Can Anyone Hear Me???

Do you ever find yourself repeating phrases and saying the same things over and over, yet feel as if no one is really listening? Sometimes, as I go through our day, I notice my little guy's attention seems to be everywhere but where it should be. I must have caught his attention yesterday though, because out of desperation, I asked him if he had his listening ears on. He stopped and looked at me for a second, ran to his room, and came back looking like the picture above! He said to me- "mommy, now I do have my listening ears on and they're HUGE!" What else could I do but laugh....

This time of year is hard. The weather is warm and sunny. We've been traveling along since the beginning of September and I find it hard to focus much. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for children! I am anxious to finish this year up in June and take a nice break. We did have a nice distraction last week though, when we took the kids to a local amusement park.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and the crowd was small.

We were able to get on most of the rides without any wait time! We did several water rides as well and since it was in the upper 80's, it felt great!

We still have a few more scheduled field trips including a trip to an organic farm, an art lesson at a local pottery studio, and some fun at a spray park. My girls are busy preparing for an upcoming piano recital as well, and we are anxiously awaiting the publication of our oldest daughter's book!

While I see this year coming to a close as a good thing and look forward to all the adventures and excitement of our next school year, in a way, I am sad to see it end! This next school year, our oldest will be in her last year of Middle School, our little girl will be entering the fourth grade, and our little guy will no longer be in Kindergarten. Just where does the time go???

Kindergarten Fun: Part 2

Our 2 girls attended Kindergarten at our local public school. Although I feel they received a great education and had fun, I see Kindergarten in a whole new way, now that my little guy is in it. Boys are, well, different! While my girls thrived in that school setting with academics being the main focus, that just is not the case for my little guy. I am pleased with our day if I can complete up to one hour of academic work with him. The rest of his day is spent playing, exploring, building, digging, and just living life!

It is quite the challenge on most days, getting him to just even start his school work. He wakes up pretty early, and gets right to "work", building something with his Lincoln Logs, Legos, or Trio Blocks. He then will move to the outside world where he will dig and dig, ride his bike, or come up with some really neat imaginary game to play. When I call him to come to the school table, I am not met with enthusiasm, to say the very least.Who likes to stop playing??? But the funny thing is, once I get him past his calendar time activities, he is pretty cooperative and completes all the academics I have for him.

The key is keeping things moving, interesting, and quick. And it's not that he's not smart- quite the opposite. When he WANTS to, he can write me things and read words I have never taught him. And he will impress me with his math skills and other things I have never officially taught him, but he somehow knows. It's just that he is always thinking about what he could be doing instead of school work. I often see a look in his beautiful blue eyes that tells me "C'mon Mom- I have things to discover and things to build!"

I think most moms with little boys will agree that boys just want to have fun and get their feet wet, so to say. Having to stop and do school work is just getting in the way!

But he's quite the little trooper and HE has taught ME so much about slowing down and just enjoying life. I know that too soon, he will grow up and not be my "little guy" anymore. But for now he is my little guy, and he is only in Kindergarten. He has the rest of his life to "do school". For now, I am happy with him "doing life".

Kindergarten Fun

Many people who don't homeschool their children have been asking me- "Exactly WHAT does your little guy do all day for Kindergarten?" Well, after I thought about it a bit, I decided to write a little post regarding this subject.

I do Kindergarten with him before moving on to my girls' school work because he really needs that one on one attention from me. We start out with "calendar time". He counts all the numbers on the calendar and then tells me what the date is today, as well as what color the number should be, based on the pattern already in place. We discuss what day of the week it was yesterday, what day it is today, what day it will be tomorrow, etc... We sing the "Days of the Week" song and "What's the Weather?" song. He gives me a weather report every morning.

Then we move onto his Starfall work. Starfall is a complete Kindergarten curriculum- very thorough and I really love how many different activities they provide for you and your child each day! My little guy has been using his Starfall Writing Journal for most of his writing topics, but every so often, I like to do it a bit differently. The picture above is of a little story he wrote in his journal, which I copied onto chart paper. I then prompted him to do another drawing and then tell me more!

He was able to add two more sentences at the bottom of the chart. I am very encouraged by his writing and have seen progress as the year moves forward!

After writing, I usually give him a little break and he goes off to play one of his Kindergarten computer games such as Reader Rabbit or Starfall.

One of the best things I have incorporated into his day is his "Reading Club". I picked up this cute little bin at Target and made a little tag for the outside which says "Little guy's Reading Club Books". I select specific books each day for his basket- books that he can read all on his own, books that are very familiar to him but that he can't read alone yet, and books for him to just look at and try to find words he knows. In his reading club bin, there is also a timer and a "phonics phone". When it is time for his "Reading Club", he goes and gets his bin and sets the timer. He then sits alone and reads! At the beginning of the year, it was hard for him to sit for 5 minutes and read to himself. Now, he is up to 15 minutes! I am very happy with his reading progress and he seems to enjoy this time. He gets a sticker for each book and then when he reads a specific amount of books, he gets to go to the store and pick something small out.

My little guy has fun with Tub Time Tuesday each week. He enjoys all the different sensory tubs and especially loves the water or dirt play ones!

Well, this is just a small peek into my little guy's day. I will post more regarding his Kindergarten activities another time. In closing, I thought I would share something funny I overheard him talking about with one of his sisters. One of his sisters said to him that she wished she could climb to the top of a mountain, but that we don't have any mountains near us. He paused for a minute, and then said "well there's a HUGE mountain in mommy and daddy's room!" This is what he was referring to:

Yes folks, he was referring to my lovely mountain of laundry that just never seems to disappear! Aren't little ones just precious???