Playdough Math

We started the next Singapore Math workbook today and the first lesson is on 3D shapes. Colwyn had no problem with the exercises, but he kept wanting to refer to the shapes by their 2D counterparts. To illustrate, we got out the Playdough.



Ah, the unfortunate nose-cone.. oh well. You get the idea.

North Shore Young Homeschoolers

Our homeschool group is getting bigger and better than ever. We've had seven families join in the last two weeks, which brings us up to 25 families on the Yahoo Group. Of those, I've met in person probably about half, maybe a little less. Not bad, all things considered. We had a planning meeting last night and three moms showed, which was a little less than I was hoping for, but it actually worked out really well. One of the moms decided to take over planning field trips, and we're going to aim for a factory tour (probably Necco or Garelick Farms) in February. Jen offered to host quarterly parent workshops--the first of which will be in March, on storytelling (she'll have a guest speaker come and everything). We also have planned a small Imbolc event at my house, a Valentine's Day party, and a family game day.

The main issue is still getting people to attend. This past Friday was supposed to be science at my house, and we had a lot of RSVPs.. there were supposed to be 13 children coming over, in addition to my own. In reality, only five kids came (three families). It was fine, and we all had a great time, but that just illustrates how.. flaky.. homeschoolers can be. I mean, I can flake out with the rest of them.. but it does get kind of tiring when I'm doing all this planning. When I sent out the meeting minutes, I included a little blurb about how Jen and I are fine with somewhat informal attendance for the co-op, but that for big events where there will be a speaker, tour guide, or people preparing amounts of food based on RSVPs, that people need to take their RSVPs seriously. I really hope I didn't offend anyone, but what else can I do?

Colwyn and Lachlann got a bunch of games for Christmas. They've really been getting into board games lately, and it might have to do with the fact that Lachlann has been betting a little more patient with them lately. My sister got Colwyn Castle Logix, and we played it for the first time today. It's actually quite fun, and the highest level puzzles even took me a minute or two to do. It's fun watching him try to figure them out; he does the easy ones quite quickly, but we didn't try the harder ones. I saw Royal Rescue today, and it looks like it would be a good companion game.. I might order it with some of his Christmas money he got from family.

The other games they got were Hullabaloo, the new version of Operation (which is much too hard), the Candy Land Castle Game, and Ned's Head, among others. Between those and the games they already have, they're quite well entertained. I'm convinced that with all the variety out there, they could complete their entire elementary education just through playing board games.

More Literacy

Book club is going well. We've had a bit of a difficult time having regular meetings, as most members have had sick kids at various points over the last month. But we finished most of Little House in the Big Woods and did some work in the journal. Colwyn drew a picture of a panther in a tree, ready to attack Pa (or Pa's father, I forget how the story went). Then he dictated some to me, just about his favorite parts of the book and how our family is alike/different from the family in the book. Then we read My Father's Dragon (and then the second book, and we're now in the third book in the series). Colwyn drew a picture of Elmer Elevator with tangerines in his hands and his knapsack on the ground, with lollipops, hairbows, and a toothbrush inside. Then he drew a separate picture of a rhino in a pond. We finally made it to Jen's house for book club yesterday and showed them our journal, and Calvin showed us his. It was pretty fun. The next book we're going to read is Stuart Little. All in all, we're having a good time, and I'm proud of Colwyn's ability to concentrate on the chapter books.

Colwyn has also been continuing to progress at sounding out words. It's really quite amazing to watch. He brings me notes all the time.. sometimes they're just scribbles (when he has a lot to say), but other times they're pretty good approximations of names or labels for pictures. I get the feeling that this is the way he'll end up teaching himself to read.. he'll learn how to spell, first. What a funny little boy.