Hooray for Dick and Jane!

See Dick and Jane.
See Dick and Jane work.
See Dick and Jane work for Maxwell.

I can not tell you how wonderfully Dick and Jane has brought a breath of relief in our journey to learn to read.  YIPEE!  Maxwell has said things like "I think I'm good at this!"  "I love to read this." and I have caught him reading to his younger brothers without me throughout the week.  He has read over a HUNDRED pages just this week.

I KNOW all the warnings about Dick and Jane and "Why Johnny Can't Read." and so I have been drilling phonics still, but I noticed that Maxwell had an easier time reading sight words then he was sounding out words, even though he knows the phonics I've taught him backward and forward.  That's why I made the change, and I think excitement to read is more important then anything else.

Needless to say I have more Dick and Jane books coming in the mail...


So other then our Dick and Jane break through, not much happened this week.  I would like to blame this on all of us having chest colds, or blame it on how the public school kids were out for most of the week, or that I'm pregnant, but...well, really I just got caught up in reading a good book and I needed a break from feeling like I had to follow a schedule (even though I've given myself a very flexible schedule...)  But these are the couple things we did do:

Most of southern Alberta had a "family day" on monday, and the town of Cardston put on a cute carnival at the wagon museum.  There were lots of booths and we got to go through the museum for free.  The kids had a blast, and Daddy was able to share it with us :)

We also talked about how during the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ lived his life.  We went over any parts of his life that had to do with the Romans, and then we made sheep, because Jesus was the lamb of God.

I have to admit, Hyrum's sheep was my favourite:

Science Fair and Julius Caesar

This week we had an awesome science fair.  The Cardston Homeschool organization put it on, and I was really impressed with what all the kids did.  There were lots of different kinds of experiments. Each kid got to present their project to the group.  I was really impressed with these two boys that did theirs on Coke.  They really knew their stuff.  Scary stuff that Coke.  They had even got real teeth and soaked one in coke for a few days and one in milk.  The one that was in coke looked pretty scary.

My science club preformed a couple of the songs that I made up for our chemistry class.  Maybe I'll post them singing next week.  I forgot to bring my CAMERA! urrg.

But here's Maxwell afterwords.  He presented his project very confidently, and was so excited to show off his electricity game which everyone wanted to play with.

This week was of course Valentine's day, and Maxwell made me a valentine all on his own while I was sleeping in :)

Cute eh?

We learned about Julius Caesar and Cleopatra this week.  Wow Cleopatra was quite the important figure in history!  I never really realized how big her role was, but now I'm thinking it was her that brought the end to the Roman republic.

We made catapults to drill in Caesar's military background....actually MAXWELL made a working marshmellow-throughing-catapult....without ANY help from me since I was gone visit teaching.  He had seen his cousin make one about six months ago, and he just did it.  What an engineer; he would have had a job in Rome. :)

And we made "aqueducts" that led to our "Roman Baths" to celebrate Cleopatra.

The boys loved this activity.

And in other news, after last week's reading vent, you might realize that Maxwell and I are burnt out a bit with learning to read.  I've decided to switch gears....let's go classic....Dick and Jane, here we come!

Pompeii gets destroyed and Thoughts on Learning to Read

This week we continued to learn about Rome, namely Pompeii.  Of course we read "Vacation Under the Volcano" and a couple other books about Pompeii.  To sink it all in we made a volcano of course!  We briefly talked about how Romans were master engineers and made arches.  We made our own arch to represent the town of Pompeii.

And for our other "history" activity we got valentines ready for next week and talked about how cupid is a Roman myth...kind of stretching it, but what ever.

For science we continued to get ready for the science fair.  Maxwell chose to do the electricity experiment that he had done last year that's like the game of operation.  There's a wand connected to one end of a lightbulb and battery and then a silly shaped wire connected to the other end.  If all the wires connect, the light bulb goes off and you loose.

We also went to this amazing China celebration put on by the Cardston Homeschool organization.  The boys LOVED it.  Daniel was SO proud of the panda he made.

Now, my thoughts on teaching reading.....

Maxwell is now half way through his reading program.  The Common Sense Program has these "assessments" to see if he's ready to move on, and he passed with flying colours.  Reading hasn't come natural for Maxwell, but it's good to know according to something, he's right on schedule...well, a few weeks late if you're looking at the school year because of my missing a day here and a day there.

It's kind of a labour of love and patience to teach reading, and sometimes it feels like it's never going to click.  I can't help thinking of all the other homeschoolers I've met over time and compare. I have divided all  these moms into four groups:

1.  Moms who taught their kids some 15 minute lessons at the age of 3 or 4 and the kids got it and started reading simple chapter books by the time they were 6.  Some of these moms think that any child is capable of this if just given the same nudging.

2.  Moms whose kids haven't caught on to reading early, and so teach small lessons to their kids daily and consistently, hoping that someday their kids will have something click and have reading come naturally.

3.  Moms whose kids haven't caught on to reading early, and so teach and teach and teach their children hours and hours using every method they can think of trying to make sure their child WILL learn how to read effectively.

4.  Moms whose kids haven't caught on to reading early, but are not concerned.  These moms read TO their kids, and this is enough for them.  Eventually, when the child is ready to read, they will because the child will finally have the self-motivation to do the work it takes and this work will be minimal because they are ready for it.

I am definitely in the mom #2 category.  I'm not saying that the other categories don't have their advantages, but I have my reasons why #3 and #4 are NOT for me and my family.  Although I am tempted, I will not expand on these reasons.  WHY can't I be a category #1 mom?!?.....lament.....okay, I'm over it.

Well, Maxwell really is a brilliant child....really he is.  I can plug away and be patient.  Patience....ugg.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and it wasn't built by my kids either

We started studying ancient Rome for the month.  I find the similarities and differences between Rome and Greece amazing, and I love teaching and learning with the kids.

For one of our activities, we made a Roman mural on the wall.  It kind of turned into a huge scribble session.  I think they were delighted they could draw on the wall without getting in trouble....

We also learned about the Roman Republic and the senate and talked about the upperclass wanting to feel important, but were not super super rich, and so instead of statues, they had portrait busts made of themselves...you know, I've always thought my art history degree was a bit useless, but I've used it a lot this year!

And so, I had them make their own portrait busts.  This was Maxwell's:

Isn't it the cutest thing you ever saw?  I LOVE it!

And this is Hyrum's...not quite as....polished as Maxwell's, but he was proud of it:

A little bug :)

For Preschool we reviewed the letter 'j" and they jumped all over the house.  (We also sing and dance and practice writing and things, just to let you know)

And for science we started gearing up for the science fair on Valentine's day.  We learned the scientific method and started deciding what projects each kid wants to do.

Maxwell is VERY excited about this.