Monday Today I had all sorts of great plans to start with a full routine, with the kids achieving work in all areas discipleship, discipline, discussion and even some discovery/discretionary. But we didnt get there. I woke feeling like a heavy head cold was coming on so every task I set myself too took a lot longer than anticipated. We didnt get into our set plans till after lunch.
Meanwhile the children sat listening to a dramatised audio of Narnia. All of them were enthralled even Daniel which surprised me he didnt like it the first day they started listening. Nomi has asked to read the books now, which is fantastic as she has needed to up her reading level for a while but I have waited for her interest and inclination. While they listened they all did various things at various times. Sometimes they just sat and listened, other times they drew or did a craft.
They were a little disappointed that the afternoon wasnt going to be able to continue in the same vein but quickly put their hearts into our Character studies. We are studying Dependability. We looked at the dictionary definition and the Latin roots for the word. We discussed various ways we, personally could improve our dependability. We made a very quick book, with the childrens help; this had the double purpose of both copy work and a commitment/praise book. The idea was that they would write (copy work) a commitment statement on each page (Character First I will statements) and I will then record either areas where they have shown Dependability or areas where they need to work on their Dependability during the week. The cover of this book was left for them to decorate Joshua of course left his plainly titled and that was it, Jessica used pen and creative lettering, Nomi used stickers and Daniel did a line drawing of space!
A comment on Copy work my purpose at this stage with copy work is to keep the children focused on the words they are copying and in this sense learn to read and write (copy) at the same time. My focus is on their correctness (spelling and punctuation) and then their proofreading rather than on the content of what they are copying.
Each of the children worked on math today. Josh and Jess worked with their Math U See lessons while Nomi and Daniel worked with TOP Science. Nomi is learning skip counting by 5s and Daniel counting backwards.
The afternoon finished with them listening to more of Narnia.
One of the benefits I see from today was that the children were able to be flexible. I believe that this is a great skill to have when we are looking at learning happening throughout the day, whatever comes the family way. Routine is so very helpful but they also need to be flexible within that to be able to flow with what opportunity do come our way.
