Last Weeks Learning - March 2013

I hesitated to write about last weeks learning around here, mainly because you'll see the level of work that one can complete and the level that one can not. My two students are born 24 months apart with measureable differences in their academic abilities. That is, measuring them with the same stick results in a long stick and a short stick.
What you do NOT see is the other measuring stick. Where the academic short stick is much longer than the academic long stick.

My oldest child is not interested in paper work. He likes hands on learning, seeing, touching, experiencing, watching, and lots and lots of talking, question asking, discussions. This is why unschooling or natural learning works better for us than traditional book work, games are a must and I need to be creative in taking the lesson off the paper for a concept to be understood before the correct answers can return to the books.

Basically, my oldest child and the second child, are almost on par - academically in one or two areas.

Amalia (5) with the baby @ 38 Weeks

So last week. Was a very short week. 2 1/2 school days. I thrashed the learning. We learnt all day and accomplished a LOT. We switched from Maths to English. English to Maths.

English
My goal for the week was for BOTH students to complete Rod & Staff Work Book "H".
Isaiah (7) has been working on this series since he was 4 years old. Amalia (5) was also 4 years old when I started her on the set. Notice the ages? Amalia can get through these books in 2 weeks if we work on them daily with ease. It used to take Isaiah much longer, we haven't done them for awhile - hence such a big 'gap'. The previous week Amalia got through one of those workbooks in a record 4 days. That's an achievement, even for her. The goal was almost completed, a mere 7 & 8 pages and they would have been completed, but I chose to deep clean the house and move furniture and sort bits and pieces in the shed instead of school.

I was actively attempting at teaching the children to learn independently, in preparation of the arrival of our baby. Having much easier work than their levels helped boost confidence for this. They did such a good job. Self- motivated and spurring each other on.

I was amazed at the differences between each child, ones weaknesses, ones strengths, sheer differences between two children, two people. It is hard not to compare. I have to remind myself that they are at their own levels, not at someone else's. And the measuring stick.

Please Note: His English work is at a much higher level than this, I was simply trying to teach him to self-learn while building on things we've already been learning, and use up what we already have

Isaiah (7) with Me @ 38 Weeks 

Maths: 

Isaiah:

I taught Isaiah Multiplication by 10. I showed him 1x10 and he knew the answer. and every other answer. Concept taught, concept learnt, concept understood. He's progressing along fast. We worked on telling the time, addition, subtraction, money, solving for an unknown (which is an intro into algebra and builds on addition and subtraction _ + 3=5 what is the unknown? 2) and skip counting by 2, 5 & 10. 

Amalia: 

She has been pushed through her maths book Math U See - Primer at a strong and steady pace. Why? Because she knows the work, and I am testing to see if she can get the work on paper. Her number and letter formation is absolutely atrocious!! (any tips for me?) her speed is fast and she is probably about 80% accurate. She goes too fast to be 100% accurate. She got through 5 lessons. These lessons are meant to be worked at for around 2 weeks. She doesn't need that long, because she already knows it. Here's the thing... I had never taught her these things! How does she do it? My theory is she has been indirectly learning all this time, from overhearing me teaching her bigger brother. 

Sibling Teachers

Isaiah taught Amalia to skip count by 10. Amalia can now skip count by 10. How did that happen? He told her how to do it and she did. Done. Dusted. They play hide and seek skip counting by 10 to 100 instead of counting 1-10. Isaiah's choice. I have never done this with him. See what I mean? Taking learning off the page, the measuring stick changing over, the kid is really creative. 

Science:

We watched our Discover and Do DVD by Sonlight you can watch samples on You Tube here. 

We tried melting chocolate but I am not sure how I stuffed that up 3 times!! Seriously.. 

I don't remember any spontaneous experiments that went on, although they happen so frequently it might not have stood out? 

Isaiah's favourite subject, hands on of course, and one he does incredibly well at (whereas Amalia is not so interested or naturally clever at)

Society and Environment:

Every friday night our family sit down together to enjoy a brand new movie.  We started out buying Video Downloads from Answers in Genesis then moved to getting Whats in the Bible which also has a Video Download. These cover History, Geology, Geography, Plants & Animals, Life Cycles, Life, Weather, Cultures, Races of people while also covering Biblical Studies ;) amongst other stuff. These are one of our families favourite times of the week and we get to enjoy it together.

Health and Physical Education:

Amalia attends Gymnastics weekly. 

Isaiah & Amalia attend Dance Classes weekly

What we regularly do for health but we upped it.. By making these bliss balls. They are a raw vegan treat that we are treating ourselves to abundantly. Using Cacao powder instead of Cocoa for the chocolate flavour, dates instead of sugar and nuts instead of biscuits with Tahini to bind it altogether. In comparison to Rum Balls these things area great. Children enjoy rolling their own balls with their own measuring spoon and their own bowls. Michael is a little possessive and a bit of a perfectionist with this mixture, but we get through ;)

Music

Just the usual music playing within the home of course

Art

I made play dough. But it wasn't really enough to share out. So I made some more. We added eyes, feathers, straws, kebab sticks with beads, cup cake mold things to enhance our sensory experience. The mess was huge and the play lasted just over 2 hours. The creativity was amazing. 

Technology and Enterprise

This is the area our oldest excels in. He worked on his Meccano projects and Lego. First checking out the step-by-step instructions in a lego book then implementing it himself. Lego has not been used much in our home. Surprisingly he hasn't liked Lego, preferring Duplo instead. Until recently, and he's quite good at his creating and following instructions.

Now that I have it all written out it seems like we did a lot of school work, I think we did ;)

5 Things I am Thankful for:

1. Getting school work done in bulk

2. Seeing vast differences through the children working on the same workbook at the same time

3. Knowing that God has a plan and purpose for EACH of my children, regardless of their academic standing

4. Progressing ahead - academically

5. Teaching is so fulfilling