Worksheets

We've done worksheets the last couple of days. Aria seems to enjoy them. She seems to like that she can see what she has to get done. She wants to have the end in sight I guess. I think she tells herself "Only two more pages to go and then I can do what I really want." Even, when we're doing something fun it seems that she'd rather be doing what she wants to do. And I guess we are all that way.

Aria did fine on her math sheets. She made some errors on her place value work because she lost sight of what we were studying I think. This is definitely good practice for her. I think the ability to grasp the symbols and some abstracts in math may be a little more developed now. I am hoping that it will go quickly for her.

The reading sheets went fine. Her ability to read is well developed but the some of the comprehension is lacking. I am going to have her start taking notes on things she's read. I find that I retain information better if I've written it down at least once. This will also practice her handwriting skills.

Casey, on the other hand, does NOT like worksheets. We did some reading work which went well in the beginning but as soon as we had done more writing then he felt was necessary he got very rebellious. Writing is difficult for him and reading is an effort, so it's only natural that he balk at it a bit. I don't know how I'm gonna get handwriting practice in without lots of tears. Small doses are probably the way to go. The math sheets he did well on and seemed to enjoy. I'll just have to mix up the worksheets and games and such so that none of it gets stale.

We found a couple of websites that are interesting and educational. We found imbee.com. We found this site on National Geographic Kids website. It is a site where kids have their own page and start groups much like myspace but it is all animal, nature, and kid related stuff. We, also, found Raven Symone Presents. She does all kinds of craft type projects and fun stuff, mostly, for girls.

So, we're getting back to a schedule. As much of a schedule as we are capable. I think people lose out on a lot of prime learning/teaching time when they compartmentalize everything. We are constantly in motion, constantly evaluating what we need to learn that day or even that moment.

On another subject, the kids found ice on everything a few days ago. The leaves on the bushes got iced over and they were able to pull off sheets of ice shaped like leaves. Nature can do such beautiful things.