Growing WarriorsJust your typical family…

Yes, Allison is reading. Just a bit, but at the rate that she is catching on, soon she will be reading War and Peace.

Today we opened up our reading lesson book. We only do the lessons very sporadically, when she asks, although I keep meaning to add some structure to that. But anyway, we can be away from the reading lessons for WEEKS, and she can still pick up right where we left off. Today I opened it up to the lesson we left off with, and she immediately saw the word “MAT” and asked if that read “mat”. Yup..she’s a genius. As a matter of fact, we went through two reading lessons because she was just zipping through the readings.. She can read “mat”, “rat”, “sat”, “am”, “sam”, “ram”…oh there are more! She is also a whiz at the games that we do in addition to the actual reading. Rhyming games, say it fast, say it slow games…etc.

I just ordered a book of reading manipulatives. It is my goal to create a whole math center (in a big rubbermaid container) and a reading center. In each of these centers, the kids can have free access to manipulatives, games, projects, etc., related to math and reading (literacy). I plan on getting some Reading Rods, making some games, etc., for the reading center, and the math center will contain cuisenaire rods, pattern blocks, games, counters, a scale, etc. Should be fun for both Allison and Meredith. Then we will just have a “math” time and a “reading” time each day where they can freely explore the items in the box. Add that to a bit of our reading lessons, perhaps a bit of her math curriculum (I bought the whole miquon set, first through third grade), and then we just explore their interests, I think we have a solid First grade curriculum going here! Yup, first grade. Considering her advanced testing, etc., and the fact that she will be reading by the time summer is over, we are just going to call her a first grader

Oh, and Meredith…well she is doing the reading lessons right along with Allison, lol. Of course I am sure that she is just repeating what Allison does, but I am also sure that when it comes time for Meredith to learn to read, she will learn much quicker because of the lessons she helped Allison complete. She is also very big into math manipulatives. She loves sorting, etc. Two geniuses in my household!

I just posted a couple of pictures on the photo album page of today’s field trip to the Science Center. Here they are:

Allison is learning about pulleys, and Meredith is learning about pendulums (ok, she is really just playing with the sand):

It was a lot of fun. Meredith was in a fowl mood for much of our visit, and I was feeling big and dizzy, so I was in a fowl mood, but Allison had a GREAT time. We will have to go back there after the baby is born, when I can move again.

After the field trip, we all went to the park to play. On the way up there Allison was asking what we would do after the park, because she didn’t want the day *JUST* to have a field trip and then a picnic at the park. Then as we were leaving the park and she was complaining about leaving, she asked if we could go somewhere else, and did we REALLY have to go home…then, once we were settled into the van, and pulling out of the parking lot, she says, “I’m just a little bit exhausted, mom!”, LOL. She then expanded on all the things she wanted to do when we got home, like say hi to the rats and the birds, etc.

Speaking of vocabulary (were we?), today Allison claimed to be “Exhausted”…a word I have never heard her use, and yesterday at the chiropractor’s, she commented on the doll in the waiting room, saying that she had a lot of “accessories”…another word I have never heard her use. Both used appropriately and everything.

Back to today….I got a sunburn….base tan as Eric would call it. It was a LOVELY day.

If you checked in on the family blog, you know that Jess is no longer in school. We are currently doing a radical unschooling approach with her. Very scary…but she really needs to decompress and this is what she needs to do right now. And I need to trust her to find her own way.

But, I am finding that she, even though she doesn’t know it, is creating learning opportunities for herself. It may not be an hour of math, an hour of science, an hour of literature, etc., every day, but they are there, and you have to be able to open your eyes and see them.

She has taught herself to knit, with a bit of guidance from yours truly, but the rest has been done through her own trial and error. She bought a paint-by-number kit, and has spent hours working on that, she is volunteering at the Humane Society, and learning about caring for animals, as well as the business of animal rescue (which she has decided she wants to go into as an adult). In addition to this, she is getting in lots of practice hours driving (she gets her license on Monday), she has been babysitting, and budgeting her money (of which she is earning quite a bit of). AND, the other night she got my house key stuck in the front door lock, and spent a couple of hours dismantling and rebuilding the lock in order to get the key out. She learned a lot that way, which she excitedly shared with me. She is talking about volunteering at the hospital as well. She is talking about joining with another girl who may choose to homeschool, and doing a math class (self-directed)…..she is talking about trying to work at Six Flags over the summer….And she is watching a lot of educational tv (the discovery channel), she has watched a whale give birth twice, and was amazed that the grandmother whale assisted the mother whale. She has watched HOURS of animal cops (which led to her current volunteer job at the Humane Society). She has participated in some activities with our homeschool co-op.

So while I still worry about her education, when I break it down, I see that since she has been out of traditional highschool (Decemember), she has covered lots of science, math (budgeting, etc), shop (the door knob), driver’s ed, zoology (tv and her volunteer job), art (painting), home Ec. (knitting), life skills (working, etc.), humanities (some of the co-op stuff, plus life).

The first few weeks were spent doing NOTHING…watching tv, sleeping all day, but she seems to be stumbling on a path here..who knows where it will take her, if she will take another path, stay on this one. Who knows? But it is nice to see that she is creating these learning opportunities for herself, even though she doesn’t know it. She will find her way. I trust that.