evie's Excellent, Perfectly Great Day

Today Evie became a true reader when she read her first sentence. Then she read another one. WOW! I had decided I was working myself into a corner with the word building (phonics) because she couldn't seem to read when I put a book in front of her. She would completely blank on the words even though we had just worked on them moments before.

So, I tried a technique called Guided Writing, hoping that the new angle would add some excitement and motivation for her. I said to her, "I want to write a story. Would you help me?" That got her really excited. "Okay, I am going to write a story about my cat." I started making up a sentence using the words we had already learned together and then asked her to help me write it by sounding out the words with me. I wrote as she spelled aloud each word. This allowed me to model correct writing for her like punctuation and capitalization. She was thrilled to be helping me build my sentence.

Soon we had finished two sentences about my silly cat who sat on my hat. She giggled and laughed over that and then I asked her to read it. Wow! This method works! Since she had already worked to build the words in our sentence, she knew them. This meant instant success as a reader, which is really the key to motivation. She needed to see that she could do it on her own. Not only that, but she was finally able to see how reading and writing could be meaningful to her. Now that she knew she could write a sentence, she immediately wanted to begin writing her own silly story. Amazing!

It is so fun to watch her grow and learn right before my eyes. I am so glad that I have these moments. Praise be the the Lord our God, who is so very good to us. He spoils me.

Egyptian studies - what an Adventure!

We have been studying about Egypt for the last two weeks and it has been such fun. The highlight of our week came just after studying about scribes and their use of papyrus. We took a little walk down to the pond and looked at reeds growing on the banks. Then, we looked at photos of a family making paper out of papyrus. We finished by making our own paper from torn strips of newspaper that we boiled and then mushed up in a processor, pouring the gray globby mess into screens and patting them into thin rectangle sheets that we set out in the sun to dry. It was a lot of work, but the kids were very proud of their finished product. The next day they practiced drawing Egyptian hieroglyphs and were rewarded by a chance to add their own markings onto their handmade paper.

Grayson chose to draw a scene on his paper. It is a falucca traveling passed Papyrus reeds on the Nile. LilliAnn used hieroglyphs to describe herself and it says, "music, draw, spirit"

Evie Learns to Read... well, almost.

Well, we did it. I should say, "We Did It!" I have to admit that though the week was full of fun projects and exciting learning moments, there were also a few tears shed by us all and at least one "I hate school!" from Evie. Still, I would say things went well.

Evie is finally learning to read and is writing a bit, too. She really put up a fight about the whole reading class idea, but I won her over. It went something like this:
Evie: "I don't want to do this." Arms crossed over her chest in defiance.
Me: "Come on, honey. Don't you want to read? Think of all the great books you could read me."
Evie: "NO!" head shakes emphatically.
Me: Sigh. "If you give me five minutes of your attention - with a smile - I'll give you 5 minutes on the computer playing any game you choose. Is that a deal?"
Evie: "That's a deal!" Giant smile and instant attention.
Me: (Wow! That actually worked?)

So, thinking I should probably use my time wisely because I might not get a second chance with her, I pulled out a set of sparkly post-it note style letters that I bought on a whim. They got another smile out of her. I started with the letter A that we had already discussed and started a phonics lesson on word building. We moved sticky, sparkly letters around making "at" words until she had a nice long list of words that she could read all by herself. By the time we were finished, ten minutes had passed and she had forgotten to be miserable. Wow! I forget that I really know how to do this stuff!

By Friday she had more than 30 words in her "Words I Know" notebook and she was talking about writing her own story. (Is she a Pogue, or what?!) So, it looks like I have a goal for the next week: take Evie from novice reader to budding author. Sounds like fun to me!

First Day of School

What a wonderful day! The kids and I started school this morning with such excitement and the day did not disappoint. We taught Evie about the calendar and today's date, and practiced writing the letter A. They helped her practice writing the number one by making lots of play money and then set up a store out back to allow her to practice counting. Then, we read a book or two and LilliAnn learned to upload photos into publisher to create a book about our first day of school while the other two drew illustrations. We finished the day with a trip to B&N to pick out the free books the kids earned this summer through their summer reading challenge and then home to enjoy a 1st Day of School celebration at tea time. I hope every day is as wonderful as this has been. Tomorrow we'll be adding a bit more work, but they seem excited to dig into our study of Egypt, so I am confident there won't be any complaints.