Wow, I just looked over all the pics I took over the last month and we’ve been doing more work than even I remember. These pics were taken mid July to first week of August. I’m the most happy not because of the variety of work we did manage to do, but because the kids actually will spend most of the work period being really concentrated on their work. Especially Astroboy. By the end of last year, he could not sit still in the classroom. Now, with zhuyin class 3 times a week, playdates the other 2 times, and maybe some work periods on the weekends, we’re actually not doing that many 3 hour work periods. And yet they manage to have really good ones when we do.
What I Learned
One thing I learned from the tutoring class is how I need to really sit with the children when they work. That and the 3 months break is helping them spend 2-3 hours actually working instead of running around. I was going to say it’s also due to them being used to the work period routine, but given how the last week they are starting to resist work (because we have not been playing as much) I don’t think that’s the reason.
The other thing I’m seeing is that the children’s limit are about 1 to 1.5 hours of concentration time. They naturally want a break after that. This matches what I’ve observed of my own concentration time. And lastly, I noticed that sometimes the kids do their best work at their 7pm homework time, after a day of playing outside.
Geography
As I mentioned in our Aug/Sep curriculum, Astroboy is focusing on North America and Thumper the United States.
Math
Thumper has been doing multiples work that we can turn into our charter school teacher and Astroboy subtraction and hundred board/skip counting.
Zhuyin
Of course, lots of zhuyin. Three times a week plus follow up work from Mama Laoshi at home!
Writing
I’m super duper happy Astroboy, after a whole year of not wanting to do metal insets, is now really loving drawing and coloring his zhuyin homework. Seeing this, I brought out his metal insets again. Maybe he’s finally ready to write!
