Monday was Day 1 for 3rd grade and
Kindergarten in our house. I think I was the only one excited.
No one wanted
to sit still. Or listen. Or write even one definition. Or liked any of my
awesome plans or color-coding.
It was sad
and tense and I'm pretty sure at some point all 3 of us cried. It was very
discouraging. And I had felt so "prepared" for this day.
And these
tips may be premature to discuss after only 1 ½ good days (out of 3), but today
was drastically different and I have a few guesses why.
Today they
started off with typical breakfast and Lego building while I read and prayed
for today to be better than yesterday. Then we had Bible story, song and prayer
time together, on the floor. Then 5 minute Busy Bee clean-up time, to help
start us off better with less clutter (rewarded with a couple M&M's). I
start the timer, play music and we all pick up anything out of place and
"deliver" it to the right room. Then I got my oldest drawing to decorate
all of the notebook dividers, which is his favorite thing to do, while I worked
one on one with the glass door closed with my 5yo.
5yo boy likes a lot of activity
and silliness and so we made some adjustments today including:
- Lots of
high fives, moving around on the floor and dancing.
- I let
him STEP on the flash cards to match the Letter sounds and he was much
more eager than answering at the table.
- Use talk
of Train cars or some sort of physical analogy to teach with when
possible.
- Whisper
or say something in a silly way will help him to repeat.
- We
started a marker board with the 4 or 5 tasks that we will do and they like
checking those off and seeing that we are almost done.
- And
then, although we had done everything on the list, he assumed he had to do
an ABC exercise he had done the last 2 days, so he started himself on
that! Routine and knowing what to expect really do make a difference!
- Working
with them separately also worked much better than dividing my attention
between them across the table.
- (There
were few M&M's distributed too.)
- I called
Dad in front of him to brag what a good day he was having.
- And he
gets a nickel in his Learning Jar for every day that he puts in good
effort, inspired by Thomas Jefferson who loved learning as well. Nickels =
super exciting when you are only 5!
- I
started my day with remembering to pray for them as students and me as
teacher. That God would bind our hearts together and help us to be a
perfect match in this relationship. And to give me patience if they don't meet
my expectations and to shower them with grace.
When my 5yo's
list was done I set him up to color little robots to make a bookmark out of.
But my 8yo wanted to also so we all ended up coloring 2 robots, gluing them on
colored, lined cards, and laminating them. Spontaneous art project! These can
be bookmarks for our school books but I can also write on the lines on the back
what to do for their work.
By then it
was almost lunch time so I had them clean up the kindergarten work while I made
lunch. We had a picnic lunch on the living room floor and watched an episode of
really old-school Sesame Street. They didn't complain and it was definitely
repetitive letter and number lessons.
After lunch
it was time for 3rd grade work which we did do at the table: Journal writing
and drawing, Math lesson, English Vocabulary (I wrote 1/2) and they both jumped
in for Introduction to Latin because it was cartoonish and they like to talk in
a mouse voice (Minimus mascot).
With my 8yo
boy it's been helpful to:
- Take a
5-10 minute break between each subject.
- Use the
timer for breaks, reading, journaling, cleaning so they know there is an
end time.
- I've
left out a puzzle and some castle blocks so there is something in the room
they can work on if they want for those 5 minutes, without going to their
room and diving into a bigger project.
- Incorporate
drawing and creativity whenever we can or he feels stifled.
- Chapter
book reading or independent art can be substituted for quiet time while I
work with 5yo.
- When I
can, writing some of the work down for him since he really feels pained to
write. He says it hurts his hands even though I pointed out he can draw
for hours, so we agreed that I would give him less to write (oral review)
or let him dictate, if he would work on a better attitude when writing is
necessary. He loves to read but hates to write, so I'm trying to show him
that writing and vocabulary building will make him a better reader.
- Use individual marker boards to play a games, write answers.
- It is
helpful if I stick close while he does a Math worksheet so I can see if he
is struggling.
- Seriously,
be flexible! And don't plan to much for your day so if work spills over to
the afternoon it's okay!
- And if
everyone is moody or bored, go for a walk or switch gears and try again in
an hour. If my day is not overbooked, this won't be stressful to let
happen.
SO maybe I
should just scratch the calendar and call today "Day 1?" We had such
a pleasant time today that we ended up picking up Jr. Frosty's on the way to
making returns and to buy more note cards. Yes, we may have overdone the
rewarding today but felt I deserved it too.
I think some
of Monday's mistakes were:
- My
talking on the phone for an hour to a friend in the middle of the day
threw us all off.
- Trying
to sit still too long at the table.
- Trying
to keep them both engaged across the table when they each needed me.
- Giving
the youngest a "time-filler" activity that was too tempting to
my oldest and a distraction.
- Taking
too long of a morning break and getting us out of routine.
But today ended with this, so we must have done
all right together.
(Contractions
lesson to follow.)
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