Afternoon Casa :D

Let me think about how this week turned out...

Wednesday was Pi Day, so I made pie in the morning instead of doing Montessori stuff with my 4yo niece. Thursday... I don't think we ended up doing anything Thursday morning. I vacuumed the main level and I can't remember doing anything with her, so we probably didn't do anything.

Yesterday morning, I think she went off to play right away. But in the afternoon... Instead of following me around and asking me what she can do, she went right off and found the stack of sandpaper letters that we'd been working on and brought them to me. :D We went over the letters again at the table, did some I Spy with them, then the sandpaper letter hide-and-seek. She ADORES this game!!!

I will have to make a point of planning out other activities to do with her. She liked the red rods (I don't think I shared that the other day--we did the red rods on Monday) and she likes the sandpaper letters and numbers so far. Bit by bit, I'll keep adding things in!

My kids have been a bit neglected again. Must sit down and do some proper planning and prep this weekend.

Early morning Casa

I realized I needed to make a change if I was going to try to accomplish some of the things I'm trying to accomplish with the kids. We've been sick the past few weeks, so school's been out the window, but I'm finally feeling a bit better and so I started with my niece yesterday.

She's 4, a cutey-patootey and smart as a whip. Which makes me feel very guilty for neglecting her. It hit me that when she gets here, until the 17yo is here and I'm full-time busy, is an ideal time to work with her. We have about an hour, provided I don't have other things I need to get done.

Yesterday, she told me she didn't know what to do. I suggested the sandpaper letters--it had been a while. So we did the letters from her name and I noticed that for the life of her, she could not follow how I was doing the j (cursive). I'll have to slow down or something next time I present it to her. She also couldn't remember some of the letter sounds (3rd stage) no matter how many times we played. Sooooo, I decided to play letter hide-and-seek with her. She LOVED it. A couple of mistakes in recognition the first time, but after that, smooth sailing. :)

Today, I invited her to help me fill the dog's dish with food, which she did, then we did sandpaper numbers, starting with 1-5 (she already knew 1-4). We traced them, did a few of the typical 3-part games and then hide-and-seek. After a round or two of that, I added 6, then we added 7. She LOVES this kind of hide-and-seek. It has changed her interactions with me already. It's so interesting. She is much more talkative now, like this work has cemented a bond or something or open a door and the connection is good, so she's talking.

The hide-and-seek isn't difficult: I place the cards out in the open in different places around the living room. When she picks up one that's wrong, I say, "No, that's ____. Leave that there (or put it back) and find (repeat what I had asked her to find." It just occurred to me that it might be better to leave off the no and just say, "That's such-and-such. Find me ____."

I'm guessing this hide-and-seek is going to be a regular part of our morning routine. Think we can do hide-and-seek with the puzzle map pieces? ;D

School is almost here!

Next week is back-to-school week. Hubby has to be at school (he's a teacher) on August 30th, although the students aren't back until Sept. 1st. My niece and nephew are with a different school system and they actually head back to school on the 30th. The 17yo, I believe, is expecting to start on the 1st.

I have had in my mind that I would like to have 30th and 31st to homeschool just my two--well, with my youngest niece and the little guy here. Every time I sit down to write out a plan, I get stuck. I have butterflies in my stomach. I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing!

I'm trying to change things this year and really go about things in a way that I can make it all happen. Books that I have been reading have been helping me flesh out goals and my determination to follow through on them, and one of my 4 key goals right now is my children's education. I've got the drive, I've got the will--I just don't know what I'm doing.

What better way to flesh things out than by writing? :D

That's why I'm here right now, writing.

I pulled out a printout of a CM school schedule from way back when. It reminded me that I don't have to plan the whole day--just his 3-4 hours in the morning. I am NOT doing a CM-style schedule, having him change lessons every 20 minutes or so. But I am looking at covering the various subject areas, as I think having a lot to provide him with and for him to choose from will be highly beneficial. I'm not going to cover every subject every day, so I find myself kind of stuck. I have to balance things with having other kids to provide lessons to, to help, to change diapers and potty train... I guess I'm feeling stuck on how I'm going to make this work. (Writing that, I have come into my head, from The Secret, that the "how" is the domain of the universe and my job is to figure out that "what". lol) All right, I need to forget the "how" and just focus on the "what" I want to cover.

What does the CM schedule that I found on the AmblesideOnline site have? (Remembering that they did school over 6 days instead of just our 5.)

The particular sample schedule, which I have to admit I don't know if they changed the schedule each week or what, although I think they must have because there's no mention of Shakespeare in any of the schedules, has as the Monday plan:
*Old Testament
*Arithmetic
*Dictation
*Drill/10 minutes of play
*Repetition of a poem
*Geography
*Writing
*French

I won't be doing drill, but this breakdown isn't bad. Looking at the week as a whole, arithmetic is done 5 out of 6 days; easy enough for me to be prepared to give him math work each day, alternating between concepts (arithmetic one day, geometry the next, back to arithmetic). Of course, because I'm not doing drill and the song stuff they do, I could always add in geometry as a separate subject. (I went through the provincial curriculum not so long ago and I really felt that geometry could be treated as a separate subject, but complementing whatever arithmetic he was covering--multiplication lends itself to looking at area, for example.)

One of the CM books I read talked about giving lessons, not just having subject time, giving the child the work and have them go at it. I need to make sure the lessons are super short, but this has how it's often been with him anyhow and following Montessori, so that's not a problem. With the Old Testament, I think that's a great place to start and I could preview the first chapter of Genesis, see if there's anything to bring up, then have him read it and do some sort of follow-up work: a picture or oral narration. My 13yo could read it, too, and could do a written narration and/or some sort of art (she's very artsy!). While I have not done CM with them and have not done narration formally with her, she is a natural narrator, giving full details of movies, books, dreams, situations that occurred with brother, cousins... Very detailed. lol. Always has been. It's really remarkable. But I digress. Her oral narration is fantastic, so I am not hesitating at all in having her go straight to written narration. (Her age group timetable also start with Old Testament, so combining the two kids' work on this is perhaps rather easy, although I expect I will be able to have her at some point read more than one chapter.)

Arithmetic: Well, I have things written up on my other computer, a plan of the topics to aim to cover each month. Seems to me that the starting topic for arithmetic is place value. For the first day of school, I could do a review lesson with him, see where he's at in identifying place value, and adding in 3 more bits of information, then having him create his own questions and identifying the place value. Actually, a perhaps better start is to see where he is in terms of breaking down numbers (as in, 18 567 = 10 000 + 8 000 + 500 + 60 + 7)--I think seeing what the numbers are made up of lends itself better to learning the name of the positions.

Dictation: Uh... He's still barely writing properly. I think I need to scrap dictation for the first while and instead have this as his repetition time (which is also done in Montessori, so I love that!). That means I'll have to find a book or a collection of poems that he could try to memorize. I have a great book of Poems for the Young that I could use, or maybe print off some of A Child's Garden of Verses. There is a free version (or possibly more than one free version) available online. Can't remember if it's at Project Gutenberg or not. Ideally I will find some good French poetry by Tuesday!

Geography is next on the schedule: Hm. I haven't figured out what I'm doing with him on this. His sister, for social studies, will be spending the year on government--I've modified the provincial curriculum and will be starting the year off looking at how people governed themselves in ancient times. I'd like to have the two sort of working on the same thing, just to make things easier. I suppose Geography time is a good time for him to read a bit about an ancient country and tying it in with a map. I will have to figure out what I'm doing for this!!! I had not gotten that far in his sister's plans to know what she's going to start with exactly and which resources we will use.

After Geography is Writing--this will be his copywork time. We are starting off the year with me giving explicit instruction in forming letters, both cursive and print. He uses capitals where he's not supposed to for letters like P--it looks the same in both upper and lower case and he just doesn't seem to get yet that a lower case lies on the line. So, we are starting from the beginning. I think I will tie in Writing Road to Reading with this since we're doing this somewhat remedially and the approach for learning letters--past the sandpaper letter phase--is really good. I will tie in the idea of narration, having him explain to me how to make a letter so that it looks good and sits on the line properly.

The final subject for the day is supposed to be French. That's excellent. Except that I'm not sure what to do since French is our home language. lol. I suppose I need to decide if I will have him read and narrate during that time or if we'll cover grammar.

Now, I said the final subject is supposed to be French because the above, if he takes the rough amount of time from the Parents' Union School schedule, is missing the 20 minutes of drill and play and the Dictation time, which is supposed to be about 30 minutes. That's nearly an hour missing. What should I tack on as another subject or two? He loves science, so I think that would be a great way to end the formal day for him. What to cover? I hadn't really decided what I would do this year for science with him, I don't think. Part of me is interested in maybe quickly covering the provincial elementary curriculum--all kinds of things he hasn't done that he would really like. I could skip the somewhat superfluous things. I'll have to decide quickly. And figure out another subject to add in. Or maybe not skip dictation, just keep it simple to start with. Hm...

Looking ahead to Tuesday's subjects, I see Latin. I think Latin would be very cool to introduce to him. He's already been grasping certain things from all of his own reading on animals and I just think it could be very interesting for him, a new challenge related to what he loves, to start learning a bit. The thing is: I really, really don't want to use an English-based program and I have not yet found anything for kids in French. I'll keep looking or I'll maybe buy and English program, translate the lesson and then present it to him. (Oooh, just found this http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/lesson01/default.htm--could be fantastic as a starting point for me to create lessons if I can't find a suitable French resource. Great thing about French being a Latin-based language is that it will be even clearer what the Latin words mean!)

I don't know if he's going to want to continue with German studies this year. If he does, that could replace the "French" classes. (But then, what to do with the German class in the schedule? lol)

Well, this is a good start for a fixed plan for the first day. I'll have to go through a plan for my dd, but tomorrow. I'm getting rather tired and don't want to think anymore. ;) And then I'll have to finalize resources and the actual lessons, won't I? And then figure a plan for my 3yo niece!

It's a rainy Sunday morning

I've wasted the bulk of the morning away. I feel the need to do something more productive. I could clean, yes, but at the moment, I want to think about school stuff. :)

It's already closing in on halfway through July. Time always goes by so quickly, it's crazy. I have my nieces and nephew who will be with us full-time for the month of August. I actually want to start some light school stuff with all of them at that point, get a routine going of sorts. I figured blogging was a good way to get some ideas out and explore things.

Having a structured routine will be quite a shock, so I don't think I want to force a routine on them--that's a huge amount of sudden control and will likely be met with resistance from the boys. The little girls are always eager to sit and listen to stories, do practical life things, try sensorial materials, do art, etc. I'd like to balance things a bit, though.

The thought coming to my mind at the moment is a basic schedule that we used years ago: each day of the week had a different "enrichment" focus. I can't remember exactly what it was, naturally, but it was something like this:

Monday afternoon: outside play time
Tuesday afternoon: library and games
Wednesday afternoon: science experiments
Thursday afternoon: music
Friday afternoon: art

I think something like that could be useful for the month of August, provide a bit of rhythm to our days without making each day the same. Thursdays are when various groups seem to have their park get-togethers, so those can be definite park days. I would probably decide on if we'd go morning or afternoon based on where the park get-together is that particular week. I'm thinking we ought to change Monday to our library day, then we can have the whole week with our books. The original reason we had Tuesday as our library day was because we went to a park day almost ever Monday afternoon back then. We haven't been regulars at park day for a few years now! There's absolutely no reason to stick with Tuesday. lol.

I do like the idea of getting outside as much as possible. I think I'd like to encourage the main outdoor time to be in the mornings, before the UV and temperatures get too high.

What other things can be done? I still like the idea of a science day--my son has 2 science kits he really likes--but has done nothing from (complicated or he's not sure what to do). Granted, once we get going with one, it could be a daily thing, but that's fine with me. I can adapt the schedule if needed.

Other things:

• My littler niece is already 3.5+. I have done so very little Montessori with her. Since the boys are likely to do their own thing together in the morning, it's a great time to present things to her. Since her 6yo sister loves being shown stuff, too, I'm sure I can determine some lessons I can give her: cursive, math, geography, science, reading...
• I'd love to have a read-aloud going on--in French. I put a request for Little House on the Prairie in French, although I'm lamenting that there doesn't seem to be a French version of Little House in the Big Woods, which I think is so endearing and much more at the girls' interest level (okay, the littler one might be totally lost, but she'll like the drawings when they pop up). I maybe ought to find something else, or just read Little House in the Big Woods in English first, then the sequel in French.
• I think I will really need to plan my week and days to maximize the time I have with them.
• Just remembered: I learned that my nephew's teacher this past year is known for not teaching a science unit from the provincial curriculum--chemistry. This causes problems for the grade 6 teachers because they are expected to prepare the students for the grade 6 government exams (oh, how I'm glad we homeschoolers are not required to subject our children to such things!) and the exam includes a bit on chemistry. Why, when it's not covered in grade 6? Because it's the government. :/ In any case, if he hasn't done it, then I can cover the chemistry unit with them all during August.

Long-term thinking: next school year.

I have some definite goals forming in my mind--some on paper, too. ;) Dd wants to really feel like she's getting work done and to know that she's at least at the same level as school students for language arts and math. She has also asked to be required to cover the same topics for social studies and science and the general curriculum. It's her "high school prep" year, where she wants to feel like she can tackle a full high school course load her grade 10 year; right now, it just seems scary and way too much work to do. She has started realizing that it doesn't have to be as difficult and time-consuming as she's seen with the 17yo I homeschool--she mentioned a couple of weeks ago how she thought it would take up her whole day to be doing high school courses, but the 17yo really spends a lot of time avoiding work and not working very quickly. She's not too sure about getting the diploma, but if I've looked at things properly, she'll probably be covering everything--except social studies--to get all the necessary credits. Without social studies, she will already have over the minimum number of credits. If we cover social studies our way for grades 10 and 11 and ask to challenge the grade 12 course, she will then have her diploma.

It's funny: I was so against the diploma for a while. But seeing as how she wants to be able to get into anything she would want to in university or some other post-secondary program, it means getting certain credits or alternative. On top of that, there are things she would just naturally be doing or wants to do. Social studies is really the only bane to it all.

In any case, I've really got to start working out the subject plans for next year, especially for French and math. Some of her math skills are weak, or there are things she simply really hasn't done. I want to design something specific for both French and math so that everything gets covered. I will also be putting together checklists for both subjects, probably with columns of, "Covered, Practised, Mastered", so that she can kind of self-assess, too, as the year goes on--seeing what's left to do, what's left to be mastered, etc.

That's enough thinking for now!

Some recent pics

Our "pink" tower that the 3yo did last week. It is a set of wood nesting blocks, different images on each side, but the same arrangement of images for each block. I was going to repaint them at one point, but then I noticed how older kids paid attention to the images--it became more of a challenge--and the younger they were, they tended not to. It's kind of fun to see that "oh!" moment kick in when they realize they can match up the images. As you can see, she hasn't hit the "oh!" moment. ;)

This is from an experiment from dd's French workbook (it covers all subjects, but for French-speaking students). Green water, vegetable oil on top, then you sprinkle a bunch of salt. The "bubble" you see in the middle was the result of salt, stuck in oil, had dropped down to the bottom and is now going back up.

I decided yesterday that given how she'd done the cylinder blocks the previous week, I was going to present two at a time. So I pulled them out, did not get a chance to show her before she sat down with them. I decided to just kind of observe how she would do. It was too hard for her, BUT she decided to do some knobless cylinder towers. :) The first one she did was actually more how it should have been; here, she tried to mix the two sets of cylinders. She watched me look at the cylinders to decide where to put them back and was able to do some of them. It's possible I picked the wrong 2 blocks to start with.

Is it Spring Break yet???

These past couple of weeks have been ROUGH. Which means our wonderful routine has gone down the tubes a lot. I'm working out at the moment how to get everything back on track for this week. It's only the week--and really, only until Friday, because I will have a full house of kids that day. Then it's Spring Break. We are ALL very ready for Spring Break, but we need to go out with a bang. :)

Two weeks ago, I had at least one sick niece or nephew each day, plus my kids got sick, my 3yo niece has been sick... Then ds was still sick this past week, I was not well in the least, and the 16yo wasn't well. Very hard to think, much less plug through stuff, when you're not feeling well.

So, let me think through things here. Starting with my 3yo niece (since I tend to overlook her a lot; not fair for her):

PRACTICAL LIFE
*As much as the Swiffer Dusters suck (they do not grab the dust remotely as well as the commercials would indicate), I will invite the 3yo to dust each day with them (much easier than using a dusting cloth, I think). The entertainment equipment downstairs and the shelves can be dusted each morning, as well as the main level book case and shelving unit.
*Windows: she loves doing windows.
*Wash the table: It's been ages since I've had her clean the little table. Of course, part of that will mean I have to keep up my end of things by clearing it of my stuff and keeping it clear!
*Dry mopping with our microfibre mop.
*I'm thinking food prep would be great--maybe Friday, when everyone is here. She comes with her lunch and snacks already prepared. However, if she has something that needs to be cooked or heated, I will get her involved.

SENSORIAL
*continue bringing out different things she's already done (cylinder blocks, red rods, etc.) I'll have a look at how well she does the cylinder blocks and see if she's ready to try two at a time.
*touch tablets
*maybe put mystery bags together for Friday as some games the kids can play
*sorting grains

LANGUAGE
*"metal" insets
*I would say "speech", but she's gone back to not talking to us. *sigh*
*I have to find my sandpaper letters: I put them in storage, but have not been able to find them!

CULTURE
*land and water presentation would be good

OTHER
*paints, playdough, colouring, etc.

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This is a great starting point. Actually, if all of this got accomplished this week, that would be fantastic!


Okay, now for my 10yo:
LANGUAGE
*handwriting and copywork
*figure out a way to tie in narration, even if it's just from English things he's reading
*read to him again from Le voyage au centre de la Terre
*maybe talk to him a bit about what kinds of things kids in school are able to read and write

MATH
*He chose a multiplication workbook from a local French store. He's only doing a page a day. Part of me wants to insist on 2 pages, but that doesn't feel very Montessori. He could definitely do more, though, so maybe it's a matter of talking with him and seeing how much seems more reasonable to do.

SCIENCE

*We have a fantastic book out from the library at the moment: 

I saw it and knew it would be an immediate hit. I quietly placed it with other books in our living room and it has been a huge hit. THAT would be a fantastic thing to have him give me some narrations on that I could write down for him--especially since the book is in English and I want him to tell me about the things in French. :D We had an interesting conversation the other day: he thought the book was wrong because birds weren't in the mammals section. I think he is doing as I did as a kid: equating "mammals" with "animals". We have the classification of life poster up, but it really doesn't go into the different classifications of animals. Maybe it's time for me to find or make something for our environment.

SOCIAL STUDIES
*Um...

RELIGION
*Need to make some progress in Faith and Life! That can be read each morning at or just after breakfast.

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Okay, for 13yo dd:

Well, you know, she found a great French workbook at the store that covers a wide variety of subjects. That's her primary interest at the moment and she has spent hours on it already. She also has Life of Fred to work on, she will have some things to do for her Confirmation prep class, she's been working on some interior decorating work and decluttering and reorganizing of her room... The only other thing I can think of is to encourage her to work on art, piano... Oooh, typing! It would be good for her to have an idea just how fast she types at the moment. She really doesn't know. Oh, and I also wanted to work with her on creating a fitness plan. Soccer has been over for a few weeks now, but outdoor will be starting up again at the end of April/beginning of May (if the snow ever leaves...) and she's not really very fit. Very thin, but not fit.


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For the 16yo:

PHYSICS
*get all of unit 1 completely done: he has section quizzes to do, plus a unit assignment that will take a few days. His limit will be this week: what he does not finish, he will get 0 on. He is behind, has fallen again into "I don't feel like it".

MATH
*He has to get his current unit work and then the follow up work done. That will probably take 4 days.

ELA
*He has to get his novel study done. All of it. The novel was read ages ago, we've worked here and there on the study. He is finding it difficult to know what to say about different things. I need to get him thinking/writing daily.

SOCIAL STUDIES
*I'm going to have to figure out where he should be with this. It has been AGES since he touched it.


This gives me a great vision for the week! Yay!

So far this week

The 16yo made the comment today that it's been a short week that has felt extremely long. He's right. Today was only our 3rd day of school this week, but it felt like it was Friday of a full week. We ended up not working today because I woke up feeling absolutely horrible: sinus headache and upset stomach. I thought the upset stomach was at first part of the sinus problems, then I came to realize it was something completely different. At one point, thought I would be fine to get the 16yo through work, but by the time he got here and I had moved around sufficiently, that was it. I was done for. Which was fine for him because his stomach was bothering him and dd was also complaining a bit. We must have picked up some sort of bug. All day, it's been painful or nauseating. Very annoying.

So, that means I only have 2 days so far to account for. Dd is still doing well getting into work mode; ds it trying to change the routine. I allowed it, but then it caused problems with him, so back to the routine I created we will go. I feel like I'm finally accomplishing something with both of them, all the while getting the 16yo through his work. Dd is feeling like she's accomplishing something, too, and has a sense of direction now. Even pulled out her laptop mini the other evening and worked on her Viking research in front of the TV while dh watched I'm not sure what.

The 16yo and my catch-up plan: He was completely amenable to it. He does not like being behind and has even thought about maybe taking physics and math in-school next year so that he won't fall behind. I said it could be done; we'll look at the possibilities. Once he's caught up and stays caught up, and I no longer let him get behind (other than maybe a day behind because of some fun activity), I think he'll change his mind. He is thinking about after grade 12 and possibly doing some high school upgrading after he and his Dad move. He's thinking about it because it will help ease off the pressure and anxiety if he knows that next year's marks are not the end-all and he likes the idea of taking something he's familiar with, in a classroom situation, to ease into the change of post-secondary. Mature thinking!

I tidied up and changed around some materials for the school shelves. It has already allowed the 3yo to pick a couple of things she didn't normally pick. I put out the Touch Boards and will have to show her them sometime. I need to get over this stupid stomach bug first. Argh. (Pain just now.) Oh!! Huge breakthrough! She had gone back to not talking. The 16yo's sister hung out with us a bit this afternoon (she did grades 7 through 12, plus another semester with us) and the 3yo wouldn't talk and it became clear it was all for show. I said, knowing full well that she would be listening in, that we would have to stop trying to get her to talk, so that we stopped giving her attention that way. No immediate change, but a little later, she wanted something from dd and wouldn't come right out and ask it the way she used to, dd had no clue what it was the 3yo wanted, came and recounted the story, as the 3yo was coming along--and I knew she'd heard--I said, "Well, that's enough about that. We're not going to give her attention for that anymore." Within 30 seconds, she was talking up a storm. And she would not stop. Made me think of The Sims 3 and how you can teach the toddlers to talk and once they do, a little bubble pops up about how they've learned to talk and now the trick was to keep them quiet! lol. She talked and talked and talked and talked. Holy cow.

Babble babble

:D

Tired and not sure what to do with myself, so I figured I would blog.

It looks like I didn't blog at all last week. Not sure I can recall enough to share. A few of us were sick at least one day, my 3yo niece was tired ALL week. The 16yo is getting further and further behind in his work. I asked him on Friday what he was going to do to catch up. He said he didn't know. I asked him to think about it this weekend. If he gets here Tuesday (tomorrow's a holiday here) and hasn't come up with anything (which I think is likely), I already have a plan! heh heh. ;) It's not a mean plan, but it's got to be done. He does not care enough about the work, he has fallen into some disruptive behaviours, which is almost always a sign of something stressing him and he's avoiding it or looking at making himself feel better by engaging in disruptive "fun". I don't think it's specifically the work; there's some stuff going on at home, I think. He's also been complaining about his stomach hurting, which tends to occur more when he's stressed about something. I think I'd like to read through Choice Theory again and maybe Reality Therapy In Action--I've used tools from both in the past to get him to move forward.

So, what's my plan? Well, double up the sections he's covering in math and physics, the two he's behind in, but at the same time, cutting back on the number of questions, until he's caught up (I can't remember how long that will take with this approach). The questions will all be typed up on worksheets. I will make it clear to him that I've cut back on the number he's supposed to do, which means there is not enough practice in just the work he's being given to learn it well--meaning, he will not get the average he says he wants unless he does more than what I'm giving him. If he wants to do better than a C, he will have to do extra at some point--either take things home for homework, work in books designed for extra practice, etc. If he does not get the day's assigned work done in the time he's here, he has to take all incomplete work home. I haven't yet decided what to do if he doesn't get the homework done. I'm thinking of a couple of options to give him: 1) He works first thing on all the incomplete work and then we move onto the day's work, which, again, if he doesn't finish during the day, he has to bring work home; 2) It will be just like in school: Don't get the work done, well, that's too bad, we're moving on and it will affect your ability to do the end-of-unit work, which he can do open book, but he will not be receiving other assistance with it (that's actually part of the work agreement with the school).

This feels harsh in some ways, but I've fallen into enabling him again. I've had a pattern of not insisting on staying up-to-date in his work, then I focus on nothing but him to get him caught up at the end of the semester. I rescue him. (The topic of rescuing vs helping came up on a list I'm on, which is what led to me thinking about the plan above.) I'm not going to rescue him anymore. I will let him fail if that's what he's going to choose to do. It's not so much failing that he's choosing, but he's choosing to not push through uncomfortable feelings, which leads to giving up and failing; indirectly choosing to fail, I think in part because he expects to be rescued. I really need to reread Choice Theory and Reality Therapy In Action because the techniques and information would be so useful in helping him be aware of his choices and their consequences, and that he is capable of choosing something different. This is by no means a "normalized" child, never has been, and he is now 16, has an LD label and many poor coping techniques that are being increasingly used lately; a typical Montessori approach is not helpful (although a good Erdkiner during his junior high years might have made a huge difference for him!). He talks about going to college, but he is so darn dependent (yes, I know, I've allowed it) and doesn't want to handle feeling uncomfortable or frustrated with something, I just don't see how he would even be able to do a single class. He needs to be challenged and guided through challenges now, not when he ends up in college and nobody there is going to really care.

With my two... I had started on some topic one morning, which led to a question about something else, which led to us looking up online about the Mayan calendar and somehow that all led to me saying I wanted to make a lapbook. Well, that got dd going AND ds going--he's never made a lapbook, never done any kind of real research work and presentation. This is sure to keep us busy for the next while. I'm working on Benjamin Franklin, ds is working on dinosaurs and dd is doing Vikings. I will still start our mornings off with our routine (get ready for the day, religion, at least one lesson to start), but now we have some additional work to tackle during the day. I'm so excited. :)

I can't remember what I brought out for the 3yo this week. She ended up napping a lot--she spent the week waking up early to pee or having a nightmare or things like that. Oh, but here's some wonderful progress: the 16yo wanted to get her to talk. She will talk with ds and sometimes to dd, a little bit to me, but just to ask if I can open this or that or do something for her. She wouldn't talk to the 16yo. Somehow or other, they were playing and she started playfully hitting him. He said she could only hit him again if she talked. So, he got her to take part in a discussion with him, intermittent with her hitting him. LOL (It sounds awful, but it was all fun and very cute.) She talked and talked and talked. And showed how much she has been listening to what we say. He asked her why she doesn't talk anymore: she replied it was because her big sister had gone to school. (I've said that to the olders in the past! Little sneak! lol) I'm hoping this new-found speech will stay. It was so good to have her fully back like that.

Speaking of the 3yo, it reminds me that one of my projects for this weekend is tackling the school shelves. The girls have been taking things out and not putting them back in the right spot. Plus there are things that aren't being used that could be temporarily stored. A project for tomorrow. I used to have some Classification Card sets that I'd made; I wonder if I will be able to find them, or if I even still have them. They would be a fantastic activity for me to have out on the shelves.


***EDIT***: If only to confirm what I posted minutes ago about my plans for the 16yo, I went into an email account, clicked on a link about the quote of the day, to find this:

High expectations are the key to everything.

~Sam Walton (Wal-Mart founder)

I want him to do a lot, but I don't think I expect it of him. I need to expect it of him and take steps, like the above, to help him to meet the expectations. His own expectations are completely off base and unrealistic.

Progress!

I have not yet gotten the kids to the level of work I would like them at, not doing as many presentations as I had planned, but here's the thing: they are doing more, things are flowing more, even calmer. I don't think I wrote about this, but I had been having the feeling that the idea of trying to gradually increase was not going to work, at least not the way I was going about it. Focusing on one thing to start doing meant that if it didn't get done, there was no change. Focusing on a whole day's worth and not meeting the goal means that stuff gets done! :D

Progress made so far this week:

*Silent reading time both days. The 16yo likes to publicly balk, but he's been cooperative, sat down, got into his book (Peak), as did everybody else today. Yesterday, my nephew was here (yes, that definitely threw things off yesterday) and even he partook in it.

*Work time with the 16yo after lunch today.

*Ds has done math and handwriting BOTH days.

*We've gone over the Apostles' Creed both days.

*My two and I had our school time together before the 16yo showed up.

*Used a timer both days to limit lunch (although, forgot to get it going at the start of lunch today). Why do this? Because lunch time has had a tendency to get longer and longer. lol.

*Over the past two days, my 3yo niece has done water pouring (it's now her favourite mode of drinking water ;D), bead lacing, a cylinder block, clothespins (put clothespins on the edge of a container--requires the pincer grasp--and then remove them) and today, I invited her to cut with a pair of little kid scissors. I think I will have to model this one again--she holds her elbow out to the side and cuts from the side. That doesn't work as well. Oh, she also did this geometric stacker. She normally just does one of them, not the hard one on the end. She tried to do the hard one today. Didn't work so well. lol. I should maybe take them off and hide them for a while.

*I discovered that not only does my son hold his pencil in an awkward way, but it's such a way that the pencil is kind of straight up and down and his hand is blocking a bit from seeing. Well, no wonder his handwriting isn't improving--he's not seeing what he's doing! I took out one of those triangular pencils grips, which kind of helped, but then I saw he wasn't curving the fingers underneath enough, which caused the hand to be propped up, essentially, blocking what he was seeing. So, for the next while, the focus will be on his grip rather than specifically improving his handwriting. I want to get him to the point of copywork and eventually to his own writing, but I need to be patient.

So, things are progressing and it's feeling good. Why is it different this time from the times I have planned in the past and things fell apart? I decided ahead of time to push ahead regardless of any resistance I felt from myself or others. I almost didn't follow through on the silent reading yesterday after lunch, started waffling, wondering if I should break up the boys' Lego time together, but somehow decided to go ahead with it, be consistent. I'm glad I did.

Feeling good about the week to come

I've been doing some journalling, thinking and praying. Things are starting to connect properly in my mind. My fear is that after all of this work, I won't follow through. Why don't I follow through so often? Not sure.

So far, I have worked out a rough "lessons" plan (not to be confused with a lesson plan) for my two for the week:

Monday: bio (from a homeschool text we have), history (looking at Kingfisher encyclopedia we have--with a variety of follow-up work options), math, French, German and art (looking at a particular artist, with follow-up options), religion, ds--handwriting (I'm taking a step back and going to sit down and work through the letter formations with him, using the Sandpaper Letters, if need be!)

Tuesday: chemistry (from Montessori R&D manual), geography (ds--identifying Canadian provinces by shape; dd will work on her choice of learning Canadian capitals or resuming her US states work), all the rest the same as above, except music study instead of art.

Wednesday: same as Monday

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: science from our provincial curriculum standards; social studies from our provincial curriculum standards; French, math, etc. No lesson/presentation for music or art; basically, more of their decision making than mine.

I think I need to make up a chart that shows exactly what I want to cover in those areas each day.

I still have to work out the 16yo's work for the week. I have thought about taking a Writer's Workshop type of approach Mon., Tues. and Fri afternoons. I would take from his work requirements, modify as we saw fit, but get my two also involved.

It'll be a change this week, the expectation for my ds to be working in the morning and the move to an afternoon work period. There will possibly be some resistance. I think I tend to take resistance as a message I'm doing something wrong, but I have to see it for what it probably is: moving out of the comfort zone. I can do this. :)

As for my previous post about encouraging the 16yo to get his work done in the morning, I realized that could backfire. I want our days to go back to the longer educational days we used to have. If he sees it as his work is done in the morning, then he'll be "free" in the afternoon and won't get involved as readily; no sense of obligation. But these courses he's doing are just part of his education; there is more to be done. So, I might encourage him to get the hardest/least inviting for him done in the morning (math, physics and social studies), leaving the afternoons free to work on ELA, science experiments, cooking, handicrafts, read-alouds, etc. Like we used to. (Yes, I'm feeling nostalgic, but it was so nice!)

I haven't plotted in the 3yo yet. She gets here around 8am, so I'm thinking I ought to be completely ready by that point so I can get right into some Practical Life activities with her, then maybe move onto some sensorial work around 8:30, while my two are getting going with their work. For this week, we will try doing the Apostles' Creed first, followed by math together, which will probably be done by the time the 16yo gets here around 9, then I can get them going with something else while he settles in to work on his handwriting and spelling. I will need to learn to juggle my time more, rather than focusing on him. It was a completely unrelated discussion, but it got me thinking how in William Glasser's books, he really focuses on having adults back off. Not abandon, but you set out the requirement, give the student room to do it (or fail to do it), and deal with what happens after that, letting the student be responsible for his choices. I can do that. I have already decided that there will be no field trips, other than the library, unless he is on track. Or put differently: field trips are extra fun for when work is on track. Yes, yes, some field trips are definitely educational, but they don't fit within his work requirements, so, no. They are extra. Yes, this means the others lose out, except I can take mine on trips on the weekend. Besides, for the next month and a half, they have every Thursday afternoon out! (Skiing/snowboarding.)

See how I've switched to focusing on him? Ach. Back to the 3yo. I think I will simply start at the beginning of activities with Gettman and work my way through. I don't think I have all of the language materials (Classification Cards, for example), but if I plan ahead, I can get some things done. Or maybe even have her help with some of the material prep. :D

Okay, I must now figure out the work expectations for the 16yo for this week, as well as make the planning grid for my two. I'm also trying to get my laptop to be able to do WiFi printing to our printer so that I can use Homeschool Tracker for some of my planning and tracking.

Children need sleep

All right, EVERYBODY needs sleep, but children especially so.

My 3yo niece arrived this morning and she was not her usual self, even for the recent change in her reverting to more baby-like behaviours. Her mood was almost palpable, the expression on her face blank, yet somehow negative. In between her moments like that, she was fussing at her Dad's helping her get her boots off. She usually likes to do the rest by herself but she wasn't moving, so Dad asked her if she wanted help. She just stood there, dark circles under her eyes. He then said he had to go, at which point she started lightly hitting him, but not in her usual "I'm hitting you because I want to see your reaction", but because she was unhappy. He kept asking her questions, trying to have her verbalize what she wanted, to no avail. She ended up in a mini tantrum, jumping up and down, a kind of scream coming out of her mouth. She was not a happy kid.

Eventually, Dad just picked her up, hugged her, then I said, "Come with me," and she did. I took her coat off and while doing so, quietly and gently asked her if she wanted to sleep on me. She nodded her head. Downstairs we went to the computer where I got her to sleep while I did stuff. At one point, I put her in my bed. She slept about an hour in all, I think. Completely different child upon waking!

Must do something about the 3yo

Truly. Her behaviour is getting worse and worse.

This all started a little bit when her older sister, my 5yo niece, started going to school full-time. But it wasn't too bad. Things regressed more when her Dad went away on a business trip for 5 days. She stopped walking into the house in the morning--has been carried in almost every single day since. Other little things popped up around that time. Combined with her no longer having someone to direct her every move the way her sister does, things really started regressing--like not talking clearly or not talking at all, just little noises we're supposed to interpret.

Then the baby (well, he was 12 months) started. The 3yo is jealous. She is attention-seeking. She is sometimes just willful and angry for no apparent reason. Also blaming others for things they haven't even done, like her falling and missing the last two stairs to downstairs--because she was sort of hopping from one stair to another--then blaming my son for it, even though he wasn't even in arm's length of her. It's not pretty.

Today there was an event that really had it clicking that I must direct her more. Things started off okay--she fell asleep on me (yes, her lack of sleeping well at home has definitely contributed to the issues!) and then napped for about an hour in all (I transferred her to the sofa at one point), after that, she found the Swiffer Duster and dusted, played with the baby (okay, so he's now about 13.5 months) and everything seemed pretty good. But something happened at some point, I'm not sure what--maybe she hit the limit to her self-direction, maybe she was tired of not having my son play with her (he was engrossed in a dinosaur book all morning), I don't know what, but the 16yo saw her picking her nose, said, "Ew, gross!" and within the next minute, she walked over, wiped that finger on his bag, went back to the spot she had been, and put on a face that was a mix of smirking and being put out for being told "Ew."

Oh boy.

This from a child who turned 3 about 2.5 weeks ago. Mind you, she has a 10yo brother who definitely has his style of retaliative ways... ;0

I have no idea how Maria Montessori would have handled it. I was not impressed. Especially since she kept smirking after the 16yo told her to not do that and I can't remember what else. I guided her over to the sink, wet a new dishcloth for her, and yes, I admit it, annoyed and a bit angrily brought her to his bag and guided her hand to wipe off where she'd wiped her finger. She kept the smirk up until I got eye level with her and told her I can't even remember what. I then asked her to go sit down in the big chair by herself for a while (there were some books and toys there, so it wasn't as though it were some horrible isolation). She didn't go. (This has been another issue: outright defiance, dragging of the feet, etc.) I took her hand, brought her over to the chair, lifted her up and let her stay there a while.

I thought about how I'd handled it, but was quickly brought to the point of thinking: what is causing this behaviour? It's not like she's acting up mostly when the baby is getting attention. No. Even later in the afternoon, she found it unfair that my son was letting her older sister have some grapes, but not her (the 3yo). I asked him why she couldn't have any. I don't know what was behind it all, but he quickly said, "Okay, you can have some." Well, man oh man, she took her sweet time going down those stairs. Her sister took another grape from the very few that were left. I said to the 5yo to wait and let her sister get one before they were all gone, but the 3yo continued to do the very s-l-o-w movement down the stairs. I finally said, "Well, maybe your sister should get them all since you're not being very quick about getting to them." That got her moving. ;) But why drag her feet for something that she wanted?

Some good things from today: The 3yo did the dusting on her own, happily played with the baby for a while and did some puzzles next to me at the table. I helped her with a couple of them. Mostly I tried to just let her do them without me commenting much. Oh, she also wiped some windows. Need to keep her busy with practical stuff.

All of this means that what I've not been able to get myself to do in terms of providing her with consistent lessons and activities has turned into a crisis situation where I *need* to! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I must remember that.

Trying to Catch Up or Catch My Breath

Not sure which. ;)

I have about 45 minutes to do whatever I wish outside of the house. So here I am at the library, on the computer instead of reading or something. I thought it would be an opportune moment to just do something I enjoy doing--and blogging is something I do enjoy.

Now to start addressing things I mentioned earlier:

My younger niece, who will be 3 in a few weeks, is, naturally, a little put out by the newest little one in our midst. He has just recently turned 1, so he's the same age she was when she started. But she's 3 and the youngest in her family and has been the youngest at our place for 2 years now, so it's a little disconcerting for her. At first, she thought she would have a playmate, but, of course, a little one not yet walking and talking can't be the same kind of playmate as an older sibling. And then there were the first few days of the little guy being all out of sorts and wanting to only be in my arms all the time. Jealousy naturally built up a bit and she would ask to be in my arms at every chance she got. All very normal behaviours!

I've been inviting her to tag along or help me out and those opportunities always help her. She talks about how she's a big girl when she can help like that. Today, it was so cute, she keeps wanting to feed him directly, even if it's finger food that he can do himself. So I, on purpose, pulled out some baby food for him that had to be given with a spoon and asked her if she wanted to do it. It was so cute and funny! He was actually a little put off by it at first, because it's supposed to be me, not her, in his mind, but he accepted it and kept allowing her to feed him.

I think things are improving for both of them with this. With the 2yo, she's already kind of out of sorts because her sister is at school now and although for a while, she was happy to do all kinds of different activities, she seems to have hit a point of simply wanting to be entertained--of wanting someone else to get a game going that she can join into. I have my hands full right now, but I need to try to hold just a little more and get some more presentations ready for her. Although, now with baby gates up, that is another issue: she can't easily get to where most of the materials are kept. I just have to figure something out.

---

The keyboard here is kind of getting on my nerves and the keys feel very hard to press. I'm going to stop for now and maybe find a magazine to read or something until I have to pick up dd. I'll try to continue tomorrow!

It's Friday night--and I'm planning

LOL.

I was watching tv with the family, but I caused a neck spasm earlier and I just can't take sitting in those seats anymore and there's really no other comfortable option. So here I am, thinking about next week's plans. Ah, it's not the first time I've done some planning on a Friday evening and certainly won't be the last!

My mind is actually on the littlest one (3 in 3 months). Tuesday will be her first day here where her sister will only come after school. It will also be our first actual day of school, since we ended up spending so much time this week chatting and planning and figuring things out.

The first thing I thought of was to go through the first period practical life lessons, which I will do shortly. But then my brain switched to: Are my shelves suitable for her. With our new arrangement in the house, there is more room for the materials and they are better seen, BUT there may still be too much stuff. Since the 5yo is only going to be here after school (and she is going to be TIRED after a full day of school) and on PD days, there is probably a bunch of stuff I could put away where I still have easy access to use with her now and then, which would open things up to have at least one section of shelves be aimed solely at the 2yo. So, something to tackle this weekend.

So, now for some practical life thinking/planning.

PRACTICAL LIFE - PERIOD 1 
(according to Gettman--one of the "must have" books if you have a 3-6yo, imho)

Things she's already done:
*pouring beans between two jugs
*opening and closing containers
*buttoning (I meant to leave my one sweater out for her to button more)
*velcro fasteners (and she's very precise--they have to be on just right!)
*plastic snaps on doll clothing
*lacing (albeit "crazy" lacing and every which way, but she can do the lacing ;) )
*saying Please and Thank You
*wiping up spills
*wiping the window (she could use another more specific presentation)
*going up and down stairs--although she has to do the "two-step" method since she's so little still!

Not yet done:
*carrying and laying floor mats (we haven't used floor mats in ages; it would be good to start)
*carrying a tray
*lifting, carrying and putting down a chair (they've always been kind of pushed or slid around)
*sitting down on and getting up from a chair at a table--obviously she's done this, but I've never really paid attention to how she does it at the little table; at the big table, it is, of course, climb onto the chair--our big challenge now is to get her to actually SIT rather than spin around all over the place ;D
*walking on the line--I need a line. I can't actually stick a line down anywhere, so I'll have to figure out something for this that is distinctive, yet movable.
*folding
*hanging clothes on a hook: we don't have hooks, but I'm sure she'd be able to do this; she's actually wanting to put coats on hangers--she doesn't have it yet
*brushing hair
*dusting

This not done list is great stuff to do with her. I could also check some other places, like Shu Chen Jenny's online albums, or maybe Montessori World or there's a blog I have in mind and I can't think of the name, but it's full of lessons! I know she's done some other stuff that Gettman doesn't specifically cover, like spooning beans from one bowl to another.

Well, I'm no longer comfortable here. I think it's time for me to lay down in bed and let this neck relax.