Love of Learning

Love of learning is one of the TJEd phases which children will naturally go through if they aren't prevented with a hate of learning.  Logan is fast approaching this phase and Annie is right on his heels.  They are so curious and they spend time eagerly seeking information.  Here is a great example.

 

On Tuesday, we had fabulous school time before lunch.  We had reading time and then played a math game for a very long time.  The math game involved multiplication, addition, and subtraction.  The kids wanted to play longer, but I stopped it so we could eat lunch.  After lunch they weren't done.  I pulled out a box of animal cards that we'd borrowed from the 'teacher library' for them to peruse while I did some adult business.  They completely surprised me with how enthralled they were with these cards.  They organized them by type: mammal, bird, reptile, etc...  They paired baby animals with adults of the same species.  Then Logan started reading the backs of the cards and paired predators with prey.  He analyzed the information on the backs of these cards for most of the afternoon. 

Another great example was Logan's reading time today.  His reading is fairly steady, but isn't fast yet, so it's still a bit of a challenge.  He sat down with a rather interesting animal book (I guess we've had an animal theme this week a little bit...) for his 30 minute daily goal.  He was so enthralled with it that he read for over an hour!  "Wow!  Mom did you know that..."  I thoroughly enjoyed it because he kept sharing information that I didn't know while I was busy with something else.  It made my task much more enjoyable.  This is what I was looking forward to when we set out to teach Logan to read; it's so neat to hear him finding the information to satisfy his inquisitive mind. 

One For December

My writer's block seems to be back, or maybe it's just that we've been busy with life lately.  Anyway, I wanted to put something on here for December, even if it's little.  :)

Logan's latest is that he wants to enter a math competition.  This was not my suggestion at all.  Out of the blue he told me that he'd like to compete in math, so I told him about math competitions.  He thought that sounded great.  I have no idea how old they start competitions here (or if they have them at all), so I suppose I need to do a little research.  He definitely has the brain for it.  I told him how they did math competitions when I was a kid, and he decided he wanted to practice.  So I found a general practice test for him and sat him down with a timer.  It was the first test he's taken in his life, and it was ridiculously easy for him.  He's begging for more.  :)

Annie's latest is that her reading is steadily progressing.  She remembers most letter sounds now, and she just keeps plugging along.  She really wants to read and it's not stressful for her at all; her main barrier is the tedium it is for ME.  It exhausts me after half an hour, so that's how much practice she gets most days.  While we were reading today, she read a whole sentence without needing any help!  That's progress.

The other new thing for us is that we've discovered a resource library for teachers and homeschoolers.  Our resource teacher took us there, and the kids thought it was fantastic.  I like it because we can borrow games and hands on activities that accompany the subjects we're learning about.  There's also an area with tools for laminating, making die cuts, copying, etc. which will be handy if I ever need to do those things.  We've borrowed twice now, and the kids keep asking to go back to the 'teacher library'.