Archive for September, 2007
The group classes that Fuss has been taking since he was 6 weeks old started up again today after a long go with the conservatory while they cancelled classes and moved the kids around.
The way the conservatory works is that the parents go to the half hour class and it’s a mum and baby time from the age of 0 t o3. At the age of 3, they start to go on their own for an hour. So, this is the start of Fuss’ second year on his own. Last year it was hard to keep him in the room. He would run out and want to sit with me (for half of the hour I was down the hall in Bug’s class). I was anticipating the same sort of reaction again. Manifesting good things, of course, but you know…..
Well, we got there and his teacher came out of the room asked him for a big hug and off they went! Wow. I stayed as long as I could before I had to go a couple of doors down for Bug’s class, but not a peep from him. Yay! Although, it does mean he’s growing up which is with mixed emotions for me (and him, I think).
Bug’s class was huge. The conservatory combined two classes and I think that was a mistake. Bug was totally overwhelmed (very small class last year), and nursed for the first bit. Once she was over that she had quite a good time. She immediately recognized the alphabet song - she stood up and danced, so cute! I never have a camera when I need it.
I had a rather ~heated~ discussion with Fuss today. I was not paying attention while reading one of the Magic Treehouse books. At one point Jack tells his sister in frustration “I’m going to kill you.” I know it was totally innocuous, but to a 4 year old who thinks Jack and Annie are superheros, that’s a cool thing to say. So, now, when Fuss gets angry or things just are not generally going his way, he says “I’m going to kill you Mum (or Dad, or whomever is annoying him)”. I finally lost it today. I loudly explained what that means, and that it’s not something you say. So then he asks why Jack and Annie say it. Yes really, why? How does one explain these things???? I really do try to skip over things like that in books, or change the words, but I just missed it.
By the way, the kids are all better - like they were never sick in the first place - yay!!! We unfortunately missed a playdate because of it, but it’s already rescheduled, so that’s good. Fuss loves his playdates!!!
This weekend is the weekend we finish that pirate lapbook, stay tuned…….
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 28th, 2007
Ack - Fuss spent most of the day laying around in bed. Which is fine, I just feel badly for him. We did colour a pirate treasure map and read quite a bit. His next set of Jack & Annie books (Magic Treehouse) arrived today and he got right into them.
However, the most exciting thing is that Bug let me read to her! Fuss loved to be read to from the beginning. I would read out of my book while I nursed him even when he was first born. If I try to do that with Bug, she gets totally put off, and now that she’s older, she will shake her head for me to stop. But, tonight she brought me a Babybug magazine and sat through two readings of it! Two - with questions. She pointed to everything and asked what it was. I didn’t care - I was just pleased she kind of let me read to her.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 27th, 2007
The past couple of days have been a write-off because Bug had a cold. Of course, she’s fine and happy during the day, but at night, she’s miserable and up. So, the write off is because I’m way too tired to do anything interesting.
We’ve started ‘c’ week which is a tricky one, other than recognition, because it doesn’t have a sound of it’s own. I really wanted to read the paper this morning (what a waste of time!), so Fuss sat next to me and pointed out all the ‘c’s in the headlines.
On Monday, my mother took the kids to get their fall shoes - and Bug’s first pair ever! She was so cute parading around the store showing everyone her new shoes. I don’t think they will be easy to put on her again, now that they are no longer novel, but I have hope. Fuss got a pair of velcro shoes, which I have really trying to avoid, but it seems as though once you are older than three, velro is the only option. Will the skill of shoe-tying die off? Are we evolving into stick and tear people?
He’s pleased with his shoes too, although on the way to the store he kept telling Nana that he wanted a stompy pair. Meaning a pair that lights up when you walk. We go up to the Naturino outlet for their shoes, so a stompy pair was just not a possibility. I may see if I can find an inexpensive pair for him to wear in the backyard.
Fuss had his private violin lesson yesterday - he responds so well to his teacher. It’s nice to see. She’s also really kind and patient with him. His group lesson teacher, on the other hand, oh! I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s just say that once every two weeks might be too much.
We were supposed to have a different music class today, but the royal conservatory where we’ve been going for 4 years, has had all sorts of staffing trouble, and they cancelled a tonne of classes. They cancelled Fuss’ Wednesday class, effectively cancelling Bug’s since they must go concurrently.
After three days of phoning the RCM to get it organized, they finally got back to me today and put them in classes on Friday. Yuck. I had really wanted to leave Friday open. I’m a little annoyed, but what can you do? I hate to have the Bug miss music entirely this year.
So, with music cancelled we’ve not done much today. It’s kind of a rainy, gloomy day, but cooler (it hit 32 yesterday) so we’ll likely spend the afternoon (after quiet time) outside. In the meantime, Fuss is making a pirate treasure map for his pirate lapbook, which I do promise we’ll finish at some point. If I can figure out how, I’ll post a photo of his map.
We read pirate books for the afternoon and then things deteriorated. Luckily Daddy came home just as we were getting tired of looking at each other - Dad saves the day.
We had dinner - Fuss ate tonnes despite (or because of) being sick. Both kids are sleeping restlessly now - and I should be sleeping too!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 27th, 2007
I really like the ‘Bob’ book for phonics and reading ‘awareness’, however we were at the local teachers store and I happened upon the Innovative Kids Now I’m Reading series. The books are so cute and Fuss just loves them. So I picked up the first set, All About Me, which contains a wee book for each letter of the alphabet. Since this goes along with our one letter per week that we are doing at the moment, I could justify the purchase price!
Fuss immediately read the ‘A’ book without prompting. He was so pleased with himself. The books come with small alphabet stickers to place in the front of the book once it’s been ‘read’. Since Fuss is such a sticker guy, this really got him excited.
We are going to do the ‘B’ book tomorrow. I wonder if he’ll enjoy it as much or if the novelty will have worn off.
Fuss also had his first Suzuki group lesson today. Since he’s at the beginning of the beginning he was only able to join the very start and the very end of the class. He sat through the rest of it. The class was an hour and 15 minutes. AN HOUR AND 15 MINUTES. My son is 4!!!! Luckily he really loves his violin so he was able to sit through it. However, I struggled…and I’m a musician. Ugh.
The other parents were so picky at their kids. Silently motioning to them to hold the bow properly or stand up straight. I just wanted to stay out of it and let the teacher do his thing. In fact, the teacher had told the kids to put their bows down in front of them. Fuss was either not listening, or did not understand. I knew that he would figure it out once he saw what all the other kids had done. Instead, one of the other mothers came over and put it down for him. At first I was embarrassed that I had not done it, but then I was just kind of offended that he wasn’t allowed the time to figure it out.
I’m wondering if Suzuki is for me, although I do like his private teacher. Also, Fuss really seemed to enjoy it today, and that matters more than what I think. At one point, he asked when he could play like the other kids (more experienced) were playing. I whispered that he would have to work and practice and he just quietly nodded his head.
We’ll see how it goes. I’ll certainly not push it if he loses interest. I’ve been working with him a bit on the piano, again not pushing, and if he flakes out on the violin, we’ll just continue with the piano until he decides what he wants to do musically.
Bug really sprouted some new words today. She’s got the parts of the face down and she said ‘home’.
She really seems to like dolls, something I was hoping to avoid. However, we do have a Waldorf doll here - which I LOVE. After looking at the plastic varieties available in our local independent educational toy store, I was not impressed, so I got out the Waldorf doll. It was given to Fuss by us when Bug was born, but he lost interest very quickly. I handed it to Bug and she really got into it. She pointed to all the parts and wanted to know the names of them, and then gave the doll a kiss.
Unfortuantely, the doll’s name is the same as what we were going to name Bug had she been a boy (the reason for the being another post entirely). Also the name of a future boy should that occur. I’m hoping to encourage her to rename it, if she ends up taking to the doll at all, however Fuss may not allow a name change.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 22nd, 2007
testing
September 22nd, 2007
It was Dad’s birthday today, so he took the day off. We had a blast. We had planned to take a mini road trip, but we got up too late. Since we had to be back for dinner with my parents we thought it would be too much for the kids.
So, we ran some errands - Starbucks and the bookstore, two of my kid’s favourite places luckily for me. Then, we stopped by an organic sandwich shop, picked up lunch and had a picnic down by the lake. It was lovely. Fuss fed the ducks, which he loves. The ducks were so funny; coming in for these long landings and Fuss loved that he could see the ducks feet so clearly.
When we got to dinner, Nana had brought a tube of plastic dinosaurs for Fuss to play with. He was absolutely delighted. He immediately pulled out the pteranodon to play with. The waitress came by and said “wow - you’ve got a pterodactyl there!” To which he promptly replied: “no - it’s actually a pteranodon”. My parents were quite impressed.
We had a lovely dinner and Fuss had his first mussel. Then he had 9 more. We were shocked. He loved them. He’s 4! Are 4 year olds supposed to eat mussels? My father explained the shell to him, since that was a bit beyond what he knew as a mussel.
What a great day - Daddy needs to stay home more often!
Really enjoying the journey today! Amanda
September 21st, 2007
It’s so easy to think that we did absolutely nothing on a given day.
We ran errands this morning, and I forget how much my children learn just being out and about. They are very social so they talk to everyone and ask questions of the merchants, etc.
It’s B week, which I had forgotten about, however I was entertained while driving with a list of all the things we passed which began with ‘b’. I was hoping during these letter weeks to teach letter recognition, but he’s turned it into phonics quite nicely all on his own. I love that. I had absolutely nothing to do with it!
When we arrived home Fuss decided he wanted to paint. So, I sent him outside to paint. I assumed he wanted to paint on paper. Logical assumption, no? I went out a few minutes later (after fixing a snack for Fuss and Bug) and Fuss had painted his sister and…..the cedar deck!! Oh.
I didn’t really say anything because I assumed his father would have plenty to say upon his arrival home from work. Besides that, Fuss was so excited about his artwork. It’s tempra after all - I’m now seriously hoping for rain.
As for his sister - I just stuck her in the kitchen sink. No harm done and she had an absolute blast. She grabbed some clean bowls, cups and utensils and made quite a half hour of it.
So, I’m off to bed with a newly stylized deck!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 21st, 2007
Hello! Welcome to Platt Discovery Cottage.
I’m Amanda, mother to 4-year-old Fuss and 1-year-old Bug. We have a very eclectic, busy and noisy homeschool. We use a variety of resources, and pull from real life. We did our learning at the grocery store today. It’s actually one of my kid’s favourite spots to learn. The Fuss takes his own list. We make it from the labels on food we’ve used up. I cut the labels, he pastes them onto paper and he finds those items in the store. Keeps him occupied and happy. The Bug, well, as long as she is eating, she’s happy, so we just bring plenty of food for her.
Our main go-to resources at the moment are Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready, which I tolerate without much interest. I’ve also just started Miquon math with Fuss - he’s just playing around with the manipulatives for now as we both become familiar with the programme. We are also into lapbooking. There is a huge pirate festival in town this weekend. We are going to that - of course! and then next week doing a lapbook on pirates. I got the curriculum from Hands of a Child. I will post the completed lapbook next week.
I’m looking forward to growing, learning and changing along with my kids on our homeschooling journey. I’m delighted to share our experiences with you. I hope you enjoy reading about us!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 19th, 2007
