Update

This year Emma has really taken off with learning. I try to have some sort of routine in our day.

We almost always start off with a lesson from the Behold My Little Ones nursery manual. This is for TS as well. They get to learn things like how to share, how to love one another, how to obey their parents. Everything is very loving and kind and gentle. They also learn about Jesus and about how much He loves us and things along those lines.

Emma LOVES this. If we don't do it first off in the morning, she will beg and beg through out the day. We rarely miss this. TS enjoys it too, but he doesn't care so much still;-) So, we have a five minute lesson or so, then there is always some sort of little craft/coloring activity. While they are coloring, we listen to this year's primary music. TS is starting to sing to all the songs. So, we get about 40 minutes of music. (This has actually also made Emma LOVE scripture time at the end of the time.)

It's funny because Emma will color so carefully and takes a long time. TS colors in blobs and it's cute. Here's a photo to show you the difference. TS is almost finished and Emma looks like she has hardly started:



We are using Explode the Code, which teaches letters, sounds, and writing. Emma is in the Primer book 2, and is sailing through it quickly. She is almost done and will be in book 3 soon. She'll probably be finished with that after a month or two and we'll be in the official book 1.

We've always suspected, but we are being able to narrow down some of her hearing issues. She has a hard time differentiating between "p" and "b" as well as "m" and "n". I"m sure as we go along, we'll find more things. But she is able to think it through and try to remember which words start with what sound.

We are also working on speech as we go through all of this. Her speech love tank seems pretty full too (hehe...the love tank thing applies so well to things!), as she is always eager to participate. When she was younger, she was not interested. She has been doing really great with it.

Here is one of her pages of writing. This is the first time she wrote "j". I think she's going to end up with pretty nice handwriting!

As you can see, I must check mark each thing she does. She loves the check marks. She does not like to get an "x" when she does something wrong. I'm teaching her that it's okay to make mistakes. It helps us learn. I don't want her to be like I was and be afraid of trying things for fear of making a mistake. Now I don't care if I make mistakes:-) She seems to be fine with making mistakes. She'll say, "Sometimes little kids make mistakes." hehe...

For math we are using Math-U-See. It comes with a student manual, as well as a teachers manual. It also comes with a DVD with an instructor who teaches the lessons. When it comes to math, I tread carefully. I LOVE math, and I want my kids to love it too. I know one of the most important things is to make sure it makes sense to them. I can teach it, but I think it helps to for sure have someone who knows what they are doing (and is known for being a good math teacher) to help teach it. I'm still doing a lot of the teaching of myself, but the instructor helps;-) Anyway, here's a page she did yesterday. She enjoys drawing smiley faces sometimes! I think they are so cute:-)







Emma seems to have an interest in cooking lately. So, she's exploring that more. I'm letting her help as she wishes. Here she is making some mac and cheese. She was so excited to wear an apron like I wear. One of her sweet little friends gave this to her for her bday. So, she really uses it while cooking now. She did really well helping me cook!




Below: Here is her audience..
BELOW: Ahhh...aren't they so cute. It's like they like each other.

Last night we had some yummy homemade pizza with sausage and olives. Emma cut the olives up for me. It was really cute. She did such a good job. She sliced a whole can worth!

We also have computer games that teach letters, typing, and math (as well as many other things). TS really enjoys playing the "First 1000 Words" by Usborne. He's really good at it! Not like he could really do it wrong. It's pages and pages of pictures. He clicks on a picture and it'll say what it is and will also do some sort of animated thing. They are usually pretty funny. Emma really loves it too.

Oh, and one more thing, I don't make Emma do her school work. I know that might sound bad, but just wait... I tell her that she can do her school work at any point in the day. If she doesn't want to that's fine too. I also tell her that she can watch her movie (which she asks to watch usually first in the morning) once she finishes her school work. She loves to get to watch a movie, so that's all I have to say when she asks to watch one. "Yes, you may, as soon as your school work is done." Now she hardly even asks. She just grabs her school work and does it. She knows how much she has to do, etc. It works really well and teaches her to motivate herself.

Learning

Since I have this blog, I figured I should try using it...

Here's a really quick explanation on the Emma and her level of learning right now. As I've mentioned before, Emma didn't have her hearing aids until she was 18 months old (when I had to tie them onto to her head so she couldn't pull them off!!).

This has proven to cause her some delay in language...about 18 months worth. In all other areas of her life (such as how she plays, interacts, concepts, etc), she is just like all the other 6 year olds. But when it came to language, she pretty much started learning the language at 18 months, and so she is behind that way. Now she speaks quite well and it's hard to say where she is at exactly, but she is still behind.

When it comes to learning things that have to do with language (such as her letters/sounds), she seemed to be about 18 months behind. Plus, some kids are more interested than others, and she just was NOT interested. But there were times she was interested, but most of the time I felt like I was going to have to fight her if she was going to learn.

It started really stressing me out because she never seemed interested. How was I going to homeschool her if she refused to learn? But after praying a lot about it, I felt very strongly to just wait. So, I have. When she was around 6 years old, she became much more interested in learning these things...so we're learning them now! She's eagerly learning and is very interested.

Have you ever heard the Love Tank metaphor (or whatever) thingy? It is used to represent peoples' relationships and how much they love each other. Basic idea is that when two people fall in love, their love tank is full. A love tank calculates how much love they have for each other. So, often when people first meet and fall in love, their love tank is always getting deposits and gets full quickly. They are only being nice to each other, so they are only getting deposits into their love bank. When they get married (or are just around each other more), they start seeing other sides to each other, and they sometimes have withdrawals from their love bank when their feelings are hurt, etc. Then they have deposits back in, withdrawals back out, etc...

I promise I have a point with this that is related to homeschooling...

This concept applies to other people besides those in romantic relationships. If you are around someone who is always nice and caring, your love tank for them is on the high end because you are always getting deposits. Whereas, if you are around someone who is always rude to you, your feelings/love tank for them is more empty. Certain behaviors/ways you are treated can make HUGE withdrawals or deposits into your love tank,which is why sometimes it can take a while for your love tank to refill when someone has hurt you a lot.

Now to my point...

I believe this concept applies to everything in our lives. We have some form of love tank with everything we are associated with, whether it's our TV, computer, car, clothes, food, etc....or whether it's learning.

I know a lot of people who don't like math. Most of the time it turns out they just had bad math teachers, but their "love tank" with math kept having withdrawals instead of deposits. So, in the end they dislike it.

That was my worry with Emma. I didn't want to force her to learn before she was ready. I strongly believe that each child is ready at different times for different things. I really want my children to love learning (there is no reason they cannot love it!), so timing things is sometimes important. Once they have enough experience with learning and a full love tank with it, I am fine with occasionally pushing a little harder for them to learn something that they should really know by their age (such as how to count to 10 or something obvious like that!)...because I know that they can have that little withdrawal from their learning love tank and still love learning. But if you do that from the start, they can have too many withdrawals before they have enough deposited in there and they can start to really dislike learning.

I'm sure I've taken for too long to explain that, but there it is! I think most kids love learning. TS does. He wants to learn all the things she is learning. I'm not used to having a kid wanting to learn those things at such a young age. Emma loved the crafts and stuff, but the letters/numbers wasn't her thing. Now she loves it and has many positive, encouraging experiences and is obviously excited to learn. It's obvious her learning love tank is pretty full.

So, sometimes waiting is okay! If your kid isn't interested, just give it some time. Not only will they learn when they are ready, but they will also learn to love learning, which is very important. Think of what one can do when they LOVE to learn...not only that, but you learn things so much quicker and faster when you want it.

Reward Chart & Reading Program

REWARD CHART:  Emma now has a reward chart.  I made it using Photoshop.  It's such a fun program, and you can use it for sooo many things!  The chart is a 12X18 photo sheet, laminated.  Her goal is to earn enough "rewards" that she fills up all the spaces and gets to pick out of the picking box.

Here are a few of the "rewards" she can earn (also made with photoshop elements and laminated).  I searched online and found some of her favorite characters and made her rewards from that:

We tried putting magnets on the back of the chart and the back of the cards, but it didn't work too well due to the polarization of the magnets (which is why some of them are crooked).  Now there are tiny bits of velcro on each.

Here is a very strange shot of her picking box:

She came with us shopping so that she could help choose what goes in the picking box.  We wanted to pick things that she really, really wanted.  We kept it all under $5.50 per item.  Some of the movies were $5.50 and other things were only $1.  She was very excited about it all, though she was a bit uncertain about us putting it all in a box instead of giving it to her right then.  We explained it over and over again, and once she saw it actually go in the box, and saw the chart, she got it figured out and was very motivated to earn her rewards.  We bought little things for TS too so that when she earns a reward, he gets a little something too.  When he's older, he'll get his own reward chart.

Ways to For Sure Earn a Reward:

• She can work on her speech.
• If she stays in bed when it's bedtime, she will get a reward (none of this getting up a hundred times before finally falling to sleep!).
• If she has a doctor appt.  If there is bloodwork or some other test (like an ultrasound), she will get an additional reward.
• Does computer work.

Pretty much anything else we can decide whether to give her a reward or not.  If we notice she is being really nice and sharing a lot, we might decide to give her a reward.  We won't always give one because we don't want her to share only to get a reward.  We want her to do it because it's the right thing to do...and sometimes she might get a little bonus because of it.  The possibilities are almost endless as to what she can earn a reward for.  Some of the time a situation will arise, and she will be told that if she does whatever it is, we'll give her a reward.  It's good motivation.  We don't use it for everything, but we try to use it enough to make it fun and keep her earning her rewards.

The idea is that she will earn about four rewards a day, making it that she will earn enough to get to pick out of the picking box about once a week.  Some days she will get more, some days less.  But our goal is to make sure we look for at least two things to give her a reward for, and then she'll need to do two things listed above to earn the other two.  And some days, if she is having a particularly difficult day (grouchy days), she might not earn many or might loose more than she earns...though that hasn't happened yet.

LOSING REWARDS:  The reward chart is meant to be used as a disciplining tool.  If she is hitting or yelling or back talking (or something else), the consequence is a loss of a reward.  We do warn her, and then if her behavior doesn't improve, she looses a reward.  For her, it's like the worst thing ever to loose a reward.  She'll say, "But I need it!"  So, we tell her to improve and she won't loose it.  She does end up loosing them some of the time but not very often.  We try to make it a positive thing for her, and we try to make it completely up to her as to whether she looses a reward or not (Love & Logics).

She filled up her chart last weekend and received her first prize out of the picking box.  She was SO excited and kept saying, "I'm so excited!  I'm so excited!"  It was really cute.  It was interesting to see how much more she appreciated her gift since she earned it than she does when they are randomly given to her.  She is very motivated to earn more rewards to get more of those prizes.

It's really quite fun!

 

READING PROGRAM:

Pizza Hut does a reading program for homeschoolers that we signed up for.  Each month, if she meets her reading goal for the month, then she will get a coupon from me (given to me by Pizza Hut), and she can go and get a personal pizza.  This lasts for six months.  If she meets her goal for all six months, then she will get a prize or something at the end. 

We went to the library last week and she picked up some books.  It was really fun!  It's fun to have these goals, and it'll be even more fun when she succeeds and gets her pizza.  She'll get to share it with TS since they both get read to at the same time (and since she can't eat a whole personal pizza herself).

She loves to be read to, so it works out pretty well.

Another idea

We've been thinking a lot about this reward chart of ours, and we've decided to modify it and simplify it a WHOLE lot. There is no reason to do the money stuff yet. She can learn that later, and it kind of complicates the whole thing.

Here's our ideas for now - we're going to create a chart. Yes, another chart. I am my mother's son, I mean daughter. It'll have spots on it where she can stick "rewards" she's earned everyday (she can earn several a day). Once she has earned enough (20-30?), she will get to pick a toy/activity/craft out of the picking bag.

I think I'm going to make it kind of like Candyland where there is a path with several boxes (steps), each step on the path would be a spot that a reward would go. Once she reaches the end, she'll get to grab a toy out of the picking bag, and then we'll start over.

For example, if she is sharing her toys, and we notice and feel like it, we'll give her a "reward" for it. It'll be a little laminated piece of paper, maybe labeled with a category of what she was doing (like "helping" "sharing" etc) and it will have velcro on the back and will velcro to the chart. After we hand it to her she'd take it and go stick it on her chart. She can earn one for helping me with cleaning, working on her speech, or for various other things. We aren't planning on giving her one for everything she does, but enough of them to help encourage proper behavior and to make it fun for her. She won't necessarily always get one every time she does something - even something that she previously earned a reward for. Obviously we're still working out the details!

Also, there will be the "penalty" if she is behaving inappropriately and won't stop. Sometimes she gets a little attitude and will not obey no matter what. She ends up in time out and all that stuff. Times like that she will get a penalty. So far, the idea is that we will physically hand it to her and it will remove one or two of her rewards from the chart, setting her back a bit. She hates stuff like that, so it will work well for her and encourage her to obey. Luckily she seems to be a pretty obedient kid. If gets sassy, she tends to obey pretty quickly after a little talk. So, hopefully she won't get a penalty very often!

So...now to work out all the details and make the chart!

Interesting

Is Five Too Young?

A Whole List of Links

Reward Chart

We've found that Emma is driven in life by money. Okay, so not really, but it's a great disciplining tool. We've set up a reward chart for her. We have a list of things through out the day that she can do to earn money. Generally speaking, she earns $0.10 for each thing. While we don't want her to expect to get paid to be a participant in the family, we do want to teach her the art of working for her money - meaning, just giving her an allowance without expecting something back from her just doesn't seem right! In grown up lives, we all know what we have to do to earn money...same concept we'd like to teach her. There are plenty of things within the family that she is expected to do with no money reward, which teaches her exactly that - there is work that she needs to do and not get paid for.

Here is our current reward chart. It's a dry-erase thing:


If you notice the last thing on the list is "pentalty". This came about because once Violet was born, there were a couple times when I had asked Emma to do something and she flat out refused. I was in a position at the time where I could not deal with Emma like normal (such as, physically place her in time-out if she refused to go). I was not okay with her thinking she could disobey me when I was occupied with the baby and unable to enforce things like I used to, so Tyler and I talked, and we tried to think of something that would work for this situation. We both know how much she enjoys earning money and being able to buy things, and so we decided on a penalty.

Now if she disobeys and starts to get super defiant, I will ask her, "Do you want to loose money?" Often she'll yell "No, I need it!" Then I'll tell her to do whatever it was she was supposed to be doing. It usually shapes her up pretty quick. Kind of amazing really...

We have her pay 10% to tithing and 10% to savings. She has had a penalty 2-3 times so far. Whenever she has one, we go ahead and give her all her money, take out her tithing and savings, and then we tell her about her penalty (and remind her of the exact situation so she knows what we are talking about), and then we remove $0.20 per penalty. She does NOT like it. But it really seems to motivate her to obey.

Overall, the reward chart is always talked about very positively and she feels very encouraged by it. It's been fun to have.

Equipment

With Emma's special little hands, we've bought her the smallest mouse we could find. She does GREAT with it. I think the photo of it might be close to it's actual size. We bought it HERE.



Cutting things can be challenging when you try to cut with scissors and you have no thumbs. We've found these really nice, spring-loaded scissors that Emma uses. She does great and doesn't seem at all behind or slowed down when it comes to cutting. We bought them HERE.