My parents were here for most of last week, working on projects around here.
Dad figured out and fixed the smoke detector that would not stop beeping, and rather freaked me out when him messing with the wires in the smoke detector made the living room light blink on and off . . . he tells me he figured it out, I'm taking his word for it LOL.
Our big project for the week was to finish tearing off the shed on the back of the garage, Dad and I did a bunch of it during campmeeting in June, but didn't finish it. It's all gone (and now, this week's project is to start building stairs to the room over the garage, that could previously only be accessed by a ladder thanks to the original shed being in the way, hence the whole reason for this project).
Since I was helping Dad some, and Ashlyn's fully immersed in reading the Harry Potter books, I decided it could be an even more unschooly than usual week. Lexie was abit at loose ends, though she's reading the CS Lewis Space Trilogy, and apparently pondering something she wants to write, so she's been doing lots of talking to herself and telling me to go away when I ask who she's taking to, hee hee.
The Harry Potter books are definitely the biggest/most actual reading Ashlyn's ever done, preferring to listen to audiobooks than read herself, but I'm noticing that she pays a lot closer attention to details when reading, than I do. . . she's making connections as she goes, reading the books that I only realized in retrospect, and sometimes not even then. I've suggested to Lexie (whose, reading style is more like mine, read everything in sight, quickly, and just get the main idea) that she might enjoy re-reading the Harry Potter books and notice connections she missed the first time through, because she didn't realize they were important.
Little Bit is thrilled to have Mama here to play with :)
Last week was the final week of the library reading program, so much reading happened to get those last tickets in. I'm thinking, in keeping with . . . I have 3 children, who do school in completely opposite ways . . . whereas Ashlyn HATED reading programs of any sort when she was younger . . . they stressed her out, big time! Little Bit definitely responds to the idea of getting something . . . Ashlyn wanted to learn to read because she couldn't stand knowing there was something she didn't know. . . Lexie wanted to learn to read because she wasn't about to let Ashlyn know something she didn't know . . . Little Bit doesn't care, BUT is putting the pieces together and likes "getting stuff" for reading . . . So I'm pondering a reading incentive chart of some sort for her . . . I'd just go with Pizza Hut's "Book It" except there aren't any eat-in Pizza Huts anywhere near us, just carry out, which doesn't work for Book It, so if, in addition to having to buy pizza for the rest of the family, I also have to drive out of the way to get to the restaurant it definitely becomes an expensive "free" pizza LOL.
So that was our week. . . nothing earth shattering, but we're keeping busy :)
1 comment:
The one semester Kate was in public school, she discovered the AR program where you read a book, took a little quiz, and earned a specific number of points based on the reading level of the book. Whoever had the highest score at the end of the year won a prize. Well, knowing there was a competition she could win she went from *hating* to read to polishing off the entire Harry Potter series, the boys vs girls series from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and a ton of individual books all between January and the end of May (the rest of the kids had the whole year). She technically had the highest number of AR points in the 4th grade, but they gave her the math award because she had also racked up the highest number of points in Study Island. She might not have learned much in her public school semester, but we learned that the child will do *anything* if she can win a prize. It's all about finding the motivation for each child and then using that knowledge to help make learning something they want to do.
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