School Time with Addie and Ian

We have been back "in school" for two weeks now.  I think our little break was perfect for Addie.  It was almost like the things I had been trying to teach her needed a break in order to sink in and now she is flying and excited to learn more.  God has really blessed our efforts.

I have cut back on our subjects (I think) and our lessons have been very successful.

For Bible we are working our way through her Awana book.  We are able to get through two lessons a week  and successfully memorize the verses.  One lesson is not enough for her, she wants to keep moving through her book, but more than two would be too much.  She is so proud of herself when she goes to Awana and has to recite her verses for her teachers.  I'm pretty proud of her, too.

Our next lesson is Reading from the book Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  This is the subject where the break was very helpful to us.  I could tell that she dreaded reading before the break.  I was only able to do one side of a page a day with her.  After the break, she has jumped right into reading, and now asks to keep going.  I do limit Reading to one lesson a day.  She is doing so well sounding out her words and figuring out what the new words are by sounding out each word on her own (with Mommy there to give input).  She even looks forward to reading her lesson to Daddy when he comes home from work. 

For math we are using a workbook that I picked up from Target just before the new school year.  I had wanted to work with her on addition but all of the workbooks for children her age only deal with numbers up to 10 or 12 (which she has mastered already). The only book I could find that dealt with early addition was a Grade 1 workbook.  She is doing really well with that also.  I'm sure that using M&Ms to solve our addition problems helps as incentive, too.

We are 28 pages away with completing our Preschool Plus workbook.  At this point, most of the lessons have to do with following directions and review.

Time is a new subject for us.  My sister Faye had given me a little clock for Addie's school time, and we are now able to get a better understanding of time.  She can identify time by "O'clock". When I set the hands on the clock, she will say, "The big hand is on the twelve and little hand is on the nine, so it's nine o'clock."  She can also identify on flash cards the "o'clock" times (9:00).  Next week, we will start with the "thirties".

In the counting/ number department, we are learning our tens (10, 20, 30, 40....) up to 100.  I figure that once she has these numbers down, filling in the numbers in between will be much easier for her. 

With our states/map recognition, she now can identify Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, New Jersey, New york, Maine, Michigan, Texas, California, Idaho, Alaska, and Hawaii. 

Since the last week of September, we have also been learning about Thanksgiving.  I had made a construction paper tree and traced all of our hands (except for Ian's since he wasn't here when I made the tree).  During school, we write what we are thankful for on a hand and Addie can put it on the tree. We are also making our way thru Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey. It is designed to be read differently depending on the age of the children listening.  It also has an accompanying CD of music that is more Thanksgiving-ish in nature.  Grandma also picked up several Thanksgiving books for us from the library.



Photo taken October 31. Ian at almost 6 weeks.

 Ian has also begun "school".  If he is awake when Addie and I have our school time, he sits with us.  During his awake "I want you to play with me" time, I have been playfully telling him "I'm Mommy!  You are Ian!" We are also playing with his facial features, hands, and feet.  I got the sweetest "I'm really happy!" smile from him yesterday during our time. 

On Netflix, there is a series of shows put out by Baby First TV.  There are times when I will have Addie sit with him and they watch it together, with Addie playing teacher and pointing things out to him and repeating what has been said.  She loves being his "teacher" as she calls it.

Lord permitting, I'm looking forward ordering Addie's K5 curriculum in April (early bird discount).  I'll fill you in when that time comes.