Let's Make a Trade

The kids made their warm and fuzzy trade yesterday; R chose a giant sketch pad and Little G, of course, chose the book with the cat in it.


Since it was time for morning break, G immediately curled up in the chair to read while R grabbed her crayons and got to work on some art.


She filled several pages in no time at all. My Reezle loves her art. Today she asked if we could do an Art lesson about Leonardo da Vinci, as she is apparently a fan. She enjoyed it, and tomorrow we are going to learn a bit about Italy and do some more sketching. I'm also going to have her "invent" something of her own and sketch it up, like da Vinci did.

I want to keep those creative fires burning, so I try to come up with ideas to encourage her to think outside of the box. My very favorite aid in this is the list of writing prompts. This afternoon she wrote a lengthy piece on her favorite food made with apples. She chose apple pie, talked about how to make it, and drew a picture at the end when she was done. I think we're going to have to bake an apple pie from scratch one of these days.

Warm and Fuzzies, Books, and Assessments

Today was warm and fuzzy trade in day!

R and Little G each chose a new book from the prize redemption selection (which mommy needs to replenish very soon at the rate they're going) and they spend the latter part of Language Arts reading their new books quietly to themselves, then to each other, and finally to me. Little G chose Splish, Splat, Splat, a super cute book about a cat, and R chose Do Cats Always Land On Their Feet? (the answer is no, in case you were wondering).


R also had an assessment this afternoon with her teacher contact through the virtual school. She read three stories to assess her fluency, or the rate at which she reads orally. She reads at 140 words per minute, which according to NAEP is a grade 4 average. R is just starting grade 2. She also did an assessment for math, for which she had 8 minutes to answer 20-some questions of varying degrees of difficulty. She wasn't expected to finish all of the problems, but she did. The national average is 10-24 points, and the goal is 15 points. R got 47 points out of a possible 50.

In light of her results, we are discussing moving her up to the grade 3 curriculum so she is challenged. R, of course, is very excited about this because she loves to learn and the idea of new material she has never encountered had her jumping around like a kid waiting for Santa.

Little G has his assessment on Monday, and I expect similar results. He's actually been helping R with spelling and grammar since last year when he was in preschool. He is another one with a voracious appetite for knowledge; he worked from page 60-something in his Math workbook to page 109 in a matter of hours today. I think the curriculum, if we followed it, has him somewhere around page 30. He knows everything in the book, and mastered most of it (colors, shapes, number identification) before he even started preschool, so it's just busy work. I really look forward to getting him into some advanced curriculum so I can feel like I am teaching him something. Meanwhile, he continues to do addition, subtraction and multiplication flash cards and play chess with Daddy, and he works on a grade 2 workbook with various math and language arts material in it for fun. And he reads and reads and reads, which satisfies some of his thirst for knowledge.

I love being a part of this. And I had another great talk with my grandma about it, wherein I admitted that I had wanted to tell her about homeschooling sooner but worried about what she would think. She just kept saying she was proud of me and my kids, and that totally made my day :)

Day Four

I found a way this afternoon to allow G to take first grade assessments in Study Island, so we did two of them. On reading standards for literature, the goal is 70% for students in grade 1. G's scores were as follows:

(a) Asking and answering questions: 90.9% (Ad) Advanced
(b) Retelling stories: 83.3% (Ac) Accelerated

So basically, he is accelerated to advanced...for a first grader. On his 4th day of Kindergarten. He amazes me. G welcomed the challenge and earned a warm and fuzzy for his efforts.

My dear artistic little girl wrote a few sentences about herself to accompany her self portrait for an assignment due tomorrow.


For a bit of Language Arts supplementation and our little post-break reading and relaxation ritual, I bought both of my children a book to help them with issues they struggle with. Little G has a temper, and R sometimes struggles with the concept of sharing. Today, they each read their new book to me, and afterward I read the books to both of them.



In the background is our furry friend, Sticky. I think she enjoyed our reading this morning and afternoon, too.

And finally, for History (or was it Social Studies?) yesterday and today, my little R (or was it G?) had this echo song about the continents. We're all having fun with it together, like most other subjects.

I thought we could put it together with music and add the tambourine to keep a beat. I plan to add our recorder and keyboard to our music lessons, and maybe pick up a little drum set for fun.

Oh, did I mention I love homeschooling my children? Because I do. And they love it, too. And I have to admit it is a lot of fun to hear the school bus drive right by our home, sans squeaky brakes, and know that we've been done with our lessons for 2 hours already and that there is no required homework ahead of us - just some great, quality family time.

Incentives and Rewards

I've had this post in my mind and my drafts for about a week, so when someone in our virtual academy group posted about rewards, I finally felt motivated to discuss in detail what I've been thinking about.

Everyone works for something. Maybe it's the fruits of a backyard garden or that weekend project that adds value to our home; we all have reasons, goals, and things we desire to have or do. Children are no different, and we shouldn't expect them to do things 'because I said so'. Sure, you do what you boss asks of you, but it is because you want that promotion, or simply to keep your job. Without goals, even if it is just a cool activity book or a fun new whistle from the dollar store, children are unlikely to feel motivated. Feeling motivation and excitement of working toward and attaining goals is important for children; it gives them a sense of purpose in what they do.

My children are young, ages 5 and 7 in grades K and 2. We have a "warm and fuzzy" system.


I keep huge bags of cotton balls in the house, as well as a container of fun books, activity pads, funky colored pencils or markers, jelly bracelets, silly pencil toppers, bubbles, and other cool things I find at the dollar store and other various places. They LOVE trading in their warm and fuzzies for a prize! We do prizes for every 10 warm and fuzzies earned. Because they are so close in age, filling the bin with items they will both enjoy is fairly easy. The only issue I've run into so far is when one of them chooses a prize the other was hoping for (note to self: grab two of most things!).

For older children, you could use marbles or homemade coupons. Charts can work also, but having something tangible they can hold and watch accumulate seems to be more motivating. There are endless possibilities, so your family can design a cool system that is a perfect fit for you. As prize incentives for older children, parents can offer extra computer or TV time.

A word of caution on incentives. Some people have mentioned using candy or even trips to fast food places as prizes. I'd caution strongly against this. Children should never associate food with rewards or behaviors, only as fuel. This can create a world of trouble for them down the road.