This Week's Homeschool Highlights

I can’t believe today is the last day of September. As busy as it has been, it really has been a good month. October will probably be just as busy. I actually like having somewhere to go each day. It helps Nicholas and I break up our day a little bit. Today we finished up our fourth week of school. It has been going so well!


Nicholas alphabetized all his letter tiles this week. He did it for the first time on Tuesday and breezed through it again yesterday. He is also able to write down the correct letter after hearing its sound. He is having fun doing it, which makes it so much easier. I love All About Spelling because it is for visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. I’m going at his pace, but he is moving faster than I thought he would. He hasn’t started spelling words yet, but that starts next week.

The tiles are magnetic

All done alphabetizing

Writing down the letters as I dictate the sounds

All 26 letters

While Nicholas likes workbooks, we try to mix it up a bit. This month in our All Around Town series, Nicholas has learned about safety. This week we talked about traffic safety. We took a walk outside and reminded him about looking both ways. Evan also taught him about different traffic signs he may see. But, the best part was making stoplight cookies. I’m not sure which website I found this idea, but it was pretty cute. There are just three ingredients: graham crackers, peanut butter and M&Ms.

Spreading the peanut butter

Now you see it . . .

Now you don't!

This past week I started something new. Nicholas and I are doing journal time every day. Each day of the week there is a different topic. I do all of the writing, but he dictates to me what I should put down. For example, I had a questionnaire one day and another day I asked him to make up a story. He’s enjoying it and I think he and I will both enjoy looking back on it as he gets older.

Tomorrow is his first violin lesson. I’m sure I’ll plenty to say about it.   Until then . . .

A Swimming Success

Nicholas finished another session of swimming lessons today. His teacher handed each child a report card. I was impressed with how much he has improved. In fact, when I got home I pulled out his last report card to compare.


From 2/19/11:

“Nicholas is such a good student and a pleasure to have in class! Keep practicing putting your whole face in the water and blowing bubbles!”



From today:

“Nicholas did a great job! He goes under H20! We’ll keep working on body position while swimming (he needs to be more horizontal). :)”

Ready for his last class

Up close and personal

It’s funny how he loves to go under water now. In fact, the teacher put some toys on the bottom of the pool for the kids to get. With a little help from his teacher, he got one!

His teacher is helping him toward the bottom

Did he get it?



Yes, he did!

Nicholas likes to float on his back more than on his front. He still has a little trouble trusting his teacher, but he is so close to getting some of the required skills down.

Practicing his back float

He just swam under the rope

An example of swimming more vertical than horizontal

Ready to go under again!

There he goes!

So much improved!

I was going to wait until November to sign him up again, but something about today made me think that it would be best if we kept going. So, he starts a new session next Tuesday. I can’t wait to see the strides he makes this next time too!

Our Week

September has been crazy! I think once October hits, we’ll have a slow down for once.


Monday: We went to story time for the first time. Nicholas liked it but seemed a little overwhelmed by the number of kids that were there. He also doesn’t like singing songs when he doesn’t know the words. I know that in a few weeks he’ll feel more confident.


Tuesday: Swimming lessons. Nicholas continues to go under water with ease. He went under for “six minutes”. It was really six seconds, but still pretty impressive. He remains cautious, but still continues to get better with each lesson.


Wednesday: First, we had his annual cardiologist appointment. We found a new doctor a little closer to home, but still with the same hospital affiliation as our last one. Nicholas was incredibly well-behaved. We love his new doctor. She is thinking about having an MRI done next year, if he can handle it, so we can get an even better idea of what is going on in there. But, he continues to have no restrictions.

Then, I got a few hours away with my sister while Nicholas and Evan had some bonding time. It was a great refresher for me.

Finally, we had church that evening. Nicholas’ program had silly hat night. We don’t have a lot of hats in our house, but he was cute in it. Evan and I attended the prayer meeting. Pretty soon our youth group is moving to Wednesday nights as well. Evan loved his time helping with the youth group, but had to step away when his hours changed at work in order to spend more time with us. Well, he’ll be helping again (since we’re already there) and they’ve recruited me to help too. I’m looking forward to it. I’m trying not to spread myself too thin at church, so I’ve already told them that I can only commit to Wednesdays right now.

Thursday: Swimming lessons again. This was Evan’s last time to watch this time around. Nicholas’ teacher came over to show us Nicholas’ progress on a checklist and what he needs to accomplish to be in an advanced preschool class. I think only one of the three will be moving to that level. Nicholas is still working on some of the harder skills. Another session of lessons in a few months should help a lot.

After swimming, we headed to get Nicholas fitted for his violin. It is so small and cute. It looks like a little toy. I don’t think he knows what to think. I’m going to be arranging his lessons in the next few days, so he may be starting as early as the first of October.

He's not allowed to take it out of the case until his lesson

Friday: I woke up this morning and found out that my e-mail had been hacked.  Sorry to anyone who received spam from me.  Extra apologies to those that got the s*x ones, including my pastor.  After changing my password, I woke up Nicholas and got him ready.  Then, we headed to the grocery store this morning while braving the rain. Nicholas is a big help to me. He was happy that we had his favorite cashier this time. Of course, she knows his plans for today. This evening he will be spending time with my parents while I go help my sister again. She is a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. If you’d like to check out a catalog or even place an order, go here.


In Homeschooling news: Nicholas started segmenting two and three syllable words. This involves hearing a word and breaking it into sounds. He did better than I expected. He only has trouble with “L” and “R” words. He can’t really say them correctly, although he knows the sound. So, those words throw him off a bit.

We also colored our new Bible verse that he will recite for the next two weeks - Philippians 4:6-7.  We used the coloring page from biblestoryprintables.com.

He learned about stranger danger in All Around Town. In Handwriting he is learning to write some of his lowercase letters. Writing the letters is not as hard as staying in the lines. We’re not looking for perfection though, but effort. Nicholas knows his birthdate, address, and home phone number, but I am going to have him continue to recite them every day – at least until the end of the month. Then, we’ll add our cell phone numbers. 

He also had a free craft today.  He could make whatever he wanted.  Here's what he made:

I asked him what he made

"Animals' bones!"

One more crazy week to go . . .

Truckin With Poppy

I had a nice time out last night. I’m a little tired today, but it was nice to get out on my own. I also had to go to a brunch at church this morning. Poppy helped out again this morning by taking Nicholas to breakfast. My sister also took Nicholas on some errands too. I really appreciate both of their help.


After the brunch was over, Poppy and I took Nicholas to one of the local libraries to see the big trucks and heavy equipment. We did this last year as well. They had many of the same vehicles as last year, but there were a few different ones, including a helicopter.

Poppy and Nicholas in the helicopter

I'm not sure he even knows anything about Smokey the Bear

Driving a tractor that has tires bigger than him

The only time I want to see him in an ambulance

Cute fireman

Learning all facets of the job

By the time Nicholas and I got home, we both needed a rest time. He played for a couple of hours and I think I managed to get a 20 minute refresher nap.

Tomorrow we are excited to celebrate our church's anniversary.  We are so thankful that God led us to this church family.  We're also teaching, so we've got another long day!

Go Team! (Not the Blue One)

School went really well again this week. We made it through all of the phonograms in All About Spelling, Level 1. Now the real fun begins. There are 24 levels in the book and I intend for it to take the entire school year to complete all of them.


I was surprised and thankful this week when Nicholas’ swimming teacher began to teach his class about 9-1-1. That was actually our "All About Town" lesson for this week that Evan taught him the days he was home. It was a great introduction. I think the biggest message, besides learning the emergency number, is to remember not to dial it just because. We’re hoping we made that more than clear.

Nicholas also had another great accomplishment this week. He jumped in the pool without holding his teacher’s fingers. In his lessons seven months ago, he was always cautious and would never try it. Tuesday he reached for his teacher, but kind of fell in the pool. It didn’t scare him, but gave him the confidence that he could do it by himself. So, he got up and jumped again! I was so proud of him. During Thursday’s lesson, he made even more strides, including doing some floating on his own. I was glad that Evan got to see it as well.

Each school week, I try to do one craft (or cooking time). This week Nicholas made a foam pennant for his room. I also bought foam sports stickers that he could decorate it with. He told me that I could help and asked me to pick the next sticker. I innocently picked a blue football. Big mistake!

Nicholas looked at me and said, “Blue? In this family we do Buckeye football.”

I learned my lesson today.

Ready to get started

We organized all of the stickers

Time to put on the stickers

Finished product (Notice that he decided to put on a blue football after all - but not for that one blue team!)

Hanging it in his room

 
 

Perfect!

I thought I would end with a couple more quotes from this week. I wish I would remember to write more of them down.

Nicholas was talking to a group of triplet 5-year-old girls after church on Sunday. It was kind of funny because he was standing in the corner with the three girls surrounding him. On the way home, Nicholas had a question for us.

“Do I have to ask them if they like my outfit?”

“Why?” I asked. “Did they ask if you liked theirs?”

“Yeah. They said, ‘Do you like my dress?’”

“No. You don’t have to ask them. But, if you want to be polite, say that they look nice.”

It’s never too early to teach your male child to compliment a female.

****

The other day during rest time, I overheard Nicholas say something that brought me to tears. He had stopped playing momentarily and started to pray:

“Dear Jesus, please bring my baby brother soon. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

He actually repeated it a couple times. His prayer was so touching to me because it was so honest and innocent. He’s been waiting for a long time. We all have been waiting for a long time. Yet, he knows to trust God and to talk to Him.

****

Finally, I told Nicholas that I was going to go upstairs and get ready for tonight.  When I returned, he told me he wanted to see how I looked.  He's always great with compliments, so I was ready to hear what he had to say.  But, he looked at me and said, "Is that old?"  Apparently, it is time to update my wardrobe.

That is all for now. I am having a night out tonight without my husband and child. Write this down because it doesn’t happen too often. Actually, it is happening next Friday evening too. I can’t wait!

What a Week!

Apparently, Nicholas and I are not use to being so busy. I got out of bed at 6:30 this morning, but found myself falling asleep on the couch past 8:00 (this is late for us). Nicholas probably didn’t fully wake up until after 8:30. I decided that we weren’t going anywhere today, so we could just relax. So far, so good.

I am happy to report that we got all of our schooling done along with our running around. I’ll pick up where I left off in my last post.

On Wednesday, we met my good friend Kristy and her son for a play date. We could really tell that the boys are growing up because we were able to talk for about 2 ½ hours with minimal interruptions. It was so nice to have some major adult conversation.

Once we got home from the play date, I realized that Nicholas was in need of a nap. His body needed a little rest from all of our running around. I think he got about an hour nap before he woke up and spent time playing with Evan (who ended up working a half a day). After dinner, we headed to church for their Wednesday night program. Nicholas had another great night. We received a calendar of events for the next few months and it looks like there are some fun theme nights coming up.

Then, Thursday brought some alone time for me. Actually, my mom and I went to a mom’s group at another church to listen to someone from our church speak. She did an excellent job and it was nice to be around other moms. Most of the moms were struggling with the same things – finding the joy when dealing with young kids. It was encouraging.

While I was with my mom, Nicholas and Evan headed to swimming lessons. From what Evan said, it sounded like it was a lot like the lesson I observed on Tuesday. They decided to head to their favorite donut place afterward for a snack. I really wasn’t surprised. I’m glad they got to spend some one-on-one time together.

After lunch and a short rest time, we headed to get Nicholas’ haircut and then decided to get our grocery shopping done since we were busy Friday morning. It was me who crashed on the couch early Thursday evening.

Finally, Friday we met with a teenage girl who Nicholas will be taking violin lessons from. He really wants to play the guitar someday, so we felt like this will be a good start. My mom came to introduce us to the teacher and her mother. Her 14-year-old brother was also there. Nicholas had just finished a snack at the table when he asked to get down. I asked him what he wanted. He pointed at the teenage boy and said, “I want to play with him.”

And, play they did. They spent at least an hour and a half playing the Wii together. I love how patient this young man was with Nicholas. There was plenty of laughter too. I love when older kids are kind to younger kids. It is something we are working on with Nicholas even now.

In regards to the lesson, in the next couple of weeks we will be fitting him with a violin. He’ll probably start 15-30 minute lessons once a week come October. He’s excited.

I’m going to close with some pictures from the rest of our first week of school.

 
Evan taught Nicholas about fire safety this week.  He did a couple fire drills with him.  They also practiced "Stop, Drop, and Roll".

Evan demonstrating

Nicholas' turn

 
 
 
 
He practiced our phone number by calling the house.
 
 

 
 

 
 

When we were going over the date on Friday, I realized it was Nicholas' half-birthday.  I told him that he was halfway to 5.  He asked me, "Was I 4 1/2 yesterday?  What about tomorrow?"
 
 
 

 
 
 
I guess I tripped him up when I asked him how old he was on video though.
 
 

 
 
 
 
We colored some fire safety pictures that he could hang up as reminders.
 
 

He mastered some more phonograms in his spelling course.

Finally, we had computer time.  I'm not sure if this time is more for playing educational games or just learning how to use the mouse.  He did like the fact that I gave him a lot of independence in this area.

 
 
I'm happy with how our first week went.  We are doing just the right amount of school each day.  Next week still has a little running around to do.  I am going to be a tad bit busier on the weekends too.  My sister started a business venture recently and I'm going to be helping her.  Thankfully, Poppy has volunteered to spend some time with Nicholas while I am helping.  I will be talking more about her business soon. 
 
Back to resting . . .