Rebekah's Insights

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January

The days are short,
The sun a spark
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door.

The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees of lace.

The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

by John Updike, A Child's Calendar

Although it would not appear so from my lack of entries regarding school over the past couple of months, our little school/house has been busy through this Autumn and Winter. For anyone interested, here is a brief account of what has been engaging our time of learning.

LIAM:

Readiness/Phonological Awareness/Phonics
hand-to-eye coordination, same/different, alike/different, scissor skills, visual discrimination, following two and three-stage directions, identifies rhyming and non-rhyming words, generates rhyming words when given a word, word awareness skills, identifying/printing/recognizing the corresponding sounds for first half of alphabet, fine-tuning the printing of his name.

Math
Concluded unit on shapes, which included a variety of hands-on activities for making and identifying shapes, and are now in a new unit focused on sizes, including big/small, smaller/larger, largest, fit, sorting by size, size comparison.

Bible, etc.
Halfway through memorizing a verse to correspond with each letter of the alphabet, continuing to work on catechism, completed learning of the Fruit of the Spirit, now studying the Ten Commandments.

Social Studies
Completed unit on Community Helpers of various sorts, Christmas traditions around the world, memorization and study of meaning of The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Science
Completed unit on kitchen science focusing on sound reflection/absorption, absorption of liquids, taste buds, etc.

Italian
Concluded unit on rooms of the home, hello, and continuing onto common household items.

Sign Language
Handsigns some of alphabet, water, pretty, boat, great, snake, grandma, grandpa, daddy, mommy, baby, kiss, cereal, and some animal words.

Art/Music/Physical Education
Continues to explore various art media, tempo, fast/slow, plays "Hot Cross Buns" on mini-piano, playing rhythm instruments, beat. Liam has begun swimming lessons and really HAS taken to them like a "fish to water!" ;) He continues to ask to do school everyday, as we continue with Pre-School 2, so I am in the process of determining the curriculum for Kindergarten for next year.

AINE:

Aine has just in the past few weeks demonstrated a new interest in letters, wanting to spell her name, etc. I was waiting to see how much interest she showed on her own before deciding whether to begin my Pre-School 1 curriculum with her next year. Liam began early because he was so interested in it, but if Aine wasn't really inclined yet, I had planned on waiting another year. However, it seems that she will also be looking for that challenge and would seem to be ready for the level at which it begins, so she will start Pre-School 1 in the Fall! :)