Tag: jr.

Swim Dunk

Oh I’ve been so remiss it keeping this journal of sorts up to date!

Last week Jr began his swim lessons. We’ve opted for private because of his age well actually I opted for private swim lessons because I love having my family home for supper. Wouldn’t you know it the group lessons are from 5pm to 8pm with his being right at supper. So private lessons in the middle of the afternoon are much better for us.

He was excited of course. In his first lesson he swam more than he has in the past year. Motivation is key I think. He wants to learn to swim so there is no coaxing or coddling. He may just be a fish in the water yet.

He’s most proud of learning 4 floats and of swimming to the deep end. I liked how the instructor kept him moving from one thing to the next and then back again. Repetition of the skill but no boredom.

One of the last things he did on his first lesson was jump into the deep end and kick to the surface. This is something we have been unable to practice because I can’t swim that deep AND keep his little brother who can’t swim yet above water. So we have to stick to where I can still touch the bottom.

I am not sure who was more proud me because he did it or him because he did it!

Sweet Shot Tuesday – Lucky Duck

Through diligent turning of eggs. With constant watching of temperatures and humidity.

DSCF4133

A sweet boys with the sweet reward for his work.

DSCF4138

16 Lucky Ducks!

Homeschool Update: Jr.

Just a quick update.

We finished up his cursive workbook (for formation of the letters) and he is now copying print into cursive for penmanship practice. One of the freebies I’d gotten from CurrClick in the past was a Children’s Garden of Verses which is perfect for this stage. It takes a lovely poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and breaks in into two lines at a time for copying.

We’ve started moving forward again on Math. After a few weeks of playing with the multiplication tables 1 through 10 Jr. is having an easier time with the double and triple digit multiplication. Moving onto division I think will also strengthen his familiarity with the multiplication facts since he can “check the answer” by multiplying.

Grammar and Phonics are coming along nicely. I am amazed at how comfortable he is with diagramming simple sentences. It isn’t so much that he’s doing something spectacular as much as it is his comfort with the request. I think I spent a total of three weeks diagramming in 8th grade and didn’t touch it again. Perhaps I would have had a more facile understanding of the structure of a sentence had we diagrammed more. Phonics in terms of an activity is fine. He’s enjoying the workbook I selected here. I am still seeing a bit of a challenge when it come to reading the r-changed vowels and some challenges with ia – oi – and ea words. (Such as spatial, jointed)

History has gone backwards and we’ve been listening to our ancient history cd’s. But history reading is blossoming with the “Who was…?” series of books thus far I managed to find King Tut which Jr. enjoyed a lot and Ben Franklin. With Ben Franklin he was interested to learn that he’s the person behind our postal system. I suspect I’ll have him read a few again and perhaps use them in writing/report exercise. Leonardo Da Vinci is up next!

This site is protected by WP-CopyRightPro