School Days

School Days



DJ is moving slowly through the early Golden Bead work. This involves matching the large number cards to the corresponding cubes, squares, tens and units. He enjoys this work but it is challenging for him so we are taking it very slow.



Today we set up number cards in 4 rows on one side of the room and then 9 of each cube, square, tens and units in rows on the other side.



Then we played a game where I gave him a particular card and he had to find the corresponding bead material. In the picture above, I gave him the 6000 card and he has counted out 5 cubes. After taking the picture I asked him to count to confirm his answer and he caught his mistake. After doing a few of those, return in the answer after each number, we switched and I’d give him a set of bead material and he had to find the corresponding number card. My math album has noted that some children when asked for 300 would bring back the cards reading 100, 200 and 300. And sure enough, that is just what DJ did the first time.



I came across a post of Facebook today that mentioned an alphabet song using sounds instead of letter names. When I showed it to DJ, he loved it so much he watched it probably a dozen times today. During the third time, I brought out our sandpaper letters (SPL) and held up each card as the song sang its letter. To my surprise, DJ paused the song and began tracing the letters! He almost never voluntarily traces the SPLs!



After tracing a few letters, he wanted to work with the movable alphabet. He isn’t really ready to write many words yet but he likes to explore the letters and match them to the SPL and make long rows of nonsense words. But he did write “mee” today (using 2 ee’s to get the long-e sound as he’s been taught).



I occasionally let DJ play select iPad games so when I learned of an Intro to Cursive app, I was excited to get it for him. Unfortunately it has two flaws that make me regret the purchase. First, although it does include the green double phonograms, they are hidden in a section of the app you wouldn’t likely find on your own (I had to ask customer support) and the app does not vocalize the sound the double letters make. Secondly, the app also include capital letters which wouldn’t be a problem, but for that section they chose to vocalize the letter names not sounds. Ugh!! Because capital letters are new for DJ, he’s curious about them and was almost exclusively selecting them. Not surprisingly he’s now answering “bee” instead of “buh” when I ask him what B/b says. Okay, rant over. I would like the app a lot but those two flaws are deal breakers for me.



DJ hasn’t been doing much geography lately but he did select a puzzle the other day. As he was looking at the puzzles we have (World, North America and U.S.) I heard him saying, “Where’s the beautiful one? Oh, there it is!” Apparently DJ thinks the U.S. Map is beautiful.

He removed all the pieces and I named them as he put them back in. He always starts with the small states on the east and has to be coaxed to do the large western states. I’m not sure why but I wonder if he somehow thinks the smaller pieces are easier? Which is so not the case! We made it about to Texas with the whole west coast left to finish when he wanted to bail. Knowing my antsy boy, I instructed him to run down the hall, through the dining room, into the kitchen, completing the circle into the living room. Once he had returned I had him place a puzzle piece and start a new lap. Twenty laps later, he placed the last state. Whew.



DJ still works with the bells on occasion. Most of the time it’s just a short bit when passing by so I don’t usually get pictures or mention it. He has progressed from not being able to tell the difference from the bells to being able to discern when they match or not. This week, we worked with matching all 8 bells. He didn’t get them all correct but he got most of them. When they were back in order he played them, up one set and down the next.



DJ has been receiving the Brainy Kits as a gift from his grandfather. So far we’ve received the Polar, Under the Sea, Life Cycles and Bug Out kits. They have all been great, the Life Cycles in particular. Each kit includes more activities than we usually get to. This week, DJ found this walrus craft in the Polar kit that came months ago. He had a blast gluing the pieces together with a glue stick.

And just in case anyone has the impression all DJ does is academics, here are some other activities he’s been up to recently:

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