mycology lesson

We have some interesting mushrooms growing in the yard that Erich suspects are some edible form of ink caps (Coprinus comatus, "Shaggy mane inky cap"). Elena is participating in the identification with Papa. They went out and got a couple fresh mushrooms. They're making a spore-print and are drawing the mushroom, all in the effort of accurately identifying it so as to determine whether it is safe to eat. I'm not entirely sure what Elena will pick up from this exercise, but it sure seems educational. Though part of our teaching philosophy is that just about everything she does is "educational." Still, the mushroom identification is a fun lesson.

Science Lesson

We have been trying to go to the library more often. On our most recent trip, Elena picked out a book on bones (among other interesting books). Reading this with her has led to a discussion of how the brain is protected by the skull and the spinal cord is protected by the spine, but what Elena seems to have latched on to the most today is how the brain sends messages to her body through her spinal cord. Now, every few minutes, she'll say, "I just moved my leg again! My brain sent a message telling my leg to move!" like this is the most miraculous thing. Which, I suppose, it is.

Materials

We decided to take the plunge and purchase the rest of the primary Montessori materials. KidAdvance has the best prices by a large margin and we got a good deal by getting a classroom package (http://www.kidadvance.com/productdetails.asp?pid=255&catid=7). KidAdvance let us cut out the elements of the package that we already owned and substitute in other materials that we wanted. All the materials have now arrived. We checked through them looking for damage and missing parts. Instead of allowing Elena to open all the boxes like presents, though, we're going to set up the materials on the shelves and unveil her new "school area" to her for Christmas. This is in order to reduce the temptation to misuse the materials or to treat them as toys. In the mean time, we're going to turn the large boxes into a fun tunnel house. :)

"How do you spell 'bleach?'"

Lately, Elena has been asking how to spell things. We've found it much more effective to write things out for her rather than to verbally tell her how things are spelled. Often, we use her chalk and slate to spell things out. She has happened to ask for several words lately that use the "ea" long-e sound as well as /ch/, so she's slowly getting more comfortable with those. I haven't seen her read them in a book yet--I suspect that she'll be excited to see them in writing when they come up.

Agenda

Above are two examples of Elena's written agenda (I struggle with this word, because "agenda" is already plural, but it seems to have become, over the years, a singular noun like candelabra. But double-pluralizing it ("agendae"?) still doesn't seem right...). I had found with Elena that she really responded well to having a written agenda for parts of her day, particularly if there were some activities that I specifically wanted her to do, or to help her understand MY schedule so that she wouldn't be upset during the times that I needed to be doing something that wasn't directly attending to her (which is often, actually). So we started out with us collaboratively writing out an agenda (see, I just treated it as a singular without even thinking!) but with me doing the writing. I would put a word or phrase to describe the activity we were planning on doing, then draw some simple icon next to it for a clue. But very soon, Elena decided she wanted to be the one doing the writing. Now, she comes initiates agenda-making without any prompting (the top picture is an example of that).

On a related note, Erich tells me it's best to not directly correct her when she sounds out words and writes them how they sound to her ("teef") but to take mental note and present on the missing concept at another time. I've been trying to do this and it's actually been quite successful. Take as an example her learning to cross herself. I've tried to correct her in church when she does it incorrectly and she's decidedly NOT receptive to input then. So I tried to just do a seemingly unrelated presentation/explanation of how to do it when she's not actively trying to do it "her way." This has been MUCH more effective! She definitely incorporates the information in the next time it comes up. Thanks for the tip, Erich.

Also, he pointed out, rather thoughtfully, I think, that by sounding things out and writing them, she is doing exactly what she should be doing and that she should receive encouragement, not correction, when she is "successful" (with the idea that writing phonetically represents success, not a problem).

To explain briefly what the agenda items are: For the first one, her plans (with no input from me) were to 1. go pee, 2. find the missing pen, 3. have a tea party, 4. have a "sleepover" with her stuffed animals (which she chose to call a "nap")

For the second picture (which was actually done probably a couple of weeks before the first, and the items were based to some extent on my own morning schedule), her plans were: 1. brush teeth 2. do morning prayers 3. do yoga.

Child-led education

Not infrequently, Elena has some idea of what she'd like to learn about for the day. Recently, she said that she wanted to learn "what ten tens makes" (she's been on a multiplying kick lately, but normally with smaller numbers, usually just multiplying by two). In response to the question about ten tens, I tried to get out some materials to allow her to visually see and count ten tens, but was struck as we got going that she still has some trouble counting in her teens! (She counts accurately to 15, then jumps to 19, then 21, then is pretty accurate in the 20s. But this leads, obviously, to her ending up with the wrong final number when trying to count things numbered more than 15.) So it ended up being a lesson on counting in the teens instead--I didn't worry about getting all the way to a hundred, and she didn't seem too fussed that we didn't get there either.

A couple of months ago, when Erich asked her what she wanted to learn about today, she answered "clowns." In addition to answering her questions based on his current knowledge, they also looked up information about different types of clowns, how one goes about becoming a clown, etc. Later, when I came home from work, we painted each other's faces like clowns.

Today, without being asked, Elena requested to learn about 1. Elephants and 2. x-rays. Our typical way of doing this is to do our best to share what knowledge we do have (if any) about the topic in discussions (these conversations often happen in the car...). Then we also look up things online (the National Geographic website is great for learning about animals), finding descriptions, photos, and videos. I hope to start incorporating these interests of hers into our (planned-to-be-more-regular) trips to the library. So maybe tomorrow (if I'm feeling better; I've been rather sick lately) we can pick up a book on Elephants (or x-rays?) at the library to augment what we've got so far.

When possible, I like to be able to take advantage of her interests this way. I think this is actually at the heart of both Montessori and unschooling: kids learn (and retain) stuff best when it's self-driven and "presented" (or "discovered") when they're actively exploring it. The challenge for us is to provide the resources and guidance to help her in this exploration.

Not to Worry, Nonna

Elena went in the game cabinet, pulled out a box, this time it was Boggle. I asked her, "Whatcha got there, Elena?" She answered in a world weary voice, as if talking to a very tiresome child, "Just a game, nothing to worry about."

More reading

I tried a new reader with Elena and was pleased to note the improvement she's made since the last time I did a simple reader with her. She was naturally blending the sounds as she was sounding them out rather than doing them separately and was putting the words together much more quickly. She also seemed to be able to read some words on sight after seeing them a few times, which sped the process up a good bit. Also, we got a tip from another homeschooling mom toward Veritas press and some graded readers that have more interesting stories than many of the ones we've been looking at.

Recent "lessons"

Elena made a family tree with Erich. He's rather obsessed with ancestry lately and is drawing her in... (Just kidding, dear) I do believe it's useful and appropriate for Elena to know what it means to be an "aunt," etc.

Erich presented the upright stairs (is that what they're called?) with the number rods. This involves carefully stacking the number rods in order with all the colours matching appropriately, saying what each rod represents as you use it and as you put it away.

Erich taught a memory game using little cards. He set out six of them. They both named all of them together. Then she would turn around and he would take one. She would turn back and try to name the missing card. Then she would do the same for him (take a card with his back turned). Players get to keep the cards that they correctly identify as missing. This seemed to engage her brain in a useful way.

Regarding reading:
Back a bit ago, I mentioned that Elena now says, "I can read." She has a long way to go before she reads fluently, but something did seem to click in her mind such that now, she will attempt to read just about anything and it totally open to letter combinations making different sounds than she's used to. She really needs books at or around her reading level with more interesting stories than the Bob books. Erich has been reading aloud to her from Little House in the Big Woods (he'd never read it himself, so it's good for him, too). She seems to be tracking with and enjoying the story--much of what they do is actually similar to things we're currently doing at home (preserving food and whatnot). I think that there are now young-reader versions in this same story line, and I'm wondering whether they might be more accessible to her--she would be really happy if she could read the books more independently, but the straight Little House books are a little to advanced for her. If I recall correctly, I didn't read them until I was six, and I think the suggested reading age starts around age 8ish, so I'm not surprised that she's not doing them herself. I think they'll be great for her to re-read herself in a few years, but she really wants something that she can read more independently. Suggestions, anyone?

Shapes

I realized that Elena was solid on triangles and squares, but wasn't comfortable with the labels and concepts for figures with more sides. So this morning, we made shapes out of the counting spindles (triangle, square, and pentagon for now). I made labels on notecards. She was able to verbally label all the shapes and got to the point of being able to sightread and correctly place the written labels.

Also, she spent some time practicing pouring with a funnel.