September 7

Today I started looking at math manipulatives again, and I decided to order some cuisenaire rods. For those of you that are not familiar with them, the first, smallest one is a square, 1cm, the next one is 2 cm x 1 cm, the next is 3 cm x 1 cm, up to 10cm x 1 cm. They are great for learning addition, subtraction, mulitiplication, division, fractions, etc. I was going to order them online, but instead hopped over to Utah Idaho Supply, and got them there, along with some square pattern sheets and wooden blocks. They're kinda thin, maybe 1/2 an inch thick. I also bought a bag of plastic shapes, 100 pieces, I think. These are different shapes than the ones that came with the patterns, that one only has three shapes. Endless geometric shapes can be made from them.
Anyway, I've wanted the cuisenaire rods for a while, every since I read "How Children Fail" by John Holt. He used them in his classroom, and I really liked their versatility.

Last night after I posted we practiced reading quite a bit more, (didn't make it to the movie), and later we read about 35 pages of Charlotte's Web. Gave Trev the choice of starting that, or Frog and Toad (I was going to offer many more choices, but he stopped me) and he chose Charlotte's Web.

Today he has played on the computer quite a bit, Alien Space Flyer, I think it's called. Then we went off to the living room to practice reading, and I pulled out "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"., which I don't really like, but I get it out sometimes. We got a ways on that, but the rhyming stumped him.
So I put that away, and got out our magnetic lap board, and he read "cat bat rat fat sat hat mat" etc, trying to help him to understand rhyming words. Didn't get it. I then thought I would get out some nursery rhyme books, and I read him the whole rhyme, then read it a second time, letting him fill in the rhyming word.
He did well with that, so we got out the magnetic board again, and practiced words, and I think he is starting to get it.
Then we played with the new Parquetry Pals (wooden) shapes, and did some of the puzzle patterns.
Now he is watching Magic School Bus.
I also printed out some "sight words" pages today, we may start on those tomorrow.
I mentioned to my Littles group, that if I had a balance scale, a microscope, and a telescope, I think I would be set on our supplies for years! We have so many wonderful tools. (maybe a guitar, too!)

So I've been pretty dedicated to keeping up on this blog the last week or so, don't know how long it will last. But I am enjoying keeping track of some things.
Even though I am not a big fan of "school", and love learning with every day life, it is nice to keep track of the schoolish things we do do, then I don't worry so much.
Signing off for now.
Steph