Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Homeschool Week Highlights - Monday, March 2, 2009

Days 116 - 120



Monday - Kings Kids Day

Shayla decided she wanted to attend the Kings Kids program at one of the area churches because there is no Scouts this week. It's basically like VBS only it's an afterschool program held on Mondays during the school year.

Yes, I said SHAYLA decided, and furthermore, she has decided to go again this week!
Although it looks like she's not having fun because she always plugs her ears, she's having a blast. That's all she talked about the rest of the night!


She covers her ears because she is anxious about a loud sound scaring her. She has always done it. When she becomes more familiar with situations, she slowly quits doing it.


Medically she does it because as a toddler, it was found that because of her allergies, sometimes she hardly hears in one ear and the other ear overcompensates, she hears EVERYTHING! Things are too loud! It's hard to explain, but for more info, google meniere's disease and/or sensory processing disorder.


We watched more videos at heartclub.com. We made the crafts, we made the clothespin butterfly and the painted rocks.



Circus Day - Tuesday


We try to go to the circus every year. It's just something we all enjoy.


Guess what new thing she tried here? This is giant, literally!


Shayla rode the elephant (with her dad).



I know this might not seem like a big thing, but for those few of you that are following us on our journey, this is huge for Shayla!


We watched an episode on Barney today - PBS - wouldn't you know, the theme was circuses.


Math: We used her plastic "circus animals" to teach basic addition and subtraction. She also completed 2 workbook pages and practiced writing her numbers with the number poems.



Wednesday and Thursday we had two days of "normal stuff." Workbook pages, handwriting, reading aloud, living science, etc. etc. What's living science, you ask?

Her two goats, Daniel and Lazer. We had hoped to have a milk goat by now, but maybe someday!

The five chickens. One mean old rooster and four hens. We tried letting them out to be free-range (and to save on the feed bill), but immediately that rooster came out and flogged our st. bernard. Back in the pen they went! Maybe we'll let the hens out.



Shayla helping us get the maple sap from the trees. We boil it down to maple syrup, sugar, and mmm...candy!




Friday Field Trip Day!




We went to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary. Sorry I have no pics, because my camera let me down again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.




Anyway, we met several families from our homeschool group that we didn't previously know. We enjoyed learning about the birds. Since it was a group tour, they did a demonstration with Seymour the owl (yes, a real live owl). The kids got to dissect an owl pellet. We found the skeleton to the front half of a rat and lots of fur. I know EWWW, but come on, hands-on is how they learn!



Afterward, we visited the gift shop. I was shopping for Shayla a t-shirt. In the past few years, everytime we do a "day-cation" we buy the girls a t-shirt - they both love it! I was looking through the stacks for the right size, but I also wanted the logo on it. I found one with Seymour the owl on it. I asked Shayla if she wanted that one and she said, "Uh-Huh!"

This is huge! She must have forgotten that she was out and about, felt very comfortable, or she is trying harder to speak in public. This is the first sound she has made in public in a long time!




What a great week!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

It sounds like shayla is doing great. Your hard work is paying off. Way to go mom and shayla!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for joining in the Wrap-Up this week. It sounds like a fantastic week full of lots of real-life learning.