My husband has been teaching the lessons on occasion lately, when I've had job interviews or when I am substitute teaching. He has done pretty well, from the evidence! I still do the planning and leave him detailed instructions, but he does the teaching.
He has been here for nearly 5 years watching the teaching and the learning happen, so it stands to reason he'd be pretty aware of how it works. He does often help the kids one-on-one with their math or listen to them read aloud, but other than that he really never taught any lessons.
So, this was a pleasant surprise to me actually!
Friday, February 23, 2007
Friday, February 9, 2007
Monthly Fun Day
Today I decided to have our Monthly Fun Day. We did school every other day this week, so I figured it was a good day to choose.
I got the idea from my friend Jennifer who has Friday Fun Days weekly. Since we have co-op twice a month, I didn't want to dedicate one day a week for Fun Day, but figured that monthly would work for our schedule.
I also was encouraged to do this when I read It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend by Richard Lavoie. This book is about social relationships and children with learning disabilities. The author noted that board games are excellent ways for children to build social skills. Board games encourage things like taking turns, putting others' desires ahead of one's own, handling disappointment, and more, as well as academic skills like counting money and reading.
So, on our Monthly Fun Day, each child picks a board game and we play it for 45 minutes to an hour. That's 4 board games in case you lost count of my children. Today we played:
My kids are sorely in need of practice in handling disappointment. lol
I got the idea from my friend Jennifer who has Friday Fun Days weekly. Since we have co-op twice a month, I didn't want to dedicate one day a week for Fun Day, but figured that monthly would work for our schedule.
I also was encouraged to do this when I read It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend by Richard Lavoie. This book is about social relationships and children with learning disabilities. The author noted that board games are excellent ways for children to build social skills. Board games encourage things like taking turns, putting others' desires ahead of one's own, handling disappointment, and more, as well as academic skills like counting money and reading.
So, on our Monthly Fun Day, each child picks a board game and we play it for 45 minutes to an hour. That's 4 board games in case you lost count of my children. Today we played:
- Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit (choice of James, age 7)
- Go Fish with Barbie cards (choice of Emily, age 9)
- Lord of the Rings Monopoly (choice of David, age 12)
- Tractor Tipping (choice of Suzy, age 4)
My kids are sorely in need of practice in handling disappointment. lol
Monday, February 5, 2007
Interest in Falconry
David has recently read My Side of the Mountain, which is about Sam, a young teen boy who runs away from home and lives on his own in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Sam owns a hawk called Frightful. David was so impressed by this that he has begun to investigate the idea of owning and training a bird of prey. His preference at this point in time is a red-tailed hawk.
We got a falconry book from the library and he has been reading it. He would have to be 14 to train as a falconer and it takes 7 years to complete the training. So, it would be 2 years before he can even begin. However, I am hoping to schedule a presentation from a local falconer and/or a local artist who draws birds of prey.
We got a falconry book from the library and he has been reading it. He would have to be 14 to train as a falconer and it takes 7 years to complete the training. So, it would be 2 years before he can even begin. However, I am hoping to schedule a presentation from a local falconer and/or a local artist who draws birds of prey.
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