Teach Your Child to Read in 215 Lessons

The title of the book is of course Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy lessons. But we have had to take it slower with Dino (son#1). We have had to spread lessons over 2 or 3 days. The book is amazing. I have met many mom's who have successfully used it for their children. Realistically, lessons should only take 10-20 minutes a day, unless you have a reluctant one. Dino gets frustrated if he messes up. So there is a lot of encouragement to get through it. Or positive reinforcement with quarters or treats. We have been doing the book pretty consistently since April. We are at Lesson 70. It takes a while for the ball to get rolling, so its important to follow the lessons carefully. The lessons build on each other and around lesson 30 or so, you can see it working. I understand your child will be near a 2nd grade level when finished. I think we will!

Yesterday, was very busy. Homeschool soccer and some nice people helping us finish our front yard gardening swallowed the day up. So officially we did just P.E.

Today was our quarterly doctor's appointment, so we only did a bit of dinosaur drawing and have almost finished our reading lesson. I would of pushed for more schoolwork, but he needed a nap after the morning's appointment and a playdate with our n'borhood buddy. Dino is a very social creature and really thrives off of playdates. They played with dinosaurs, played tag and shot each other with plastic guns. Dino even tried to read his lesson to his buddy, but he wasn't interested. Dino plays with son#2 (haven't thought up a clever nickname yet for him) and his 2 younger siblings, so its not like he is deprived for friends.

We did talk about other peoples feelings today. When we were at the appointment we saw a kid with a mishapen eye. "Why does he have a silly eye", Dino asked. I guess in the past 4 years of going, he's never really noticed the other kids in the waiting room. So we talked about how it would feel if someone called you silly because your left hand is bigger than your right. Also he never noticed that before either. The difference is not that dramatic. But it was good to finally have the talk about kids in wheelchairs that we see when we go. How glad I am that these moments are shared between us, and I get to be the authoritative voice and not some peer's perception on the matter. It was nice little talk with all 4 kids outside the building.

I am off to make pizza dough. If the kids were up I would turn it into math lessons with using the measuring cups for flour like we did on Tuesday when we made oatmeal cookies.

D is for Dinosaurs

Monday Through Wednesday....
Officially we hadn't really discussed dinosaurs, because we didn't have any little plastic dinosaurs or dino books handed down to us by any older boys. Which means dinosaurs are like Kitchen Aid mixers, you don't find them at garage sales because you use them until they break.



D is for Dinosaurs is the unit study we are doing this week. The general curriculum for learning letters and science this year is My Father's World. (MFW). Today we went outside and measured 110 feet on the street and drew an Ultrasaurus. I say we, because they did draw the legs and mouth. After 32 feet, the whining won and I took over with the sidewalk chalk. If you look closely at the head, those are not antennae, those are plants, the Ultrasaurus is a plant eater.

We drew dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus Rex and Diploducus) on Monday and made dinosaurs with playdough on Tuesday (Allosaurus and something from the Cretaceous period that looks like something from a Captain D's Combo Platter). God is cool, because what should arrive in the mail this week but Williams delayed birthday present, a plastic dinosaur. The boys each got one and have been playing nonstop with them.

As part of of MFW, almost everyday we add one more straw to our straw cup. We are counting to a hundred. Today is 45,that is 4 bundles of ten straws and 5 single straws. We also note the moon phase (M is for Moon) its a full one right now. Finally we have days of the week cards and we also also mark our calendar. The calendar is part of Saxon Math curriculum. This month we are coloring the days, yellow and green, following the ABB pattern. Next month will be AABB.

I also pulled out some used Georgia K12 curriculum science pages and we did some cutting and pasting of animals. I was just checking that we were following along with what the school district is teaching..... scanning.... scan.... (I am a speedreader)... Yep just fine.

Next time we will discuss our reading!