School Time!

 School has begun at the Pinedale Palace!  Gloria is kinda sorta in 2nd grade, Aaron is kinda sorta in kindergarten and Nathan is doing preschool... when he darn well feels like it.

This picture was our first day of school.  Nathan did his "letter of the week." I got a hand print of Aaron's done, but neglected to take a picture of him.  Sorry.

 And here we have week 2.  Nathan was glue beans to his letter B.  He's very much into tactile learning... not so into coloring.  And 1 day a week is about all I get out of him.  I'm ok with that because he plays quietly by himself while the others are working.

 Here's Aaron working in his phonics book.  He already reads 3 letter words very well.  Being a lefty in a righty world, he's having some difficulty with pencil holding and such.  See his stash of colored pencils beside him with grippers all over them?  He's getting it though.  And with 1 single mention of "You know, Aaron, kindergartners try to color inside the lines." he neglected his mad scribble ways and is very careful with his coloring now.  He's quite proud of being a kindergartner.  Once he's a little bit stronger manipulating a pencil we'll start math.  For now, phonics and handwriting is enough.

And here's my ol' pro.  This girl amazes me.  Last year at this time she couldn't read "CAT".  Now she's reading full 3rd grade level chapter books.  Last week, we were working on science.  I read from the text book while the kids colored a corresponding coloring page.  I stopped every couple paragraphs to rehash and ask questions to make sure she was listening.  We got to the end of the section and began the comprehension questions.  Gloria couldn't answer a single one despite those questions being almost word for word what I had asked her intermittently during the reading.  She was drawing a blank on everything (though her coloring page was beautifully decorated with pink bushes and purple trees).  It was time for lunch, I grew frustrated and finally just set the book in front of her and said, "Fine, you read it this time." 

So she did.

She read an elementary botany textbook, one that is not designed specifically for 6 yr olds but for all elementary students.  She stumbled some on "binomial nomenclature."  I prepared lunch while she began at page 1 and read the section, periodically looking up with an invisible light bulb sitting over her head when she'd read the answer to one of the questions she couldn't answer before.

Clearly she's not an auditory learner.

We start each day with Bible.  Each child has a page with a rather complex picture on it with symbols and pictures to tell the entire contents of a book in the Bible.  We're working through Genesis.  They color each of these symbols as I teach them about the events that those symbols represent.  Nathan just scribbles all over his picture.  Aaron sometimes listens and follows and sometimes colors what he wants when he wants.  Gloria's all ears.  I'll ask a question, usually pertaining to what we learned on a previous day.  Nathan is always the first to shoot a hand in the air and say "I know! I know!  I know!"  No, he doesn't know, but he just knows that what he's supposed to do and so does it with exuberance.  I once asked where Constantinople was.  "I know! I know!"  If I could only get it on video!

This week we are studying the Byzantine empire.  I don't think I've ever learned about the Byzantine empire in my life.  Its an education for all of us.  And we enjoy it.  Mostly.  And the parts we don't enjoy, we enjoy that we're at least together trudging through it.  I consider myself very blessed to be able to do this with and for my children.  I firmly believe we'll all be better for it.