Week 15 -- the Little Ones

I've lost track of the day we're on since I stopped keeping daily logs.

This is how I worked on Paddy's schooling today... OK, not very colorful, but as a change it worked OK.

First I wrote down a little story he was telling -- that's over on the top right. I used to write out stories the older kids told when they were quite little, and then had them read them back for reading practice. They enjoyed this, and it's working quite well for Paddy and Aidan. Paddy was intrigued and read it out for himself. The last word is the only one he had trouble with and so I guided him to sounding it out.

Then I wrote out a few addition problems for him, underneath -- as you can see, just adding 2, which is review for him. He started to predict the answers --"the next one's going to be ten!!" and then I asked him to complete the question. Two plus What equals ten then? That was a little harder but he sort of got it by looking at the preceding ones.

Then I made the sheet of rimes for "at" and "it" that you can see over there on the top left. His phonics knowledge is rudimentary -- all his reading ability is sheer memorization of familiar words. He had a bit of trouble but sort of got it.

Then the middle sheet in the back -- I thought I would try some multiplication problems -- sets of two. He liked those and figured them out quickly.

Then I asked him to write a big C, which is something he did once last week. This was the only task that made him groan, but he did it. Then he asked to write an S, then he wrote another C, then he asked to try to write small letters. This is because of the OT's suggestion that big repeated motor movements are better to start with before trying to write normal size. I didn't know about this kind of thing when my older ones were little.


As for Aidan, he has been very involved with this (left).... calendar felts for the flannelboard. It looks chaotic but the last few lines actually wrap around like a snake. He still hasn't mastered number order past twenty, but that's obviously the skill that he is trying to master right now, so it was serendipitous that I was digging through supplies and found the calendar felts -- they were too advanced for him a year ago.






The OT was here today and she did:

• Wilbarger brushing and lotion massage, from center to extremities.
• Marching on mini-trampoline, then running in place, then squatting.
• Brain Gym (OT drawing X's and infinity symbols or horizontal 8's on his back while he drew them on an easel)
• Stepping on crumpled newspaper in a large ice cream bucket (to help him raise and lower his foot in place
• Throwing and catching a wiffle ball on a string (it's strung in our entrance and every boy in this house seems attracted to it as if by gravity).

She always works a bit with Paddy too and actually it is kind of nice for both of them.