Bird clubs and blast offs!

I actually just deleted a sentence that said today was a "somewhat mediocre day". And then I remembered that we went on this fantastically windy walk, climbed trees, collected hundreds of leaves, berries and an ear of corn left over from the combine, made "bird food" for all the birds of the world, AND started a bird-watching club. Keilan loves birds and drawing birds, much like his Grandpa Lee who paints these wonderful little birds on tree trunk slices. And after our adventure today he was inspired to start a club where his friends could come over every Saturday (I convinced him to shoot for once a month) and they could look for birds, feed birds, study birds, draw birds, play games, etc. Oh and eat popcorn. He says we should have lots of popcorn, maybe two pots. He wants the kids to bring their binoculars and bird field guides, if they have them. And he created a "chant" (because he says kids like chants) to sing at the beginning of each meeting. "Do you like the birds and bees? Come to Bird Club if you please!" So this was really special and I almost discounted it because there is no paper trail! This is a good example of how I am hard on myself. These moments are the ones we've all been missing. And our walk inspired such creativity and drive in Keilan. These are magical moments and I tried to call them mediocre because they did not occur in a classroom setting. But alas, bird club plans aside, we did some good work in the classroom as well.

This is the start of his bird club flyer.

We started the day with eggs over easy, apple cider, and cinnamon toast crunch at about 8:45. They had been awake for a while already and played upstairs until I called them for breakfast. We finished breakfast by about 9:15 and headed into the classroom. Keilan thought we could use snacks so he poured everyone a little bowl of Count Dracula (because we are big into healthy cereals). After they checked themselves in on my little school train we started with the calendar because these kids try to pretend they don't know the days of the week or months of the year which I know good and well they've learned at school (like years ago for Keilan). But when it comes time to look at the calendar...is it Tuesday? Which day comes after Tuesday? Sunday? Twelve? Lamp? Oh vey.

This may seem childish, but it's a simple way to help the boys with routine. As you can see some need this more than others.

Next, we added a stir stick to our days of school count down cups, which teaches place value, something that is appropriate for both 3rd and 1st grade. They love this. I first saw it with clear plastic pouches, but this is what I ended up throwing together. The cups are kind of a pain and I'm sure will get smashed at some point. After our basic check-in stuff, I went to the piano. Ok, don't get carried away, I don't actually play. But I know the scales well enough to plunk out some basic "circle time" tunes. So we all sang our days of the week tune from C to C at the tops of our lungs. It teaches basic scale progression too. The Leheney kids all have great pitch! Then we sang the months of the year to the tune of "Picking Up Paw Paws" and then again while I held up the flash cards, all INXS-style (except not as cool because we're picking up paw paws and all). Then we started some lesson time and seat work.

We have completed 14 actual days of "at our desks" school. We don't count co-op days and unfortunately, Lyla was sick for almost an entire week. This is an aspect of homeschooling that goes against every grain of my being. We will end up being way off from the "regular" school calendar. I thought I would be ok with that, but it really bothers me.

Keilan did some math that was pretty challenging for him due to his focus issues. He had to use a grocery list of items with prices and determine how much individual bills would cost in total. Oh boy. He finished two of the four "bills". He knows decimal place value and how to add, easily. But he struggles so very severely to put the pencil to paper and stay on task. He continued the work sheet with some place value drills and multiple choice questions. He then went up to the landing and read from his Magic Tree House book, A Place for Pandas for about 30 minutes. He's really proud of himself for getting through another chapter today and seems to be enjoying the story. Keilan also did some language arts work today practicing capitalization rules and declarative and interrogative sentences. Honestly, we've been doing this for a while now and he's bored with it. I stopped him half way through and moved him onto some writing practice. He's learning cursive and had a wonderful head start last year at school so I'm pleased with how he's doing but he still needs regular practice. Then my dear Keilan drew a really cool picture of some sort of robot creature.

Grayson also did some math work today. His math is very easy for him and I struggle to keep his attention as well. We're talking pictures of 2 bears plus a picture of 1 bear equals how many bears? This kid can do advanced math in his head so I struggle as to where to draw the line with him. I hesitate to move him ahead because I know the basics are important. It was suggested to me that I give him some of the tests to help determine what he is capable of, so at some point next week I hope to do that. After his math work we did some one-on-one phonics work. I really love this time with Grayson. We have been working on short and long vowel sounds and consonant blends. And today we worked on the two vowel rule (when two vowels are together the second vowel is silent). I sit criss-cross on the floor and he sits in my lap and we do a little call and response through his phonics reader. He does a great job with all of the sounds and stays so focused. I love being able to kiss his cheek or give him a loving squeeze once in a while. And I think it helps him to stay on task. Pretty magical for a Mama to be able to do this at 11am with her 6 year old. Grayson went back to his desk and did a phonics work sheet on today's lesson and a language arts work sheet which focused on some basic word recognition. Lastly, Grayson and I sat down together in the family room (while Keilan was reading) and he read a story to me from his reader that corresponds with his weekly phonics and language arts lessons. He really likes the simple stories (usually there is some sort of mess, which is what Grayson lives for) and is reading well. Slowly, but carefully and well. Grayson's curriculum does not utilize the dolch sight words, but has weekly spelling lists which don't begin for several more months. Since his reading is still so slow, I will start reviewing the dolch list with him next week.

So for today, this is it. This is our best work! :) Next up we have dinner prep, some chores around the house and then Awana right after dinner. A pleasantly full day!

PS-one last thing. The pretend play is through the roof! Both boys have struggled with pretend play both in coming up with scenarios and in just choosing to do pretend play at all. Before we started school today the kids all sat on the floor making "rockets" out of a little Velcro popcicle sticks set I made for Lyla. The boys make such intricate things with those sticks! They were  really playing hard, calling out "5-4-3-2-1 BLAST OFF!", making rocket noises and all that jazz. This is the stuff that warms my heart.