Friday, May 19, 2006

So what happened to our day...

The kids are really involved in playing together this morning. So I am letting them roll with it while everyone is happy and playing nicely. GM is building some LEGOS and ME and GD are involved in some imaginary play involving their animal friends (stuffed animals) and the doll house. So its peaceful around here.

I have spent my morning watching the movement video and matching the activities to the ones in the binders. Putting checks next to movements I want to incorporate as soon as possible and trying to learn the teps, songs, poems, whatever. From there (if the kids are still happy) I will do some more reading and research. I want to read the math lesson idea book I just got and thumb through the Family Math book for ideas for GD, and additional ideas for GM and his multiplication. He is doing very well with it and loves the games so I want to build on that right now. I also want to come up with some new ideas for GM and his reading comprehension. I will look through my Christopherus books for ideas and again through my Enki first grade guide.

I had written most of GMs curriculum for third grade, but I want to now incorporate more of these math ideas to see if we can move away from the Saxon more. We will still do it, but it is so flat and I want to use GMs enthusiasm for math as a gateway to expanding other skills. Mainly movement, integration and a more developed thought. Rather than rote math, which is a good skill too, I want to help him develop a greater depth to his thoughts when it comes to things we learn in a lesson format.

So until the kids start getting antsy I am going to continue this impromptu study session I am having and when they start to require more structure to their morning we will make our dragonflies for the front window. :-)

4 comments:

Sunshine Alternative Mama said...

Do you have the old Enki teaching grade to help guide you through grade 3, or are you just winging it? I am selling some of my Christopherus, but I think I will keep the curriculum overview to help plan grades that Enki doesn't have resources for.

Do you use your Christopherus First Grade syllabus often? I was thinking of selling mine once my Enki arrives, because I am way overspent in education this month. But I don't want to part with it if I might need it.

Blissfulbee said...

Well in light of your Town Boards thing, I will hold onto it just in case I need it more this year. We just started it this winter when I decided to maybe wait until the Enki became available. I will likely hold onto it and use it a bit for ideas unless of course when I do get the rest of my Enki (including the math) I can really feel good about letting it go. :-) I may even keep it after that though, in case I want it for ME when she is ready. Who knows. But it was an expensive book ,so I would love to get something back for it if Im not going to use it.

No I have nothing for grade three! I would LOOOOOVE to find a way to get my hands on old grade three enki stuff. But how??

Sunshine Alternative Mama said...

I didn't like how Christopherus approached Word Families at all. Enki is so much better; if you are ready to teach Word Families I suggest you email Beth and ask for the stories and guide.

I did like the over-arching letter story in Christopherus, but it wasn't tailored to each child (although my boys loved it!). At the time it worked perfectly for me (I had a lot of health problems September through April) and having things planned out made schooling possible.

Have you bought everything that comprises the grade 1 package? Maybe Beth can send you the CD of the old grade 1 teaching guide. It is read-only, but has been somewhat helpful. The only thing is that there is no index so I am limited to looking through it blindly or going to the specific sections Beth gave me page numbers for.

I can't tell you how much was lost when the Enki group was closed. There were several years of archives, not only about baisc things like Enki materials , but deeper posts about making Enki part of our lives. Plus you could find out if anyone near you was using Enki, and form co-ops and support groups that way.

Blissfulbee said...

Ugh, goodness, it makes me just sick to even think about it. Here we are just grabbing at any little morsel ofwisdom and to know it was all there and is just gone is more than sad.

Also it is why I have printed out and filed all things I have found to be helpful online.