Visual-Spatial Learners

While I don't think I would say that El can't learn in other ways, I can easily say that he learns best by seeing. I can tell him something or he can write it down, but half of the time he has no idea what I said or even what he wrote. Give him the book, though, and he's got it. Luckily, I'm not that great at explaining things verbally anyway. ;)

What this means to us during school is that things must be shown whenever possible. He uses "Rainbow Words" to practice difficult spelling words...

And handmade color-coded value discs to learn tricky new math concepts.

Of course this means that art is always a favorite subject...

...as is nature studies.

Welcome Spring

Here's a recipe for disaster*

8 oz. water

1 tsp. dish soap (Ours was pink.)

1 tsp. vinegar

Glitter, if you have it (We didn't.)

*(I don't know. "Tornado in a Cup" just didn't sound quite as thrilling.)

Mix it together quickly, pull out the spoon and you have a mini-tornado in a glass. Enjoy!

We have had beautiful weather during these past two weeks, but Em was down with a bit of stomach bug last week and El has been working at about half-speed due to a combination of allergies, Dimetapp and a cold. Not a great time to start long division, but we did it anyway. Once again, I am extremely thankful for Maria Miller's math teaching videos. Here's a link to her How to Teach Long Division post with video.

We are enjoying reading Grammar-Land as a supplement to FLL, and El is completing these helpful worksheets (by Jessica Cain) as we go through that book. Everything else is business as usual around here (except that we are outside as often as we can be!)

Kids Disc Golfing

Library co-op mornings...

...greatly decrease afternoon productivity in all subjects other than "reading."

(It's okay. I'm distracted by piles of new books too.)