Told to mommy by Xander:
Our first day was pretty great. The most awesome part was being with you mommy!
Written by Melissa
So our first day went well. First to not have to wake up early was wonderful for both of us. Xander slept until after 9 (he must have needed it).
We started with a discussion on what to do that day. Not being sure myself how to go about things and feeling lot's of pressure (real or imagined) from school board, partner, and basically anyone who said it wouldn't work, to make sure he gets "stuff" done. Something tangible, recordable.
So i tried with paper first and as could be expected he freaked out. He was so afraid it would be like school. As he reminded me, I promised it would not be like school! So after he calmed down I sat down with him and reassured him and spoke of the need for records but that we could do whatever we wanted as long as there were records; written, typed, video, etc that proved it was done.
So what did he want to do today? He wanted to read his new "Magic School Bus: Space Explorers" book. Ok so i showed him the chart (yes the ministry actually goes as far as to dictate in what manner the books read will be recorded) where he needs to keep track of what he is reading.
So first things learned:
How to input information into a chart
Author = the person who wrote the book
Where to find the name of the author
Publisher = the company that paid to make the books
where to find the publishers name
Where to find the year the book was written in
He spent the whole time (and the rest of the day) apologizing for every little thing he either perceived he did "wrong" or that I just gave a suggestion as to how to do it easier. If at the end of the year he felt better about himself it will be a successful year in my mind!
So he spent about 1.5 hours reading this book throughout the day. He said he learned that there was another dwarf planet besides pluto that he'd never heard of.
He spent about 30 minutes listening to "magic tree house. #18 Buffalo before breakfast" in audio book format. This book is this month's book club book at our local homeschooling community centre and of course since Xander hadn't picked it he had no interest in reading it so i downloaded the audio book and he agreed to listen to it. Shocked! I thought it would be a harder fight. He made the connection between this book and the one other magic tree house book he'd read in the past; the vikings one (Eric's ancestors). He said he learned that Buffalo were very important. They were used for meat, tools and sleds(really?). Not sure if he got the last one right but that's ok.
Thanks to our wonderful homeschooling friend from afar we will be printing the magic tree house passport on their website and will be earning stamps with each book read.
2 comments:
Sounds like a great first day, you guys! Liam had a suggestion if you'd like to, Xander. He'd love to have a homeschooling penpal (either on paper or computer).
Melissa, I'm paranoid this year about the government, too (I don't even have last year's report (this year's registration sent in). It's my first year keeping notes so I look forward to hearing how you do it.
Think I missed this comment :( Sorry. I will speak to Xander about becoming pen pals. I am not sure he will be interested. He speaks about Liam and wishes he could spend time with him but he has difficulty with the whole paper/pencil/typing thing. Sigh. He has been excited about the idea of doing videopal something if his mommy could get used to youtube enough to make it an easy thing to do.
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