Geography: United States Puzzle

Little Boy got a puzzle of the United States for Christmas. The best kind, with state-shaped pieces.

He had a hard time with it, but knew he would. And I figured that he'd grow into it later this year.

Well...he did.

He looooves it. (I know I talk a lot about Little Boy looooving things. But those are the funnest things to post about. And yes, I just wrote "funnest.")

The day I took this picture, he put that puzzle together five times in a row. Haha, I love that I'm raising such a nerdy kid.

Social Studies: Memorial Day

If there's one thing that I've learned from all of this homeschooling stuff, it's that I have to teach Little Boy at his level. (Duh, I know. But sometimes I forget.)

So that's why when we went to the local...memorial park, I think? (Is there a difference between that and a cemetery?), and Little Boy was pretty bored by the whole thing:

we ended up talking mostly about flags instead of history.

Which is good, I guess, since I have a feeling that the Fourth of July will go the same way.

Tracing...Kind Of

So, continuing with scaling back on the writing activities--this is another activity that I've seen in lots of places. I can't really give credit to just one source.

I printed out some BIG letters for Little Boy to "trace"--but since he's kind of over tracing with a pen, we've been using little manipulatives to trace the big letters. So it's also a fine-motor activity, yay!

Anyway, here Little Boy's using Craisins to "trace" an upper-case A. We've also used beads and goldfish crackers. I think we might do marshmallows or chocolate chips next--he likes being able to snack on his schoolwork. And really, who can blame him?

Screen Time

I'm not really big on "screen time" for Little Boy. He gets really grouchy when he's been watching a lot of TV, and it takes a day or two for him to get back to normal.

(He's actually been watching way too much TV lately. Note to self: practice what you blog.)

Anyway, he gets to play the computer sometimes, too. I figure it's good to teach him some computer skills, and I only let him play for 15 - 20 minutes.

So what does Little Boy play when he's on the computer? Well, I'll tell ya: he plays games from PBS Kids.* That's our go-to for computer games for two reasons. 1) He's familiar with the characters. (Ahem. See the note above about too much TV lately.) 2) Most of them have an educational theme.

His favorites are games based on Word World and Sid the Science Kid. Of course, I took a picture when he was playing a not-educational game:

Yeah, the Clifford game isn't my favorite. But he likes it, and we all need some down time, right?

*He plays games from The Head of the Class, too. I swear I'll get around to posting about that site one of these days. Also, this is not a paid advertisement for PBS Kids. We are not cool enough for that kind of thing.

Likes & Dislikes

Whoa! It's been almost three weeks since I last posted on this blog. I know that I only have a handful of readers here, so thanks for sticking around even when I don't put much effort into this blog.

So. I've been a little lost lately about what to teach Little Boy. Too many options, I guess. I looked up a few kindergarten-readiness lists for some ideas, and I put together my own list from that. (He's almost at first grade in a couple of areas. Help!) The list that I put together is mostly social/emotional stuff, and it has a few science-y topics thrown in, too. We're still doing our regular routine with reading and math.

Anyway, I think this falls under the social/emotional category. Little Boy definitely knows what he likes and what he doesn't like, but I wanted to talk through that a little more with him. So I got out some papers that I had laying around (I think they're left over from teaching Primary...?) that have a big heart drawn in the middle. I asked Little Boy to think of something that he liked, and then he drew a picture of it in the heart and I wrote down a little sentence at the bottom that he dictated to me. (i.e., "Little Boy likes giraffes.")

(Why, yes, there's a banana sticking out of Little Boy's head. Why do you ask?)

Anyway, in this picture he decided that he liked his ball and his square blocks. I'm pretty sure he picked those because he knew he could draw them. He doesn't draw much. Another time, he said he liked pancakes and noodles. I don't have a picture of that one, but trust me, it's cute.