This week was a short week for us with the Labor Day holiday. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the last couple of weeks have been with all those dinosaurs roaming around our house, but I tried. Sawyer started pre-K this week also. He goes two days a week which gives Hayden and me a lot of one on one time. And since we had that one-on-one time, I focused more on his handwriting and reading, and math and computer skills.
For language arts, we read books and talked about the letter Ff and the /f/ sound. I also tried a story starter with Hayden which I've tried a couple of times before, but he requires a lot of prodding and encouragement. I think I'll try at least one of these a week to try to improve his creative thinking. The story starter I did this week was "If I could be a dinosaur...." to kind of merge the last couple of weeks into this one. We also spent some time on http://www.starfall.com/. This website is great for learning to recognize letters and words. They have one tab for letters, and another tab for learning to read. The Learn to Read tab is where I have Hayden spend time. I pick out a vowel sound (or ending word sound) for him to learn, and then there's a story that goes along with that sound. This was the first time we've done it that he was actually able to remember some of the words. I would have him read the story out loud to me, and if he got stuck on a word, all he had to do was click on it with his mouse, and the computer would sound the word out for him, then say the whole word. It was great!
For math, I found a pretty cool website - http://www.ixl.com/ - that helps test Florida math standards for grades K-8. It has them all listed by letter and numeral (ex K.A.1.1. Represent quantities with numbers up to 20, verbally, in writing, and with manipulatives) and breaks them down into individual steps. I had Hayden do this website a couple of days just to see how he'd do, and he really enjoyed it. So, I think I'll start doing this once a week just to see how he's progressing and give him some computer time.
The rest of the school day focused on learning about our state: Florida. We read several books, and Hayden began a lapbook of Florida. So far, it has mini books of Ff words, facts and symbols of Florida, and a map on the front which he has colored and labeled Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Next week, we'll be adding a few more mini books and cities to the map. Once the lapbook is complete, I'll put a picture of it up. We'll be working on it for the rest of this month. The goal is for Hayden to develop the beginnings of map skills, learn the basics of the state he lives in (and maybe a little bit of history - but I don't want to go into that too much because I don't think he's old enough), and learn more about the city he lives in as well.
Unfortunately, there are no pictures this week, but I will definitely have more in the upcoming weeks. Next week, we'll be traveling out of state. I've tried to come up with some activities that are good for taking on the road. Hopefully, these ideas will pan out, and we'll have a great time doing a road trip school!
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