It happened today when Jaidan said to me, "mum, you know when we went to school and we had things to do all day, a list, and recess and lunch? Can we do that?". So to that, I obliged and producted a week chart. I left it blank, laminated it, and stuck velcro dots to it. Tomorrow I'm off to print in colour, some clip art icons which show different activities, from swimming, to maths, to writing. Then I'll laminate them, velcro dot them, and we can make our own schedule. Not how I wanted to home school, but I am taking their lead on it.
It's also become apparent today that Jaidan manages to complete his tasks extremely fast, with Chase completing his extremely slow. It took Chase 2 hours to do a worksheet that took Jaidan 20 minutes. This saw Jaidan in the lounge reading a Goosebumps book, with me at the table with Chase. Jaidan read 6 chapters, and I told him he could play his DS. So I am going to have to figure something out with this as I can't spend all my time with Chase, and let Jaidan fall to the back burner.
So what DID we do today?
Well we started the day with 1 hour of swimming at the local pool. This is going to become our Monday morning activity. Swimming for up to 3 hours. It's fun, great exercise and the kids are really coming ahead in leaps and bounds with the 1 on 1 attention I can give them at the pool. Jaidan couldn't even float a month ago. Now he can glide, float and is getting used to flutter kicks instead of 'giant steps' as I call them. Chase can now swim the entire length of the pool and back, on his back with only kicking (he hasn't got the arms down yet). He is learning to dive, can glide and freestyle and is confident in the water. This is from 2 children who've not had professional lessons before, so they are doing okay!
We made mug brownies today. It was our unhealthy morning tea, and a learning experience about measurements cooking times, sugar content and also the difference between plain and self raising flour. The kids loved this activity and the mug brownies were rather delicious with some cream on top!
We read books today, as a group and we had 30 minutes of solo reading. This is something I've added into the schedule for selfish reasons also. I think it's very important for the boys to develop their solo reading, quietly, in their head, and also good for me as I never find the time to read! So now I can. Chase is struggling with reading so he can either read, or he plays Reading Eggs to try and improve his word recognition. I've added this in the 12 - 1 pm time slot, which is lunch time. It gives the boys time to eat, and to read if they finish before any one else. It's also nap time when the little ones are home so they can nap and we can have our own rest time.
We did some worksheets today, focusing on maps, floor plans and cardinal points. The boys really enjoyed this, and they will be making their own floor plans and directions for each room this week.
We ended the day with a trip to the beach with Gizmo. We spent a long time there, and loved it. Swimming, sand castle building and running around with Gizmo. They also met a wonderful and kind lady who was happy to chat to them, and have them swarm her for an hour. I love these opportunities for the boys, and I hope that she went away happy that she'd got to meet the boys too. I know Ashton was rather fond of her after she took him out into deeper water as I refuse to swim at the beach, sharks and jellyfish and all that.
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