Second Week of School

Well, our second week we did better then the first, but still have some kinks to work out. I think Aidan is getting more acclimated to the idea of more work and less play, but still has his moments where he is testing to see if this "school thing" is really gonna stick around. Overall though we had a much better week and zero meltdowns. I had instituted a candy reward, but after eating all the candy myself I quickly discovered that wasn't going to work. So instead decided to do a star chart. If, at the end of the week Aidan has 10 stars remaining on his chart I will take him to chic-fil-a. So, he earns a star every time we get through a class without any complaints and any time he does exceptionally well. Therefore he has at least 4 chances per day to earn a star. However he looses a star every time he complains, every time he says "I don't know" (unless there is a possibility that he genuinely doesn't know) instead of taking some time to think about the question, and every time he doesn't follow directions. At the end of last week he had two stars. That may come across like he is doing a terrible job, but in truth he really is an awesome student! I just run a tight ship around here and refuse to tolerate any nonsense.

Last week we reviewed letters a-g, and short vowel sounds of a, o, e and i. I have issues with the difference between e and i, so if anyone wants to throw out some suggestions!?!?! For instance I pronounce den the same way I say the first half of the word dinner. Pen is said the same way as pin, therefore it is very difficult for me to explain such things to Aidan....

Math we are still doing two lessons per day and it is still mostly review. There have been two new concepts introduced, tally marks, and bar graphs, but he has those mastered already.

In History we started our time line. So far, we have Eternity Past, Creation, the Cross, Consummation, or Jesus Return, and Eternity future on the time line. Our time line spans the length of the wall in the dining area. And of course one time line wasn't enough so Aidan had to draw one himself and put it up on the kitchen wall. Part of me cringes and wants to take it down, but I am keeping it up for as long as he lets me because I know all too quickly those kinds of things will fade away.

For science we did the Celery Experiment that spanned the course of the weekend. It was great because this past Friday marks the beginning of Darren having every Friday off until October 9th so he should always be home to do the science experiments with us.

FRIDAY 10:45am
Put a piece of celery in an empty glass.
Observations according to Aidan:
The celery looks hard. It is standing up. It smells like salt.


Saturday 11:35pm
Pour water into empty glass containing celery.
What has happened to your piece of celery?

Observations according to Aidan:
The celery is soft. It is falling down. (After taking a bite) "It tastes like green pepper". It smells like salt still.



Sunday 8:00am

Observations according to Aidan:
The celery is hard again!!! (WOW-he found this to be super cool!)
The celery is standing up again.
It smells like celery, and it tastes like celery.

The Biblical Application for this experiment came from the fact that just as plants receive their energy from the sun, soil and water that they grow in, we receive it from the food that we eat. Then incorporate Romans 10:17 and Hebrews 5:12 "Our faith comes from hearing the Word." and also in Matthew and Luke when Jesus says, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." In other words, our soul or spirit needs to be fed as often and as regularly as our body does. In fact we need to remember that it is MORE important to "eat" daily from God's Word (the Bible) because our spiritual food is even more important than our solid or liquid food. This is true because our souls are much more important than our physical bodies!