Watching Things Click in Your Child’s Mind

One of the best parts of teaching our kids at home is having the opportunity to see the wheels turning and then seeing something ‘click’ into place. I just absolutely love that.

This week there was a whole lot of whining from a little boy during our school time. Lots of “I don’t want to do school” and “Again?” and “Do we have to do this?”…just basically enough to drive me nutso and about want to throw in the proverbial towel.

But then there are these moments of ‘AHA!’ that I get to be a part of, and it makes those other times worth it. You know the ones that I’m talking about, right?

Reading

One step at a time, things are falling into place with reading. Things that used to be a little frustrating suddenly become simple as the pieces all click together. I can not express enough how much I love the All About Reading program that we are using with Kaleb. While he may struggle understanding something one moment, another aspect makes a concept ‘click’ with him.

This week the ‘th’ sound was mastered as we played a silly egg flipping game form the workbook. Something simple, but approaching it from a different angle did it! His reading is becoming more fluent each time he reads, he is recalling the concepts I’m teaching him {again, the teacher’s manual ROCKS!}, and his confidence gets another boost and makes him smile!

Handwriting

We’re focusing more on the lowercase letters with our Handwriting Without Tears now.

The smiles in the photo above? I think mainly because he was happy NOT to be working on the lowercase c. The lowercase letter t is a piece of cake in comparison!

At the end of the week when he shut his book, he noticed that he had written his name at the beginning of the year on the front cover in all capital letters. He apparently felt that wasn’t right anymore after the lowercase letter work this week and brought it to me with the old one erased and his name written upper and lowercase – so happy with himself!

Celebrating Advent

We’re working through a few different things together as a family – Everyday Emmanuel and also Tabitha’s Travels {one of the books in the Jotham’s Journey series}. I pulled out this little countdown to Christmas calendar from a pile of Christmas things and Kaleb put it on his desk for us to open up a window each day and read the verse to go along with it. Something simple, but he loves it because it’s special just for him!

Psst!! It’s not to late to start celebrating Advent and preparing your hearts for Christmas!! I’ve shared some of our families favorite Advent and Christmas Resources in a post you might want to check out.

Math Learning

Another thing that clicked this week is the even/odd concept. We had practiced a bit before Thanksgiving with the Thanksgiving Number Sort printable I had put together, but during math time this week it just came naturally – no thinking about it.

Math is one of those areas that Kaleb really enjoys – so we try to extend the activities with it as often as we can. He had much fun this week having us ask him addition and subtraction problems at the table so he could show Daddy what he’s learning ~ and we even heard him asking the cat math questions. Too cute!

Fun with Blocks

This week, the blocks we received from Larsen Toy Lab were out and all over the house. The boys are playing with them together and they pulled out a HUGE stash of other wooden blocks to build together – which makes me so very happy!!

We have the Building Bridges Block set {pictured above} and I love how it incorporates literature with creativity for kids – for hands-on fun! You can read more about the blocks from Larsen Toy Lab in my recent post, but be sure to check out their products {and help this great start-up company!}.

More Preschool Links

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Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

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Apologia Educational Ministries ~ producing resources to help homeschool families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith.

Maestro Classics ~ introduce great music and classics stories to children with this classical music series. Don’t miss their newly released Carnival of Animals that you will want to check out!