Our Family Project

One of my goals is to challenge my children more; give them assignments that expect more from them.  The last three weeks we've been telling Eliza in her mentor sessions with us that we will give her a research project topic, yet I haven't done that yet.  How does everyone do it?  I mean, how do you find the time to get the information you need to make a good decision, as well as everything else you need to do? All of my children could be challenged more.  For example, these pictures show Andrew with his spelling lesson, All About Spelling .  I love this program.  It teaches the rules of spelling, not just memorizing, and it takes into account the three major learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic).  So, first I introduce the spelling rule.  Then, I demonstrate it with the letter tiles.  At which point, Andrew gets to use the tiles to spell his spelling list.  After he can spell all of the words with the tiles, he gets to writ...

My children have opportunities to take a break during our school day.  Today, Kate took a break and decided to use the activity that I'd pulled out to accompany Andrew's spelling lesson. For his lesson, I ask him to write the letter associated with the sounds I say (so when the letter is "a", I ask him to write the letter that says "a, ay, and ah").  Then he writes the letter with his forefinger in rice on the cookie sheet. I'd actually pulled out three cookie sheets and filled them with some rice and gave one to Andrew, Adam, and Maryanne.  The younger two needed something to do while I was helping Andrew with his lesson.  When they were finished, Kate took over and started to draw in the rice.  I love how something so simple can be so creative.