Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Homeschooling works!
We had an EXCELLENT day today. School went very well with all kids willing to work and cooperate. Miriam tolerated hand over hand, she repeated the Letter "A" several times during our alphabet lesson and she loved today's counting worksheets. It was so exciting to teach her today because she was so receptive to learning. She didn't complain one single time!
I am sure some of you have read that on Miriam's worksheets I "raise" and "braille" everything right down to her name on the page using puff paint. But did you know that if a counting page has tiny pictures too small to trace I just dot the pictures and she counts the dots? This is an excellent way to learn how to count and get the most out of worksheets. Puff paint was one of the greatest things ever invented! Although given how much I use it I just wish it wasn't so pricey!
As for Georgia, she did not say "no" or "I can't do it" one single time. She traced, circled , drew lines and counted with ease. The funniest thing about the tracing part is that we didn't even have a tracing worksheet, she decided to trace the letters as they were written. I was so happy to see the big smile on her face every time I praised her for doing something correctly. She hates hearing "lets try again".
We worked on several worksheets including alphabet coloring, shape matching concepts and counting. But of course the favorite activities were making the A for alligator hats (which can be found on yesterdays site of the day) and TP tube bugs which we incorporated it into our shapes lesson. I am really going to have to do a tutorial for those bugs because they turned out so cute!
Today's Lessons:
And here is a random picture of Miriam picking and choosing her own Lego's during free time. Before we started school she would have gotten up and left the table with no interest in toys. We have tried hard over the years but I guess she just wasn't ready, now she is! She just loves those Lego's! 
And here are the girls "talking crayons". Or shall I say Georgia was "talking" and Miriam was listening. Notice how attentive she is and can you see her exploring the crayon as Georgia talks about it? 
If you don't have a special needs child you might not see how amazing today was for our family. But the advances Miriam has made in only a few weeks is incredible! She cannot stand to be touched, hates having her hands held down for any reason other than walking, has an attention span of a 3 year old and the frustration level of a 1 year old. All of these things is without a doubt being improved!
Later on in the day I took my little Sophia on a shopping trip to buy some items for school. We brought home some great items including Little Tikes Foam letters/numbers which we plan on making into sand letter/numbers and a Puzzle clock we got from Garanimals. Out of all of the learning cloclks I have seen this is one of the best that would work for Miriam and at only 10 bucks I jumped on it (at least half the price of others). I brought home the clock and used some puff paint to raise the numbers. By morning it will be ready to go! The thing I love is that the hands on the clock TICK as you move them which makes this the PERFECT learning clock for blind children. (once you raise the numbers anyway which is super easy to do)
I cannot wait for school tomorrow! I even purchased a few recorders and harmonicas for our music focus. The girls are going to love it!
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Sweet! KK and I had a great day too! I need to add more art. I love the photos, it really helps to motivate me. I have gotten a little blah over this past couple of years... or really the last 12 months.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you two had a great day! I am sure with it being just the two of you that you will be back into the swing of "fun" in no time Dana! We have arts and crafts every day because between all of the other stuff Georgia looks forward to it all.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I really wish you kept a homeschool blog. I would LOVE to read it!