On a small dry-erase board, I wrote "It's Tuesday! Try Our Best Day!" and then I listed times and the subjects we would be doing at those times. I told Xander he could continue coloring on his Star Wars Story Studio book every time we finished a subject before 15 minutes were up. We've been using the timer for each subject, and each time we have had a few minutes for him to color. He gets to erase each subject as we finish it from the dry-erase board. I think he really likes this way of doing things, and I do, too. If we continue, it will teach him the value of getting things done at the right time and not getting distracted in order to make extra time for leisure. I hope.
Got the Pizza Hut Book-It materials in the mail. They're not much, just a pamphlet explaining the rules plus reward certificates that I fill out and he brings in for a free personal pan pizza. I like that the teacher sets the goal for the student(s), so it can be a goal of minutes per day, pages per day, or number of books per month. My goal for Xander is fifteen minutes of reading to himself every day.
Also got the James Herriott's Treasury for Children in the mail. As I predicted, Xander fell in love with it. The book is large and hardcover, so the beautiful illustrations of animals in the Yorkshire Dales are just as important to the book as the stories. We are in the middle of the first story, Moses the Kitten.
If Xander continues to like James Herriott, we own a couple of his adult books, All Things Bright and Beautiful and All Things Wise and Wonderful.
Today, Xander did many minutes of Star Wars Jedi Math. Fifteen minutes were for school. Now he's playing for free time. Tomorrow I'll make sure he does a hands-on math activity (that doesn't include hands on a control pad). He listened to the rest of a story in Among the Night People. Both boys listened to Scarborough Fair (the Simon and Garfunkel version) several times. I printed out the lyrics and began a Folk Songs binder so we can learn a couple of songs per 12 weeks.
I read him another fable from Aesop and he narrated back to me what had happened in it. He learned a new Spanish word, mariposa, and I read him part of the book Adios, Oscar! Una Fabula de Mariposas. He continues to be interested in picture books even when they are in Spanish. Of course, we read aloud from The Hobbit again.
Xander also learned about the zoom function on his new camera and took a couple of pictures to compare zoomed in with zoomed out. (Below are my pictures; I haven't tried to figure out how to connect his camera to the computer yet.)
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| I put an apron on Nick so he could help me make a snack; instead he shared his apple with a dinosaur |
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| he was very helpful, assisting the dinosaur in chewing |
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| here Xander is copying a phrase from This Country of Ours |
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