Our
second week of homeschooling flew by fast! We are getting comfortable
with our daily routines and schedules and I am thankful that I am
enjoying this wonderful times with my kids more, with less worries and
uncertainties.
Both Anthony and Aidan are making very good progress. Believe it or not, we are ahead of schedule which gives us ample time to make the lessons more interesting like play memory game for Anthony's synonyms lesson in English, and card games for his Math lessons. I also gave Anthony breaks from just doing worksheets. Instead he practice skills using the board or through oral reviews. Anthony is also spending some time teaching or helping Aidan with his works.
Aidan shows more enthusiasm and willingness this week (as you can see from the video.) Seton's (our program) well planned and well laid out curriculum has been a valuable resource for me ever since. I actually re-read Aidan's curriculum and realized that our phasing is a little faster for him which can be a reason why he was frustrated doing his works last week. I have to back tracked my teaching style towards scaffolding, that allows him more time to develop and master skills before moving to a new lesson or activity. This taught me to slow down and appreciate slow but steady progress. I also continue to practice patience with both of them whenever they become challenging to me.
Other highlights of our second week:
On Monday we did a mini-lesson about crystals and rock formation. Aidan actually picked a book about crystals from the library and I tired to tied it up with the exploration lesson we are doing in History. I connected the lesson as well to their past experience from our visit to Luray Cavern this past summer where we collected some rocks and quartz that we also used in the lesson . For the fun part, we set up an experiment to make rock sugar (crystals). It was a perfect opportunity for Aidan to reinforce what he learned about coming up with new colors by mixing up different primary colors using food coloring. We also used this for Anthony to develop some scientific method skills like making predictions, doing daily observations (about the changes in crystal formation), and keeping a log of his observations in his science journal everyday.
On Tuesday, as an incentive by finishing our lesson early, we went to the zoo where the kids had some free play time. They had a blast in the water garden which is perfect on that hot muggy day. We also used this chance for Anthony to observed various animal exhibits and picked an endangered species that he will work on for the Homeschool Science Fair this October. His top three picks were the Snow loepard, African wild dog, and the Red wolf. And the winner is ..... the African wild dog! What really fascinates me from this outing is that Anthony developed a better understanding about endangered vs. vulnerable or extinct species, what makes them vulnerable and why, based on what he read from the zoo exhibits.
Wednesday was interesting because the kids ended up doing a puppet show about the Story of Creation. I can tell you, the process was not easy. In addition to spending at least an hour making the puppets and setting up the show, it took us more than 5 takes to have the video that you can see here. At the end, it was a fun learning experience for all of us! Anthony not only know now the proper sequence of the story (not from memorization but by doing the play), we also learned patience and hard work from this activity.
Life lessons for this week: Kids (and even adults) learn better by doing; progress is still a progress even if it takes time; and as a teacher, I can definitely learn a lot of things from my kids (students)!
Till next time.
Both Anthony and Aidan are making very good progress. Believe it or not, we are ahead of schedule which gives us ample time to make the lessons more interesting like play memory game for Anthony's synonyms lesson in English, and card games for his Math lessons. I also gave Anthony breaks from just doing worksheets. Instead he practice skills using the board or through oral reviews. Anthony is also spending some time teaching or helping Aidan with his works.
Aidan shows more enthusiasm and willingness this week (as you can see from the video.) Seton's (our program) well planned and well laid out curriculum has been a valuable resource for me ever since. I actually re-read Aidan's curriculum and realized that our phasing is a little faster for him which can be a reason why he was frustrated doing his works last week. I have to back tracked my teaching style towards scaffolding, that allows him more time to develop and master skills before moving to a new lesson or activity. This taught me to slow down and appreciate slow but steady progress. I also continue to practice patience with both of them whenever they become challenging to me.
Other highlights of our second week:
On Monday we did a mini-lesson about crystals and rock formation. Aidan actually picked a book about crystals from the library and I tired to tied it up with the exploration lesson we are doing in History. I connected the lesson as well to their past experience from our visit to Luray Cavern this past summer where we collected some rocks and quartz that we also used in the lesson . For the fun part, we set up an experiment to make rock sugar (crystals). It was a perfect opportunity for Aidan to reinforce what he learned about coming up with new colors by mixing up different primary colors using food coloring. We also used this for Anthony to develop some scientific method skills like making predictions, doing daily observations (about the changes in crystal formation), and keeping a log of his observations in his science journal everyday.
On Tuesday, as an incentive by finishing our lesson early, we went to the zoo where the kids had some free play time. They had a blast in the water garden which is perfect on that hot muggy day. We also used this chance for Anthony to observed various animal exhibits and picked an endangered species that he will work on for the Homeschool Science Fair this October. His top three picks were the Snow loepard, African wild dog, and the Red wolf. And the winner is ..... the African wild dog! What really fascinates me from this outing is that Anthony developed a better understanding about endangered vs. vulnerable or extinct species, what makes them vulnerable and why, based on what he read from the zoo exhibits.
Wednesday was interesting because the kids ended up doing a puppet show about the Story of Creation. I can tell you, the process was not easy. In addition to spending at least an hour making the puppets and setting up the show, it took us more than 5 takes to have the video that you can see here. At the end, it was a fun learning experience for all of us! Anthony not only know now the proper sequence of the story (not from memorization but by doing the play), we also learned patience and hard work from this activity.
Life lessons for this week: Kids (and even adults) learn better by doing; progress is still a progress even if it takes time; and as a teacher, I can definitely learn a lot of things from my kids (students)!
Till next time.
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