12 posts tagged “school”
I realized recently that I needed to teach Strider about Roman Numerals. Apparently his Singapore Math workbooks never cover this, and I figured he needed to be exposed to this numbering system -- at least so he can read a formal table of contents or the random clocks that only have that type of numbering.
So I sat down and made out a whole sheet of symbols and translations ( I = 1, X = 10, etc) and then made a sheet of problems for him to translate for homework. I called him over to the table, and before I could even start the lesson, he picked up the homework sheet and said, "Oh I can do this." Not believing his cocky little self, I told him to go ahead and try. About 5 mintues later, he brings me the finished sheet -- all correct! And these were problems like "Translate XXXIX and CCCXLIV."
"HOW did you know this??" I asked him.
He answered, "Mom, this isn't hard. The Super Bowls are all in these kinds of letters, so I just figured it out awhile ago. I just needed to look at your sheet to find out what "C" and "L" stood for because the Super Bowl doesn't go that high."
I, personally, had thought that the little tricks like you have to put a "I" before an "X" to get 9 were a little complicated, but apparently not.
So, thank you NFL for taking care of this math lesson for me.
Of course, when Pete came home last night, Strider announced, "I already knew all about German Numerals today for math when Mom wanted to teach me".... so I guess I still have a little teaching to do.
Today was the Closing Ceremony for Classical Conversations!
For 24 weeks, Strider and Rayna have been part of this academic program (here's the national web site if you're interested), and today was the end for this year. All the families gathered together for a program that all the classes put on, and for the handing out of awards. Here are a few short videos of the pieces our kids were in.
(Miles is trying to sing along in the background of the video above)
Each child received a character award: Rayna got an award for "enthusiasm" and Strider's was for "wisdom." Rayna also received an award for memorizing John 1:1-7 in English and in Latin, and Strider got an additional award called "Memory Master" for learning all 562 facts (comprised of geography, math, English grammar, Latin, history, science, and timeline cards) that the kids worked on throughout the year. We are very proud of them both for working so hard.
This program was so good for our kids -- we're very thankful they got to do it this year. And our friend Kate did a GREAT job directing it all -- I think the program is about 90 kids big, so she had a huge job being in charge! And it's her 40th birthday tomorrow -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATE!
Relatively speaking, our home has been a pretty happy place the last couple days, and I attribute that largely to 2 main things (aside from God's ever-present grace):
1.) A new behavioral system chart
2.) A teacher work-day today
The behavior around here had been slipping big-time -- to the point where Pete and I were getting quite desperate for some new ideas for how to get the obedience back. So after some brainstorming and consultation with other parents, we created a new behavioral point system (strangely reminiscent of the system we had to use when we were houseparents for court-ordered teen-age boys in Pennsylvania... ) We implemented it yesterday by posting it on the fridge, and the kids have been very receptive. Very receptive. I know this is likely to only last a short time until it too falls along the wayside, but for now I'm enjoying all of the pleasant attitudes and eagerness to help around here, as they try to "move up a space" on the chart. Strider was following me around all day yesterday asking me if I wanted more water or if he could get me some candy. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!
And then I decided that we needed to take a "teacher work-day," a.k.a. vacation day from school so I could tend to some of the suffocating clutter around here. The first step was to make it all seem like Strider's idea. So a couple days ago I casually mentioned that Veteran's Day was Tuesday. He asked how people celebrate it and when I mentioned, among other things, that sometimes schools give that day off, he started jumping up and down asking if WE could have that day off. Step 1 accomplished, and I looked like such a giving, compromising mom.
So today we spent the whole morning shoveling out all kinds of toys and junk from our living room, and the kids' bedrooms. And even though "school" was not in session, I personally learned a couple key points: that removing 50+ pounds of toys and games from this house would not cause anyone to miss them, and that the approximately 50 pencils I had bought a couple months ago to start the school year had NOT all magically disappeared as we had been thinking. They were actually just in every single place they did not belong -- almost literally.
And now that I am pondering this, I think I might add a third reason for why this household has had a recent up-tick in happiness... Today after a work tutoring session I had, I stopped by a couple of stores to do about 45 minutes of browsing. It was the first time I had been in any store besides Super Wal-Mart in a couple months, so it was a delightful treat for me. I was in awe of all the bright shiny things, and thoroughly enjoyed walking the aisles with no one talking to me for a little while. I came home in a very pleasant mood. And as we all know, when Mommy is happy, the rest of the family is happy, too.
No time to write -- too busy packing -- but here are a few pictures from our field trip this week anyway...
We hadn't been back to the museum for a few years... we've all changed a bit since the last time we were there:
This year we've decided to do Classical Conversations as part of the kids' schooling, and yesterday was our first day. It was a great experience for us all.... Basically it's a program for a bunch of kids (I think there are about 90 in the part we were in) that meets from 9-1 on Wednesdays. During the week we all have a study guide to go through, and then on Wednesdays we get together to go over the material, and learn some new things. After a 20-minute assembly for everyone, the kids all break up into their individual classrooms by age group and meet with their teachers for the next few hours.
Strider, of course, completely loved it and almost hasn't stopped talking about his first day for the last 24 hours. He is in a class with 8 other boys his age - -- a whole class of just boys -- and 2 of them were his good friends, so he was excited to go. They did all kinds of games and experiments, etc., and each week each student will be doing a presentation on one of the 50 states, so that should prove interesting.
And Rayna had a great time, too, and actually did better than I thought she might. The class she is in does all the same material as the other classes, so even the Kindergarteners are learning Latin words, English grammar definitions (yesterday's was all about what an "infinitive" is), science terminology (yesterday's was about the cell and the 4 types of tissue in the human body), American history, geography (the names and capitals of the 50 states) and Timeline cards. So for 2.5 hours she (mostly) paid attention and tried to participate in all the activities. She will tell you that the coloring sheets and snack time were her favorite parts, though. :)
My favorite part is that 5 of the families involved are friends of ours from church, so I'm going to enjoy getting to see them every week, and it will be fun to have our kids all learning together. Plus, I guess I'm going to get to learn a bunch, too, because I certainly do not know all these English grammar definitions, science questions, or Latin words!
I guess it was just a matter of time...
Dan is an MBA student at Wingate, and Pete is teaching an MBA class at Wingate.... so sooner or later they were bound to end up in the same classroom (well, sooner in this case, since Dan planned his schedule out to purposely take Pete's class... probably for the sole purpose of wanting to make Pete nervous while he works.)
So this fall both Pete and Dan head off to Econ class each Wednesday night. Before the first class, Pete said he was going to make an effort to not let the other students know that Dan was his brother-in-law. So I told him I would give him 10 bucks if when he called the role for the first time, he said, "Daniel WARY." (a name we Wray's heard a surprisingly high amount of times at the beginning of each school year in the initial role calls)
So he did it.
Then, after class at home when we was reading through the list he had passed around the class asking for the students' email addresses, he found that Dan had listed his as yourmom@frankfamily.com. Thankfully he was the last student to sign the list.
And the next day Pete got an email from him with the subject line, "here's what you look like when you're teaching" and this picture was attached, taken obviously by Dan's cell phone when Pete had no idea:
Pete says it just shows how expertly quick he is with an eraser.
So we'll see how this semester goes... I do know that when it's over Pete plans to head over to Dan's office and just sit and watch him work for a few days. And I'm sure he'll be happy to fill out an evaluation form for him when he's done.
Last week Poplar Streams Academy swung wide its doors and welcomed the students back for another exciting year of acquiring valuable wisdom and knowledge. Or something like that.
We started off our school year with a field trip (for Strider) to the Charlotte Museum of History where he went to a program about maps and their role in history... something about detective work and investigation... he loved it anyway. And then, at home, we did our annual Treasure Hunt as the kids searched for all the new books and supplies we'll be using this year -- it was a hit again.
The other excitement for this year is that we had t-shirts made for our school, so all the kids (even Colsen) were excited to get to wear their new shirts. :)
(See how they've changed since last year!)
This year looks to be more intense than last year was.... Strider is in 2nd grade now and has a lot to cover. I spent some time during our NY trip coming up with a master schedule for all his subjects.... it ended up looking like this:
I know it's too small to read, but basically it details what he needs to do in 13 different categories/subjects for each week of the year. I never pass up an opportunity to make an Excel spreadsheet!
Rayna, on the other hand, is in Kindergarten now so in some respects her schedule should be much simpler. But I'm actually more nervous about teaching her this year than Strider... Pray that I have enough patience!
And Colsen, well, he will be our Wild Card. He definitely likes to right in the mix with everything, so we'll see how that all goes!
If the first week is any indication, we're in for a loud, crazy, spastic -- and hopefully fun -- year!
Never having been a 7-year old boy myself, I find it fascinating to see more and more about how one of these little minds work.
Last week for part of his school assignments, I asked him to write a fictional story, just curious to see what he would come up with. I gave him the beginning and asked him to write the next part. I also thought I would provide him with an opportunity to talk about feelings -- which in his mind, are still vague and unnecessary parts of the human existence. I wanted to see how he would portray characters dealing with hard life lessons, etc. So here is the story beginning I wrote for him:
Once upon a time, in Sherwood Forest, there lived a chipmunk named Ogden. He was different from the other chipmunks in his family and his friends because he had a red stripe going down his back, instead of a black one like everyone else. Sometimes the other chipmunks made fun of Ogden because of this. One day he met a cardinal named Wilson. Wilson started to talk about Ogden's stripe....
And here is what Strider wrote (I went ahead and corrected the spelling for the sake of readability):
He loved it! Wilson was so big and fat that Ogden got on his back and they started to fly. They were on a journey for 7 years seeing all kinds of different creatures.
But one day Ogden woke up and Wilson was gone. He ran and ran and ran until he came to a man-village. A boy captured him and beat him up. "It is horrible" Ogden thought. Then he escaped and saw a cardinal. "Wilson! Wilson!" Ogden said. "My name is Hank." the cardinal said.
Then Ogden ran up a tree and found Wilson.
It wasn't quite the dissertation on feelings that I had been hoping for, but I decided to let him run with it anyway. So I told him the next day that I wanted him to write the next chapter. "What happened to Wilson?" I asked. Here is the next installment (This time I'll leave the original spelling):
Wilson got kid napt by his evil brothers. One of the brothers called himself the king of birds. Wilson said they took me to be a servent then a prisoner. He was tided to a tree! Ogden said the wizard isn't looking. I will untie you. But his plan did not work. Instead the wizard tied him up. They were so so so so mad! How will we ever get out? said Wilson. What going to happen? said Ogden.
Then to cardinals came named Hon and Ron. They untied Wilson and Ogden and battled the king and the wizard for 20 years until Hon killed the king. Wilson got his gun aimed at the wizard. The wizard said No, don't do that. You won.
I was still in suspense, so I asked for a third and final chapter the next day. Here is the conclusion!
They ast Ogden were he wanted to go. He said to see my mom. They had been gone for 42 years until they met Mac. Mac knew Ogden's mom. Mac took them to see Ogden's mom. The end.
My favorite part of the whole story was that Ogden wanted to see his mom. That's as close as I'm going to get to true (nice) feelings at this point I guess!
This past week we've had some good school times.... First we made volcanoes:
Needless to say, it was a big hit with all 3 of them. As Strider exclaimed afterwards, "That was an Adventure!"
(My other favorite quote from the experience was when I told him to not eat the vinegar. His reply was "Why not?? Jesus did!")
Also in school we studied China last week (the birthplace of cousin Grace), and this week we're learning about Japan (the birthplace of Auntie Keiko)! Obviously, these are very good "food" weeks! Here are the Chinese lanterns we made last week...
And speaking of things up in the air... Here are the mobiles we made yesterday for St. Patty's Day:
.... and here is the "egg hunt" the kids went to over the weekend!
This helicopter apparently dropped 20,000 eggs or something crazy like that, and then a mob of kids (and adults-- pathetic) went racing into the field to get them. When the kids got back home, the first thing Strider said to me was, "That was INSANITY." But he also had a big grin, of course.
Big things have been happening this past week in the lives of some of our friends... some really good, some really hard. I've been feeling the depth of life more keenly this week.... so while our little adventures are pretty simple and ordinary, I find myself being very thankful for them.
In our study of world geography this year, we reached the country of India. Up until this point, whenever we've studied a country, we've done things like make food from that country, construct art projects related to the culture, read stories or biographies of people from that country, etc. But this was the first time we dressed up in clothing native to the country. After learning about dhotis, saris, bindis, turbans, etc., we decided to try out some makeshift versions of them. Some friends came over that afternoon, too, so we got everyone all dressed up!
The boys weren't as enthusiastic about it as I would have thought they would be.... but Rayna definitely got into it!
Other highlights of the last week included:
...and, for Colsen, a ride in a TRUCK!
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Then this afternoon we enjoyed some time outside. I love the colors in the picture below.... and I also happen to love the boy in the picture as well:
(When Strider was coming down from the tree, Rayna said she wanted to help him. He started teasing her telling her he was going to step on her head as a way to get down. But she showed him -- she grabbed his shoe and threw it far away, which made him pretty upset. Seems like there's always at least one child yelling about something around here!)
