Spring Things

Howdy!

Spring is here and we are enjoying the warm days, the sunshine and the flowers starting to bloom. It's been great to get out to playgrounds more often and to play outside in the backyard lots, too.

The boys have been into making "potions" from sand, various leaves and buds from trees and who knows what else. Our backyard isn't huge but they use the space well. They are both doing soccer this spring (it is a free league!) and have dabbled in some backyard baseball, too. Willem is determined to wear his cleats every time he plays, like any serious ball player must do.

Theo presented his animal report at the coop and I stayed to watch the presentation. He wasn't nervous at all! He strode to the front of the room and announced with flourish, "My presentation is on the Komodo DRAGON!" We worked together on a huge poster with pictures and facts and he was able to remember most of the facts on his own while presenting. (Komodo dragons eat their own young; who knew?!)

A few weeks ago we joined Eric for a work trip to Norfolk, Virginia and explored the city quite a bit while he did his workshop. We visited the Children's Museum of Portsmouth and then the next day we went aboard the Battleship Wisconsin and Nauticus Museum. I explained to the boys that their grandpa had gone on a ship like that when he joined the Navy at 17, which made it all even more relevant and exciting to them. 

We stayed at a hotel with a pool (it was so nice and warm!) and Theo got to practice his swimming skills both days we were there. I didn't get any "in the pool shots" cause I was in the pool, too! But here are a few, post-swim.

Theo has listened to a wide range of audiobooks this year, including (but not limited to):

Aladdin (the original, not the Disney version)

Charlie and the Glass Elevator

How to Train Your Dragon

Little House on the Prairie

Magic Treehouse books 1 - 50 

Winterling

The Storm

Peter and the Wolf

Pippi Longstocking

The Magic Treehouse stories continue to be his favorites (although Pippi Longstocking and Aladdin were probably his favorite non-Magic Treehouse stories). The blend of historical fact and fantasy really suits him. 

We are continuing to do short math lessons and phonics in the mornings when Willem is at school. I keep the lessons short, ten minutes or so usually, or else he runs out of steam and can't focus. I have talked to lots of other homeschool moms about this and it seems it is the norm (perhaps in particular where boys are concerned). I have to constantly refocus and remind myself that little bits at a time are the way to go, instead of trying to plow through lots at once. Slow and steady wins the race!

In the fall we will continue our science/PE coop, since that has been going well. I have been impressed by the way they approach science; it is so hands-on. They have homework most weeks, which builds in some accountability/deadline management, which will of course become increasingly important as time goes on. 

I have considered adding another coop which offers a wide range of classes and is known to have a high academic standard (ACTS is what it is called). But I am leaning toward waiting another year on this, or until spring, as we are still new to homeschooling and still finding our daily rhythm. 

I do find that overall, the strong resistance to sit-down, workbook lessons has dissipated a bit. This is likely because Theo has been out of school over 4 months and has had a chance to re-acclimate to being home. I think it is also simply because he is older and his attention span has increased a bit. Whatever the cause, I am glad to see he is more open to working through his phonics workbook and Singapore math, as well. Once again, I just have to be sure not to push him for longer than he is able to focus. 

Clothing continues to be an interest and we fashion little outfits for his stuffies regularly. The other day he made pipe-cleaner glasses for Dow-Dow, his dalmation; I thought they turned out pretty cute!