School

I have been packing up our first year of school. What a privilege it has been to teach Jonathan, Abigail, Thomas and now Elizabeth. Literacy is so important in each phase of our lives and I'm thankful for the ability to promote and teach that to each of my children.

Elizabeth's first months of literacy have been filled with learning to communicate better. Let out a cry and know that mommy is near. Coo and talk when you are happy. Grab for anything that's near. She is getting quite good at her school and I will soon begin teaching her to crawl...but first she must master sitting up.

Thomas' involvement in the world has surprised me and I actually feel a bit intimidated by the gifted-ness he has. My goal this year was for him to learn his colors, sort objects, and become familiar with the order of numbers... Well, he mastered his colors by October, he is a pro at sorting any objects, and loves to count (well, 1,2, 7,9,5,11...the point being he is beginning to understand the idea of numbers, we just have to help him with the correct order!) He has become a puzzle maniac. Joe just got Thomas a 48 piece puzzle and it took him only two days to master. He enjoys living and breathing puzzles.

Abigail is still working on her sign language and reading. She is pretty confident with her letters and is able to blend up to 5 letters now. She enjoys picture books. Abigail loves crafts of any kind. She is always writing letters (literally letters) and loves to write words in the air or do "ribbon words" (I cut a lot of different sized and colored ribbons that we turn into letters or words, I do color matching with Thomas and have Jonathan work on making several of a letter or number he is having trouble writing on his own) or salt letters (we have a little Tupperware container filled with salt that we write "secret messages" to each other in).

Jonathan is getting very competent at reading. This year I began teaching him with the philosophy that I would rather read to him for two hours than struggle though a long reading lesson and then have only a small read aloud time. So I only did "official" teaching reading time for a max of 15 min. a day--but usually I set the timer for 10 min. He is now such a great reader. He is reading at least a book a day (though I see his appetite growing, today he's already read me 3 books and he is the one that initiated them!)

My main emphasis with Jonathan has been exposure...to as many wonders of the world as I could. We have read many books, here is a sample: The Box Car Children, The Apple and the Arrow, My Father's Dragon, James Herriotts' Treasury for Children, The Hundred Dresses, Johnny Appleseed, Five True Dog Stories, Beowolf, The Family Under the Bridge, The Light at Tern Rock, Twenty and Ten, Mary on Horseback, Dolphin Adventure, In Grandma's Attic, The Story of Dr. Dolittle, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, A Grain of Rice, Hero Tales, All the Chronicles of Narnia series, All the Little House on the Prairie series, Chitty-Chitty- Bang Bang, The Swiss Family Robinson... Also, we love to read biographies and I didn't keep a good record of who we read about. I know we read Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Marco Polo, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and many more. We also have enjoyed getting non-fiction books on what ever animal interests us at the time.

For math I wanted Jonathan to be competent at counting to 100, forward and backwards, and adding numbers up to 10. Well, he can do those things and far beyond! I have found these delightful books from a website www.livingmath.net that talk about literature that can be used to teach math. I have found some terrific books that compel you to enjoy math.

So, we are officially cleaning up our adventurous first year...but the learning will only continue. God's world is so big, orderly, and intricate we can only get a taste of what He's made. I am grateful that I get to travel on the Avenue of Learning with my children!!!